Can Students Find What They Need?: Painless Website Usability Testing Rachel McWilliams - NC Wesleyan College

The NCWC Library Website and Usability Testing Usability testing was first conducted at NCWC in 2008 by an outside consultant as part of an LSTA grant-funded technology plan. The college changed to a new website design around 2010. In 2015, the library received another LSTA grant to develop a five year plan. As part of the research for this plan, the library conducted another usability study of the library’s website.

Usability Testing In 2008, the consultant used a treasure hunt usability test. Other types of testing include the longitudinal method, remote asynchronous, heat mapping, card-sorting, first-click, and think-aloud.

Recruitment of Participants One of the toughest parts of this process was recruiting students to participate. For the testing, there were seven students that were recruited to participate. Three were traditional students, two were ASPIRE students, and one was a library work-study student.

Testing Questions The treasure hunt questions were based on areas of interest to library staff, including online video tutorials and citation assistance. The questions primarily dealt with navigating and finding information on the library’s website and on the usability of other parts of the website like the catalog and LibGuide pages. We also asked some opinion questions.

Testing Process To start, I asked the student some demographic questions to see how long they had been in school at NCWC and their previous experience with the library website and library catalog. I also observed how they accessed the library’s website. Eleven questions were asked as part of the testing.

A Few Observations There were a few questions that stumped the participants. When students see a search box, they think it’s like Google. LibGuides are good places to keep important resources. They really do appreciate our help!

Some Interesting Comments “If I cannot find information in a database, I will usually go to Google. It is sometimes easier to find information that way.” “The search box was helpful but it would be easier to have one search box for all of the library resources.” “The navigation is useful and so is the website. I can quickly find information and I appreciate the help of the library staff with my questions. The library has the resources that I need to do my school work.”

Changes to Library’s Website

Changes to Library’s Website

More Changes Old: New:

Lessons Learned & Ideas for Future Testing Some kind of incentive may increase the number of participants. The library website is very important especially because of off-campus sites and online students. Accessibility of website and LibGuides Possibly use a different method for testing Reach out to more faculty and staff; off-campus students

Moving Forward NCWC’s new college website went live in October 2016. Use of LibGuides as webpages

A Few Tips Even a small usability study can help improve some part of your libraries web presence. Getting buy-in from library staff and the technology departments at your college/university is critical. This process can actually be enjoyable and painless.

Questions?

Thank you for attending my presentation! Rachel McWilliams Collection Development Librarian North Carolina Wesleyan College rmcwilliams@ncwc.edu