PALNI Usability Testing Reports: About

PALNI staff members conduct ongoing usability testing on our shared ILS, WorldCat Discovery. Our goals for our usability testing are:

• 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 research team is Eric Bradley, Goshen College/PALNI and Ruth Szpunar, PALNI.

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

►Fall 2021

Research Questions:

• Are participants able to find a physical item not owned by their library?
• Will participants find a way to request an item not available at their library?
• Can participants find items that are not the primary edition/format shown by Discovery?
• Can participants tell how many copies of an item their library owns?
• Are participants able to locate the call number for items?
• Can participants tell whether or not an item is checked out?
• How often do participants get error messages when they try to view the full text for an article?
• Did participants succeed at tasks more in the new modern interface as compared to the old interface?

►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?

►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?

►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 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?

PALNI's PALNI Usability Testing Reports LibGuide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. PALNI’s logos and branding template are not covered by this license, and all rights to such material are reserved.