Yeah, I Found It! Performing Web Site Usability Testing to Ensure That Off-Campus Students Can Find the Information They Need!

When libraries make websites, they need to make sure that their clients can use them. The problems is that often sites are made from the perspective of the designer rather than the end user. Further, to properly engineer a useable site requires a good degree of work. In the case of this article, the author provides a glimpse of what amount energy goes into such a project.

This article focuses of the testing of an educational website. They use task-based testing, focus groups and cognitive walkthroughs to ensure usability. By taking these steps ensures that the final product is useful and user centric. However, it seemed that they took a of effort in ensuring this. Each step was very well thought out and thorough. But the end product was a useful site that encourage use. 

My question is how much does fragmentation between library websites affect usability and whether a standardization would help in these efforts. 

Beth Thomsett-Scott (2005). Yeah, I Found It! Performing Web Site Usability Testing to Ensure That Off-Campus Students Can Find the Information They Need. Journal of Library Administration, Volume 41, Issue 3 & 4. January 2005 , pages 471 – 483