Usability Testing for University of Ottawa Library Website

By Areej Ali A Asiri

Introduction

The academic library website of the University of Ottawa is a significant website for students and researchers. It provides a lot of electronic services that help researchers during their research. The University of Ottawa has a special website for its library (https://biblio.uottawa.ca). The library website offers two languages: English and French. The library website provides access to different electronic services and resources such as databases, articles, e-journals, and e-books.

I conducted usability testing with the university students to evaluate the library website. The total number of participants was five (two PhD students, one master student, two undergraduate students). In this blog post, I list the usability issues of the library website I detected organized by tasks.

A.  Find librarian

Problem number 1:

The participants were asked to find the librarian of their study field. All participants did this task correctly in a short time except one user who took longer than others to finish the task. As seen in Figure 1, the librarian can be found under Research help drop-down list. The reasons why the user took a time to finish the task is that the feature is hidden under Research help drop-down list. Also, the main screen labels are confusing. The participant started looking for the librarian under Use the library drop-down menu and then Find drop-down menu. The main labels on the home page do not help the participant to quickly find the librarian. 

Figure 1 Finding the librarian of the participants’ study filed

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Poor labeling	Minor usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 80% 20% 0%

Recommendation for problem number 1:

I recommend that the main task that is used by most university students such as finding librarian to be in button called My Librarian on the home page instead of hiding it under the research help.

B.  Search for E-book

Problem number 2:

The participants were asked to search for the book “The data warehouse toolkit lifecycle” second edition. Most of the participants completed this task easily in short time except the undergraduate participants. They spent time to finish this task since one did not use search+ to search for the e-book and the other was not using the homepage while doing this task. As seen in Figure 2, the Search+ is on the homepage of the library website. The participants who were at the home page found the Search+ and searched for the e-book easily. However, other participants who were not on the home page were struggling to complete the task because the Search+ exist only on the home page. One of the participants used the search engine at the top of the page but could not find the e-book because the user can only search for it using Search+.

Figure 2 Search+ in the home page

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Lack of knowledge to do the task	Minor usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 40% 60% 0%

Recommendation for problem number 2:

I recommend that designing a little Search+ box at the top of every page so the users do not have to go to the homepage every time they want to find e-book.

C.  Search for article and download it

Problem number 3:

The participants were asked to search for “A comparative study of data mining techniques in predicting consumers’ credit card risk in banks” article. Some of the participants did the task in short time while others took a long time to finish. The reason for the delay is that the participants not able to find download button to download the article. There is no clear download button in the page as seen in Figure 3. The participants should go to the second link full text available via ProQuest ABI/INFORM Collection to download the article. The first link full text available via Free E-Journals did not provide choice to download the article.

Figure 3 Search for article and download it

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Complex user interface design	Major usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 40% 60% 0%

Recommendation for problem number 3:

The best solution is that creating a download button in the visible place on the user interface so the users can easily find it as seen in Figure 3.

D.  Search for all theses related to data mining

Problem number 4:

The participants were asked to use search+ to find all theses/dissertation related to data mining. The inexpert participants in the research had a little difficulty finding all theses related to data mining through Search+. The participants did not pay attention to the refine by column on the left side of the user interface as seen in Figure 4. From this column, the users have the right to refine their research filter the results. The problem is that the inexpert participants did not know how they can refine their search and get all theses related to data mining.

Figure 4 Search for all thesis related to data mining

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Lack of knowledge to do the task	Minor usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 20% 60% 20%

Recommendation for problem number 4:

I recommend that allowing the user to refine their search before getting the results of their research. What I mean by this is that allow the users to specify the subject and the format from the main search box.

E.  Locate computer equipped with SPSS software Task

Problem number 5:

The participants were asked to locate computer equipped with SPSS software (Statistical analysis software). This task can be done in two ways either by clicking on the computer and technology under use the library drop-down list or by clicking on the computer and technology in Services box as seen in Figure 5. 

Figure 5 Locate computer equipped with SPSS software

The problem is that it is not clear to the users how to locate a computer equipped with SPSS. Two of the users used the search engine at the top of the library homepage. The result of the search was not relevant as they got articles about SPSS. Also, other users clicked on use computer and technology on the home page but they were not able to locate the computer. This is because the page is too clutter with information which makes it difficult to the users to find what they wanted as seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6 User interface is too clutter

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Failure to highlight important distinction	Major usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 0% 80% 20%

Recommendation for problem number 5:

I have two recommendations. First, the visual design of the page needs improving. This can be done by reducing the amount of information in the user interface page because users usually do not have time to read every single line. Second, I recommend changing text size and make heading such as the name of the software more visible in the page.

F.  Looking for workshop Task

Problem number 6:

In this task, the participants were asked to look for conducting an effective literature search workshop for graduate students. Most of the users completed this task but after many tries. Thus, this task was not an easy one. The problem is that the name of the labels on the home page are not clear to the participants. Therefore, they tried several times by clicking different buttons to find the workshop. Some users thought that the workshop should be under My service button and other thought it is under Find button as seen in Figure 7. However, the workshop can be found under Research help button. 

Figure 7 Look for workshop task

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Poor labeling	Major usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 0% 80% 20%

Recommendation for problem number 6:

I recommend that changing the name of the labels on the home page. It is a great idea to conduct a usability study with the university students and ask them to suggest names to these labels. This will help to improve the library home page and save students time.

G.  Finding Mendeley presentation task

Problem number 7:

The participants were asked to find Mendeley which is a citation management tool, and download the power point presentation that is used during library’s workshops as seen in Figure 8. Even though participants found the citation management software page from the home page, they were not able to find the power point presentation.

Figure 8 Mendeley Presentation

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Failure to highlight important distinction	Major usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 0% 80% 20%

Recommendation for problem number 7:

I recommend that making page design simple by adding what the users need and removing the extra information that makes user confusing. This helps users to find what they want.

H.  Finding list of databases

Problem number 8:

The participants were asked to find the list of databases that are related to their study field. The participants had difficulty listing the databases which are related to their study field. Most of the participants did not notice the Key databases by the subject at the right side of the interface as seen in Figure 9.

Figure 9 Find list of database related to the participants’ study field

Reason	Severity	Task Completion Percentage
Confusing screen design & Lack of knowledge to do the task.	Major usability issue	Successfully Completed Barely Completed Not Completed 40% 0% 60%

Recommendation for problem number 8:

I recommend changing the position of Key databases by subject column from the right side of the page to the top of the page under Find a database by title search box because I noticed most of the participants were trying to do this task by using the search box. By changing the position, the students will know that they will be able to search for the databases by the title or by the subject.

Table 1 The reason and severity for usability problems

Problem Number	Reason	Severity
1	Poor labeling	Minor usability issue
2	Lack of knowledge to do the task	Minor usability issue
3	Complex user interface design	Major usability issue
4	Lack of knowledge to do the task	Minor usability issue
5	Failure to highlight important distinction	Major usability issue
6	Poor labeling	Major usability issue
7	Failure to highlight important distinction	Major usability issue
8	Confusing screen design & Lack of knowledge to do the task.	Major usability issue

Conclusion

Even though the university of Ottawa library website does not have critical problems, it was not easy to use due to poor labeling, hidden features, and confusing user interface design. These kinds of defects make users struggle to perform the tasks. I strongly recommend that the developers start fixing major usability problems then focus on minor usability issues to increase the website usability.