Usability Study for a Community College Library Website: A Methodology for Large-Scale Data Gathering

Abstract

Usability studies (UX) are increasingly common in libraries. A UX methodology is a useful tool to support librarians' decision-making processes during a website (re)design. This article describes a UX process using a custom-built usabilitytesting environment and a data-collection tool, written in JavaScript and Python respectively. The resulting automated approach allowed us to collect usability data from a sample of 225 students. The methodology described in this study will be of interest to those considering or planning a UX study in their libraries.