LibQUAL+ Results Bring More Questions Than Answers
Kimberly Vardeman, Jingjing Wu · 2019
The Texas Tech University Libraries conducted the LibQUAL survey in 2017.After receiving the survey results, the libraries had many unanswered questions-what is the next step?What are the problem areas?Which problems should be addressed first?The website was identified as a topic that merited further study.The user experience (UX) department collaborated with the web librarian to outline projects to gather more evidence that would guide their action.They used a variety of research methods to assess the website: X/O tests to allocate valuable home page real estate to the services and features of most interest to users; card sorting to design a more understandable website navigation; usability testing to evaluate whether common tasks could be performed easily; heuristic evaluations of frequently used webpages to see if they conformed to accepted usability principles; A/B tests to compare different design prototypes; and subsequent surveys to re-evaluate the modifications.By the triangulation of several data sources, they made informed decisions about how to improve the website.As an initial step, LibQUAL does not offer specific answers, but suggests potential directions for further study.This paper describes ways to iteratively test the UX of a website using several complementary methods following an exploratory survey.These strategies extend the value of survey results, making assessments more effective and practical.This pattern can be used not only for a website but for evaluating other services.