We typically design our library websites with the best of intentions, wanting our patrons to have easy access to all of our services. Frequently though, we encounter a disconnect between how we view our pages and how our patrons actually use them. With the implementation and launch for EDS approaching, the faculty of the SUNY Maritime Library decided it was an ideal time to collaborate with our users to make simple tweaks to improve our site’s usability. This presentation will explore how the SUNY Maritime Library performed a multi-dimensional study, our findings, and our resulting improvements.

1. Testing and Tweaking Your Way
to a Better Library Website:
Improved User Experience without a Massive Site
Overhaul
Rebecca Hyams
Cataloging, Metadata, and Systems Librarian
SUNY Maritime College

3. Why Evaluate?
O What web designers think users want isn’t
always what the users really want
O Best way to find out what users want is to
ask them
O Usability testing was not done prior to
launch of current site design
O Public EDS Launch this Fall
O New campus web server will support more
dynamic elements

4. How did we Evaluate?
O Background research on usability studies
in general and case studies of library
website evaluations
O Three-pronged evaluation approach
O Survey Monkey
O Google Analytics
O In-person usability testing
O Informal looks over-the-shoulder when
helping patrons

5. Isn’t that Excessive?
O Three different methods may seem
excessive
O Mostly used to inform on one another
O Gives us a fuller picture than any one
method can
O Once the Google Analytics code is in
place and the Survey was made live, they
both run themselves

6. Light background reading:
O Jakob Neilsen and Steve Krug
O Testing does not need to involve a big
production or a lot of subjects
O Case studies and The Journal of Web
Librarianship
O Most studies were done with a large site
overhaul in mind
O But what if you’re mostly happy with your
design?

7. Website Survey
O Survey Monkey link posted on the library
homepage and sent out in email
O Targeted instruction sessions
O May have lead to overrepresentation of
Freshmen students in results
O Survey consisted of 18 questions
O Some were targeted only to certain groups
O Questions were about technology habits
(frequent websites, devices, use on campus)

8. Survey Responses
O 47 responses, largely undergraduates
81%
6%
9%
2% 2%
Undergraduate
Graduate
Faculty
Staff
Administration

9. When Asked About Our
Site…
O Results were mostly neutral-positive
O No real way of knowing if the neutral
response is a true neutral or the response
of the apathetic
O The features our patrons want are ones
that will be easy to implement
O Our patrons aren’t as interested in the big
buzzwords in the library web services (text
and chat reference, social media…)

10. Q: The SUNY Maritime Library
Website is…
1 2
7 8 5
6 8
9 9 14
13 12
12 15 13 7 10
11 8 8
12 10
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Responses
Completely Agree
Somewhat Agree
Neither Agree or
Disagree
Somewhat Disagree
Completely Disagree

11. Q: Which of the following features would you
like to see added to the SUNY Maritime Library
website?
3 2 2 3
9 8 5
5 4 5 5
4 5
5
9 11 8
14
9 12
14
14 14
14
8
12 9 8
9 9 10 9
5 5 6
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Responses
I really want to see
this feature
I'd like to see this
feature
I don't care one way
or the other
I'm not really
interested
I'm not at all
interested

12. Other Interesting Findings
O The majority of respondents use tablets
and smartphones to connect to the
internet, just not our website
O 68.2% of respondents are not regular
library users (self-reported)
O No one wants to like/friend/follow us
O When they do come to our site, they’re
looking for three main things: our catalog,
our databases, and our hours

13. Google Analytics
O Tracking code on each page
O Special code on links to external
resources to track usage
O Google calls these “events”
O As an information portal, we want to see
what people are using and how they’re
getting to the information
O Data is anonymous

14. Page views
72%
3%2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
1%
16%
Total: 15052 [Library Homepage]
Porthole Student
Newspaper
Hours of Operation
Popular Databases
Databases by Subject
Meet the Staff
Databases A to Z List
Archives
[All other pages]

