Do-It-Yourself Usability Testing

$250.00

Dates: May 6 - June 2

Credits: 1.5 CEUs or 15 PDHs

Usability testing is a crucial component of user-centered design. It allows you to gain valuable insights into how patrons interact with library websites and applications — where are they encountering confusion, frustration, or delight? This course empowers librarians with the knowledge and skills to conduct effective, low-overhead usability testing by leveraging free tools. We’ll cover user research basics, best practices for designing and facilitating a usability study, practical logistical considerations, and how to interpret and communicate results. After taking this course, you’ll be ready to conduct a usability study with real users at your library.

Learning objectives:

  • Understanding Usability Testing: Gain a comprehensive understanding of usability testing principles, methodologies, and their significance in library settings.
  • Identifying Usability Issues: Learn to identify common usability issues that patrons may encounter when navigating library websites, databases, and other digital resources.
  • Planning and Designing Tests: Develop the skills to plan and design effective usability tests, including selecting appropriate tasks, defining success criteria, and recruiting representative participants.
  • Conducting Usability Tests: Acquire hands-on experience in conducting usability tests, including moderating sessions, collecting meaningful data, and synthesizing findings.
  • Analyzing and Interpreting Results: Learn how to analyze usability test data and translate findings into actionable recommendations for improving the user experience.

Course Information

Session

Credits

1.5 CEUs or 15 PDHs

Registration dates

We accept registrations through the first week of classes, unless enrollment is full, and unless the class was canceled before it started due to low enrollment.

Course Description

Usability testing is a crucial component of user-centered design. It allows you to gain valuable insights into how patrons interact with library websites and applications — where are they encountering confusion, frustration, or delight? This course empowers librarians with the knowledge and skills to conduct effective, low-overhead usability testing by leveraging free tools. We’ll cover user research basics, best practices for designing and facilitating a usability study, practical logistical considerations, and how to interpret and communicate results. After taking this course, you’ll be ready to conduct a usability study with real users at your library.

Learning objectives:

  • Understanding Usability Testing: Gain a comprehensive understanding of usability testing principles, methodologies, and their significance in library settings.
  • Identifying Usability Issues: Learn to identify common usability issues that patrons may encounter when navigating library websites, databases, and other digital resources.
  • Planning and Designing Tests: Develop the skills to plan and design effective usability tests, including selecting appropriate tasks, defining success criteria, and recruiting representative participants.
  • Conducting Usability Tests: Acquire hands-on experience in conducting usability tests, including moderating sessions, collecting meaningful data, and synthesizing findings.
  • Analyzing and Interpreting Results: Learn how to analyze usability test data and translate findings into actionable recommendations for improving the user experience.

Robin Camille Davis

Robin Camille Davis is the Associate Head of User Experience at NC State University Libraries, where she conducts user research, coordinates content strategy, and advocates for accessible practices. She regularly presents her work at library science, humanities, and technology conferences. She earned her MA in Computational Linguistics from the Graduate Center at CUNY in 2016 and her MLIS in 2012 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she was a Data Curation for the Humanities Fellow. In 2022, she was honored with a Movers & Shakers award from Library Journal. She is an avid fan of the New York Times crossword and lives in Raleigh with her husband and young son.

How to Register

To enroll yourself or other participants in a class, use the “Register” button that follows the description of each course. If the “Register” button does not show up, try loading the page in a different web browser. Contact us if you have technical difficulties using our shopping cart system or would like to pay for an enrollment using another method. On the payment page in the shopping cart system, there is a place to add notes, such as the names and email addresses of participants you wish to enroll. We will contact you to request this information in response to your processed payment if you do not include it in the “notes” field. Prior to the start of the workshop, we will send participants their login instructions.

Payment Info

Our shopping cart system allows you to pay with a credit card, or with PayPal.

Alternatively, if it is an institutional payment, we can arrange to invoice you. Contact us by email, and we can make arrangements to suit your institution's business processes.

Special Session

Please contact us to arrange a special session of this class for a group of seven or more, with a negotiable discount, or to be notified when it is next scheduled.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “Do-It-Yourself Usability Testing”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.