NC State Library:

Reserve a Room

Introduction/Background

For my usability test, I decided to test the Reserve a Room feature on the NC State Library website. While I could not find any research about why the Reserve a Room feature is popular, I know that a lot of NC State students utilize this feature throughout the school year mainly to reserve study rooms for group projects and schoolwork sessions. The main reason I decided to test this feature is because I have personally heard so many students complain about the NCSU Library website, specifically the Reserve a Room feature. Many students have complained about having difficulty navigating to the Reserve a Room feature directly from the NCSU Library website, leading them to just google search NCSU Reserve a Room. Other complaints students have discussed with me were about their difficulties with determining what colors mean available and reserved, leading them to get frustrated while trying to reserve a study room. Lastly, as a student worker at Hunt library, I have a lot of students come up to me and ask where their specific study room is in the library, oftentimes leading to me having to tell them they accidentally reserved a room for the wrong library. With many students facing these frustrations while using the Reserve a Room feature on the NCSU Library website, I wanted to understand what makes these specific features difficult for users.

Test Description

When searching for participants, I did a pre-screening interview where I asked them two questions:

) Are you a NC State Student?
) Have you ever used the Reserve a Room feature on the NCSU Library Website?

For my usability test, I was looking for two participants that were both NC State students and had never utilized the Reserve a Room feature. After finding my two participants for the test, I scheduled times with each of them to complete the usability test in-person where I set them up on my computer while using zoom as a screen, audio, and video recorder. For the test, I verbally gave each participant the parameters of the tasks I was wanting them to complete. First, I had each participant navigate from the homepage of the NCSU Library website to the Reserve a Room feature. Next, they had to navigate the Reserve a Room feature to get a room with the following parameters: a study room in Hunt Library with four chairs for 1 hour. They had freedom of what time they could reserve the room for simply due to the limited amount of availability. Lastly, I conducted a post-test interview with each participant where I asked them the following questions:

) How do you feel after using the Reserve a Room feature on the NCSU Library Website?
) What did you find difficult or frustrating about using this feature?
) What did you find easy about using this feature?
) What do you feel could be improved about this feature?

Collecting the users thoughts and feelings about the feature after the usability test helped me understand how they felt while using the feature, as well as what they felt was difficult, easy, and could be improved.

Participant 1

The "I want a [room type] in [specific building]" Feature

Participant 1 quickly found the option to select what kind of room and where you want the room once they navigated to the reserve a room feature. In the post-test interview, the participant stated that this part of the Reserve a Room feature was simple to navigate.

Room Availability

Participant 1 had difficultly determining what colors meant available or reserved. They searched for a key that stated what the colors mean but there was not one. However, in the post-test interview, they stated that the yellow was a good signifier to represent availability.

Reserving a Specific Time Frame

Once participant 1 found an available room in Hunt Library for four chairs, they easily discovered how to set the time frame of the reservation for an hour. They clicked a square that was available and changed the time from 30 minutes to an hour in the slot where you give a description of why you need the room.

Participant 2

Finding Room Qualities

Participant 2 quickly navigated to where you find the individual study room qualities and found one in Hunt Library with four chairs.

Room Availability

Participant 2 was slightly thrown off by the various colors that indicate availability or reserves, however they quickly realized that the bubbles that light up yellow when hovered over means available.

Reserving a Specific Time Frame

Participant 2 struggled slightly with creating an hour time frame for the study room reservation. They first could only find one for 30 minutes, but then re-evaluated the options and figured out how to get a reservation for an hour.

Outcomes and Evaluation

I will be evaluating the test and Reserve a Room feature with Donald Norman's ideas of constraints, discoverability, and feedback from his book The Design of Everyday Things. Constraints limit the possible actions a user can make while utilizing something. According to Norman, constraints are broken up into four categories according to Norman: physical, logical, semantic, and cultural. First, physical constraints are limitations to actions that are created by physical blocks. Second, logical constraints are limitations to user's actions that is based upon common sense. Third, semantic constraints are limitations that solely rely on the meaning and understanding of a situation. Fourth, cultural constraints are limitations that naturally exist based upon a cultures understandings and values. Constraints can be used to force a particular order completing an action which makes it easier for a user to follow. Norman's idea of discoverability refers to how well a product or interfaces allows for their users to figure out what is possible and how and when to perform the actions. Lastly, the concept of feedback refers to the need for some sort of confirmation that you are completing the acting that you are wanting to be completed. Signifiers, which are sounds, words, or images that signify that you have completed an action, are a good example of feedback.

Test Outcomes and Evaluation

The outcomes of the test provided me insight into what aspects of the Reserve a Room feature need improving to make it more usable for its users. Both participants struggled with the color system the website had in place to show what rooms and timeframes were available versus not. The website used white and various shades of grey to show availability. While both participants were confused about what the colors meant, the discoverability of what was available was easy to find due to the white squares turning yellow when they were hovered over. The yellow hover is a signifier which falls under the category of positive feedback for the user. On the other hand, with the cultural constraint of green equals go and red equals stop in the United States, changing the color scheme to match the current cultural understanding of what colors indicate can help increase the discoverability of the availability of rooms without having to implement a key for the colors. However, having a key explaining what each color means can help users to not have to question if they are completing the task they want. While the test provided insight into what as difficult for users, it also gave me insight into what aspects were easy to use. Both participants quickly found the "I want a [Room Type] in [Specific Building]." This feature was front and center on the page as soon as it loaded up, creating a constraint for the users, as well as forcing them to acknowledge it right away. However, they could further force students to start with this feature by making it a step that has to be completed before the rooms and availability chart pops up. This minimizes the likelihood of students accidentally reserving the wrong type of room or a room for the wrong building.

Reflection

While my test provided me with a good understand of what was difficult for users and what was easy, there are many aspects that I felt could be improved if I were to implement this test in "real life" or with a larger group of people.

What Worked Well

Having the test be in-person while using a screen recorder to record the test.
Having the participants narrate what they were doing and thinking as they performed tasks.
Conducting a post-test interview to allow the participants to tell me what they found frustrating or easy about using the website.

What Did Not Work

Only giving verbal instructions of what I wanted the participants to do.
Using my personal computer without providing instructions on how to scroll (MacBooks having different page scrolling patterns than others).
Allowing them to choose any room in hunt library as long as it had four chairs.
Allowing them to choose any timeframe as long as it was for an hour.

Changes Needed to Implement the Test in "Real Life"

Provide written instructions for the test for the participant to be able to refer back to in case they forget some of the parameters.
Add constraints to the test:
- Have the participants find a specific study room on the website (room type, library, and room number).
- Have the participants reserve the room for an hour within a specific timeframe but for any day they are able to find that timeframe on.
Ask if participants have used the brand of computer being used for the test to make sure there will be no usability issues with the computer that would effect the test.
I would take out the part of the test where I had them navigate from the main page of the NCSU Library website. I would just have them start on the Reserve a Room website instead,

Modifications Needed to Work with a Larger Group

Since the Reserve a Room feature on the NCSU Library website requires you to login, I would need some sort of testing login so I would not have to use my personal information nor would I need the participant to type in their own. A testing login would provide security for the participants, especially with recording the tests.
I would need a neutral area to conduct the interviews instead of wherever I could meet the participants like I did for this usability test.
More diversity within the participants (people that are color-blind, sight-impaired, disabled, able-bodied, etc) to test the inclusivity of the feature/website.

Another thing that would be needed when testing this particular feature is follow-up testing. Follow-up testing would allow for designers to see if the improvements made actually makes the feature easier for students to use and understand, as well as helps designers acknowledge if the improvements made are inclusive to those with disabilities.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse