B203 - Usability Testing: On Board & on a Shoestring
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Steinbeck Forum (Conference Center)
Sara O'Donnell,
User Experience Reference Librarian and Webmaster,
University of Northern Colorado Libraries
Usability testing is one of the most effective ways for libraries to connect with their user base while assessing and improving their online presence. At its best, usability testing is a highly collaborative process. The feedback, support, and time your colleagues contribute is key to even one round of successful testing, to say nothing of ongoing iterative testing. But how do you secure stake- holder buy-in and demonstrate that usability testing is a valuable undertaking? O’Donnell explores this question and offers practical guidance and strategies for implementing usability testing. The second presentation discusses how Webster University Library’s web committee decided to conduct usability testing on their current website design to plan for a possible future redesign. After reviewing various testing models, they felt that observational task analysis would be the most cost-effective yet efficient model for a first round of testing. Hear how they utilized Adobe Connect to record and capture participants’ actions, the pros and cons to using Adobe Connect for usability testing, and preliminary results of their findings. Future plans and lessons learned from usability testing are discussed by both speakers.
