Approaching usability: a study of an academic health sciences library web site

Area of Science:

• Health Sciences Librarianship
• Information Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Academic health sciences libraries are crucial for supporting medical education and research.
• Website redesigns require user data to ensure effectiveness and usability.
• Previous assessments of the library website did not fully capture user navigation challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the usability of a health sciences library website.
• To identify specific user navigation difficulties and common tasks.
• To gather data for informing a future website redesign.

Main Methods:

• A two-stage approach combining a preliminary user survey and formal usability testing.
• Survey to identify common tasks and potential usability issues.
• Usability testing with scripted tasks to observe user interactions and identify pain points.

Main Results:

• User survey indicated general satisfaction but highlighted areas needing testing.
• Usability testing revealed significant difficulties in website navigation for users.
• Specific navigation challenges were identified through task performance observation.

Conclusions:

• Health sciences library websites can present navigation challenges despite general user satisfaction.
• Usability testing provides valuable data for website redesign in academic libraries.
• The employed two-stage methodology is recommended for future library usability studies.