Putting Assessment into Practice - Library Websites Steve Burks, LIS Web Developer Saint Michael’s College Library PowerPoint Slides available library/VLC_ppt.htm

Coverage LIS website recent history What is a student centered website Assessing effectiveness of website Outcomes of assessment process Summary Sources

LIS Website Recent History Well designed – college’s web developer worked under the library at the time 2000 – college website changed to a homogenous dynamically driven website - Market Driven

LIS Website Recent History ----dynamically driven websites C 2 (Competitive Computing) Positives -- Unified platform -- Integrated capabilities – navigation, look, etc. Negatives -- Not effective for the research process -- Not easy to navigate about -- Too much on required templates – unrelated to task

LIS Website Recent History First year (2001) – launch from college website to the “old” library site --Cognitive dissonance Second year (2002)– designed a template for library sub-pages that fit into the college’s web design --Access to resources through the library’s organizational structure --Not task-driven

What is a Student Centered Website? Library Web Steering Committee convened in Winter 2002 to…. --Assess effectiveness and quality of the existing web page --Establish guidelines regarding standard design --The perspective should be, in general, student-centered followed by faculty as users.

What is a Student Centered Website? Based on the college’s mission and vision statement The College’s vision will be attained by the following institutional strategy: “Centrality of Student Learning: The Saint Michael’s experience is grounded in the philosophy of a residential community engaging the whole student, intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This guiding principle will drive all College plans, initiatives and activities”

Assessing Effectiveness of Website Scan --Review aspirant library websites --Look for best practices --Review web style guidelines --Review usability methods - acts in concert with needs assessment

Usability Studies - definition The extent to which [a website] can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use” - International Standards Organization 1998

Usability Studies Major Features Introduced early in the design process -- User centered -- Task driven Measuring product usage through testing Iterative design – ongoing testing / review

Methods Measuring Usability Usability testing* Card sort Category membership expectation Focus Groups* Questionnaire/Survey* Statistical analysis (system logs)* Cognitive walkthrough* Heuristic evaluation * - methods we used

Best Usability Methods for SMC Combined focus group / usability / survey --Efficient --Easy to implement --Effective --Empirical --Ongoing/ Iterative Cognitive walkthrough -- Uses expertise of a diverse staff and student workers --Ongoing/ Iterative Statistics / Systems logs --CAVEAT… this is relational data and not absolutes

Assessment/Outcomes Assessment -Make more exciting…. -A lot of content but takes time to get to it…. -Have more online help and guides……… Outcomes -Use icons and graphics -Make site organization task driven -Revamp subject guides and include TILT tutorial software

Assessment/Outcomes

Assessment and Web Development -Summary Importance of usability testing in initial design process and as an iterative activity Communication device… that clarifies goals and guides development of the website for stakeholders - staff, librarians, and director

Sources