Testing our Website Navigation (Part 2)

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In November 2019, the UX Team conducted in-person usability testing with students and administered a task-based survey via email to library staff to test a revised version of our navigation structure. 

Research questions

  • Are users able to complete the tasks using our navigation? 

  • Is our web content organized intuitively and logically?

Methods

  • Following Testing our Website Navigation (Part 1), we made some changes to our navigation structure. For Part 2, we retested the three tasks which were the most difficult to complete from Part 1. We removed the tasks from the usability testing script which were completed with ease, and added new tasks to test which stemmed from internal conversations

  • We created a 14 task usability test. We tested in-person with nine student participants (seven undergrad and two grad) and emailed the usability test as a survey to library staff; 13 staff members completed the survey

What did we learn?

  • Success was defined as over 60% of users could complete the task

  • 11 tasks were completed successfully. Three tasks could not be completed: (1) finding information about SPSS; (2) requesting a rare book; and (3) locating our borrowing policy.

  • After assessing the data, we believe the failure rates of tasks 1 and 2 were more related to poor question design than issues with findability

  • The three difficult tasks identified from Part 1 testing were completed with ease

Recommendations

  • Add “Borrowing” as a menu item under “Using the Library” 

  • Add links to policies at point-of-need on related web pages rather than a dedicated "Policies" menu item

  • Add Course Reserves (ARES) as an icon on the homepage; it was buried under a navigation item

  • Add a link to the Staff Directory on our Contact Us page. Users expected to find individual staff member contact info there

  • Remove the Twitter feed from the homepage. Users tended to overlook the feed, even when asked questions requiring up-to-date information. The feed also takes up prime real estate

 

The library is committed to ensuring that members of our user community with disabilities have equal access to our services and resources and that their dignity and independence is always respected. If you encounter a barrier and/or need an alternate format, please fill out our Library Print and Multimedia Alternate-Format Request Form. Contact us if you’d like to provide feedback: lib.a11y@uoguelph.ca
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