usability testing survey

[Laura Hudson]

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to all of you who responded to my question about usability 
testing.  Below is a summary of answers.  They don't always add up to the 
total because some people gave more than one answer for a question and 
others didn't answer every question.  Of course, I thought of tons of 
follow-up questions as I read these, but I know you all have jobs to do ; )

Best,
Laura Hudson

1.  Are you doing or planning to do usability testing for your library
website?

Have done-5
Have done and plan to do again soon-2
Are doing now-1
Planning-3
No-1

Interesting ideas/comments:
*One person wondered how any library staff finds time for this kind of a 
project

2.  What techniques did you use/do you plan to use?

Surveys-3
Verbal protocol method-1
Focus groups-3
Individual interviews-1
Task-oriented usability testing-7
Competitive review-1
Heuristic evaluation-2
Card sorting-3
Verbal protocol method-1
Feedback forms-1

Interesting ideas/comments:
* Survey that lists 27 services/tools and asks users to rank top 10
* Number of subjects varied from 6-20

3.  Did you test on wire models, a preview site, or the real site?  Did you
test on multiple versions?

Current site-6
Other sites (e.g. other libraries)-2
Live prototype-6
Multiple versions-2

4.  How did you recruit test subjects?

enticements
Free food-2
Gifts (gift certificates, t-shirts, copy cards, etc.)-4

method
Through classes-2
Librarian contacts-3
Posters/flyers-2
University announcements/newsletter-2
Volunteers from B.I. sessions-1
People who work in the library-2
Advertise in student residences-1
Advertised in website-1

Interesting ideas/comments:
* One faculty member offered extra credit to students who participated in tests
* One library only tested freshmen; several tested both faculty and 
students but noted a difficult time in recruiting faculty

5.  Do you have a budget for this project?

Sort of (piecemeale.g. enough for pizza and videotapes)-5
No-5
Grant funds-1

6.  If you are done, did you make changes to your website based on the data?

Yes, a bunch-5
Not yet, but are planning to-4

7.  What problems did you run into?  Will you do it differently next time?

Would offer money to subjects/recruitment difficult-4
Would do more PR-1
Would try for more top-level buy-in-1
Time consuming-4
Would not have webmaster do testing-1
Ethics board approval difficult and slow-2
Would change questions/tasks-1
Analyzing data was difficult-1




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