Q: How can I make it easy for people to learn how to use my library website?

A: That’s a great question. Certainly it’s a great goal to want to make your website easy for students and faculty to learn to use, especially when it comes to eLearning resources available on your website. Learnability is one of the five components of usability as defined by Jakob Nielsen in his book Usability Engineering... (read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 6:3, April 2008).

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Q: Does serving Millennials affect the design and usability of products or services?

A: To remain viable, librarians and educators need to discover ... information about their new or upcoming patrons, including Millennials. Will new technologies and services provide a fit for Millennials’ user behaviors and needs, and, if so, how should they be provided? ... (read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 6:2, April 2008).

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Q: What is World Usability Day and why does it matter?

A: The Usability Professionals’ Association founded World Usability Day in 2005 to highlight the importance of ensuring that important services and products are easy to access and simple to use .... For 2007, the World Usability Day focus was health care, and so on November 8, Elsevier participated in a series of events to increase health care professionals’ awareness of the importance of usability ... (read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 6:1, January 2008).

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Q: What is World Usability Day and why does it matter?

A: The Usability Professionals’ Association founded World Usability Day in 2005 to highlight the importance of ensuring that important services and products are easy to access and simple to use .... For 2007, the World Usability Day focus was health care, and so on November 8, Elsevier participated in a series of events to increase health care professionals’ awareness of the importance of usability ... (read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 6:1, January 2008).

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Q: Will “Web 2.0” changes to my library site improve its usability and usefulness?

A: Web 2.0 refers to a convergence of technologies, some new, some old, which are changing the way we experience what we’ve come to know as the Internet. With Web 2.0, the potential variety and richness of the user experience have grown substantially. For website managers, the challenge is how to harness these technologies to provide a useful and usable experience for our users. For example ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 5:4, October 2007).

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Q: How can I make our library website more usable for international users?

A: As the population on university campuses becomes more international, the challenge of providing a usable library website becomes greater. Labels and terms, particularly scientific terms used for searches, can present difficulties as do pictograms or icons. Some researchers even report ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 5:3, August 2007).

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Q: How many users are enough when I test the usability of my library website?

A: The number of users required for usability testing is a controversial subject. To answer this question, it’s important to keep in mind your purpose for conducting the test, your target audience and tasks that are most critical for your users to accomplish. Depending on these considerations, the number of test participants you need might differ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 5:2, April 2007).

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Q: How do I ensure that my website is readable?

A: Though images and videos are becoming more and more prevalent, much of what users do on the Internet boils down to reading text. ... Recent work indicates that sans serif fonts (e.g., Verdana, Arial) tend to be more legible on computer screens. Beyond font legibility however, there are other items to be concerned with. Pay attention to ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 5:1, January 2007).

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Q: When I test the usability of my library website, who do I recruit as test participants and what do I need to keep in mind?

A: Identifying users to participate in usability testing involves a straightforward process. First you must identify your types of users. Almost every website has multiple audiences who want to use the site in different ways. Different users have different needs and expectations. Concentrate on the tasks that you have designed your site to enable. What types of users most need to accomplish the tasks? ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 4:4, October 2006).

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Q: What is the best way to organize all the features my library website offers?

A: The best and really only way to do this is by first understanding your users and the main tasks they come to your website to accomplish. Each task typically has a goal of trying to obtain a certain piece of content (e.g., a journal article or the reference desk hours). It is also beneficial to rate each task/content by ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 4:3, August 2006).

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Q: How can I assess the usability of a product our library is purchasing?

A: Many factors come into play when purchasing a sizeable software product: its features, integration with other systems, cost, support and compliance with standards — just to name a few. The usability of software you are considering plays into your purchasing decision as well. Purchasing a product with poor usability ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 4:2, April 2006).

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Q: Does our library website need navigation menus on the left and top?

