Subscribe for Free
View PDF
Send to a Friend
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ask UCD
Tom Noonan earned his BA in psychology and an MA and PhD in experimental psychology, all from the University of Louisville. He began his career with IBM and has also worked with a start-up venture and with Circuit City, Inc. Since 2001, Tom has worked for Elsevier. Today he serves as a member of Elsevier's User Centered Design Group and holds the position of senior human factors engineer.
Tom Noonan
In 2003, information professionals attending Library Connect presentations at library conferences posed questions about the usability of library websites. Since then, the Library Connect Newsletter has featured the “Ask UCD” column which presents usability questions and answers. Chris Jasek and Tom Noonan, both with Elsevier’s User Centered Design Group, serve as authors for the column.
To view “Ask UCD” questions and answers covered so far, please browse Library Connect Newsletter issues available at www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect.
To send a question to “Ask UCD,” drop a line to libraryconnect@elsevier.com
Following is a sampling of questions and answers featured to date in "Ask UCD."
Q: How can I convince my co-workers that our library Web pages aren’t very usable?
A: Opinions just don’t seem to cut it when discussing usability and design; you’ve got to provide colleagues with data that’s tough to brush aside. To get that data you’re going to need to run your own usability test or have someone else run it for you. If your test data shows, for example, 7 out of 10 users could not locate the Journal of Criminal Justice you’ve found some pretty hard evidence that your library website is not very usable. In most cases the usability of your website will not be this disastrous, but as a result of testing you’ll collect lots of data helpful in improving the efficiency, labeling and navigation of your website.
Your users deserve the best service and user experience you can offer and since most users access the library through your website it makes sense to pay a lot of attention to usability.
Source: Jasek, C. (2005, August). Ask UCD. Library Connect Newsletter, 3(3).
www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect
Q: When I test the usability of my library website, who do I recruit as test participants and what do I need to keep in mind?
A: Identifying users to participate in usability testing involves a straightforward process. First you must identify your types of users. Almost every website has multiple audiences who want to use the site in different ways. Different users have different needs and expectations. Concentrate on the tasks that you have designed your site to enable. What types of users most need to accomplish the tasks? For example, are these tasks that library staff, undergraduates or experienced researchers perform?
Once you have identified types of users, select a variety of users from the primary user groups. Try to sample a reasonable cross section of the user groups. Don’t limit your test to co-workers or those anxious to be test participants.
Now that you have your users lined up, keep the following in mind:
- Keep the test short. People are more willing to volunteer if the time required is short. If it isn’t necessary that each person attempt each task, it’s okay to have different users attempt subsets of the tasks.
- If feasible, test the site at a workstation near the users or in their offices. If you can test the site when and where it is convenient to them, you are more likely to get volunteers.
- When testing, don’t be judgmental and have patience. Some people get nervous in such a situation and take some time to become comfortable. Be considerate. Remind them that you are testing the product, not them!
- If the test requires that you interact with or interview the user, try to have someone else take test notes. It’s difficult to interact gracefully with a user and, at the same time, record your observations.
- Finally be polite and maybe they’ll volunteer again. Remember they are helping you.
Source: Noonan, T. (2006, October). Ask UCD. Library Connect Newsletter, 4(4).
www.elsevier.com/libraryconnect
