Simplifying the search experience – resisting the lure of shiny new technology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.84Abstract
After two years of implementing a resource discovery system at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway), and a new website to complement it, imagine our horror when in the first user survey postlaunch, our users told us that we were not meeting even their minimum expectations of a library website that allowed them to find information on their own.
Comment analysis, focus groups and a user observation study revealed that our technology-driven and information literacy-led implementation of our discovery system had resulted in user confusion. We had not delivered the simplicity and Google-type experience that this system had promised. In this article, we will share what we learnt from our users and discuss our new user-driven implementation of our latest discovery system and the user and library staff response to it.
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