Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes!

Tolliver et al. (2005). Website redesign and testing with a usability consultant: lessons learned. OCLC Systems & Services. 21(3). Pp. 156-166.
I must admit, I actually enjoyed the readings this week. After working so hard on the web page assignment, I have a new profound respect for the creation and upkeep of websites! The smallest detail, like a missing < or an ill placed “, can profoundly change what end users see! The two articles this week focused on web design, and how that impacts end users. In a really interesting article, though a bit over-detailed for my taste, Tolliver, Edwards, Fisher, Haines, Krolikowski and Price (2005), discuss the experience one library had with employing a usability expert during a redesigning of their academic library website. The authors focus specifically on what they learned through that process, including who the experts on end-users were, and what role an outside expert could play in the process of redevelopment.
There were a number of things that stood out to me in the reading of this article. By far one of the most important was the fact that during their study, the authors found that librarians were much more expert in understanding online content, and end user needs, over the usability consultant. Furthermore, I thought it was very interesting that the authors asserted the need for a collaborative team. This is so vitally important in a library environment, especially where technology is becoming such a prevalent part of the library! But, from my conversations with librarians, collaboration with outside resources is still not happening as consistently as it could! Those resources can provide knowledge and experience from beyond the library, that may put libraries on the cutting edge of technology use, and not far behind! The question I left with from this article is this: As librarians we need to think outside the box, what other experts could we bring into the library that would benefit our users? Might an expert in finances, or recycling, or meditation benefit our users just as much as an expert on website design?

McGillis, L. &Toms, EG. (2001). Usability of the Academic Library Web Site: Implications for Design. College and Research Libraries. Vol iss:4.
The second article this week focused even more on a lot of the topics we have discussed in class, regarding end users, and the development of technology around end users. In this article by McGillis and Toms (2001), a study was conducted to assess the usability of an academic library Web site and to better understand how faculty and students complete typical tasks by using that site. End users have incredibly high expectations for the functionality of library websites, having grown up in the age of amazon.com and google. In this article the authors concluded, after having studied 33 typical users’ interactions with the site, that library websites fail to take into account how people approach questions, and information. Libraries continue to focus on their traditional structures, which is not intuitive at all for the end user of today.
This article was actually really interesting, and not nearly as long winded as the previous article I read for this week. Not a whole lot actually stood out to me in the article however, I felt like a lot of the points discussed are well known, and have been discussed a lot during our class time! How information is categorized on library websites is not remotely intuitive for users, typically they create a directory style listing of options, but don’t provide any resources on what to do with those options. They are not educating! I agree very much with the final sentence of the paper, where the authors state that “We must take a systematic, user-centered approach to their development.” That is true, and we must consider that our users need to be educated, as well as provided with proper tools. I am in no way implying that we should change everything about the library system, I just think that we need to find a way to reeducate our users! My question from this article is: how can we train librarians to be educators, how can that become a vital part of their job description, and what kinds of education need to occur for the end user to be successful?