Side by Side: What a Comparative Usability Study Told Us About a Web Site Redesign

Dougan, Kirstin; Fulton, Camilla

doi:10.1080/19322900903113407

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Instead, they would stop at the first instance of a word, even if it was not what was needed to complete the task at hand. They also discovered that some patrons had missed information included on the previous version of the website because they had never scrolled down the page [9]. Rosenbaum's [10] usability study of The Cochrane Library reinforces the idea that library users, healthcare providers in particular, are not interested in expending any more effort than necessary: ''Repeatedly we heard praise for the quality of content of this site.…”

Section: User Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They often recommend asking approximately five participants, more if the group is diverse, to think aloud as they complete tasks that are designed to test the site rather than to test the participants' information literacy skills. These studies also frequently make use of facilitator-observer pairs, where one investigator guides participants through the session and prompts them to share their thoughts as they complete the c11-024.3d 13/9/11 17:06:39 tasks, while another investigator observes the session [5,[7][8][9][10][11][12]. However, there are some other factors to consider that go beyond this basic formula.…”

Section: How To Conduct a Usability Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

“We want it now and we want it easy”: Usability testing of an online health library for healthcare practitioners

Neilson¹,

Wilson²

2014

J Can Health Libr Assoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction – The purpose of this study was to undertake website usability testing of the Saskatchewan Health Information Resources Partnership (SHIRP) online library website,. a digital library for healthcare providers working in the province of Saskatchewan, to determine whether the SHIRP website is intuitive for healthcare practitioners to use. Methods: Thirteen volunteers from four locations in the province participated in a usability test that included a portion devoted to the completion of tasks, as well as a series of semi-structured interview questions. Data were analyzed and themes were identified that were used to redesign the SHIRP website. Results – Nine out of the 13 main menu terms on the SHIRP website were problematic. A relatively low number of participants completed the assigned tasks on the first try. The SHIRP website was determined to be unwieldy and not completely intuitive. Conclusions – Asking front line healthcare providers what they need and want in an online library website should be the first step in creating or redesigning such a site. The time available to healthcare providers for doing library research is often limited, so the site needs to be simple, clean, and fast to use.

show abstract

Section: User Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How To Conduct a Usability Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“We want it now and we want it easy”: Usability testing of an online health library for healthcare practitioners

Neilson¹,

Wilson²

2014

J Can Health Libr Assoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…After interpreting feedback from participants, the study team went about designing a new information architecture and global menu for the website based in part on trends in card groupings. As many have noted, designing a website that provides the ideal experience for the wide range of library users and their unique needs requires a difficult balancing act (Dougan & Fulton, 2009;Duncan & Holliday, 2008;Liu, 2008) Similarly, card sorting results won't necessarily point to an ideal architecture and are better suited for getting a glimpse into users' mental models of an information space (Spencer, 2004). With this in mind, card sorting data was used alongside our knowledge as content experts with the goal of developing a flexible architecture that could accurately represent all the resources and services the library provides, while still being usable for a range of key audiences and use cases.…”

Section: Menu Design and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informing Website Navigation Design with Team-Based Card Sorting

Sundt

Eastman

2019

Journal of Web Librarianship

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 2016, Utah State University (USU) Libraries redesigned the library website's main menu and underlying information architecture (IA) in response to a number of known usability problems and limitations. Card sorting studies were conducted with a group of USU undergraduate students and a mixed group of faculty and graduate students to help develop a better understanding of users' mental models of library-related research and service tasks. Participants worked in teams to sort, rank and label cards pertaining to the content and feature of the library's website. Afterwards, participants discussed and performed usability tasks on each other's categories. Results were used to inform the design of a new IA and menu structure, while best practices from usability studies and trends in academic library website design were used to help with menu and link labeling. The final design was validated through follow-up discussions with staff, usability tests, and category/reverse category tests.

show abstract

“…Words and phrases such as “catalog”, “database”, “instructional support”, and “library instruction” were discussed the most. This has been an obstacle in other tests (Mvungi et al ., 2008; Ebenezer, 2003; Dougan and Fulton, 2009) as well as library use in general (Hutcherson, 2004).…”

Section: First Usability Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating a user‐centered library homepage: a case study

Tidal

2012

OCLC Systems & Services

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the process, testing, and data analysis of redesigning a library's homepage to create a more user‐centered experience.Design/methodology/approachA survey and a usability test were conducted to collect data on users' interactions. The goals were to make design changes catered to users' needs, prior to migrating the site to a content management system.FindingsRecommendations are made to improve the usability of the Ursula C. Schwerin library homepage, as well as considerations for future testing.Originality/valueThis case study will be useful for librarians and web programmers implementing usability tests for the first time. It will also be useful for those focusing on developing a more user‐centered homepage.

show abstract

Side by Side: What a Comparative Usability Study Told Us About a Web Site Redesign

Cited by 10 publications

References 6 publications

“We want it now and we want it easy”: Usability testing of an online health library for healthcare practitioners

“We want it now and we want it easy”: Usability testing of an online health library for healthcare practitioners

Informing Website Navigation Design with Team-Based Card Sorting

Creating a user‐centered library homepage: a case study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About