1 / 18

Live Web Usability Lab CASL, November 10, 2008

Live Web Usability Lab CASL, November 10, 2008. Stephanie Willen Brown University of Connecticut Steve Cauffman iCONN Carol Abatelli Eastern Connecticut State University. Act Like a User: Find a Book in Spanish. Two questions What’s the first thing you see?

ralph-adams
Download Presentation

Live Web Usability Lab CASL, November 10, 2008

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Live Web Usability LabCASL, November 10, 2008 Stephanie Willen BrownUniversity of Connecticut Steve CauffmaniCONN Carol AbatelliEastern Connecticut State University

  2. Act Like a User: Find a Book in Spanish Two questions • What’s the first thing you see? • Where can you find books in Spanish (for your age patron)? • Site 1 • Site 2

  3. What *is* Usability? Usability … assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process. Jakob Nielsen, Usability 101

  4. Goals Learnability Efficiency Memorability Error recovery Satisfaction Achieved by … Thinking like a user Consistency Tweaking text Components of Usability

  5. Thinking Like a User • “… let’s acknowledge the vital importance of empathy for the user. Only by understanding and caring about the perspective of the individual can we design useful, usable solutions.” - Peter Morville, Ambient Findability

  6. Consistency • Color, graphics • Orientation & navigation • Language

  7. Reading Online is Like ?? Reading Proust • People like to read long sentences online because it’s easy to keep your place, follow complex trains of thought, and flip to the next screen of dense text. or Skimming citations • Skim titles & abstracts for keywords • Take notes • Move to the next citation

  8. Jargon for Librarians • On travelocity, you need the cheapest round-trip ticket from Boston to London. • These are your options – which is right? • Flights & Prices • Fares • 3 Best Itineraries

  9. Note-taker 1 Participant @ computer Facilitator Note-taker 2 How We Will Test

  10. Volunteer Required • Someone who hasn’t used …? • Willing to use site to answer “typical” questions in front of your peers?! • Carol will explain the usability testing process to the volunteer • Steve will • Describe the database • Review the test questions

  11. Usability Test Questions: Kids Info Bits • Can you find an image of the flag of Brazil? • What is a dinosaur? • Find some information about the new food pyramid which explains what foods are healthiest to eat

  12. Usability Test Questions: Student Research Center • You really like airplanes and enjoy seeing photos of planes. Can you find images of the Wright Brothers and their first flight? • For a class in career development, you need to find information about a job that you might want. You always wanted to be an astronaut ... can you find information about being an astronaut? • For a science paper, you need to write about global warming from a variety of perspectives. Can you find information about global warming?

  13. For More Information • Recommended articles about usability • http://gslis.simmons.edu/mw/browns/Usability • SlideShare of this PowerPoint • http://www.slideshare.net/CogSciLibrarian/live-web-usability-lab-casl-2008-presentation/ • Student Research Center is available @ iCONN.org

  14. Questions? Keep in Touch • Stephanie Willen Brown, electronic resources librarian, University of Connecticut stephanie.brown@uconn.edu • Steve Cauffman, reQuest ILL coordinator, iCONN … scauffman@cslib.org • Carol Abatelli, head of collections & electronic resource management, Eastern Connecticut State University abatellic@easternct.edu

More Related