Usability Testing for Library Websites: A Hands-On Guide

by Elaina Norlin

How good is your library's Website? Unless you're the librarian who set them up, online library services can be hard to navigate. In fact, many users give up in frustration without ever finding what they're looking for. Nowadays, many of the search and retrieval services that previously were database-driven are now Web-based and part of the library's official Website. So as libraries increasingly use the Web to deliver both in-house and remote services online, it is critical that their sites are engaging, easy to navigate, and created with the end user - the library customer - in mind. This soup to nuts guide will help beginners and experts alike to determine, in a systematic way, how well their Websites are performing for their customers. Applying the best practices of usability testing, you will learn how to How easy it is for new users to learn how to navigate and use the site; How easy it is for trained users to interact with it; How effective the site is in pointing users to the information they're looking for; Whether or not users are motivated to use the technology The expert author team walks you through not only the process of performing usability testing, but also creating allies among decision-makers to support testing, revisions inspired by collected data, and cost management. For all types of libraries, this step-by-step manual is a sure-fire tool for creating a winning Website for savvy library customers.

84 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2001

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is for libraries that remain analog or have decades-old database search systems and are moving towards digital systems. The target audience is older generation staff members who remember a period without automated searches! (The lovely days of card catalogue and let me tell you, card catalogues are even way accurate and can find stuff better than a computerised database!) The text is very basic is it is suited for beginners or librarians who have never done any user testing or are not tech-savvy at all. This does not have an intensive information architecture as I expected. That said, the chapters on sample tests and sample results are useful to get you started. The purpose is really to get library service workers and staff to begin assessing how their websites are used for "search." It may be a 3 star for me but will definitely be a 5 star for the target group.

[Riegs · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book about websites written in 2002, this book is still quite useful as a primer on the topic.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty easy to use guide if you are going to do usability testing for your library's website. It takes you from the planning to actually doing the testing. Pretty easy to use and provides examples. I discovered it since we are redesigning our library's website, and we wanted to do usability testing on the new design. The book has been helpful in providing details of steps to take. Overall, a good little guide.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

A slight 64 page volume on, well, usability testing for library websites. If you have any experience in usability testing at all, you already know more than is presented in this book - and are probably on firmer footing in your philosophical orientation towards testing. Really, don't waste your time.

[Gregor Erbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

not good as a first introduction, presupposed basic knowledge of Spanish history

[Brittnee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, straight forward guide to website usability testing. Does include suggestions for additional readings.