PALNI Usability Testing Reports: About

Three PALNI staff members conducted usability testing on our shared ILS, WorldCat Discovery, during 2015-2016, and again in 2019. Our goals for our usability testing were:

• Assess user needs and behaviors of PALNI-wide shared tools
• Provide recommendations to service providers and local library staff based on documented user experiences
• Visit and meet with users from PALNI member schools

Our team, from left to right, was Megan West, PALNI; Eric Bradley, Goshen College/PALNI; and Ruth Szpunar, DePauw University/PALNI.

We conducted four rounds of usability testing. View each report below for details about our methods and results.

►Spring 2015

Research Questions:

• Do participants use search tabs on the library website?
• Can participants find items owned and not owned by their library?
• Can participants find a way to request a item not available at their library?
• Can participants find an article on a topic?
• Can participants figure out how to save the citation for an article?

►Fall 2015/Winter 2016

Research Questions:

• Do participants use search tabs on the library website?
• Can participants find a physical item not owned by their library?
• What do participants do when confronted with a physical item not owned by their library that is owned by other PALNI libraries?
• How often do users get error messages when they try to view the full text for an article?
• Can users find an item that is not the primary edition/format showed by Discovery?

►Spring 2016

Research Questions:

• Do users make use of search tabs on the library website?
• Can users locate information about an item in the Description section of an item record?
• Can users find items from citations in Discovery?
• Can users locate the Discovery citation tool?
• How do users go about searching for particular works in a series?

►Spring 2019

Research Questions:

• Can participants find a physical item not owned by their library?
• What do participants do when confronted with a physical item not owned by their library that is owned by other PALNI libraries?
• How often do users get error messages when they try to view the full text for an article?
• Can users find an item that is not the primary edition/format showed by Discovery?