1. TUG Primo Central Usability
Study
Randy Oldham
Web Development Librarian
University of Guelph

2. Who we are…
 Tri-University Group (TUG)
 Consortium of three university libraries in
Ontario, Canada:
 University of Waterloo
 Wilfrid Laurier University
 University of Guelph
 ExLibris Products we share:
• Voyager • bX Recommender
• Primo • SFX
• Primo Central • Verde

3. About our institutions
U Waterloo U of Guelph Laurier
# of Undergrad 28,200 18,296 14,536
Students
University 1901 2340 -------
employee FTE
Library employee 118.5 95.4 61
FTE
ACQ Budget 6.9 Million 6.8 Million 3.1 Million

4. Primo Implementation Team
 Primo Implementation Team:
 7 members total from all three
institutions:
 1 systems guy
 2 programmers
 2 cataloguers
 2 web developers
 The cataloguers and the web developers
were responsible for the trial and final
implementation of PC

5. Initial Trial Launch
 Based on several other Primo
implementations
 U of Utah
 U of Auckland
 U of Iowa

6. Initial Decisions
 Primo Implementation team initially
decided on three tabs
 Web and Information Architecture cross
functional team at Guelph
 Recommended having no tabs
 Single search box for Guelph
 3 tabs for Waterloo and Laurier
 Compare user feedback with our consortial
partners

7. The Design – Waterloo / Laurier
 Waterloo and Laurier
 3 tabs: Blended, Primo only, Primo Central
only
 Tabs have quick limits that can be applied

8. The Design – U of G
 U of Guelph
 Single search box
 No tabs, no quick limits

9. The Trial Launch
 Waterloo & Laurier launched as
separate trial, parallel to existing non-
Primo Central primo view
 Guelph replaced access to it‟s Primo-
only view, essentially forcing patrons
into the PC view.
 Feedback links on the Guelph PC view
shunted patrons to a quick three-
question survey…Random PRIZE: one
of five $10 gift cards for campus food
services/textbooks/gifts

10. The Survey Responses
 88 responses
 Generally +ve
 staff vs users
 Number 1 +ve:
 Easy to use
 Number 1 –ve:
 How do I find a known item?

11. Immediate tweak
 Changed facet order
Before: After:

12. Usability Studies – UW
 @ U of Waterloo
 Purpose: to discover how uWaterloo
students, faculty and staff use PC, what
they like, and what they dislike.
 Came up with specific scenarios:
 “Please search for the journal article title
Strategic decision-making. Could you tell me if
you find the search results easy to
understand? Why, or why not?”
 “I‟d like to draw your attention to the facet
„Expand beyond library collections‟. Before I
ask you to click on it, could you tell me what it
means to you?”

13. Usability Studies - UW
 UW Participants:
 Undergraduates: 38
 Graduates: 32
 Faculty: 2
 Staff: 4
 Alumni: 1
 UW Incentive Prize: iPad 2
 Lots of feedback to help with labels and to
get direction. Lots of non-PC related
comments.

14. Usability Studies - UG
 @ U of Guelph (True usability)
 Participants completed 4 real-life tasks.
Before the tasks were assigned, users were
asked pre-test questions and after the test a
number of follow-up questions were asked.
 Use PC to find information on something
that interests you, or that you expect to be
researching in the near future.
 Take some time to look at the results of
your search. What have you found?

15. Usability Testing - UG
 UG Participants:
 3 Undergraduates
 4 Graduates
 Incentive: $10 Dollar gift card for
campus food/gifts/textbooks
 Learned a lot about GENERAL
principles of discovery vs. search and
user expectations…less about the
actual PC labels etc.

16. Usability Testing - UG
 Also did group interview with Library staff from
Learning &Curriculum Support team and
Research Help Team
 How do you use facets/with students?
 When do you use Adv search/with students?
 How effective is PC to find what you/students
need?
 What has PC been good/lousy for
 What do you wish PC could/not do?
 Has the availability of PC changed your
search habits?

17. The Final Launch Decisions:
 Primo Implementation Team (PIT)
 Review all input:
 Staff survey results
 Patron feedback
 Usability feedback
 Staff group interview feedback
 WIA feedback
 Mock-up new labels and do some final
testing…

18. Guerilla Testing

19. Guerilla Testing

20. Guerilla Usability Testing

21. Other Decisions:
 Removed “CITED ARTICLES” facet
 Removed “EXPAND BEYOND
LIBRARY COLLECTIONS” facet
 Changed search scope names to match
tab names
 Modified availability labels (for
consistency

22. Launch Date:
 FULL launch date with all new changes
is MAY 1 2012
 Wish us luck!

23. IMAGE: hellojenuine

24. References:
 List of Primo Sites
 Guelph Primo Central View
 Waterloo Primo Central View
 Laurier Primo Central View