Usability Testing a Public ERM: Worth the Effort?
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Transcript of Usability Testing a Public ERM: Worth the Effort?
Usability Testing a Public ERM: Worth the Effort?
Stephanie Willen BrownElectronic Resource LibrarianUniversity of Connecticut January 8, 2008
Act Like a User
You need information on diabetes for a paper.
Two questions1. What’s the first thing you see?
2. Where can get material for your paper? Site 1 Site 2 Site 3
Community College of Philadelphiahttp://www.ccp.edu/vpacaff/library/
Salt Lake Community Collegehttp://libweb.slcc.edu/index/library-resources
York County (ME) Community Collegehttp://ww.yccc.edu/library/library.asp
What *is* Usability?
Usability … assesses how easy user
interfaces are to use. The word “usability”
also refers to methods for improving
ease-of-use during the design process.
Jakob Nielsen, Usability 101
“Making Things Findable”
UConn Libraries “Plan 2010” Goal 2: Scholar’s Portal says:“Provide immediate, unmediated, and
comprehensive access to digitized research and scholarly collections worldwide.”
Web & database usage statistics greatly outweigh individual library-user contact
Components of Usability
Goals
Learnability
Efficiency
Memorability
Error recovery
Satisfaction
Achieved by …
Thinking like a user
Consistency
Tweaking text
Thinking Like a User
“… let’s … acknowledg[e] … the vital importance of empathy for the user. Only by understanding and caring about the perspective of the individual can we design useful, usable solutions.”
- Peter Morville, Ambient Findability
ConsistencyConsistency
Color, graphicsColor, graphics
Orientation & navigationOrientation & navigation
LanguageLanguage
Reading Online is Like …
Reading Proust People like to read long sentences
online because it’s easy to keep your place, follow complex trains of thought, and flip to the next screen of dense text.
or
Skimming citationsPeople skim titles & abstracts for
keywords, take notes, and move to the next citation
Reading Online … ProustFor a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I'm going to sleep." And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Francois I and Charles V. This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning. Then it would begin to seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former existence must be to a reincarnate spirit; the subject of my book would separate itself from me, leaving me free to choose whether I would form part of it or no; and at the same time my sight would return and I would be astonished to find myself in a state of darkness, pleasant and restful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for my mind, to which it appeared incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark indeed.
Swann’s Way / Marcel Proust
Skimming Citations Online …
ERIC search: African Americans & mathematics
TypeBooks | Journals | Reports | Videos | Web Sites
SciencesBiology | Chemistry | Microbiology | Physics | Zoology
Which is Easiest to Understand?
BiologyBooksChemistryJournalsMicrobiologyPhysicsReportsVideosWeb SitesZoology
Type• Books• Journals• Reports• Videos• Web Sites
Sciences• Biology• Chemistry• Microbiology• Physics• Zoology
Arguably …
Why? Content arranged logically, with clear headings &
bullets Alphabetical within groups Content goes down, as it does in traditional print Words are “chunked” into pieces easy for eye to scan
in one glance
Type• Books• Journals• Reports• Videos• Web Sites
Sciences• Biology• Chemistry• Microbiology• Physics• Zoology
Jargon for Librarians
On travelocity, you need the cheapest round-trip fare from Boston to London.
These are your options – which is right?
1. Flights & Prices
2. Fares
3. Three Best Itineraries
Library Jargon to Students
“ERIC, I think it’s some kind of journal … some kind of citation.”
Reference Shelf “[It’s] very general. You don’t know what to expect as it could be anything.”
Usability Testing
Define users Design questions to mimic what users
would realistically do Do usability testing early & often
3-5 users highlights 85% of errorsBetter to test several small groups than
10-15 at once Note errors, redesign and retest
Redesigning the Research Database Locator External
Literature reviewFind sites we liked
InternalUsage & query log analysisUsability testingDesign
• testing • redesign
• more testing
Literature Review
Cobus, Laura, Frances D. Valeda, and Anita Ondrusek. “How Twenty-Eight Users Helped Redesign an Academic Library Web Site.” Information Technology & Libraries 44.3 (2005): 232-46.
