Usability evaluation of library online catalogues

We performed a usability evaluation of four New Zealand university online library catalogues. The evaluation found severe usability problems with online catalogues—we found so many problems we were forced to use a card sorting technique to understand and classify the problems. These problems cover almost all aspects of catalogue use and existed across all the evaluated catalogues. This paper describes the evaluation and a summary of the results. Additionally, we illustrate a redesigned search screen to avoid many of the problems we identified.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: AUIC
• Authors: Hayley White, Tim Wright, Brenda Chawner
• Keywords: AUIC 2006, Evaluation, Problems, Severe Usability Problems, Software Engineering