New Tools for Metrics & Measures

Debbie Herman & Edward IglesiasCentral CT State University

Assessing Usability on a Budget

Definition of Usability

• Usability means that the people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks. This definition rests on four points: (1) Usability means focusing on users; (2) people use products to be productive; (3) users are busy people trying to accomplish tasks; and (4) users decide when a product is easy to use. - Janice (Ginny) Redish and Joseph Dumas, A Practical Guide to Usability Testing, 1999, p. 4

Not to be confused with

• UX = the sum of a series of interactions– User experience (UX) represents the perception

left in someone’s mind following a series of interactions between people, devices, and events or any combination thereof. “Series” is the operative word.

Technologies Available

• Eye Tracking• Mouse Tracking• Heat Maps

What to use When

Eye Tracking

One Cheap Solution

Alternatives

Heat Map

Click Tracking

Usability Testing Software

• Silverback (Mac) - $50.00• Webinaria (Windows) – free• Morae (TechSmith/Windows) - $1,120.00

education• Camstudio (Windows) – Open Source

Testing Metalib with Silverback

Session Capture

Demonstration

What we changed…

• Submitted enhancement request for back button issue

• Changed “Results” to “Results List”• Enlarged text navigation typeface• Changed “My Research” to “My Folder”

Google Analytics

GA Visitor Segmentation

GA Observations

• Observation: “Find articles” pages are heavily trafficked, while the “Find” index page gets very little.

• Recommendation: Remove Find page link from homepage.

GA Observations

• Observation: Subject guides and tutorials get little use.

• Recommendation: More “point of need” placement. Perhaps not worth the effort to maintain?

GA Observations

• Observation: Second tier index pages aren’t used (Find, About, Help)

• Recommendation: Bring most popular destinations (catalog, databases, calendar, special collections) to the front.

Most of our users…

• Have high-speed internet connections• Use Windows w/ IE (89% on-campus and 80%

off-campus) • Have a screen resolution of 1024 x 768

(roughly 45%).

Redesign Prototype

Presentation Links

http://delicious.com/debbie.herman/cil2009