Slides from webinar presented through the Arizona State Library on November 21st, 2013. Full webinar recording available: https://azlibrary.webex.com/cmp0306ld/webcomponents/docshow/docshow.do?siteurl=azlibrary&jvm=1.7.0_40&isJavaClient=true

1. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records | Library Development | Nov. 21 st, 2013
Do-It-Yourself
Usability Testing:
An Introduction
#diyux
Rebecca Blakiston
Associate Librarian
University of Arizona
@blakistonr

2. What to expect
• Use chat for questions
• 3 sections:
1. How to plan for usability testing
2. How to conduct a usability test
3. What to do with the results of a usability test
• Will break for questions after each section

3. About Me
•
•
•
•
Access services (’05-’07)
SIRLS grad (’07)
Instruction librarian (’08)
Web product manager (’10)

4. University of Arizona Main Library

8. Users should always
be part of the process.

9. Usability Testing

10. Small budget?
No problem.

11. 1. Plan

12. Who am I and
what am I
trying to do on
your website?
Establish
primary tasks.

14. Examples of tasks:
• Find a specific book/ebook title
• Find a book based on a topic
• Find open hours
• Find out how much printing costs
• Request an interlibrary loan
• Donate money
• Donate books

15. Translate tasks into scenarios.
Task
Scenario
Find a specific You want to see if the library
ebook title
has The Hunger Games that you
can download to your Kindle.
How would you find this out?
Donate books
You have books you would like
to get rid of, and wonder if you
can give them to the library.
Find out how to do this.

16. Gather incentives.

17. Identify a facilitator and a note taker.
I will lead the
testing.
I will take
notes.

18. Pick a time.

19. Pick a place.

20. Questions?

21. 2. Test

22. Let’s do this!

23. Let them know it is
for a good cause
and it won’t take
much time.

24. Introduce the test.
• We want to improve the website.
• You can’t do anything wrong.
• Talk out loud, it will help us a lot..

25. Facilitate the test. Keep them talking.
What are you thinking?
What are you looking for?

26. Manage their emotions. Keep them happy.
This is very helpful.

27. Know when to end the test.

28. Questions?

29. 3. Analyze

30. Don’t freak out.
Don’t blame the user.

31. Debrief right afterwards.

32. What was he thinking?
Why was he not successful?
?

33. Focus on the most serious problems.

34. Focus on the problems easiest to fix.
What’s the smallest change
we can make right now
that will at least smooth
over this problem for most
people?

35. Calendar
Calendar
Event Calendar

36. Keyword Searching Tips

37. Test again.*
Test
Improve
Improve
Test
*optional,
sometimes

38. Keep an ongoing list of problems.
1. Users think the WorldCat Local search box will work like a site search.
2. Users don’t know what “WorldCat Local” means.
3. Users often go to “University Libraries” and click on the library location in this drop-down menu
expecting to find everything related to that library on that page (when it’s actually a really simple page
just listing some collection information and location information).
4. “How Do I” could mean anything and so users often go here but don’t find what they are looking for.
Same with “Services A-Z” which could essentially be a list of everything on our website, the way users
think about it.
5. Users don’t realize that the clock for “hours” is clickable.
6. Users don’t notice the “Search this site” link in the top right.
7. Users almost always fail when trying to find Video streaming – when they succeed, they find it indirectly
in Services A-Z, not where it actually lives on the document delivery page.
8. Users get frustrated making sense of all the software information which is confusing and more
complicated than it needs to be.
9. Users get confused by “Libraries and Collections” which is just duplicative content of “University
Libraries” and could be combined into one thing.
10. Users find Frequently Asked Questions hard to navigate and think it’s weird they aren’t actually
questions.

39. Create a plan for ongoing usability testing.
Build it into your workflow.

40. Questions?

41. Want to learn more?
Steve Krug
Rocket Surgery Made
Easy:
a do-it-yourself guide
to finding and fixing
usability problems

42. Want to learn more?
Library Juice Academy
Do-It-Yourself Usability Testing
April 2014
• 4 weeks
• Online, asynchronous
• Only $175
http://libraryjuiceacademy.com

43. Want to learn more?
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
Usability Testing: a Practical Guide for Librarians
by Rebecca Blakiston
[To be published in 2014]

44. Rebecca Blakiston
blakistonr@u.library.arizona.edu
@blakistonr
Final Questions
#diyux