Usability Testing

Rebecca Blakiston has been a librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries since 2008, and the website product manager since 2010. She provides oversight, management, and strategic planning for the library website, specializing in guerilla usability testing, writing for the web, and content strategy. She chairs a website steering group and meets regularly with staff from across the library to facilitate communication, training, and collaboration. She developed a process for in-house usability testing, which has been implemented successfully both within website projects and in an ongoing, systematic way.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1: Why Usability Testing MattersChapter 2: Conducting Your Own Usability TestingChapter 3: Identifying Your Audience and Their TasksChapter 4: Selecting a MethodChapter 5: Planning a Usability TestChapter 6: Conducting a Usability TestChapter 7: Analyzing Your Findings and Making ImprovementsChapter 8: Ongoing Usability TestingChapter 9: Keeping Up the MomentumAppendixIndexAbout the Author

Usability Testing: A Practical Guide for Librarians is precisely what it sets out to be and exactly what library staff need in an age when strong user experience design is not only lauded but expected – a practical guide for librarians who realize aspects of their web interfaces aren’t working as well as they would like but aren’t sure what to do about it. Blakiston details the process of usability testing clearly, thoroughly and, most importantly, with librarians’ specialized needs and often limited resources in mind. A must-read for anyone committed to making library interfaces and websites more usable.