Information Experience Laboratory — IE Lab

Client:

MU Libraries

Client URL:

Goal:

Evaluate and improve the usability and user experience of the University of Missouri Libraries website.

Process:

The MU Libraries serve a student body of 34,748 plus a faculty of 2,121, and have a collection of 3.1 million print volumes, 53,400 journal titles (in print or online), and over 7.5 million microforms. With an annual budget of $16.8 million, the Libraries support the instruction, research, service, and economic development missions of the University of Missouri. By acquiring scholarly resources, developing innovative services, and applying new information technologies, the MU Libraries fulfill their primary purpose: to serve our users. The IE Lab helped the MU libraries fulfill their commitment “to serve our users” by making a more user-centric homepage.

The IE Lab assisted in four phases of the MU librarywebsite redesign process that implemented various aspects of user centered design principles. These phases included: a card sort, verifying information architecture, prototype testing, and a summative evaluation of the redesign. These phases were conducted in an iterative manner with each subsequent phase building upon the findings of the previous phase. After each phase, members of IE Lab met to discuss the findings and to provide recommendations for the Library Website Redesign Committee.

Findings:

• Simplified the appearance by adding more white space and reducing the amount of content on the homepage
• Went from 7 navigation menus to 5
• Re-worded the navigation menus based on user feedback to make the navigation menus more in line with how users
• Added a Quick Links section l Added 4 interactive icons