Testing and Tweaking Your Way to a Better Library

Website: Improved User Experience without a Massive Site Overhaul

Rebecca HyamsCataloging, Metadata, and Systems Librarian

SUNY Maritime College

Why Evaluate?O What web designers think users

want isn’t always what the users really wantO Best way to find out what users want

is to ask themO Usability testing was not done prior

to launch of current site designO Public EDS Launch this FallO New campus web server will support

more dynamic elements

How did we Evaluate?O Background research on usability

studies in general and case studies of library website evaluations

O Three-pronged evaluation approachO Survey MonkeyO Google AnalyticsO In-person usability testing

O Informal looks over-the-shoulder when helping patrons

Isn’t that Excessive?O Three different methods may seem

excessiveO Mostly used to inform on one

anotherO Gives us a fuller picture than any one

method canO Once the Google Analytics code is in

place and the Survey was made live, they both run themselves

Light background reading:O Jakob Neilsen and Steve Krug

O Testing does not need to involve a big production or a lot of subjects

O Case studies and The Journal of Web LibrarianshipO Most studies were done with a large

site overhaul in mindO But what if you’re mostly happy with

your design?

Website SurveyO Survey Monkey link posted on the library

homepage and sent out in emailO Targeted instruction sessions

O May have lead to overrepresentation of Freshmen students in results

O Survey consisted of 18 questionsO Some were targeted only to certain groups

O Questions were about technology habits (frequent websites, devices, use on campus)

Survey ResponsesO 47 responses, largely

undergraduates

81%

6%9%

2%2%

UndergraduateGraduateFacultyStaffAdministration

When Asked About Our Site…

O Results were mostly neutral-positiveO No real way of knowing if the neutral

response is a true neutral or the response of the apathetic

O The features our patrons want are ones that will be easy to implementO Our patrons aren’t as interested in

the big buzzwords in the library web services (text and chat reference, social media…)

Q: The SUNY Maritime Library Website is…

Easy

to na

vigate

Well-org

anize

d

User-fri

endly

Visua

lly ap

pealin

g

Easy

to un

ders.

..05

10152025303540

1 27 8 5 6 8

9 9 14 13 12

12 15 13 7 10

11 8 8 12 10Completely AgreeSomewhat AgreeNeither Agree or DisagreeSomewhat DisagreeCompletely Disagree

Resp

onse

s

Q: Which of the following features would you like to see added to the SUNY

Maritime Library website?

Video t

utoria

ls

Librar

y cale

ndar

Additio

nal co

urse g

uides

Mobile-

friend

ly pag

es

Text

messag

e refe

rence

IM refer

ence

More di

gital

collec

tions

05

10152025303540

3 2 2 39 8 5

5 4 5 54 5

59 11 8

14 9 12 1414 14 14

8 12 9 8

9 9 10 9 5 5 6 I really want to see this featureI'd like to see this featureI don't care one way or the otherI'm not really in-terestedI'm not at all in-terested

Resp

onse

s

Other Interesting Findings

O The majority of respondents use tablets and smartphones to connect to the internet, just not our website

O 68.2% of respondents are not regular library users (self-reported)

O No one wants to like/friend/follow usO When they do come to our site,

they’re looking for three main things: our catalog, our databases, and our hours

Google AnalyticsO Tracking code on each pageO Special code on links to external

resources to track usageO Google calls these “events”O As an information portal, we want to

see what people are using and how they’re getting to the information

O Data is anonymous

Page views

72%

3%2%2%1%1%1%1% 16

%

Total: 15052 [Library Homepage]Porthole Student NewspaperHours of OperationPopular DatabasesDatabases by SubjectMeet the StaffDatabases A to Z ListArchives[All other pages]

“Events”

57%9%

9%

4%2%2%

2%2%

2%10%

Total: 9569 (64% of all views)

Catalog- Middle of homepageEbsco search boxCatalog- Page headerJournal title searchEbsco (dropdown)Proquest (dropdown)Campus homepageGale (dropdown)JSTOR (dropdown)All other events

“Events” per page

95.0%

1.1%0.7% 0.5% 0.4%2.2% Library homepage

Databases by Sub-ject

Popular Databases

eBooks

Databases A to Z List

[All other pages]

Sessions per device type

95%

3% 2%

Desktop (in-cludes laptops)

Mobile

Tablet

In-person StudyO Five participants

O 1 graduate student, 3 undergraduates, 1 staff member

O Number of participants recommended by usability expert Jakob Nielsen

O Nine tasks made up of standard library tasks

O Recorded the session using Camtasia screen capture software and a digital voice recorder

The RoomO Testing took place in

our Digital Room O Quiet and private

spaceO Questions were given

to participants one at a time on index cards

O They were encouraged to think out loud, but only two participants did

Oh hai digital room!

Task 2: “You have a big assignment due first thing on Monday morning. It’s already Friday

afternoon. You want to find out when the library will be open this weekend so you can maximize your time in the library to finish your work. What are the library’s hours on

Saturday and Sunday?”

P1 Used hover menus on left side of homepage

P2 Used hover menus and checked many options before clicking on Hours

P3

"First I would go to Contact Us because that's what my brain says to do", when that didn't have what he was looking for, he decided to try the FAQ and that page just says "Coming Soon!", Then he tried "About Us" on the hover and found the link to Hours (About the Library is called About Us on internal pages)

P4First tried search box at top corner of page, thinking it would search the site (not the catalog). After ending on the catalog he returned to the homepage and then found the link to hours on the lefthand hover

P5

Started off by looking at the way top header and way bottom footer (when asked, he did that because many other pages have links to their hours here). "I'm looking for an about" and then he found the About the Library link on the lefthand nested navigation and then found hours on the menu.

