UCI Library Website Chris Lee Archana Vaidyanathan Duncan Tsai Karen Quan

Usability Problem People are not able to find the “Search our Site” link at the bottom of the UCI Library home page that directs them to a separate search box on a new page to search throughout the website Link is too small, inconspicuous Why located on separate page at all?

hard to notice!

Demograp hics

13 participants Mostly undergraduates, few graduates Academic major quite varied most participants leaned toward "moderate" general computer expertise very few used the library website usage frequently User Demographics

Methodolo gy

Our Plan Keep the Next Generation Melvyl search box prominent on the site Place the search box for the website somewhere obvious to the user Make a clear distinction between the two separate boxes

Pilot Results Reduced number of prototypes from six to three Reduced number of user tasks from six to three Small alterations to the questionnare

Questionnaire Are you a.. o Graduate student o Undergraduate student o Faculty/staff o Other What is your academic major/focus? On a scale of 1(very difficult) to 5(very easy) rate how you feel you performed for each task o Task 1 o Task 2 o Task Elaborate on any difficulties you had while performing the tasks How often do you use the UCI Libraries Website? o At least once per week o A few times per month o Once or twice a quarter o Once or twice a year o Never Did you notice the search box for the website? YES NO Difficulties? Comments/suggestions?

Final Testing Starbucks card was very helpful Assigned 3 prototypes to each subject in counterbalanced order and have them do the tasks Record user actions/comments, take notes Let users pick one prototype they prefer in the end.

Phases Design Prototypes Pilot Tests Finalize Prototypes User tests- Reevaluation Final Report

Results

Encoded data in Excel Analyzed videos, surveys & scribes Generated visualizations & screenshots Results guided redesign of final prototype Data Analyses

TASK PERFORMANCE (1-Easy, 5-Hard)

USER BEHAVIOR

Conclusion

Recommendations Majority of the users chose this as their favorite Useful descriptions next to each option KEEP the radio buttons

Recommendations cont. KEEP the left module website search Visible on every page Most users instinctively think to search for items in a search box, not click on a link

Recommendations cont. DON'T USE the drop-down menu No descriptions about each drop down item

Recommendations cont. DON'T USE the Next Generation-Melvyl Pilot search box No one knows what Melvyl is and it confuses them There will be too many search boxes on the home page with the implementation of our other prototypes

FINAL PROTOTYPE! Radio button + Left search - Melvyl search

Thank You!