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: "Ordering, maybe." The student looked at the page and said, would "interlibrary loan" be what you are going for? A-ha, "request a book or article we do not own," he said, pointing at the link.

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 student used the "interlibrary loan" link.

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: The student clicked on "medical" in the upper right part of the screen, going over to the BU-Med website. She then clicked on news archives and scrolled through the page remarking that she did not see anything. She went back twice and said that she would use a search engine. She used the catalog search box to perform a search for health benefits of chocolate. She said, "no entries found, so I'm at a dead end."

Number of Links: 5

Response to the follow up question about how "find articles" could be reworded: The student said that the thing that was misleading was the question was about health, which is why she went to the medical link. She said that if she would have seen the "find articles" link, she would have used it.

Observer's comment about underlying question of: Do students use the "find articles link" to find articles? This student did not use the link, but said she would have if she would have noticed it.

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

Student's response: The student said that the website is good. She would like to see services, about, and news moved to the top of the page because that is what she uses the most. She suggested putting the "finding and research things at the bottom."

Q5: What is your status at BU?

Student's response:

Undergraduate _X__     Graduate ____  Faculty ____     Staff ____    Other ____