A: The answer depends on your website's content and how it is presented. Nearly all websites have navigation at the top of pages, and typically this is the sites' main navigation ... My suggestion is to start by trying to design your site with top navigation alone. Then, if it is needed add secondary left-side navigation. While navigation is very important to usability of a site ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 4:1, January 2006).

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Q: What library terms do users understand? What terms should I use when naming links on my library website?

A: Using terminology familiar to users is very important for website usability — especially when it comes to labeling links or buttons. Multiple usability studies have shown users do not understand simple library terms and concepts like catalog, resources, online databases, citation, reserves, reference or special collections. To overcome this challenge here are some suggestions ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 3:4, October 2005).

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Q: How can I convince my co-workers that our library Web pages aren't very usable?

A: Opinions just don't seem to cut it when discussing usability and design; you've got to provide colleagues with data that's tough to brush aside. To get that data you’re going to need to run your own usability test or have someone else run it for you. If your test data shows, for example, 7 out of 10 users could not locate ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 3:3, August 2005).

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Q: Should my library staff have some usability expertise?

A: Yes, definitely. Since the majority of library users visit the library online to find the information they need, it is critical to have usable online services. Considering the usage patterns of the library today, I believe many libraries have underinvested in the design of their online services and instead continue to ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 3:2, June 2005).

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Q: What metrics would you recommend when assessing the success of a website?

A: Analyzing your site's Web server logs can give you valuable information about how often certain pages are being used and the common paths that users are taking through your site. These statistics, although valuable, can't tell you why a certain page is getting a lot or little use. Perhaps a particular Web page is getting a lot of hits because ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 3:1, April 2005).

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Q: What’s the best way to provide help and training information on my library website?

A: Most people will admit they "don't read the instructions," and therefore help pages are typically not a frequently used feature of any website. However, concise and clearly written help is highly valued by users when ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 2:4, December 2004).

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Q: Should I underline the links in the design of my website?

A: Users of your website need to be able to clearly distinguish links from non-links. Text links should therefore be shown in a different color from standard text on the page. I’d also recommended underlining as this can save time in identifying links, especially for low-vision or colorblind users. When designing your website you should ensure that ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 2:3, October 2004).

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Q: How can I improve the usability of my Web site?

A: There are so many facets to usability that it is important to have a framework for assessing usability of a Web site. This aids prioritization of improvements and gives an indication of where to start. We use a technique called heuristic evaluation to identify positive and negative factors influencing usability of a Web site. We look at ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 2:2, June 2004).

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Q: How can I improve the accessibility of my website?

A: Accessibility in this context refers to the universal ability of the user population to navigate and access features and content of a website. Users may have a visual impairment or a motor difficulty that requires them to access the Web via special software such as screen magnifiers, screen readers and Braille displays. Sometimes users may need to access ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 2:1, April 2004).

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Q: Given that some library administrators are telling employees to take e-mail addresses off Web pages to avoid spam, what would you advise with regard to the provision of staff and faculty contact information, including e-mail addresses, on library Web pages?

A: Obviously, providing contact information is extremely important. Users need to know who to contact if they have a question or problem. An alternative to providing “mailto” links is to provide a form that users can complete. When the form is submitted an e-mail is sent to the appropriate party behind the scenes by using a script. Keep the form very simple by... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 1:4, December 2003).

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Q: Does data exist about users' reactions to pop-up screens? Academic libraries have to present more and more information on their Web pages. At the same time they are seeking to simplify this online environment to assist researchers and increase effective use of digital resources. Can pop-ups play a role here?

A: In general I would not recommend popping open new browser windows as a way to simplify the user interface. New browser pop-ups can hurt usability because ... (  read more in Library Connect Newsletter, 1:3, September 2003).

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Q: During ACRL in 2003, Carol R. Hunter with the University of Virginia Library called for vendors to better inform librarians about efforts to improve the usability of products.

A:   Read the UCD team's response in Library Connect Newsletter, 1:2, June 2003.