Usability of the academic library Web site: Implications for design

Today's savvy library users are starting to equate the library Web site wit h the physical library. As they accomplish, virtually, many personal activi ties such as online shopping, banking, and news reading, they transfer thos e experiences to other activities in their lives. This increases their expe ctations about the functionality of a library Web site and how one interact s with it. The purpose of this study was twofold: to assess the usability o f an academic library Web site and to better understand how faculty and stu dents complete typical tasks using one. Thirty-three typical users successf ully completed 75 percent of a set of typical tasks in about two minutes pe r task and were satisfied with the clarity and organization of the site. De spite their success in completing the tasks, however, they experienced diff iculties in knowing where to start and with the site's information architec ture-in particular, with interpreting the categories and their labels. The authors concluded that library Web sites fail to take into account how peop le approach the information problem and often reflect traditional library s tructures.