Usability and the evolving library website
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Date
2006-06
Authors
Beseda, Addie Marie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The academic library website presents many complex usability issues, and
most are affected by the ever-changing nature of digjtal information. This
thesis explores these issues with the aid of usability testing on the University
of Oregon Libraries website. Undergraduates performed tasks that reflect
real library usage; the problems they encountered are summarized based on
the usability measures of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The
study found that although students were able to effectively use the UO
Libraries website to conwlete tasks, they did so inefficiently, with many
missteps before reaching completion. Similarly, although students were able
to find the information they needed on the website, they indicated that they
preferred search engines over libraries for research purposes. These results
serve as a starting point for discussion of the relationship between the library
website and the search engine, the necessity of background knowledge in
information gathering for competent website use, and a strategy for making
the Libraries website into a tool students prefer.
Description
vii, 131 p. A THESIS Presented to the Department of Computer and Information Science and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, June 2006. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: SCA Archiv Beseda 2006
Keywords
Library web sites -- Oregon -- Eugene, Web site design, University of Oregon. Libraries