usability

[jacobs]

No I think I got the point. In the interest of brevity, I guess I did not 
explain myself very well. I was just trying to show that user profiles are 
never perfect. Hence, usability tests are flawed at best because we set up a 
test based on our user assumptions. How do you profile or test those people 
who get to your library website through a search engine? Can/should their 
needs be part of your 2-step process? How do you make profiles of 36,000 
students and 2,000 faculty? We had user profiles and found through our testing 
and focus groups that our profiles were not as clear-cut as we had at first 
thought. I agree that the steps are critical and iterative in developing a 
useful site but they are also somewhat tenuous. In the end, we make that leap 
of faith, put up our site in hopes that it meets the needs of our users and 
change it if/when we get feedback from users or if/when we feel like changing 
our layout or our color codes or if/when we have a few spare moments.

Regards,

James Jacobs
>
>Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 10:38:58 -1000 (HST)
>From: Michael <mwhang at hawaii.edu>
>To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>Subject: Re: usability
>Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.33.0205210951560.8355-100000 at uhunix2>
>
>Thanks for sharing your light summary, but I think you failed to see the
>point that I tried to convey from my original post. Below is a recap.
>
>
>I shared with the list two critical steps in developing a website from
>both the user's perspective and management's perspective. These two steps
>were creating user profiles and conducting task analyses which take place
>before conducting a test for ease-of-use, learnability, effectiveness, and
>efficiency of the prototype--a usability test.
>
>
>USER'S PERSPECIVE
>-----------------
>Granted that you have already conducted tests on the existing site and
>gathered valuable data from it, the user profiles and tasks analyses
>enable you to build a foundation for the new design because you know who
>the users are and what types of activities and interactions they might
>perform once they arrive.
>
>
>Once you identify the tasks and procedures, you can then further decompose
>associated sub-tasks, further exploding those prerequisites and
>information needed to complete a task.
>
>
>This will help you layout the page and build the site's architecture and
>navigation systems. Then you test and further refine what you already know
>or add to the design what you've just learned.
>
>
>Therefore user profiles and task analyses will help you create a flexible
>blueprint for your site's success based on factual data on who your users
>are and how they go about doing their work (i.e. work habits, personal
>preferences). Then you test your solution. And then you refine. And then
>you test again iteratively.
>
>
>
>MANAGEMENT'S PERSPECTIVE
>------------------------
>User profiles and task analyses benefits managment because you've already
>mapped out the procedures required to complete a task. You know exactly
>what users need to do, where to go, and how to do it. It futher reinforces
>the library's goals and objectives for developing a website--you know the
>site's functionality.
>
>
>
>Michael
>

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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