Website Usability

Data

Q1: Using the library web site, can you tell if the library has any books written by Marc Bekoff?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student started by clicking on the circulation link under services. Upon opening this page, she hit the back button and went back to the home page. From there, she followed the Mugar Library link on the top right part of the page and then clicked on library catalog link under the search our collections section. From the library catalog she did an author search for marc bekoff and did not receive useful results. She went back to the author search screen and did a search for bekoff, marc and found 7 titles by this author.

The student remarked that she "always has problems" with this and that she forgets where to find this.
Number of Links: 4

Follow-up to Q1 if unsuccessful: If the student is unsuccessful, the librarian should ask what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?

Student's   response:

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Are students able to navigate to the catalog to look for a book? In this case the student was able to navigate to the catalog, but she did not go about it in the most efficient manner. The student seemed to know she was looking for a link to the library catalog, but did not see one on the top page. There needs to be a more prominent and obvious link to the library catalog on the top page.

Q2: Using the library web site, can you find an electronic copy of Journal of Asset Management ?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student immediately followed the eJournals A-Z link. From this page she choose the alphabetical list and navigated to the j section and then to the two listings for journal of asset management. The student said that she uses the eJournals A-Z "all the time." She said she always uses the eJournals link and rarely searches for books.
Number of links: 3

1 st Follow-up to Q2 if unsuccessful: If the participant goes to the catalog and stops, the librarian should ask, "is there somewhere else on the library web site to look for this?"

Student's   response:

2 nd Follow-up to Q2 if unsuccessful:   If the student still does not find the eJournals list, the librarian should ask, "what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?"

Student's   response:

Observer's comment about underlying question of:   Do students use the eJournals A-Z list for electronic journals? Yes.

Q3: Using the library web site, can you find a print copy of the Journal of the American Helicopter Society ?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student navigated to Mugar's home page from the link on the top right part of the screen. She then followed the link to library catalog under the search our collections heading and then did a title search for Journal of the American Helicopter Society, finding the catalog record for this journal.
Number of Links: 2

Follow-up to Q3 if unsuccessful: If the student is unsuccessful, the librarian should ask what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?

Student's   response:

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Are students able to navigate to the catalog for a print journal? Similar to Q1, the student was able to navigate to the catalog, but she did not go about it in the most efficient manner. The student seemed to know she was looking for a link to the library catalog, but did not see one on the top page. There needs to be a more prominent and obvious link to the library catalog on the top page.

Q4: Using the library web site, how would you get a book or article we do not own?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The student said that she is "looking for interlibrary loan." She scanned the page and followed the interlibrary loan link under the services section. She showed us that an article could be ordered from this page.
Number of links: 1

Follow-up to Q4 if unsuccessful: If students did not make it to the ILL page, the librarian should ask, "what word or phrase were you looking for, but did not find?"

Student's   response:

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Do students navigate to the ILL page and if so, how (through the how to box or the ILL link)? Yes, the student know this term and was able to quickly find the "interlibrary loan" link.

Q5: Using the library web site, how would you find a journal article about depression?

Successful_____                     Unsuccessful__X____

Observer's comment: The student started out by going to the eJournals A-Z list and looking at the search pull down field. She tried a keyword search for depression and got zero results. She went home and used the library catalog search box to do a subject search for depression. She remarked that she was "not sure if this will give me books or journals." Upon looking at the results, she said that it "looks like books."  She scrolled through the list a bit and then went back home. From the home page, she went to Mugar's home page and then back home again. She again looked at the catalog search options in the drop down menu on the home page. She went back to the Mugar page and followed the link to library catalog and performed a subject search for depression, remarking that it was "giving me books again."
Number of Links: 7

1 st Follow-up to Q5 if unsuccessful: If the students navigate to a database through research guides or similar, the librarian should praise the student and show her the indexes and databases link and ask, "is there a better way to word that?"

Student's   response:

2 nd Follow-up to Q5 if unsuccessful: Is there a word or phrase you were looking for?

Student's   response: "Journals." The student remarked that, "you cannot search a topic without going into a database." If she is looking for journals, she said she would like the option on the catalog page to distinguish between books and journals.

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Do students use the indexes and databases link to find articles? No. This student also seemed to struggle with the subject search in the catalog.

Q6: How would you change the library's web site to make it more useful for you?

Student's response: The student remarked that she uses the eJournals all the time and that she can't quite remember where to go for non-eJournal items. She mentioned that she does not know why we have the individual library links and suggested that it would be helpful to proceed this list of links by saying something like, " search collections in this library." The student asked, "how do I search print collections?" She suggested that the library catalog and other main links be bigger to attract her attention. She remarked that "everything is small" and there is no differentiation in priority by font. She also mentioned that she would like to see options for finding non-eJournals.

Q7: What do you find useful on the library's web site?

Student's response: The eJournals list, she uses it all the time. She also likes the large ask a librarian link. She asked if there was a tutorial on how to use the library web site.

Q8: Is there anything you would like to tell us about the library's web site?

Student's response: No-that is about it. She asks her friend who works in the library for help when she needs it.