The More Complex the Less Success in Online Library Services: Evaluating the User Experience for International Students

Website developers are in charge of creating usable, useful and satisfactory products for their target audiences. Library websites are a crucial asset to the students, faculty, and staff at the colleges. User experience and usability testing play a significant role in the successful delivery of services and user satisfaction of libraries’ online services. The goal of this research study was to determine the issues with the one of the Midwestern college’s library website and to come up with the design recommendations to enhance services for not only for the college but also all online library service developers. This study uses a mixed method to collect quantitative and qualitative data, to make the evaluation more reliable and evaluates three dimensions of User Experience (UX) which include effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. The data were collected through multiple phases including demographics of participants, pre-defined task test, subjective satisfaction survey, and a semi-structured interview. The research results indicate that the complexity in design increases the task completion time and leads users to quit. Additionally, advanced search capability increases the success of the library’s online services. The results would be of great importance to the library web developers to create user-friendly services that provide more benefits to the students as well as the academic community.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA

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