Home Guide No 7

Usability Assessment of Library-related Web Sites: Methods & Case Studies

Edited by Nicole Campbell
2001. 124p. ISBN 0-8389-8157-7 $25 (LITA Members $23)
Web sites have become portals to library information, resources and services and librarians spend a great deal of time creating, developing and maintaining these Web sites. However, can library users use these Web sites and can they find what they need? It is time to start determining whether library users can successfully use these Web sites. Usability assessment can help answer these questions. Usability assessment is a collection of methods that analyze how users interact with a system, like a Web site, to see how user-friendly and usable the system is. This text includes brief descriptions and examples of many usability methods. More importantly, it also includes eight case studies of libraries that have conducted usability studies of their Web sites.

• Contributors:
• Jose Aguinaga, Arizona State University West
• Jeanne Brown, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Nicole Cambell, Washington State University, Vancouver
• Jennifer Church, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Kathleen Collins, University of Washington
• William J. Gibbs, Eastern Illinois University
• Nicole Hennig, MIT Libraries
• David King, Kansas City Public Library
• Jennifer L. Marill, National Library of Medicine
• Robert H. McDonald, Auburn Univeristy Libraries
• Mary Pagliero Popp (et al), Indiana University Bloomington
• Diane VanderPol, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Table of Contents

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About the Editor

Nicole Campbell holds an MLIS from the University of Michigan. She is currently a reference librarian at Washington State University Vancouver, where in addition to reference and instructional duties, she also serves as the library's Webmaster. Nicole has conducted usability studies of the library's Web site and presented papers and workshops on usability assessment with her colleagues from WSU. She is a member of LITA's Human/Machine Interface Interest Group.

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 Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Methods

1. Usability Methods
By Nicole Campbell

2. Conducting a Usability Study
By Nicole Campbell

Part 2: Case Studies

3. Learning as We Go: Arizona State University West Library's Usability Experience
By Kathleen Collins and Jose Aguinaga
Methods discussed: usability testing

4. Building a User-Centered E-Presence at the Auburn University Libraries
By Robert H. McDonald
Methods discussed: focus groups, surveys, and cognitive interviews

5. Structured Observation and Protocol Analysis Using Video-Split-Screen Technology for Evaluating Web Site Usability
By William J. Gibbs
Methods discussed: usability testing, and video split-screen

6. Working with Consultants to Test Usability: The Indiana University Bloomington Experience
By Julianne Bobay, Diane Dallis, Gwendolyn Pershing and Mary Pagliero Popp
Methods discussed: usability testing, field studies and web-based survey

7. Redesigning the Information Playground: a Usability Study of the Kansas City Public Library's Web Site
By David King
Methods discussed: usability testing, cognitive walkthrough, analysis of site usage logs

8. Card-sorting Usability Tests of the MIT Libraries' Web Site: Categories from the Users' Point of View
By Nicole Hennig
Methods discussed: card sort and category survey

9. Designing a Usable Health Information Portal: the MEDLINEplus Experience from the National Library of Medicine
By Jennifer L. Marill
Methods discussed: usability testing

10. Walking the Web: Usability testing of navigational pathways at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries
By Jennifer Church, Jeanne Brown and Diane VanderPol
Methods discussed: usability testing

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Introduction

Over the past six years, librarians have spent an ever-increasing amount of time developing and maintaining library Web sites. These Web sites have become the primary gateways to library resources, including online catalogs, databases, electronic journals, research guides and many other library services. As libraries become ever more dependent on their Web sites, however, it is important to question whether users can actually use these sites successfully, whether they can find what they are looking for, or whether they get frustrated and decide to looks elsewhere for help. One way to find out whether a web site is useful and usable is to conduct a usability study of the site.

There are many articles and books that describe usability methods and discuss how to conduct usability studies. Many of these are listed in the "Selected Web Sites and Readings" section at the end of this text. The purpose of this Guide is to focus specificallly on library-related Web sites. It is designed to provide libraries and librarians with basic information about usability assessment as well as examples of how other libraries are assessing usability of their Web sites.

Chapter 1 defines the concept of usability and provides a synopsis of methods for measuring usability. Chapter 2 discusses some of the important elements to consider when conducting a usabililty study. The remaining chapters provide a practical look at usability assessment. These chapters, or case studies, are examples of actual usability studies that have been done by a variety of libraries, including public and college libraries. They cover a variety of usability methods, but all focus on assessing library related Web sites.