Christopher Gregor – Libraries Group – LIS 5275
Website Chosen
For Assignment 2 I selected my local library, the St. Johns County Public Library System located at https://sjcpls.org/. This library has been an active part of St. Johns County and was first established in the county library system on September 27, 1977. However, the first library of St. Johns County was established in St. Augustine in 1874. Residents and especially students across the county have relied on these libraries to complete schoolwork, research, and access to community resources.
The website itself is the central site for all of the St. Johns County libraries and offers services ranging from virtual events, a calendar of upcoming news and events for the libraries, recommendations, and the books-by-mail service. Amongst the many services offered by modern libraries, the St. Johns County Public Library System website offers a long-distance platform to use many of its services, especially post-COVID lockdown.
https://sjcpls.org/ main page
Scenario
The user is asked to imagine they have research they need to do and are stuck at home during the lockdown, using the St. Johns County Public Library System website to find and use the Book-by-Mail service to search for and “borrow” a book on the United States Revolutionary War. Since the final part of this scenario requires an actual account and processed application the user would only be required to reach the screen prompting them to request the book and not to actually order it.
I approached the scenario viewing of this site searching for usability heuristic flaws on the website. With the scenario described my user began interacting with the drop-down menus to search for Book-by-Mail to find the requested book. They began by interacting with the eLibrary drop-down menu and selecting FL Electronic Library. This redirected them to another site, Fl Electronic Library https://www.flelibrary.com/ immediately which did not contain any information Book by Mail as it was a completely different site. After going back to the main site via the back arrow my user then tried to access the Branches tab to search for Book by Mail through one of the local library branches, they were directed to helpful information about events at the branch, its location, and contact information but no mention of Books by Mail. Finally, they proceeded to the Explore tab where they found the link for Books by Mail.
My user read over the process of Books by Mail and at this point, I instructed them to click on the link for the application to assume they were completing it; this link once again took them off the main site and to a pdf with no redirects to the main site. After using the back arrow to return I instructed them to assume they had completed the application and to access the link to the online catalog which they were able to find on the Books by Mail page and the Explore tab. Once on the catalog, they were able to easily search for the “United States Revolutionary War” and find several books requestable with the Books by Mail service, successfully completing the task.
Usability Flaws Found
The first flaw I saw while my user was completing the scenario was when they accessed the FL Electronic Library link on the St. Johns County Public Library System. The link immediately sent my user to a separate website for the FL Electronic Library with no link on the site back to the home page of the St. Johns County Public Library System, requiring them to hit the back button several times (or type in the URL again to return to the start of the scenario). This lack of link back to the main website is a violation of the Usability Heuristic number three, User Control and Freedom. With no “Emergency Exit” on the second site or link back to the home site, this design failure leaves the user inconvenienced and essentially disconnected from the main site. In addition, this link to the FL Electronic Library website gave no warning or indication that this was a link to another website. This violates Usability Heuristic number six, without having been to the FL Electronic Library site before my user would have no reason to know it existed and had no signs of warning that this link would lead them off the main page.
The second flaw involves the same failures as the first, when my user accessed the Book by Mail application the site informed the user that they would need to complete the application and submit it to the library virtually. However, once my user clicked on the link for the application it once again left the St. Johns County Public Library System main site and went to an online PDF. Not a downloadable but a whole separate page with no link to return back except for the back arrow.
Design Recommendations
Following what my user completed and got stuck on in my scenario I would propose two design changes to improve the St. Johns County Public Library System, firstly when accessing the FL Electronic Library link on the website the user should be able to see a prompt on the new website to return to where they were. Since the websites were built for similar utilities of accessing library resources virtually it should be possible for each site to link to the other. On the main site though there should be a prompt or warning for the unfamiliar user to be aware they are leaving the St. Johns County Public Library System website, which may help them to know when they are going in the wrong direction for what they want to do a little earlier. The second recommendation I would give is to make the Book by Mail pdf link a downloadable document and not a separate page. It is more convenient for the user to download it anyway to fill out the form or open it in another tab than to effectively go to a separate site to view and then download the pdf. This is especially true since the pdf contains no instructions on submitting the application which was on the page before.