Document 3: Website Focus Group Discussions
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Transcript of Document 3: Website Focus Group Discussions
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Document 3: Website Focus Group Discussions
A Summary of Our Findings
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Purpose of the Study
1. To gather student, faculty and staff input on what their needs and expectations are when seeking information in an online environment.
2. To find out what types of design structures and aesthetics users prefer when seeking information in an online environment.
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Purpose cont.
3. To obtain user input on their needs and expectations when using the library’s website.
4. To find out what types of information (staff, hours, services etc), research tools, and instructional tools users would find useful when seeking information using the library’s website.
The information gathered will be used to create a library
website that is centered on the research needs and expectations of Blinn College students, faculty and staff.
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Methodology
Series of discussion led by moderator A revised version of a pre-tested script was
used Four student discussions (2 in Brenham, 2 in
Bryan) with 17 total participants Two faculty/staff discussions (1 in Brenham, 1
in Bryan) with 10 total participants
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Part One: Searching the Internet
When students use the Internet to find information, the majority go to search engines first.– Yahoo and Google were mentioned most frequently– Ask Jeeves, Excite, MSN and Alta Vista were also
mentioned several times
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What students like about search engines:
Fast Straightforward No Boolean searching Efficiency (“Just type in a
question and it answers you.”)
Broad variety of information
One stop shopping
Doesn’t give impertinent information
Take you directly to what you need
There’s nothing you can’t find
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Types of information students are looking for on the internet
Recreational information: movie times, band sites, sports
Services: online banking, job searching, apartment searching
Newspapers and news resources Images Government information and government news
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Opinions on the sites they use
Things students like: Attractive Colorful Contain a lot of
information Contain graphics and
images
Things students don’t like: Sites without graphics Sites without color Too much text
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Part Two: Discussion of the Library’s Current Website
A Compilation of Student, Faculty and Staff Opinions
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Student Quiz
A short quiz was administered to the students to assess how easy it is to find information using the library’s website
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Student Quiz
The Bad News: 38% of students are confusing the “Periodicals”
link with the “Electronic Resources” link Only 48% of students were able to locate
information on library services Only 27% of students were able to locate
instructional information
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Student Quiz
The good news: 88% of students were able to identify the online
catalog as the place to search for books
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Ease of Use: Student and Faculty Perceptions
Most students find the site “fairly easy”or moderately easy to use.
Most of the faculty find the site “easy” to use Many students find the site “difficult” to use. Many of the faculty find the site “somewhat
confusing” All faculty members agree that students have
difficulty navigating the site
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Why Students and Faculty are using the site:
The majority of students use the site for research related to their classes
The majority of students do not use the site for personal reasons
5 out of 7 faculty assign library research projects to their classes (71%)
3 out of 10 faculty/staff use the site for personal research (30%)
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Issues with the design of the site:
The white background is sterile and unwelcoming
Layout of homepage and second tier pages are overcrowded, confusing and too busy
The site contains too much text. Information on second tier pages is too buried
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Navigation Issues
Many students have difficulty navigating the site
Many students have difficulty navigating through the electronic resources
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Suggestions for Improving the Design of the Site:
Simplify Background color Images Graphical icons Mouse over menus Buttons No scrolling Consistent menus
Remove bullets More white space Group links into 4 or 5
main categories Don’t use all caps for
words Make page more inviting
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Suggestions for Improving the Content of the Site:
Links to Blinn Campus Resources: Blinn Log Boris WebCT
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Suggestions for Improving the Content of the Site cont.
Instructional Information: Electronic Resources Citing Sources Selecting Search Terms/Constructing
Searches
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Suggestions for Improving the Content of the Site cont.
Prominent display of: – library hours– library news and announcements– email link for contacting the library– online renewals– news links
Meta search feature on the homepage
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Part Three: Opinions of the Website Demos
Students were shown two alternative versions of the library’s website:
http://Blackbeard/Library/LibraryDemo/Homepage/Index.htm
http://Blackbeard/Library/homepagedemo/index.htm
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Blue Demo: Positive Aspects
Names of links are clear, easy to read
Not a lot of text Simple to understand Categories are easy to
understand and see Categories are broken
down Looks easier to operate
“Meat” of the site in center of page
Contains a lot of space Aesthetically pleasing Dummy proof Inviting Looks like a homepage
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Blue Demo: Suggestions for Improvement
Change the font color Bolder links and higher contrast Add the Blinn logo More contrast in colors Incorporation of mouse over menus
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Yellow Demo: Positive Aspects
Prominent display of library news and announcements
Contrasting colors Separated into categories The layout of the sections The structure of the page Appears to contain more information Prominent display of the library’s hours Colorful
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Yellow Demo: Suggestions for Improvement
Many students felt the page “had to much stuff on it”
Several students suggested changing the yellow color
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Version of the homepage preferred overall
The majority of participants said both demo sites are improvements over the present homepage
The majority of participants suggested merging the strengths of the demo sites an incorporating mouse over menus– Simplicity, categories and groupings of blue demo– Prominent news and announcements and library
hours of Yellow site