OCLC Accessibility Analysis

Class Project, Winter 2024

This was a midterm project written for Professor of Practice Lorcan Dempsey's Special Topics course on Library Collaboration & Partnerships at the University of Washington, which was one of the most memorable courses I took in graduate school.

The objective was to research a problem in the library field, look at how collaborative organizations have been tackling it, and then take our findings and combine them in a "white paper" aimed at the member organization in question.

I looked at accessibility, specifically how embracing this value can help library organizations find new members and retain old members.

I chose to study OCLC (the Online Computer Library Center) in depth, looking at how they maximize their usability and apply their value of accessibility to ensure all libraries can use their services. I mapped their website's features to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Timeline: 2 months (January - February 2024)

Audience: OCLC members and employees.

Responsibilities:

Heuristic Evaluation
Research

Technologies Used: WorldCat, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Universal Design for Learning.

Key Findings

Visibility & User Feedback

OCLC's website is designed to encourage the visibility of user feedback, explicitly indicating that users' actions are successful rather than requiring excessive navigation.

Across OCLC's website, links and clickable buttons change color (from white to blue), and the mouse's pointer changes to the finger icon as a signal of clickable content. This notifies the user that they can learn more about their interests by following the buttons. This feedback is immediate.

An additional example of feedback is on their WorldCat digital catalog, which shows users all digital & physical materials maintained by member libraries.

Whenever users conduct a search query on WorldCat, a suggestion box pops up under the search bar, with an algorithm developing possible compelted queries for users. This, again, is immediate.

The WCAG refer to this as stemming, a practice in search & recommender systems that increase the search function's accessibility. This keeps users informed about OCLC resources and directs them to the content they need faster.

Strong usability checks off the WCAG's Success Criteria 4.5 - "Make it possible for users to locate content in a manner that best meets their needs."

Learnability

Another aspect that makes OCLC's site well-designed is its learnability - the time it takes users to master a task. This is strongly connected to the website's purpose, and therefore the user's information needs as they engage on the site.

Since OCLC's purpose is to inform users about services and resources, a learnable website needs links to them in an easily findable location to help users better understand OCLC's offerings.

The drop-down navigation bar, or "navbar," features links to additional pages for specific topics or resources, and is available whenever a user's mouse or pointer highlights any aspects of the navbar.

This increases the visibility of all of OCLC's pages, showcasing an intuitive user interface where users can easily find the content they need.

Additionally, information needs of varying users can be easily met because the language is clear and avoids any library jargon. Learnability increases accessibility, fulfilling the WCAG's Success Criteria 3.1.3 - "Avoid figurative language and domain-specific terms" that may mean different things to users unfamiliar with the content.

Conclusion

OCLC's user interface is organized in a way that enables users to find content that fits their needs immediately and requires very little time to learn.

Visibility of feedback and learnability are used efficiently, embodying what it means for a library system to have an inclusive user interface and reflecting the organization's commitment to accessibility.

Library consortia in general can solidify their dedication to equal access to information by embracing accessibility as an essential component to their mission, as OCLC says. Joining collaborative organizations helps libraries align themselves with the profession's ethical obligations.

You can view the whole paper here:

LIS 598 Exploration 2.pdf

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