What a User Wants: Redesigning a Library's Web Site Based on a Card-Sort Analysis

Abstract

Web site usability concerns anyone with a web site to maintain. Libraries, however, are often the biggest offenders in terms of usability. In our efforts to provide users with everything they need to do research, we often overwhelm them with sites that are confusing in structure, difficult to navigate, and weighed down with jargon. Dowling College Library recently completed a redesign of its web site based upon the concept of usability. For smaller libraries in particular, this can be a challenge. The web site is often maintained by one or two people and finding the time and resources to conduct a usability study is difficult in that situation. Additional demands of a site redesign, from restructuring page layouts to adding visual appeal, only add to the burden. However, our team of four librarians was able to do it. We focused on vocabulary and organizational structure using a card-sort analysis. This analysis taught us how our users approach the information on our site. Task-based testing confirmed what the card-sort analysis had taught us and smoothed out design problems. Incorporating user feedback at nearly every stage of the process allowed us to create a site that more closely mirrors how our users look for information on our site. This study details how using testing and analyzing results throughout the redesign process created a better, more user-friendly web site.

Informing Website Navigation Design with Team-Based Card Sorting

“…For example, MIT Libraries used a post-sorting category test, in which users list items they would expect to find under a given category, and a reverse category, in which users are asked to select a category label in response to a task-based scenario (Hennig, 2001). Later studies have adopted a similar multi-step approach for validating categories developed through card sorting (Duncan & Holliday, 2008;Hepburn & Lewis, 2008;Whang, 2008), while others have incorporated card sorting as one part of a broader user research and redesign process (Hepburn & Lewis, 2008;Robbins, Esposito, Kretz & Aloi, 2007;Turnbow, Kasianovitz, Snyder, Gilbert, & Yamamoto. 2005;Ward, 2006).…”

“…Re-evaluating important link and user interface labels with an eye toward developing standardized vocabulary would be critical for the long-term sustainability of a new navigation system. Although terminology is a common focus of card sorting studies (Brucker, 2010;Hepburn & Lewis, 2008;Robbins, Esposito, Kretz & Aloi, 2007;), the lack of real-life context makes card sorting an imperfect tool for refining website labels (Rosenfeld & Morville, 2002, 103). Instead, separate label testing and usability tests are ideal for refining important link and user interface labels.…”

Applying best practices in web site redesign: the Queens College Libraries experience

“…The scholarly literature also covers redesign projects at large academic libraries, such as Fuller and Hinegardner (2001) at University of Maryland at Baltimore, Ward (2006) at University of Washington, Bordac and Rainwater (2008) at Brown University, and McHale (2008) at University of Colorado Denver. All the redesigns were based upon extensive usability studies, as were two from mid-sized college libraries like those by Robbins et al (2007) at Dowling College and Oldham (2008) at the University of Scranton. In addition, two articles documented projects at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV's).…”

The development and evaluation of a web-based well-being intervention, for inclusion within an existing health promotion programme, to support and encourage health related lifestyle behaviour change

“…The task has been widely used across a range of settings. For example, (Robbins et al, 2007) applied the card sort to the redesign of a library's website.…”