AzLA 2013 presentation by Ginger Bidwell, Rebecca Blakiston, and Rachel Hawes. November, 2013, in Fort McDowell, Arizona.

1. November 2013
Simple User Research Methods
the First Step to Improving Your Website
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Ginger Bidwell • Rebecca Blakiston • Rachel Hawes

2. Center for Creative Photography website

3. Special Collections website

4. Many other websites

5. Google Analytics: a starting point

6. Google Analytics: learn what and where
• What are my users tapping on?
• Where did they come from?
• What were users looking for?
• What content do they use the most?
• Where do they go on the site?
Free up your time with users in-person for other questions

7. Google Analytics: learn what and where
What are my users tapping on?

8. Google Analytics: learn what and where
What are my users tapping on?

9. Google Analytics: learn what and where
Where did they come from?

10. Google Analytics: learn what and where
Where did they come from?

11. Google Analytics: learn what and where
What were users looking for?

12. Google Analytics: learn what and where
What content do they use the most?

13. Google Analytics: learn what and where
Where do they go on your site?

14. Google Analytics can’t tell you:
• Who they are
• What they gained
• How they felt
• Why they left
Use in-person methods to discover some of these insights

15. User interviews help you learn why and how

16. User interviews can tell you:
• Why they use a service
• How they think about things
• Whether they would use a service
• How they describe things
Make sure you’re getting information you can act on!

17. How to do user interviews
• Formulate questions that can be answered quickly
• Find a place where your users hang out
• Offer incentives for participation
• Ask questions and record user responses
• Interpret those results
Share your results widely – tell your user’s story.

18. User interviews help you learn why and how
What is Document Delivery?
https://vimeo.com/78376929

19. Focus Groups can give you longer stories from
users and conversations that can help shape
the project

20. How to do focus groups
• Formulate questions that will generate discussion
• Find people from your target audience
• Invite them in, offer incentives for participation
• Ask questions and record user responses
• Interpret those results
You might learn something surprising!

21. Focus groups help you learn more about who,
why, and how
Users having a conversation about your site
“What materials are you usually looking for?”
“Show me what you’ve got!”

22. Use card sorting to guide your labels and
structure

23. Open
vs.
Closed
vs.
Hybrid
Entire website
vs.
section of website

24. Remote
vs.
in person

25. Recruit actual
users.

26. Pay attention to the way they describe things.

27. Why test your website?

28. Usability testing can lead to changes that
directly help your end user

29. Usability testing can tell you
• Who they are
• How they feel about your site
• What obstacles exist
• Where changes need to be made
All information gathered during
usability testing can be informative!

30. What and how to test

31. What and how to test
Intercept Usability Testing
vs.
In-depth Usability Testing

32. Intercept Testing

33. Intercept Testing: Message to your users

34. What: Tasks and Scenarios
Task: To learn about renewing a library book
Scenario: You have a library book that is due
soon. You would like to extend the due date as
it is a book you are using in one of your classes.
How many times can you renew the book?

35. How: Chart paths to see user drop points and
success rates.
User 1: Sophomore, English
• Attempt 1: My Account > Sign-In > Fail
• Attempt 2: Help > How do I? > FAQ > Borrowing
Information > Renewals > Success!

36. Capture comments to relay at decision meetings
• Could renewing be grouped under borrowing
privileges?
• I wouldn’t look under services for this because late
fees aren’t a service.” Could you call it “fines”
instead of “fees”?
• I think it should say “Want something we don’t
have?” or “Tell us what you need.”

37. Show your results
Task
Users
Success
(Users)
%
Total
Attempts
Success
(Attempts)
%
1
Find out circulation
periods
6
5/6
≈83
11
5/11
≈45
2
Find out how to get
something using ILL
5
5/5
100
5
5/5
100
3
Find information on fines,
late fees, etc.
5
4/5
80
5
4/5
80
4
To learn about renewing a
library book
5
4/5
80
8
4/8
50
5
Request an article
7
5/7
≈71
10
5/10
50
6
Suggest a purchase
3
0/3
0
10
0/10
0

38. In-depth usability testing
• Tests more in-depth functions
• Video-tape
• Duration: 30-60 minutes
• Substantial reward
• Test members from each target user group
(undergraduate, faculty, graduate, archivist)

39. In-depth usability testing: Primary User
Groups
Undergraduate
Student
Archivist
Graduate Student
Faculty Member

40. In-depth Usability Testing
https://vimeo.com/78200435

41. Intercept Testing
• Perform intercept usability test

42. Where does user research fit in?

43. Who benefits from user research?
• Designers and developers can make data-backed
decisions
• Content editors get familiar with how users think
about their content
• Project managers learn key benefits from the
user’s point of view
And, of course, your users benefit because your website improves.

44. What happens when you add user research to
your process?
• More people care about improving the website
• Your knowledge builds over time and you can
make better educated guesses
• You stay connected with users and understand
what it’s like inside their heads
• You start to consider the user’s journey through
your services
• You’ll have data to fall back on when making
decisions later in the process
• A culture of user-centered thinking develops

45. Questions?
Rebecca
• @blakistonr
• blakistonr@u.library.arizona.edu
Rachel
• rahawes@email.arizona.edu
Ginger
• @liquid06
• bidwellg@u.library.arizona.edu