Usability Testing & Results 1

Usability & Feedback: An Overview Asked for Feedback Survey Formal Usability testing 2

Feedback 3

Feedback: Comments Love it love it love it! MUCH more user friendly. I don’t understand what “barcode” is for requesting items. How do you set up an account? Can it be used to search I-Share? Where is call number searching? I like the facets, but want more facets Is reserves information in VuFind? 4

Feedback Needed more data Began to think about formal usability testing Then, Yale did a survey… 5

Survey: Results Types of Search Known Item31 Keyword/Subject Search48 Books29 Journals5 Multimedia8 Articles5 Author12 Course Reserves2 Call Number1 6

Survey: Results 75% Liked VuFind 86% Found what they were looking for 73% Thought the search results were what they expected 54% Used the facets 63% Thought facets were helpful 7

Survey: Facets “I didn’t even really pay attention to them. They were not generally helpful in the kind of search I was doing.” “I expected to find articles when clicking journals/magazines, like WorldCat.” “…because VuFind has the look and feel of Amazon, I only focused on the book listings, choosing instead to ignore the screen areas usually laden with advertising.” 8

Survey: Facets “They really helped pare down the tidal wave of results I initially got.” “…they were very helpful in making my search more specific since there aren’t a lot of default search options.” “I think it helped by narrowing down the results, sort of like Google does these days.” 9

Survey: Facets “The results were not what I expected, but it was a pleasant surprise. I found things in my research that I didn’t know we had.” “…the most useful part of the groupings for me was helping me sort of mentally focus what I was looking for.” 10

Survey: Results In the future, if you need to find books, the first place you’d start is: WebVoyage30% WorldCat8% Amazon4% Google12% VuFind41% Other7% 11

Survey: Results I think that I would like to use VuFind frequently: Strongly Disagree3% Disagree12% Neutral19% Agree52% Strongly Agree14% 12

Survey: Results I found VuFind unnecessarily complex: Strongly Disagree28% Disagree50% Neutral13% Agree8% Strongly Agree1% 13

Survey: Results I thought the system was easy to use: Strongly Disagree0% Disagree6% Neutral11% Agree56% Strongly Agree27% 14

Survey: Results I felt very confident using VuFind: Strongly Disagree3% Disagree10% Neutral22% Agree43% Strongly Agree23% 15

Survey: Comments - Pluses Not very overwhelming & user friendly Easy to navigate and narrow results Liked cover images Interface more user friendly than current catalog Similar interface to area public libraries Not as intimidating as WebVoyage 16

Survey: Comments - Improvements Did think results were well sorted and not clear how it does sort the results Facet and “facets now applied” are confusing terms Text formatting and displayed information is sometimes confusing Could use some more polish Too much scrolling – very vertical 17

Survey: Comments - Improvements Users want to use it to search for articles Want even more information about an item Not sure of relevancy of user added content Some facets are confusing No ability to sort by a particular campus library 18

Survey: Comments – Feature Requests Direct export to RefWorks Keyword search option Call number searches Social networking integration Have a “Repeat Search in I-Share” link in record Nice to customize display to show what you wanted on results page Ability to collapse facets 19

Survey: Comments – I-Share Perception interface with I-Share needs to be clarified and streamlined Not clear how to conduct search in I-Share Liked not inputting library card number multiple times requesting items Confusion over why you need to create an account 20

Survey: Comments “Please replace the current system with VuFind right now, I really don’t see a reason not to. It is a huge improvement” “VuFind is going to make the old online catalog as awkward as using the card catalog is now” “VuFind strikes me as a dumbed down version of the Google search page designed to appeal to freshmen who are used to doing Google searches rather than a serious catalog geared towards scholars conducting serious research.” 21

Usability Testing - Setup In April & May, 2009, conducted 15 hands on usability tests with Morae 5 faculty, 5 graduate students, 5 undergrads Very diverse group Used task based test adapted from statewide WorldCatLocal usability testing 22

Usability Testing: Instrument Asked general interface/layout questions and if search and features are clear Searches – Broad subject search for “climate change” – Search for James Joyce – Prince audio recording – “Gone with the Wind” DVD – “Jack London” and “White Fang” – Find a public speaking DVD 23

Usability Testing: Results Lack of keyword searching 24

Usability Testing: Results Language Selection 25

Usability Testing: Results Red Light/Green Light for holdings—need yellow light for reference or reserve items 26

Usability Testing: Results Direct Export to RefWorks: 27

Usability Testing: Results Want URLs to stand out more: 28

Usability Testing: Results Ability to link out to I-Share VuFind Example: 29

Usability Testing: Results Favorites feature: 30

Usability Testing: Results Facets: 31

Usability Testing: Results 32

Usability Testing: Results Format 33

Usability Testing: Results Topic/Subject Area 34

Usability Testing: Results 35

Usability Testing: Results 36

Usability Testing: Results 37

Usability Testing: Results Staff view 38

Usability Testing: Results Tagging 39

Usability Testing: Results Interface improvements: – Could use more polish – Too vertical – Ability to customize number of results on a page – Change order of facets in sidebar – Make electronic resources/ebooks a clearer limit in the advanced search and facets Searching for multimedia was cumbersome 40

Usability Testing: Results Really liked how visual the interface was—less text, more pictures Users care less about “librarian features” such as MARC and call number searching Users aren’t familiar with next generation catalogs or other library tools, but use online bookstores 41

Usability Testing: Results All but one subject thought VuFind was best for most of their catalog use Only 1 user preferred layout of Amazon more, citing the star ratings All will use VuFind again Everyone thought it was a dramatic improvement to WebVoyage 42

Summary VuFind isn’t perfect, but is a huge improvement over WebVoyage. 43