Usability Test #2 - Patrons and Staff

We conducted our second usability study on Wednesday, October 7. Everything went very smoothly. The major issues we noticed were:

1. The links on our sidebars are hard to read. The font is not dark enough and the link colors don't contrast enough.


2. The term "PPLD Downloads" is not a good substitute for the term "eBranch". I'm not sure what we're going to do about this. I may just give up and continue to name the service "eBranch". Sigh.


3. The term "Community" means different things to different people. I changed the name to "Local Information" to see if it's more obvious what is contained therein.

There were a few additional minor changes made that I won't mention here. Overall, the studies were very beneficial to the redesign. If you are deciding to usability studies, but aren't sure if the effort is worth it, do it!

Patron Usability Test 1

We had our first patron usability test on Monday, April 6. We had four subjects. We tested two separately and two together. Granted, they were people we know, so I'm not convinced I got as much constructive criticism as I deserved.

Based on patron feedback, we decided to make the following changes:

• Make the website fixed width instead of fluid width


• Rename "All Databases" to "Databases"


• Put "Magazines/Newspapers" on home page under Research


• Add "(Search Local Newspapers)" to the Pikes Peak Newsfinder database entry

All in all, this was a very benefical study. However, our next test will involve new questions AND patrons we don't know.

Staff Usability Testing

Last week we tested 4 shelvers and they had some very useful observations for the website. As a result, we made a few changes to the new web:

• Renamed "eBooks & More" to "eBooks, eAudios, and eVideos".


• Renamed "News and Media" to "Press Kit".


• Renamed "Programs" to "Programs/Events" on the main navbar.


• Added a "Did You Know?" section to About the Library.

I also learned that it's a bad idea to remove an entire block div from the tpl.php files. It's better to just remove the content div instead:

http://drupal.org/node/116635#comment-1263379

Overall, the Staff Usability Test was a success. We plan to test patrons in late March. I need to get content on the website before then.

Usability Testing

Yesterday we conducted a usability test "dress rehearsal", using Website Team members as the guinea pigs. The experience was very educational:

• Mike both the moderator and the subject


• Keep a laptop in the observation room to make emergency changes


• Shorter is sweeter


• If the content you are asking the subject to find doesn't exist yet, stop them and move on when they get to the empty location


• Provide food


• Send thank you cards

Our first "official" usability test with staff will be on Monday, February 9.

Also, we plan to set up a trial for WebTrends analytic software on Monday.

Tomorrow I am working on the Catalog upgrade.

I'm actually a bit frustrated right now, because I don't seem to have any time to actually enter content on the new website. I need to get as much content in as possible before the Find a Good Book Hot Team and Research Hot Team meetings on February 18 and 20.

On the bright side, I met with the Denver Public Library web developers for lunch yesterday. It was great to get to know them and talk about our projects. They are redesigning using Drupal as well. I can't wait to see their finished product!

Moving Along

Well, we're chugging right along on the redesign. My assistant Cheryl created a rough mock-up of the new home page that was approved by our Community Relations Officer (with a few minor changes).

I installed the Workflows module on the new website so that all entries will go to a Draft state and then be proofread and published by Community Relations. Although I can't test the email as SMTP is not enabled on the new server yet.

Taxonomies are fairly well honed for this point in time, and I'm sure they will be further tweaked as the content gets entered.

Bill Thomas, our Usability Hot Team leader, has developed a rough draft of our Usability Test Plan that I haven't had a chance to look at yet, but will at some point today.

Home Page Design Guidelines

As we begin to move into the construction phase of PPLD.org's redesign, I've been keeping an eye out for interesting articles, especially about usability.

Here is an article by Jakob Neilson, Top Ten Guidelines for Home Page Usability.

We will definitely be referencing this article during our home page construction.

PPLD.org Website Improvement Survey Results

Thanks to the participation of PPLD's wonderful patrons, our Website Improvement Survey was a big success! We had 192 participants and received lots of feedback that will go toward making the redesigned website a more user-friendly experience.

We analyzed the results and now have a Site Map constructed to serve as a starting point for the website population. Next up, converting our proprietary database authentication to EZProxy, and when the local server is ready, begining the redesign construction and population.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Renaming Links

I'm working with the Website Team to rename links on ppld.org to more user-friendly terms.

After we've come to an agreement on the link names, we'll conduct a small patron card-sorting exercise. After we have analyzed those results, we'll compile the basic organizational structure for the website.

It's slow going, but it is going...

Don't Make Me Think!

I read a rockin' book about web usability this weekend called Don't Make Me Think!, by Steve Krug. I found a handful of things I could implement immediately, and I'm excited about making an entire paradigm shift for the redesign. It was a real eye-opener. Especially the idea of making link names obvious and taking advantage of web conventions. Libraries are huge offenders on the link names.

I highly recommend this book to all web developers.