Website Homepage Usability Study

In November 2024, sixteen students from a variety of disciplines and from first year undergrad to Masters level participated in a usability study of the library website's homepage.

Research questions

• How do students use (or not) the homepage?
• What do students use the website for?
• Where do students go to find research articles?
• Have they used the Journal Databases list or the citation guides?
• What tips would they give a new student about the library? 

Method

• Think aloud usability test

What did we learn?

• With a couple of exceptions, most of the students were unfamiliar with the library website homepage.
• Book a study room and Omni were the top uses of the website, followed by the mark calculator and building capacity. 
• When asked to go to the library website, all of the students used Google to get to get there.
• When asked to complete tasks, some left the website and used Google to find the answers.
• “Journal databases” is a confusing term for many library users.
• Students in this study didn’t think of the library website as a place to find citation guidance. 
• Some participants expressed a desire for a place that lets them see all library services at a glance. 

Recommendations

• Improve the library website by making library services more transparent to users.  
• Keep Omni, hours, building capacity, and book study space in prominent places on the homepage.
• Instatus service disruption messages were universally ignored, seen as irrelevant, and not understood. Perhaps they don’t need to take up prime real estate. 
• None of the students looked beneath the “fold.” Don’t allocate a lot of staff time to improving this area of the homepage. 
• Consider new ways of presenting “what the library does” in a snapshot.
• Consider whether Library Guides and Course Reserves should be so prominently displayed.
• Under “Using the Library” changes Spaces to Study Spaces.
• Consider changing the label “Book Appointments” to something more descriptive.