Website Usability

Data

Q1:  Using this printout and keeping in mind that everything on this page is linked:

(a) Please circle any of the links on this page that you have used in the past month.

(b) Can you prioritize these links in order of importance to you: 1 is the most important.

(c) In addition to the links you have followed in the past month, have you used any of the other links on this page? If yes, please highlight them.

User's comment:

Observer's comment:

Q2: Using the library web site, how would you get a book or article we do not own?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The patron clicked on the "interlibrary loan" link.
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)? This patron navigated to the ILL page through the Ill link.

Q3: Using the library web site, how would you find a journal article about the health benefits of chocolate?

Successful__X___                     Unsuccessful______

Observer's comment: The patron clicked on the "find article" link.  Scrolling through the page, she said that she was looking for something having to do with the category health or psychology. The patron clicked on PubMed and performed a search for chocolate health benefits, finding many articles.

Number of Links: 3

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Do students use the "find articles link" to find articles? Yes.

The patron mentioned that as a freshmen, she had no idea where to go to find articles. She said that "they told me PsychInfo, but how do I get there?

Q4: How would you change the library's web site to make it more useful for you?

Student's response: The patron suggested that on the Indexes and Databases page, we have categories based on subjects before or instead of the long alphabetical list of databases. She said that she links the catalog and used it a lot.

Q5: What is your status at BU?

Student's response:

Undergraduate ___     Graduate ____  Faculty ____     Staff ____    Other _X_(alumni)