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October 25, 2005
Internet Librarian :: Day 1 :: Users Driving Web Site Changes
Monday, October 24, 2005, 11:15am
Users Driving Web Site Changes, Karen Coombs and Steve McCann
Following User Tracks, Karen Coombs, University of Houston Libraries
Data that we may already be collecting about our users can be used to tell us a lot about their browsing behaviour. Combs broke it down into the following 6 sources:
1. Web Server log files: currently using AWStats to monitor entry and exit server hits.
2. Proxy server log files: set up to record the users IP address, what URL they were accessing, where they came from, and some other pieces of valuable info. Wrote an application to analyze EZproxy log files at SUNY Cortland to see where the user was coming from both on and off campus.
3. OPAC search log files: depending on the vendor, you can see searches and determine if students are confusing the catalog with an ejournal search, for example.
4. Data from ILL systems: see where ILL requests are coming from (particular databases, etc).
5. OpenURL data: resolvers like SFX include various reporting mechanisms.
6. Session path tracing: wrote a script that creates xml files to trace a users path through the library site. Much more specific than the entry page data from server log file analysis.
Towards a Culture of Usability with User Personas, Steve McCann
Why Personas?
- a precise descriptive model of the user, searching behaviours and motives
- purported solution to problem of the 'elastic user'
- useful for future design discussions
To build the personas, they developed an online survey and did 6 in-person interviews. From that they created 4 user personas. Asked some basic questions (age, language, etc) and found out that wasn't as useful as thought it would be. This information came into play, but much later on in the process. Asked interviewees how they researched. 'Find Periodicals' tended to be difficult for people. A lot of people didn't have experience coming up with a topic. Asked how they felt about the research experience and whther or not they were confident about their results. About 60% were excited about the resources they came up with from their research. Asked if they were worried about the scope of the articles they found.
Used Gregorc Style Delineator for creating the personas, and subsequently developed 4 personas using this tool. Librarians were excited by the results. Difficult decisions became necessary in trying to determine which of these people to design for.
Posted on October 25, 2005 12:31 AM to conferences