Krug, Steve. Don’t Make Me Think! 2d ed, Indianapolis, Ind. : Que. 2006.
Nielsen, Jakob. “Usability 101.” Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability.
http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/browns/Usability
Sites We Liked
University of Toronto’s “Best research resources for your topic.” Shows article databases, research guides, and encyclopedias / dictionaries / handbooks.
NCSU’s “Browse Subjects” See Poultry Science e.g., and note tabs at the top for Summary, Books & More; Databases & Articles; Journals; Reference Tools. Full subject list at left, with Agriculture expanded on Poultry Science page.
Purdue’s “All Databases by Subject” Select main subjects from menu to see subcategories.
http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/browns/Usability/Sites
Usage Log Analysis
March - May 2006, UConn patrons … Used the subject browse
18,000 times; Performed a keyword
search 15,800 times; and Clicked on Databases by
Title 6,600 times.
Query Log Analysis Database searches
america history and life lexus nexus infotrack
Subject searches education pharmacy medicine anthropologyu
Topic searches hamlet insane adopted children of same sex couples “why doesn’t the us have a eurpean-style welfate state?”
Are these successful?
• Subject browse: ~ 18,000; • Keyword search 15,800; and • Databases by Title: 6,600
housing market
Search “housing market”
Browse by Topic Business
Usability Testing: 3 Rounds
Who?3 undergraduates, 1 grad, 1 faculty in
each@ Storrs & regional campuses
What?First tested old systemMajor redesignTested redesignTweaked designTested again
Usability Tasks
Find articles about diabetes for your nursing class
Find a newspaper article on the day you were born
Your professor said “use a database named ERIC”
… plus 7 more …
Databases by Title – find ERIC
Design Goals
Unmediated use of database locator Focus on how most users think
*** not librarians *** Display 5 databases per subject
Users can choose to see more Shortened database descriptions
http://rdl.lib.uconn.edu/bySubject.php
Best Bets in Library Science
Side Effect: License Data
All Databases in LIS
Shortened Descriptions
From this … ABI/Inform Global Full-text articles from 1800 journals
covering business, finance, management and related functional areas. ABI/INFORM Global indexes a total of 2700 major publications. Subject coverage includes: business and management, including all functional areas.
To this … ABI/Inform Global Articles in business, finance,
management, accounting, advertising, banking, insurance, marketing, public administration, real estate, and telecommunications. 1991-current (full-text); 1971-current (index & abstracts).
Timeline … How Long?!
Began Winter 2006: “database descriptions too long, fix”All agreed. But …Rewriting database descriptions wouldn’t
solve all problems.“Maybe we should do more”
Ad hoc group started meeting spring 2006 & set up plan
From Ad Hoc to Rollout
August 2006: first usability tests Fall 2006: redesign & discussion
Possible “quick wins” tested & rejected November 2006: 2d round of usability
Redesign & more discussion January 2007 (early): 3d round of
usability tests January 2007 (mid): beta rollout March 2007: rollout (spring break)
Final Round of Testing
UConn’s Next Steps
Continue user analysisReview query logs, usage dataSolicit feedback from users, colleagues
Add / tweak …User tags“My Databases” featureBetter searching?
Note errors, redesign and retest
UConn Redesign Team
Stephanie Willen Brown, electronic resource librarian & liaison to Communication Sciences
Susanna Cowan, undergraduate education & outreach librarian
Kate Fuller, reference collection maintenance coordinator and / administrative assistant
Jill Livingston, reference librarian/liaison to the school of allied health
Tom Wood, applications developer
Useful Usability Resources
http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/browns/Usability
“PERM” FAQ
http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/browns/Usability/UConn-FAQ
Usability Testing: Worth the Effort!
Tony DungyCoach of the Indianapolis ColtsUpon winning 2007 Superbowl