15. “Events”
57%
9%
9%
4%
3%
2%
2%
2%
2%
10%
Total: 9569
(64% of all views)
Catalog- Middle of
homepage
Ebsco search box
Catalog- Page header
Journal title search
Ebsco (dropdown)
Proquest (dropdown)
Campus homepage
Gale (dropdown)
JSTOR (dropdown)
All other events

16. “Events” per page
95.0%
1.1%
0.7%
0.5% 0.4%
2.2% Library homepage
Databases by Subject
Popular Databases
eBooks
Databases A to Z List
[All other pages]

17. Sessions per device type
95%
3% 2%
Desktop
(includes
laptops)
Mobile
Tablet

18. In-person Study
O Five participants
O 1 graduate student, 3 undergraduates, 1
staff member
O Number of participants recommended by
usability expert Jakob Nielsen
O Nine tasks made up of standard library
tasks
O Recorded the session using Camtasia
screen capture software and a digital
voice recorder

19. The Room
O Testing took place in
our Digital Room
O Quiet and private
space
O Questions were given to
participants one at a
time on index cards
O They were encouraged
to think out loud, but
only two participants did Oh hai digital room!

20. Task 2:
“You have a big assignment due first thing on Monday morning. It’s already
Friday afternoon. You want to find out when the library will be open this
weekend so you can maximize your time in the library to finish your work. What
are the library’s hours on Saturday and Sunday?”
P1 Used hover menus on left side of homepage
P2 Used hover menus and checked many options before clicking on Hours
P3
"First I would go to Contact Us because that's what my brain says to do", when that didn't
have what he was looking for, he decided to try the FAQ and that page just says
"Coming Soon!", Then he tried "About Us" on the hover and found the link to
Hours (About the Library is called About Us on internal pages)
P4
First tried search box at top corner of page, thinking it would search the
site (not the catalog). After ending on the catalog he returned to the homepage and
then found the link to hours on the lefthand hover
P5
Started off by looking at the way top header and way bottom footer (when
asked, he did that because many other pages have links to their hours here). "I'm looking
for an about" and then he found the About the Library link on the lefthand
nested navigation and then found hours on the menu.

21. Task 2:
“You have a big assignment due first thing on Monday morning. It’s already
Friday afternoon. You want to find out when the library will be open this
weekend so you can maximize your time in the library to finish your work. What
are the library’s hours on Saturday and Sunday?”
O Most popular option:
O Some use of expanding “onhover” menus
O Common pitfalls:
O Search box in top right of header searched only
catalog
O FAQ page was inviting but had no content
O Fixes:
O Include site search feature in standard location
(replacing catalog search)
O Creation of FAQ page content
O Featured link to library hours on secondary
pages (homepage to come)

22. Task 6:
“You’re taking MT250 this semester, where you will need to research the
construction of a specific ship. You’re not quite sure where to begin, but you
were told that there is a guide for the assignment on the library website. Find
the ship construction project guide.”
P1
He went right to them, using the link on the lefthand navigation (unnested
version)
P2
Clicked Subject Guides tab in middle of homepage, used dropdown option
but selected Marine Transportation guide, then attempted a search for the guide using the
search box, but the search was "this guide" only. She then adjusted her search to all guides
and found it.
P3
Subject guides tab in center box, clicked on dropdown and looked at the choices
quickly, then used search box and typed in MT250 and it was the only search result
P4
Went to the Subject Guides tab on homepage center box, went back and forth a
few times between the title search and the guide list dropdown before ultimately selecting the
dropdown
P5
"I think I saw something before about something a teacher could give you if they drop off an
assignment." He tried the course reserves link and searched for MT250 in the reserve
catalog pulling up the list of reserve books. "This is for books and not really assignments". He
then browsed through the lefthand homepage navigation "Maybe here under guides
and tutorials?" (Nested nav). He then was on the LibGuides homepage but was
slightly unsure if he had found the answer when he located the link to the guide.

