Overview

Evaluate the Barnard Digital Collections portal and analyze potential usability issues

The Barnard Digital Collections website offers students and researchers access to about 85,000 resources.

I was part of this ambitious project focused on evaluating the desktop version of the portal, address critical issues, and provide design recommendations. How can Barnard Digital Collections website provide researchers a fast and frictionless experience in finding exactly what they are looking for?

Problem

Lack of discoverability and delay in finding results

The website looked pretty good at first glance, but as we delved deeper, the user testings suggested at loopholes with regards to the discoverability of the filter panel and spending excess searching time which could be avoided with a better design.

Goals

Quickness, accuracy and ease

Solution

Color contrast and increase in efficiency based on Remote User Testing

We focused our efforts on creating a strong foundation that embraced more discoverability through the use of contrasting colors, clear format instructions and introducing efficient researching tools.

Process

Research + Test + Analyze + Recommend

We relied on the questionnaire analytics in conjunction with 8 remote user tests. This allowed us to gain deeper understanding through combining both qualitative and quantitative information and recommend valuable changes.

Client Concerns

Discoverability, use of filters and task-completion realization

• How often do users make use of the filters? Do they find the filters useful or confusing?
• Are users aware of the different categories the website has to offer?
• How long does it take the users to find what they are looking for?

Plan of Action

First Define, then Design

Our goal for the project was to make the website discoverability and usability easy and efficient to attract more users and revive the old ones.

Research Method

Remote User Testing

We reached out to the 8 participants via email to fix a meeting day and time and also sent them consent forms to sign before the interview. Since this study was being carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, we found it best to conduct the interviews remotely on Zoom.

Scenario and User Tasks

Based on our conversation with the client, we created a scenario and 4 tasks to test the different features of the website. Our tasks were designed to mimic actual website usage. We presented the users with the following scenario and tasks -

Imagine you are an independent researcher looking for information on student life at Barnard College in the 1960s and ’70s. You have come to the Barnard Digital Collections portal to source materials from their archive.

1. Find the digital exhibit on Student Publishing.
2. Martha Stewart is a notable 1964 class alumnus. Locate an article in the Barnard Alumnae magazine about her.
3. Your research involves second-wave feminists’ concerns for women in higher education. Search for proposals on this subject matter in the digital collection.
4. You are a historical researcher looking for images of Greek games held at Barnard in 1966. Try finding the photos using Barnard’s digital collection.

Insights

Aesthetically pleasing but not flawless

Below is a summary of the overall interview experience -

• 62.5% users found the website to be aesthetically pleasing, particularly the color scheme, and were impressed by the quantity of data the website offered
• The functioning of the filters was confusing for 75% of the users
• 62.5% users had a hard time finding relevant results for the first task as they were not aware of the advanced search operators
• Zooming in and out of photographs was difficult for 37.5% of the users

Recommendations

Design solutions to discovered usability issues

We decided to focus on the below usability issues that required priority.

Finding #1

Easily missed Narrow Your Search panel and End Date issue

1. 37.5% of the users completely missed the left Narrow Your Search panel (Fig. 1).
2. 75% of the users struggled with the date filter, as not entering the ‘End Date’ gave them a vague error with no feedback on how to correct that.

Recommendation #1

Color contrast + helpful date error message

1. Adding contrast to the Narrow Your Search panel would make it visually appealing and draw the user’s attention, helping them find information efficiently.
2. Providing an accurate error message would improve the usability of the filter panel (Fig. 1R).

Finding #3

Zoomed-in photographs and easily missed features

37.5% of the users had issues with how the photographs appeared zoomed-in when first clicked, failing to let them view the entire image. While some weren’t expecting a zoom feature, others did not notice it (Fig. 3).

"Just noticed the + – option on the photograph. Maybe it was there before."

– Barnard Student

Recommendation #3

Photographs UI improved

Making the zoom buttons more visible will allow users to quickly and easily find the location of the feature and its uses. It is also suggested that photographs appear in full view when opened. Users can then decide whether to zoom in to see the finer details of the image (Fig. 3R).

Client Feedback

Positive feedback

Our recommendations were well-received by the client. They were surprised that since they had been using the website for so long, that even though they had come across these usability issues, they did not see them as an issue for the users. They liked the fact that some of the recommendations were easy fixes like the date filters and photograph view and could be implemented quickly.

Learnings and Takeaways

Great learning experience

The entire evaluation process was very well planned and executed by the team. It was a great experience working with such a well-coordinated team. The best part of the process was to moderate the interviews and observe user behaviors. There is so much you can learn from users. I also realized you cannot always stick to a script while doing interviews. You need to be spontaneous.