Traditional Usability Testing ofLibrary Mobile Websites Kimberly Pendell & Michael Bowman

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Choosing Your Testing Environment

‣ Field testing or laboratory testing?

‣ What are you testing for? User interaction or hardware & software compatibility?

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Hybrid Usability Testing

‣ Recruit participants to test site with their own phones

‣ Controlled environment with recording capability

‣ Predetermined tasks

‣ Time at the end for user to explore site independently

‣ Post-test survey3

Recruiting Volunteers

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‣ Phase 1:

• Facebook post on Library account

• Announcement on Library news blog & posted to Library homepage

‣ Phase 2:

• Flyers in the Library and on campus bulletin boards

Usability study (May) & mobile website analytics (Fall)

PSU Smartphone OS Distribution, 2011

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Study Volunteers Website Usage

Android 31% 23%

iOS 52% 70%

BlackBerry 4% 0.6%

Windows Phone 4% 0.5%

webOS 4% 0%

Document Camera as Recording Device

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Testing Results

‣ Participants slow to connect the task of searching for a book with label “Search PSU-only Catalog”

‣ Multiple technical problems with chat reference

‣ Demonstrated the lack of a mobile-friendly proxy authentication webpage, error pages and linked forms

‣ Surfaced users’ difficulties with network connectivity options

‣ Slow page loading would lead some users to abandon tasks

‣ Problems unique to different devices7

iPhone vs. Windows KinWebsite Display Comparison

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Notable Post-Test Survey Results

‣ Searching for articles on mobile website

• 9 of 12 participants selected weekly or more than weekly

‣ Using a feature indicating availability of lab PCs

• 8 of 12 participants selected weekly or more than weekly

• “Everyday” and “Very important”

Learn From Our Mistakes

‣ Don’t overestimate your users’ familiarity with their smartphones

‣ Consider your campus connectivity & authentication situation

‣ Don’t make your usability tasks too simple

‣ Plan for the unexpected during the tests themselves

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Pendell, K.D., & Bowman, M.S. Usability study of a library’s mobile website: An example from Portland State University. Information Technology and Libraries, 31, 45–62. doi:10.6017/ital.v31i2.1913

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