Conversations with Web Site Users: Using Focus Groups to Open Discussion and Improve User Experience

Conrad, Suzanna; Alvarez, Nathasha

doi:10.1080/19322909.2016.1161572

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Although the library attempted to part with the name of products (i.e., Novanet Catalogue), the use of terms such as "Document Delivery" and "Citation" was still employed. Libraryspecific terms such as "Subject Specialists", "Subject Liaisons," and "Libguides" are also problematic, while broader terms like "Research" might be more appropriate to connect with users (Becker & Yannotta, 2013;Conrad & Alvarez, 2016). The findings of this study confirmed the difficulty that students have when faced with such terms as well as their reluctance to explore these functions further when unsure of their purpose.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

“Watch Your Language!”: Word Choice in Library Website Usability

Gillis

2017

Partnership

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Many academic libraries conduct extensive user studies when redesigning their websites, considering characteristics such as design features, information architecture, and link and information placement. One of the less studied aspects impacting library website usability is choice of language. This article presents the results of a usability study conducted at a small Canadian academic library that assessed the impact of word choice on user interactions with its library website. The author provides an overview of the relevant literature and explores the role that word choice, especially on a library website's home page, can play in user experience.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

“Watch Your Language!”: Word Choice in Library Website Usability

Gillis

2017

Partnership

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“…Focus groups are one of the more common qualitative methods used by academic libraries, and there is no shortage of examples of their effective use. Conrad and Alvarez (2016) provide a very informative discussion of why academic libraries should use focus groups and concentrate specifically on using focus groups to discuss library Web interfaces and platforms with students. In their discussions, they suggest that focus groups can be an effective starting point, and whilst often do not lead to any immediate significant service improvements they do in fact provide lots of relevant data for larger decisions and often validate findings and data from elsewhere (i.e.…”

Section: Engagement Through Focus Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative methods for engaging students in performance measurement

Appleton¹

2018

ILS

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Purpose In the modern “student focused” university setting, quality assurance and continual service improvement have become more and more important in the delivery of academic library services. Working in partnership with their students, academic libraries can enable meaningful engagement, through qualitative methods which allow individual students to contribute to performance measurement activities and service development. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how qualitative methods can be used to engage students in the performance measurement activities of academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach Through a review of relevant literature, discussion around the main themes and some case study examples, this paper illustrates how effective student engagement through qualitative methods can contribute to the quality assurance, performance measurement and ultimate service improvement of academic libraries. Findings The paper focuses specifically on focus group and reflective methods and also details some elements of user experience (UX) which brings together different qualitative techniques available for academic libraries. The paper concludes with a feature case study which discusses how meaningful student engagement was achieved through a large-scale UX project at the University of the Arts, London. Originality/value The paper brings together many different discussions around qualitative methods in performance measurement and is original in its discussions around such activity as student engagement initiatives.

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“…Because "students almost always resort[] to searching via Web site search boxes rather than navigating through the Web site by browsing," a crucial decision involved what search results the redesigned library website would provide. 2 As a result of these discussions, the Franklin University Library's initial website redesign included a persistent search bar in the upper left of each page which searched the library's website, as well as a prominent tabbed search bar on the library's homepage (see figure 1). The homepage search bar provided a default tab that used EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to search the library resources cataloged in EDS (most of the library's databases and catalog) and a second tab which used EBSCO's Journal Finder to look for e-journals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bento Box User Experience Study at Franklin University

Jaffy

2020

ITAL

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This article discusses the benefits of the bento-box method of searching library resources, including a comparison of the method with a tabbed search interface. It then describes a usability study conducted by the Franklin University Library in which 27 students searched for an article, an ebook, and a journal on two websites: one using a bento box and one using the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). Screen recordings of the searches were reviewed to see what actions users took while looking for information on each site, as well as how long the searches took. Students also filled out questionnaires to indicate what they thought of each type of search. Overall students found more items on the bento-box site, and indicated a slight preference for the bento-box search over EDS. The bento-box site also provided quicker results than the EDS site. As a result, the Franklin University library decided to implement bento-box searching on its website.

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Conversations with Web Site Users: Using Focus Groups to Open Discussion and Improve User Experience

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

“Watch Your Language!”: Word Choice in Library Website Usability

“Watch Your Language!”: Word Choice in Library Website Usability

Qualitative methods for engaging students in performance measurement

Bento Box User Experience Study at Franklin University

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