Discovering discovery: lessons learnt from a usability study at the University of Liverpool

Abstract

In 2015 the University of Liverpool’s Library Service embarked upon a three-part usability study to better understand how library users were engaging with our resource discovery platform, to identify any usability issues and assess the extent to which it was currently meeting their needs. Doing so enabled us to make informed, evidence-based changes to the interface, improving its overall usability and providing a more user-friendly and intuitive resource. In this paper we will detail not only the methodologies employed, what we found out about our users, what they liked and disliked and the changes subsequently made, but also the lessons learnt about the platform, the process itself and ourselves.