23. Task 6:
“You’re taking MT250 this semester, where you will need to research the
construction of a specific ship. You’re not quite sure where to begin, but you
were told that there is a guide for the assignment on the library website. Find
the ship construction project guide.”
O Most popular option:
O Subject guides tab in center of homepage
O Common pitfalls:
O If a participant landed on a different guide they
had trouble getting the one they needed
O Fixes:
O Ensure all guides are listed on LibGuides
dropdown
O Improve LibGuides content to help with
navigation between guides on similar subjects

24. In-person Results
O Four out of nine tasks were successfully
completed by all five participants
O Catalog, hours, policies, course guides
O However, some tasks were completed
with much difficulty, even if the answer
was ultimately found
O The remaining five tasks were completed
by 80% of participants

25. Participant Suggestions
O Clarifying language
O Some language was off-putting or confusing
O Design tweaks
O Reordering or adding links
O Simplifying pages
O Paring down language and lists
O A search box that searches both articles and
books
O When that was suggested I told them about
EDS

26. What did we learn?
O By far our most popular feature is the catalog
search box in the middle of the homepage
O Patrons turn to the search box when they don’t
know where else to find information, even if the
search box is just for the catalog
O Overall our page design is liked by patrons,
but we can do more to improve usability
O No major design flaws

27. Tweaks in Progress
O Google Site Search!!! (google.com/cse)
O Tweaks needed so it doesn’t dredge up old content
O Ours will search our site, blog, and our LibGuides
O As a non-profit you can edit the configuration file so
there are no ads
O Some CSS trickery may be needed
O (Inspect element + !important override)
Default look + position: Modified look + position:

28. Tweaks in Progress
O Descriptions and branding images added to tab
box on homepage:

29. Tweaks in Progress
O Cut down the number of catalog choices,
removing SUNY Union and FirstSearch links in
favor of IDS Search
O With EDS (Compass) as yet another option, we
had to cut back somewhere
O Paradox of choice confused users
O Old SUNY Union Catalog doesn’t link into ILLiad
but offered false hope for requesting items
O FirstSearch interface is unappealing
O IDS Search chosen over WorldCat.org because
of consortium limiter (set as default)

30. Tweaks in Progress
O Accordion lists for otherwise lengthy walls of
text
O Allows us to put a lot of information on a single
page, but give the users the choice of viewing it
O Relatively standard web convention, familiar to
users

31. Tweaks in Progress
O Language changes
O Attempt to make language more user-friendly,
positive, and inviting
O “Operational Procedures”  “Library Policies”
O “BLOG”  “Library News”
O “Books, DVDs, and More”  “Sextant – Catalog”
O “Avoid Plagiarism”  “Citing Sources”
O Emphasize the right instead of the wrong
O “eJournals”  “Journals”
O (the header was referring to both print and electronic
resources)

32. Tweaks in Progress
O Slight reorganization of navigation
O Removal of pages with different URLs but
identical (or nearly identical) content
O Creation of logical navigation breadcrumbs
O Most breadcrumbs currently are just
Home>>Current Page
O Creation of interstitial pages for Navigation
(linked to menus and breadcrumbs)
O If it looks like a link, it should at least go somewhere
if you click it

33. Some Content Tweaks
O Construction of an FAQ and a Scholarly
Activities page (both pages were linked to but
were just blank “Coming Soon!” pages)
O Putting content of linked PDF files directly on
page where appropriate
O Putting digital archives into DSpace
O General Collections Page was dominated by
Government Docs
O Gov Docs will get own page, General Collections
page will have information on individual
collections
O Restructuring of Events and Exhibits Pages

34. Sneak Peaks
Current: Proposed:

35. Sneak Peaks
Current: Proposed:

36. Sneak Peaks
Current: Proposed:

37. Sneak Peaks
Current: Proposed:

38. Big Future Changes
O Dynamic PHP-based pages
O Header, footer, and menu includes!!
O Way more consistency with way less upkeep
O Live updating calendar with Google data
and our own style
O Live updating new acquisitions display
O Creation of short video tutorials

39. Questions/
Comments?
rhyams@sunymaritime.edu
(I share code!)