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:

ASK A LIBRARIAN; then Interlibrary Loan.

Number of links: 2

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: 

When he didn't find either ILL link, we asked the above question and he answered "ordering". But then as he was looking over the page he saw both links for ILL.

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)?

 He didn't find either one at first, then he found both. First the interlibrary loan link, and then the Request a Book or an Article We Don't Own.

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

Successful_____                     Unsuccessful__X____

Observer's comment:

Find Books. Back. Then in Catalog box on top page typed health chocolate, hit enter. Back. Find Articles, scrolled the list of databases. Back to top page. Clicked on library catalog and did a word search on chocolate, hit enter, and said "wouldn't mess with any of this stuff" meaning the 75 hits. Typed in word search chocolate and health, hit enter, then again chocolate and health, hit enter. This yielded blood and chocolate.

Number of Links: 10

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

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

Student's response:

Move the Catalog box. Make the five links in the middle (Find Articles, eJournals A-Z, Find Books, Research by Subject, and Reference Shelf) more central. Make Services, such as Find Books more obvious. He also mentioned Circulation. Make it more like the regular BU site ( I think he meant the drop down menus on the top of the BU home page).

Q5: What is your status at BU?

Student's response:

Undergraduate _X__     Graduate ____  Faculty ____     Staff ____    Other ____