JoCoKids Usability Studies (2009)

On April 25, the Web Content Team completed usability studies on the JoCoKids Web site with 11 children, ages 6-11. Read the report and study recommendations (PDF).

Building the New JoCoLibrary Web Site (2007)

What went into building the new JoCoLibrary Web site? Since more than 3.5 million people visit the Library's Web site annually, we didn't take the process lightly. We started the process in 2006 with focus groups of public service staff helping us to create a plan for the new Web World. After buying and installing a new content management system, we built two Web sites (JoCoBusiness and JoCoTeenScene) as pilot sites to try out the new system. In April, we began testing labels and designs for the new Web site. Months and months of patron testing, feedback collection, changes and more testing ensued. Below is a brief timeline of the usability process, documents used for the studies, and reports of patron feedback as we tested, changed, and retested the new site.

April 2007
Conduct card sorts to determine labels and main categories for the new JoCoLibrary site (View Card Sort Results - Word Doc)
Paper prototype the new JoCoLibrary Web design (View sample prototype script -Word Doc)
Revise design plans to incorporate study results

May 2007
Design draft of JoCoLibrary interface
Paper prototype "Reserch" subsite
Paper prototype "Find a Good Book" subsite
Revise design plans to incorporate study results

June 2007
Run full usability studies on new JoCoLibrary (View sample core tasks and questions - Word Doc) (View sample recording document - Word Doc)
Revise design to incorporate study results (View initial report 2004 vs 2007 usability studies)

July 2007
Build content in the new JoCoLibrary site
Soft launch of JoCoLibrary and ask for patron and staff feedback via online surveys
Run phase 2 usability studies on JoCoLibrary
Revise design to incorporate study results (View trends report based on phase 1 and 2 studies)

August 2007
Review feedback and revise interface based on feedback
Launch JoCoLibrary (August 15, 2007)

Handout outlining Usability Study Techniques (doc)

Highly recommended resources:

Krug, Steve. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition (2005)

Nielsen, Jakob. http://www.useit.com/

Nielsen Norman Group. Paper Prototyping: A How-To Training Video (on DVD) Available at: http://www.nngroup.com/reports/prototyping/

Rosenfeld, Louis and Peter Morville. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites (2006)

Synder, Carolyn. Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces (2003)

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The Library will be closed for Independence Day on Friday, July 3 and Saturday, July 4, 2009.