Douglas County Libraries Website
Artifact type: Usability Report
Role: This was a group project in which I completed 50% of the project. I completed usability testing with 3 people, as well as developing a post-survey used for qualitative feedback about the process and the site.
Artifact Description: The following project is a completed usability test of the Douglas County Library website in which we reviewed the 5 most commonly used website features including, registering for a library card, searching for and placing a hold on a book, canceling a hold on a book, reserving a study space, and canceling a reservation for study space. The usability test would be utilized for a formal presentation to the board of directors at Douglas County Libraries for updates to the site to make these defective actions more user friendly.
Competency : Leadership & Social Responsibility
Reflection: After completing the entirety of the course and learning about the usability process, the proper methods of testing and evaluation, this project was very effective in putting our skills to the test. It was important to fully understand the importance of why the five mentioned tasks were not working as well as they should have as these were often features that were criticized by patrons. Working with an employee of the library, we tested each of these tasks, as well as our knowledge of usability heuristics to find areas of concern and solutions to improve them.
Strengths: The usability testing proved to be very useful in assessing the needs of the patrons and the proper functions of the site. It further provided insight into the struggles of the patrons and the usability heuristics such as notifications that interfered with proper use of the system.
Weaknesses: Due to the brevity of the timeframe to complete the process, we were only able to evaluate 5 key areas of concern rather than the whole site.