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Usability Tests
Guidelines for Developing Tests
- Should the site owner help write the questions? The questions should be written more objectively than the site owner often would. The site owner should fill out the Site Owner questionnaire instead. The site owner's answers about the mission, audience, and functions of the site should help the test author create the questions.
- How many questions should there be? 10-15, or no more than can be tested in 1 hour. Smaller sites sometimes have fewer questions.
- Which groups should we test? The goal is to test groups of 5 representing undergraduates, graduates, faculty, Library staff, and the public, if appropriate.There may be as few as 3 categories of groups, as small as 3 students of mixed type, 3 teaching faculty, and 3 Library staff.
- Are different questions used for different test groups? They can be, especially in a case like this where a site features such as LEO is not available to students.
- How should the questions be framed? The questions should require the tester to answer a question or perform a task without cluing them in that something definitely is part of the site. The questions should avoid the exact language that is used on the site to label the feature or function. The questions should be written as "Is there?" or "Can you?" questions, not "Where is x in the site?". See below for examples of past tests.
- How are tests administered? Once questions have been developed, create a Test Log using the Test Log template, and review the Testing Procedures page for guidelines in facilitating usability tests.
Full Usability Tests
2005-2006
Interlibrary Services: Faculty & Staff | Students
2004-2005
Digital Image Collections - Repository
Etext Center (follow-up test post-redesign)
Article Finder (OpenURL Resolver)
2003-2004
ARTstor (UVa faculty testing of the pre-release version by agreement with ARTstor)
2002-2003
2001-2002
Heuristic Tests
2004-2005
Historical Census Browser
2003-2004
Central Digital Repository Prototype, Periodicals and Microforms
2002-2003
Balanced Scorecard Report Web Site, Clemons Library, Etext Center, Geostat Center, MIS, Robertson Media Center, Science and Engineering Libraries, Virgo
2001-2002
Music Library Web Site, UVa Library Web Site
