usability

[jacobs]

I've really found this thread to be helpful. Below are some thoughts based on 
our experience at the Education and Social Science Library at the University 
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

>
>For instance, undergraduates may require a step-by-step approach to
>familiarizing themselves with the various research tools and services
>(databases, catalogs, virtual reference services) provided by the library
>(e.g. how to use them and what certain library terms mean). On the other
>hand, faculty already know the grindstone and would prefer one-click
>access to these already-familiar tools versus a guided approach.
>

We did usability studies and focus groups for our web site redesign and found 
the opposite to be true of faculty. (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx). We were 
dismayed to find that most of the faculty bookmarked specific items (catalog, 
favorite database...) and had no idea what tools were available on our site. 
Several were pleasantly surprised that we had in-depth, subject-focused 
research guides. Some continued to visit our interlibrary loan dept. to 
request materials, not realizing that ILL has had an online form to submit 
requests for at least 3 years or that one could self-request materials through 
either OCLC's WorldCat database or our Big-Ten library consortium (CIC-VEL).

>
>This leads designers to the next critical step in the design process: Task
>Analysis. Task analysis involves analyzing the procedures performed for an

We found task analysis to be very useful, but also somewhat inconclusive. Our 
undergrad test subjects faired better at navigating our prototype than did our 
"seasoned" faculty. I think the primary reason for this is age-related. Many 
of our undergrads have grown up in a web environment while many of our faculty 
honed their research skills in pre-web times. The faculty are thus more 
comfortable with going to staff for their various needs rather than going 
online to find the necessary information. User skills varied as did user 
preferences. For example, some users liked a "quick links" menu while others 
did not. Some liked our drop-down menus, while others completely ignored them. 
These preferences seemed to be more based on personality rather than research- 
or technical skill.

The bottom line is that one can not necessarily assume that faculty are 
research-savvy and knowledgeable about the library while undergrads are not or 
base their site design on these assumptions. This is not necessarily the case. 
Many of the electronic tools that librarians take for granted are still 
relatively recent additions and are hence unknown to many users regardless of  
academic level. It is my opinion that preferences and abilities today will be 
very different in 5 years as will our abilities to design electronic tools, 
gateways and websites. Web site maintenance and design is an heuristic 
exercise. Our site can't be everything to everyone, but it can be intuitive 
and easy to use for a majority of our users and can offer several alternative 
routes to tools and information. We will continue to redesign our site and 
will continue to query our users for their opinions.

Regards,

James Jacobs

James R. Jacobs 
Pre-doc Fellow / Graduate Reference Assistant 
Education & Social Science Library
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign                        
Home: 303B1 Paddock Drive  
Savoy, IL 61874           
(217)359-9283
jacobs at uiuc.edu
http://radicallibrarian.org
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