Usability: A Critical Thinking Exercise
The usability study was a great opportunity to think critically about the effects of a website’s design on how users access its content. That is certainly something I gained from doing it myself, and I’m sure all of us did while we shared our respective findings with the class in our presentations.
One big issue I had with the assignment was creating questions of content for the participants to find. The library website I studied had so many pieces of information missing that I would consider standard, like the name of the director, how to get a library card, and information on storytimes. I even had a hard time finding items in the catalog I was almost certain should be in any library’s catalog, like the movie Frozen. Talking with Troy about this predicament helped me realize that maybe as a small-town library, there’s no need to put any of this information online since the type of relationships the patrons have with the staff suffices for getting this info. Of course, that’s not necessarily the case for outsiders or newcomers to the community.
Despite this lack of certain information, I was able to craft some questions that I thought worked well and would address major issues with the website, while also indicating what works well. As I compiled my actual presentation, I noted some other problematic aspects of the library’s website that weren’t directly part of the process of answering the questions in the test, like the lack of any direct access to the library’s Facebook page from the homepage. I also picked up on something else that put into words something I regarded all along when someone in class tweeted that the presence of links to web search engines on the website doesn’t promote the library as a place for information.
One big take-away from this usability study is that a mediocre website isn’t necessarily a complete disaster. My library’s website is probably okay for the type of community it serves, and certainly it has some good content and resources. The big issue is that certain features of its design can inhibit patrons from accessing the content, which is an important part of usability. People leave a website if they can’t easily get that for which they search.
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