Students from Dr. Joseph Robertshaw's Fall 2023 EH301 classes took part in a Library UX project where they used various tools at their disposal - usability studies, persona creation, model websites, etc - to evaluate the UAH Salmon Library's website and to give suggestions/plans on how to solve an issue. In this case, the issue was:
How well does the library website fit its purpose and how could it change the website to better fit this purpose?
In this case, the concept of "defining the library purpose" was part of the assignment since the term can mean different things to different people. There were eight teams in total that turned in reports and presentations about this tool and offered feedback, suggestions for improvement, critique, and general overviews of their experiences. The committee read over these submissions and chose three teams to be selectees (see below).
The committee would like to thank everyone who participated in this project, and extend a hearty thanks to Dr. Robertshaw for organizing this idea.
There were many good suggestions and found-issues in these eight reports. As always, we discuss changes and strategies to implement information from these reports (for instance, we moved the library guide about dissertations to be more visible).
We appreciate everyone who helped with these - Dr. Robertshaw, his class, and their very many participants.
We offer special recognition to the three submissions below. Things that library board were looking for include a focus on the library-ness of the testing, a diverse [different majors, different stages of an academic career, different backgrounds in regards to library usage] test group to have well-represented viewpoints, the use of proper technology to test the library website, and the general quality of the "sales pitch" to present this information.
In alphabetical order,