Tag Archives: LIS Website

LIS Blog Update

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I met with the LIS Website team this week and proposed some minor changes to this blog the most obvious of which is an update in the theme design. The other change I’ve just introduced are some quick links in the navigation bar below the header.

I welcome feedback about the new theme. I have about half a dozen variations of this design, each with different images in the upper right corner which I’ll introduce over the next month or so as a way of refreshing the appearance of this blog. If you know of other images that you think would fit this space, send them along and I’ll add them to the rotation.

BLOGS DOT MIDDLEBURY Update

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We updated WordPress (the platform that powers this blog) late in August to version 3.0.1.  Below is a 3 1/2 minute screencast describing some of the new features introduced in this new version.

[middmedia E966CA341E9D26A5EA67ECDE36E4C402 achapin wordpress-update-version3-02.mp4 width:480 height:300]

To learn more about these new features, see: WordPress @ Middlebury > WordPress Updates.

Usability Testing the LIS Website (Part 2)

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Presenting part 2 of 2 blog posts describing usability testing methods of the LIS Website team (as promised in the Usabilla post).

The Team presented the results of our findings at a meeting with Area Directors and since the presentation itself does a good job of providing an overview of the other tools we used, here it is: Web Team Recommendations.  We will be passing the torch to a new iteration of the LIS Website team soon.  They will be charged with following up on the status of these recommendations (among other tasks). In addition, we’ll be sharing these recommendations directly with the people in charge of the specific areas of the site.

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Usability Testing the LIS Website with Usabilla (Part 1)

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This post describes the usability testing that the LIS Website Team has done with one testing method. Stay tuned for a later post that summarizes our finding from direct feedback, surveys, observational testing, and this method.

The LIS Website Team used a service called Usabilla, which allows you to quickly design usability tests for web pages based on questions asking respondents to click on the page in order to answer the question. The application is described in this video:

The information gathered with this tool is highly subjective when there are few responses. The LIS Website Team has made recommendations for action based on each of the questions, but we leave it up to the people responsible for each area of the site to decide whether to implement these recommendations based on the number of people who took the survey. We also expect that the experts in each area of the site will draw their own conclusions from the data.

Here are the number of respondents for each test:
Curricular Technology: 15
Helpdesk: 18
Library: 42
LIS Homepage: 38

To see a heatmap of clicks for each question click the link for the question. Our recommendations based on the response are included below the question.

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Help us improve the LIS Website!

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The LIS Website team has set up four quick tests to see if we’ve placed links to resources and information in the right place on the page and used the correct labels. For each test, you’ll be asked 5 questions like, “Where would you click to find out when the next Cookie Night will be?” You can click anywhere on the screenshot and can leave multiple clicks for each question. To add a comment to one of your clicks like, “I’d click here, but only because I know to find Cookie Night information on the blog…” you can click the plus (+) sign above and to the right of your placemark.

We’ve created one test for each of the four areas of the LIS Website. Each test has a different set of five questions. A test should only take 1-2 minutes to complete. Thanks for your help!

LIS Homepage

Library Homepage

Helpdesk Homepage

Curricular Technology Homepage

LIS Website – Student Survey Results & Recommendations

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I’ve compiled the results from the LIS Website Team’s survey of LIS students workers where we asked about familiarity with areas of the LIS website and knowledge of web technologies. This was a shorter survey than the staff version with 20 students responding to the 2009 version and 17 completed 2010 surveys. Before I present the results of the student survey, I want to share my recommendations based on the results of both surveys. These are just my initial thoughts. The LIS Website Team will compile its recommendations based off this data, the comments included with both surveys, and usability testing we’re conducting this month.

[Reminder: If you want to participate in usability testing, reply to the all-campus email that was sent Wednesday, April 7 with the times when you would be available.]

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LIS Website – Staff Survey Results

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Thanks to all the LIS staff who responded to the LIS Website Team’s survey! There were 63 responses to our 2009 survey, prior to the redesign of the LIS Website, and 24 responses to our more recent survey, after the launch of the new site. In this post, I will share some of the results of these surveys and compare the feedback between the two surveys. I’ll discuss the student survey in another post.

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Customize your LIS blog subscriptions

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Are you sick of automatically getting every last post and comment from this blog fed to your RSS reader or your email? Think ★ The Essentials is anything BUT essential? Don’t despair–you have options to get just the blog posts or comments you need. Continue reading →