Jefferson County, located in Florida’s panhandle, is known as Florida’s Keystone County. It borders Georgia on the North and extends to the Gulf of Mexico on the South. It’s library system, the Wilderness Coast Library System, serves three different counties in North Florida and is comprised of four libraries. The libraries are: the Franklin County – Carrabelle Branch, the Franklin County – Eastpoint Branch, the Wakulla County Public Library, and the Jefferson County R.J. Bailar Public Library.
My user is a female high school senior interested in fashion design and is familiar with using websites. She is someone who does not give up easily and is persistent in finding the information she desires. A student at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, she frequently visits a large branch of the Broward County library system that is adjacent to her high school. The Broward County Library system is the largest and most expansive library system in Florida.
I chose to observe the probing test method. I decided on this method of testing because I believe it would be best for the user to explore the website by herself. I believe by observing without any interaction or disturbance is the best way to gather information accurately from her experience.
The changes to my group’s original tasks are:
- Task 1 – A change in researching the Ides of March to any subject in Ancient Rome. I wanted to give the user the freedom to search for something she would be interested in.
- Task 2 – No change was made. The user will find the library’s operating hours.
- Task 3 – In addition to my group’s request that she find the library’s computer and printing availability, I asked her to see if the book she found could be sent to a library in a different location for pick up.
My test involves the user finding a book on any subject of their choice related to Ancient Rome. Once my user chooses a book, she needs to determine which of the four locations in the Wilderness Coast Library System the book is located. She will also need to gather the library hours to see if it will coordinate with a high school student’s schedule. If she was a patron of the Wilderness Coast Library System, the library where the book is located may not be convenient. The largest distance between 2 libraries in this system, the R.J. Bailar Public Library to the Franklin County Public Library: Eastpoint Branch, is approximately 180 miles away, approximately a 3.5 hour drive. The final task will be to search for services the library may provide, including being able to have the book sent to another Wilderness Coast Library.
For Task 1, my user chose to look for information about clothing worn in Ancient Rome. When she started on the Wilderness Coast Public Library’s homepage, there were three main areas to choose from: Member Libraries, WILD User Survey, and About Us. She noticed the home page did not have a clear library catalog search bar. Looking at the tabs available on the top of the home page, she chose the Resources tab. The Resource page had certain links and the first was the “WILD Catalog”. This led her to a page with a search bar. She began her search for “Ancient Roman Clothing”, but all the book results were unrelated to Ancient Rome and/or clothing. In an effort to try again, she changed her search to “Ancient Rome” which resulted in 30 pages of book titles. However, less than 2 of the result pages contained books having “Ancient Rome” in their titles and none of them appeared to reference clothing. In addition, the results of the catalog search had no information of what is contained in each book. Clicking on a book title led her to the standard information such as the author, the publication date, ISBN, etc. and a tab labeled “Title Notes”. This tab contains additional information about the book’s subject. She found the contents of the “Title Notes” tab inconsistent since some of the books had this section missing or empty. My user had to explore each book’s “Title Notes” until she found a book called “Ancient Rome” by Richard Dargie. The title notes stated it “compares the lifestyles of the rich and poor in Ancient Rome, including, dwellings, clothing, and food”. She was also able to determine the book’s location, WCPL Junior, in the “Holding” tab on this page. However, this abbreviation was confusing to her as she did not understand what it meant. Her only choice was to return to the homepage and see what WCPL Junior referred to. At the homepage she clicked on Member Libraries and noticed one of the libraries is named the Wakulla County Public Library and realized it matched the abbreviation.
Once my test user found the book she wanted, the next task to complete was checking for the Wakulla County Public Library’s operating hours and if they coordinated with a normal high-school student’s schedule. She checked the hours and learned they were open after school and was glad to know the library is also open on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
With the hours found, her last task was to search the availability of computers and printers, and to find out whether the book could be sent to a different library in the Wilderness Coast Library System. She started back at the Wilderness County Public Library home page, followed by the WPCL library homepage and clicked on the “Services” tab at the top. This gave information, such as computer availability and printing cost. Computers at the WCPL Branch are available to residents with a library and non-residents with guest passes. Printing is available from their computer or by flash drive. It states that double-sided printing is available as well as the cost for black-and-white or colored prints. Finishing Task 3 was researching if the book could be sent to a different library within the Wilderness County Library system. She returned to the book tab, but all she could do is place it on hold. There is no information on the website regarding transporting books.
The Wilderness Coast Public Library website is confusing and disorganized, which is a disadvantage for all user levels. A major change that should be made is placing the individual library links on the main page to make it easier for users to know which library they wish to visit. Even if that were done, the current Member Libraries page states that the “Wilderness Coast has four library locations in three counties”. However, right below that statement there are only three links, instead of four, which is confusing. It seems the Franklin County Public Library has two branches and those individual library links are shown only after choosing the primary Franklin County Public Library link. The search results for books are disorganized as they show titles not related to the search. It would be clearer if the search responded with “No Results Found” instead of a list of unrelated material. Another major improvement to the book search results would be to include a brief description of the book’s subject and/or the information it contains. This way users will not have to spend time looking into each individual title. Also, the library’s homepage should be highlighting upcoming events to attract community participation. Instead, there is an “Events” tab that leads to a page with several listed events, some of which have already occurred. These are just a few improvements I would suggest for this website, I could identify many more.
The Wilderness Coast Library System may be able to assist those who walk into the library, but it needs to be able to assist all the patrons they serve electronically since this library system covers 180 miles. Its website needs major improvements in order to be beneficial to all patrons.