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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Whang, Michael
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ891740
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author Whang, Michael
author_facet Whang, Michael
Whang, Michael
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Card-Sorting Usability Tests of the WMU Libraries' Web Site Whang, Michael Research Libraries Academic Libraries Library Science Methods Internet Higher Education Testing Web Sites Information Management Library Materials Catalogs Feedback (Response) Expectation This article describes the card-sorting techniques used by several academic libraries, reports and discusses the results of card-sorting usability tests of the Western Michigan University Libraries' Web site, and reveals how the WMU libraries incorporated the findings into a new Web site redesign, setting the design direction early on. The article briefly describes open and closed card-sorting techniques and quantitative and qualitative methods of analyzing data commonly used in computer and library science fields. Findings from this study allowed the library design team to vastly improve its initial redesign decisions for a new Web site tabbed navigation system. Card sorting not only helped the design team validate its redesign decisions, but it also opened the WMU libraries to outside innovation, inviting Web site visitors to redesign the Web site free from the libraries' influence. The simple and inexpensive techniques used here may be useful to any Web librarian or design team embarking upon redesign and usability testing of their own sites and interested in building a more compelling, insightful Web site. (Contains 5 figures and 31 notes.)
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ891740
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2008
record_format eric
spellingShingle Card-Sorting Usability Tests of the WMU Libraries' Web Site
Whang, Michael
Research Libraries
Academic Libraries
Library Science
Methods
Internet
Higher Education
Testing
Web Sites
Information Management
Library Materials
Catalogs
Feedback (Response)
Expectation
Card-Sorting Usability Tests of the WMU Libraries' Web Site Whang, Michael Research Libraries Academic Libraries Library Science Methods Internet Higher Education Testing Web Sites Information Management Library Materials Catalogs Feedback (Response) Expectation This article describes the card-sorting techniques used by several academic libraries, reports and discusses the results of card-sorting usability tests of the Western Michigan University Libraries' Web site, and reveals how the WMU libraries incorporated the findings into a new Web site redesign, setting the design direction early on. The article briefly describes open and closed card-sorting techniques and quantitative and qualitative methods of analyzing data commonly used in computer and library science fields. Findings from this study allowed the library design team to vastly improve its initial redesign decisions for a new Web site tabbed navigation system. Card sorting not only helped the design team validate its redesign decisions, but it also opened the WMU libraries to outside innovation, inviting Web site visitors to redesign the Web site free from the libraries' influence. The simple and inexpensive techniques used here may be useful to any Web librarian or design team embarking upon redesign and usability testing of their own sites and interested in building a more compelling, insightful Web site. (Contains 5 figures and 31 notes.)
title Card-Sorting Usability Tests of the WMU Libraries' Web Site
topic Research Libraries
Academic Libraries
Library Science
Methods
Internet
Higher Education
Testing
Web Sites
Information Management
Library Materials
Catalogs
Feedback (Response)
Expectation
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ891740