Presented at Computers in Libraries 2016 As a late adopter to the LibGuide platform, our library was able to learn from earlier successes and failures of others. We took an evidence-based approach to design its guides based on iterative testing and data from Springshare and Google Analytics. I share what user data showed and how it led to a consistent look and feel.

1. LIBGUIDES:
USING THE DATA
M E L A N I E PA R L E T T E - S T E W A R T, B L E N D E D L E A R N I N G L I B R A R I A N
U N I V E R S I T Y O F G U E L P H
@ M PA R S T E W

10. website redesign

11. 2013

12. WHAT WE WANTED:
•A place where students could “get started”
•A consistent look and feel
•User-friendly navigation

14. WHAT WE ENDED UP WITH (ROUND 1):
• Templated Course Guides
• Templated Subject Guides directly tied to all course areas
(i.e. HIST Subject guides for HIST (History courses)
• Topic Guides to meet the other needs (and allow for
consistent support of other needs such as APA,Time
Management, Finding Images)
• Controlled Language (HackYour Learning, CiteYour
Sources)

17. LESSONS LEARNED
•Tabs were confusing (people weren’t clicking
through to the second tab)
•Needed to simplify the content even more

18. WHAT WE ENDED UP WITH (ROUND 2):

19. Limit to 10 research resources (centre column)
Video embedded
Up to 3 “HackYour Learning”
Embedded Library Search Box
Help Service (focus on our chat / keeping it online)

20. STRATEGY
•Course Guides
•Subject Guides
•Topic Guides

21. Sticking
with the
plan:
Clean +
Simple

22. DATA
G O O G L E / S P R I N G S H A R E A N A LY T I C S +
U X T E S T I N G

23. 903
4
2
4

24. Google Analytics  Behaviour View Full Report  Select Page

25. Google Analytics  Behaviour View Full Report  Select Page
Navigation
Summary

26. Springshare Libguides  Statistics  Guides  GuideTitle  Assets
Conversation Starter

27. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS?
•Popular links (remove the less popular /
distracting)
•Order matters

28. Google Analytics  Acquisition
Direct: Typed the URL into their browser. Can include: bookmarks, untagged links within emails, or links PDFs or
Word documents.
Referral: Referred by links on other websites
Top Referrals

29. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS?
• Where our users are coming from
• Common access points to use / incorporate into
promotion

30. UX STUDY RESULTS
• Students were unaware of the function of our “Ask Us”
icon
• Increase scannability (they wanted larger font sizes)
• “Library Guides” is an unclear name for our LibGuides
instance
• Create or improve descriptions

31. HOW HAS THIS IMPACTED OUR
STRATEGY?
• Working with web librarian to improve web site linking
and adjust font sizes / CSS code
• Small Library Guides team
– Course guide requests go through a form (maintain
consistency)
• Focus on creating DIRECTIVE not DESCRIPTIVE
descriptions under resources (limited word count)

32. NEXT STEPS
• 100% of undergraduate course guides created
–Outreach to faculty, gathering course outlines to make better
• Continue to use the data to make changes to our template
–Google Analytics and User Experience (UX) Testing
• Increase ourTopic Guide content
–Interlinking is what makes the guides effective
–As new topics come up, working with academic unit partners
• Getting Buy In From Staff
–Teaching to the guides increases student use