Testing the Design of a Library Information Gateway

In autumn of 1999, the library World Wide Websites at Appalachian State University and Georgia Southern University had been in place for more than a year, and many library users reported that certain aspects of the sites’ designs were confusing. In order to alleviate the confusion, librarians from the two universities decided to redesign the sites by determining the greatest sources of confusion. To do this, we studied how patrons used the web sites by way of user-centered usability testing.