Task 2: “You have a big assignment due first thing on Monday morning. It’s already Friday

afternoon. You want to find out when the library will be open this weekend so you can maximize your time in the library to finish your work. What are the library’s hours on

Saturday and Sunday?”

O Most popular option:O Some use of expanding “onhover” menus

O Common pitfalls:O Search box in top right of header searched only

catalogO FAQ page was inviting but had no content

O Fixes: O Include site search feature in standard location

(replacing catalog search)O Creation of FAQ page contentO Featured link to library hours on secondary pages

(homepage to come)

Task 6: “You’re taking MT250 this semester, where you will need to research the construction of a specific ship. You’re not quite sure where to begin, but you were told that there is a guide

for the assignment on the library website. Find the ship construction project guide.”

P1 He went right to them, using the link on the lefthand navigation (unnested version)

P2Clicked Subject Guides tab in middle of homepage, used dropdown option but selected Marine Transportation guide, then attempted a search for the guide using the search box, but the search was "this guide" only. She then adjusted her search to all guides and found it.

P3Subject guides tab in center box, clicked on dropdown and looked at the choices quickly, then used search box and typed in MT250 and it was the only search result

P4Went to the Subject Guides tab on homepage center box, went back and forth a few times between the title search and the guide list dropdown before ultimately selecting the dropdown

P5

"I think I saw something before about something a teacher could give you if they drop off an assignment." He tried the course reserves link and searched for MT250 in the reserve catalog pulling up the list of reserve books. "This is for books and not really assignments". He then browsed through the lefthand homepage navigation "Maybe here under guides and tutorials?" (Nested nav). He then was on the LibGuides homepage but was slightly unsure if he had found the answer when he located the link to the guide.

Task 6: “You’re taking MT250 this semester, where you will need to research the construction of a specific ship. You’re not quite sure where to begin, but you were told that there is a guide

for the assignment on the library website. Find the ship construction project guide.”

O Most popular option:O Subject guides tab in center of homepage

O Common pitfalls:O If a participant landed on a different guide

they had trouble getting the one they neededO Fixes:

O Ensure all guides are listed on LibGuides dropdown

O Improve LibGuides content to help with navigation between guides on similar subjects

In-person ResultsO Four out of nine tasks were

successfully completed by all five participantsO Catalog, hours, policies, course

guidesO However, some tasks were

completed with much difficulty, even if the answer was ultimately found

O The remaining five tasks were completed by 80% of participants

Participant SuggestionsO Clarifying language

O Some language was off-putting or confusingO Design tweaks

O Reordering or adding links O Simplifying pages

O Paring down language and lists O A search box that searches both articles

and booksO When that was suggested I told them about

EDS

What did we learn?O By far our most popular feature is the

catalog search box in the middle of the homepageO Patrons turn to the search box when they

don’t know where else to find information, even if the search box is just for the catalog

O Overall our page design is liked by patrons, but we can do more to improve usabilityO No major design flaws

Tweaks in ProgressO Google Site Search!!! (google.com/cse)

O Tweaks needed so it doesn’t dredge up old contentO Ours will search our site, blog, and our LibGuides

O As a non-profit you can edit the configuration file so there are no ads

O Some CSS trickery may be neededO (Inspect element + !important override)

Default look + position:

Modified look + position:

Tweaks in ProgressO Descriptions and branding images added

to tab box on homepage:

Tweaks in ProgressO Cut down the number of catalog choices,

removing SUNY Union and FirstSearch links in favor of IDS SearchO With EDS (Compass) as yet another option,

we had to cut back somewhereO Paradox of choice confused usersO Old SUNY Union Catalog doesn’t link into

ILLiad but offered false hope for requesting items

O FirstSearch interface is unappealing O IDS Search chosen over WorldCat.org

because of consortium limiter (set as default)

Tweaks in ProgressO Accordion lists for otherwise lengthy walls

of textO Allows us to put a lot of information on a

single page, but give the users the choice of viewing it

O Relatively standard web convention, familiar to users

Tweaks in ProgressO Language changes

O Attempt to make language more user-friendly, positive, and invitingO “Operational Procedures” “Library Policies”O “BLOG” “Library News”O “Books, DVDs, and More” “Sextant – Catalog”O “Avoid Plagiarism” “Citing Sources”

O Emphasize the right instead of the wrongO “eJournals” “Journals”

O (the header was referring to both print and electronic resources)

Tweaks in ProgressO Slight reorganization of navigation

O Removal of pages with different URLs but identical (or nearly identical) content

O Creation of logical navigation breadcrumbs O Most breadcrumbs currently are just

Home>>Current PageO Creation of interstitial pages for Navigation

(linked to menus and breadcrumbs)O If it looks like a link, it should at least go

somewhere if you click it

Some Content TweaksO Construction of an FAQ and a Scholarly

Activities page (both pages were linked to but were just blank “Coming Soon!” pages)

O Putting content of linked PDF files directly on page where appropriateO Putting digital archives into DSpace

O General Collections Page was dominated by Government DocsO Gov Docs will get own page, General Collections

page will have information on individual collectionsO Restructuring of Events and Exhibits Pages

Sneak PeaksCurrent: Proposed:

Sneak PeaksCurrent: Proposed:

NoContent

!

Sneak PeaksCurrent: Proposed:

Each link opens a PDF in a new

window

Sneak PeaksCurrent: Proposed:

Big Future ChangesO Dynamic PHP-based pages

O Header, footer, and menu includes!!O Way more consistency with way less

upkeepO Live updating calendar with Google

data and our own styleO Live updating new acquisitions

displayO Creation of short video tutorials

Questions/Comments?

rhyams@sunymaritime.edu(I share code!)

These slides can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/TestTweakSUNYLA