Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders
This article describes a usability study of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries’ website conducted in early 2016. The study involved six participants from each of four key user groups – undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and library employees – and consisted of six typi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
American Library Association
2017-12-01
|
| Series: | Information Technology and Libraries |
| Online Access: | https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/article/view/9959 |
| _version_ | 1818550890352607232 |
|---|---|
| author | Elena Azadbakht John Blair Lisa Jones |
| author_facet | Elena Azadbakht John Blair Lisa Jones |
| author_sort | Elena Azadbakht |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article describes a usability study of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries’ website conducted in early 2016. The study involved six participants from each of four key user groups – undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and library employees – and consisted of six typical library search tasks such as finding a book and an article on a topic, locating a journal by title, and looking up hours of operation. Library employees and graduate students completed the study’s tasks most successfully, whereas undergraduate students performed fairly simple searches and relied on the Libraries’ discovery tool, Primo. The study’s results identified several problematic features that impacted each user group, including library employees. This increased internal buy-in for usability-related changes in a later website redesign. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T08:52:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-188052358fe0440486c43bdf8f2d4cd5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0730-9295 2163-5226 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T08:52:34Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | American Library Association |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Information Technology and Libraries |
| spelling | doaj.art-188052358fe0440486c43bdf8f2d4cd52022-12-22T00:30:08ZengAmerican Library AssociationInformation Technology and Libraries0730-92952163-52262017-12-01364344510.6017/ital.v36i4.99599002Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library StakeholdersElena Azadbakht0John Blair1Lisa Jones2University of Southern MississippiUniversity of Southern MississippiUniversity of Southern MississippiThis article describes a usability study of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries’ website conducted in early 2016. The study involved six participants from each of four key user groups – undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and library employees – and consisted of six typical library search tasks such as finding a book and an article on a topic, locating a journal by title, and looking up hours of operation. Library employees and graduate students completed the study’s tasks most successfully, whereas undergraduate students performed fairly simple searches and relied on the Libraries’ discovery tool, Primo. The study’s results identified several problematic features that impacted each user group, including library employees. This increased internal buy-in for usability-related changes in a later website redesign.https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/article/view/9959 |
| spellingShingle | Elena Azadbakht John Blair Lisa Jones Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders Information Technology and Libraries |
| title | Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders |
| title_full | Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders |
| title_fullStr | Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders |
| title_full_unstemmed | Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders |
| title_short | Everyone’s Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders |
| title_sort | everyone s invited a website usability study involving multiple library stakeholders |
| url | https://ejournals.bc.edu/ojs/index.php/ital/article/view/9959 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elenaazadbakht everyonesinvitedawebsiteusabilitystudyinvolvingmultiplelibrarystakeholders AT johnblair everyonesinvitedawebsiteusabilitystudyinvolvingmultiplelibrarystakeholders AT lisajones everyonesinvitedawebsiteusabilitystudyinvolvingmultiplelibrarystakeholders |