UCI Library Website

Chris LeeArchana Vaidyanathan

Duncan TsaiKaren Quan

Usability Problem

• People are not able to find the “Search our Site” link at the bottom of the UCI Library home page that directs them to a separate search box on a new page to search throughout the website 

• Link is too small, inconspicuous • Why located on separate page at all?

hard to notice!

Demographics

• 13 participants• Mostly undergraduates, few

graduates• Academic major quite varied• most participants leaned toward

"moderate" general computer expertise

• very few used the library website usage frequently

User Demographics

Methodology

Our Plan

• Keep the Next Generation Melvyl search box prominent on the site

• Place the search box for the website somewhere obvious to the user

• Make a clear distinction between the two separate boxes

Pilot Results

• Reduced number of prototypes from six to three

• Reduced number of user tasks from six to three

• Small alterations to the questionnare

 

 Questionnaire• Are you a ..

o Graduate studento Undergraduate studento Faculty/staffo Other.......

• What is your academic major/focus? • On a scale of 1(very difficult) to 5(very easy) rate how you feel you performed for

each tasko Task 1o Task 2o Task 3.......

• Elaborate on any difficulties you had while performing the tasks• How often do you use the UCI Libraries Website?

o At least once per weeko A few times per montho Once or twice a quartero Once or twice a yearo Never

• Did you notice the search box for the website?  YES     NO• Difficulties?• Comments/suggestions?

Final Testing• Starbucks card was very helpful• Assigned 3 prototypes to each subject in

counterbalanced order and have them do the tasks

• Record user actions/comments, take notes

• Let users pick one prototype they prefer in the end.

Phases

Design Prototypes

Pilot Tests

Finalize Prototypes

User tests- Reevaluation

Final Report

Results

• Encoded data in Excel• Analyzed videos, surveys & scribes• Generated visualizations & screenshots• Results guided redesign of final

prototype 

Data Analyses

TASK PERFORMANCE (1-Easy, 5-Hard)

USER BEHAVIOR

Conclusion

Recommendations

• Majority of the users chose this as their favorite• Useful descriptions next to each option

  

KEEP the radio buttons

Recommendations cont.KEEP the left module website search

• Visible on every page• Most users instinctively think to search for items

in a search box, not click on a link  

Recommendations cont.

DON'T USE the drop-down menu

• No descriptions about each drop down item  

Recommendations cont.DON'T USE the Next Generation-Melvyl Pilot search box

• No one knows what Melvyl is and it confuses them• There will be too many search boxes on the home

page with the implementation of our other prototypes 

FINAL PROTOTYPE!

Radio button + Left search  - Melvyl search

Thank You!