Usability evaluation of the City University of New York CUNY+ database

Abstract

The City University of New York (CUNY) is a large educational system comprised of various colleges and universities in the New York metropolitan area. It serves the educational needs of the majority of its academic population. Its library system also boasts of a large collection of multi‐format materials and resources. These are currently reflected in its wide‐area‐networked database called CUNY Plus+. This is accessible by staff, faculty and students all over the CUNY school system, as well as through the Internet. This study focuses on the usability evaluation of this CUNY Plus+. A sample of students was surveyed and interviewed using the Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI) criteria. Results of the study may be helpful in providing faculty and librarians feedback from students’ use of the database. It may likewise be insightful to system designers in future design updates.

CUNY+ Web: usability study of the Web‐based GUI version of the bibliographic database of the City University of New York (CUNY)

“…identify the usability performance of this CUNY+ Web and compare this with the text-based CUNY+; and . describe and demonstrate the applicability of the Oulanov-Pajarillo tool (Oulanov and Pajarillo, 2001) as a usability instrument in this study.…”

“…The researchers analyzed the previous tool (Oulanov and Pajarillo, 2001) in terms of its potential applicability to this evaluation. It was logical to use the same instrument to make any comparisons of the two databases meaningful.…”

“…The previous research describes the results of a usability study of the text-based version of the CUNY+ database (Oulanov and Pajarillo, 2001), incorporating essential components of a UES described in the literature review. It targeted students of the CUNY campuses as user-respondents who evaluated the usability of the university system's wide-area network bibliographic database.…”

“…The focus of this current article is the usability evaluation of the CUNY+ Webbased GUI version, utilizing the same framework employed from the previous study (Oulanov and Pajarillo, 2001). This research attempts to:…”

“…The system allows me to correct any entry errors 2 (20%) 3 (30%) 5 (50%) 0 0 0 I can easily go back to a previous search to review and alter my search query 2 (20%) 5 (50%) 2 (20%) 1 (10%) 0 0 The search can be efficiently narrowed down to a particular CUNY library 3 (30%) 3 (30%) 1 (10%) 2 (20%) 1 (10%) 0 The CUNY+ Web allows me to break out of another site's frame 3 (30%) 4 (40%) 3 (30%) 0 0 0 (Oulanov and Pajarillo, 2001). These criteria were outcome-related, those that mattered most to the users.…”