All seemed to have a positive reaction to the site and they were able to accomplish the tasks that I asked them to attempt to complete. I had set up a series of 10 questions or task for the testers to complete. The parents struggled the most and the students took longer then the teachers to find the answers. The teachers are use to the inquiry terms we are using and the students are learning to use the terms. The students approached the web search like a game they were all over the place in a quick amount of time. They really did not pay attention to the navigation bars until I slowed them down and asked them to think about what the navigation buttons were telling them. The first thought of most of the users when they were presented with a question was to go to the Question page; Discover was the second most popular choice because they felt they could discover information there. The test helped me realize some of the problems my site would cause and many of those problems have been corrected. After making some of the corrections I brought in some of the same students to try some things again and they did much better but most admitted that they did better because the remembered the kind of information they found on the pages when they used it before. I'm hoping that will be the case for most of the users; once they have used it a time or two the terminology will make more sense to them and they will spend less time searching for their needed materials.
The webmaster expressed concern that the navigation bar did not change color
after a page had been visited. My solution, since I couldn't’t figure
out how to make the flash buttons change color, was to rearrange them on every
page so that the next page you should go to will be the first navigation button.
For
example after visiting the Question page, the next button will show Discover.
Going to Discover, the next button will be Explore. This will lead them naturally
thru the inquiry process. However I left the home, about us, site index, and
library news in the same spots. She also expressed concern about having too
many links on a page. The Discover page originally had many links on the page,
making it difficult to find exactly what you were looking for so I changed
the page and placed
5 doors on the page instead. Each of the doors is the name of a reference room
we have in the library. We have been working hard with the students to help
them
understand the types of information they will find in the reference room that
will help them with their research. The students using the site knew which
door to choose to find the type of information they were looking for. I was
worried
about adding an additional click to get to a site but the response to the doors
has been very positive and has reinforced our reference room teachings.
The online voting for a favorite book character was a hit with all who visited
the site. They thought this could lead to many different types of voting situations.
The Discover and Explore sections were a little confusing to all. They felt
the two pages went hand in hand with discovering information, which in essence
they
do. The Explore is simply an extension of the Discover page.
It was interesting that the parents relied on the site index to find their
way around, making me realize how important this page actually was. I noticed
even
a few students went to this page when they couldn’t quite figure out
where to go.
The teachers, who are familiar with the terms, were able to find information
the quickest. The students seemed to enjoy discovering the location of information
on the pages. It was like a game for them to see how quickly they could uncover
the clues and find what they were looking for. They became real excited when
they found a hidden link on one of the pages. When I asked them if they would
like to see anything changed, all said no because they thought it was fun to
jump around to find the answer, a couple did comment that it was kind of hard
but once they found the location of information it made sense to them that
it was located on that page. They thought I should include more hidden links
that
would take them to mysterious places.
There was some confusion among my users as to the purpose of the question page. Everyone seemed to feel that this would be a page they would go to in order to answer a question about the site. I decided to revamp the page before posting it online. I added the infoplease.com site because it has a dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus, almanac all on one site and could help answer a wide variety of questions. I also added some questions that the users might ask when they come to the web page and provided links to those answers. After fixing this page, many users maneuvered throughout the site with more ease.
Page layout: Everyone liked the overall look of the site. They thought the navigation buttons were fun and they liked the idea of following the inquiry process.
Content Accuracy: I had several teachers check the resources on the pages and they were pleased with the choices and asked if all major curricular subjects would be included in the future. I assured them that that was my plan.
Navigation Links: The school Tech guy as well as one of my parent volunteers checked my links to make sure they were working. We ran into trouble with several outside links that were adding a 20% at the end of the address. (www.google.com/20%) I removed the 20% and reloaded the sites and they are working fine now. One site had moved since I started the page and it needed to be taken care of.
High and Low Level: I had a 5th grader and an 8th grader test the site. The 8th grader was able to figure out where things were located quicker then the 5th grader but the 5th grader seemed to enjoy exploring the site more then the 8th grader. The 5th grader was off exploring different sites and trying different activities. The 8th grader was with us last year so he was use to the terms Question, Discover, Explore, Imagine and Read as well as the different Reference rooms. The 5th grader was able to find things quicker once I had changed the question site.
Technical Aspects: I was able to have a webmaster (She designed the Girl Scouts page and the Indiana Geocaching sites) look over my pages and offer suggestions. She mentioned that the graphics loaded fine here at school but that they may be slowed on a dial-up internet. I was having problems with my original slide show which provided a tour of the library. The slide show would not load onto geocities so she showed me the Dynamic HTML web site and helped me choose a new slide show. She then helped with the validation. We took each page thru the validator and did come across a few things that needed to be taken care. The rest of the problems puzzled her as well and we decided the flash elements were not be recognized. (see validation link)
Overall Evaluation: I was concerned that it would take the user several clicks before they were to the information they would need. The opening page, to the ship page, to the discover page, to the resources. No one seemed to mind. The first initial page with the world is just a nice graphic to have up on all the computers in the library. The ship graphic seems to be inviting people to travel and journey about the site. Everyone liked the doors on the Discover pages leading to the reference rooms. The color choices seemed to be pleasing to everyone who viewed the site. The students seemed to really enjoy the links. They were off exploring pyramids, playing games, writing their names in hieroglyphs, and drawing online. Comments ran the same for all students this is fun. The teachers were very happy with the sites and anxious to see their projects on the page as they feel it will save their students a lot of time when they begin researching.
Comments From Users
"I really liked the graphics and the games. It was kinda hard to figure out where things were but after you told me to look at it from a research point then the button made more sense. I think there should be more graphics. I can scan pictures quicker then words. I don't use computers a lot so I wasn't sure what I needed to do." Toby gr. 6
"I love the idea of eventually having all the subjects listed by grade level. I liked the online voting for a favorite character a lot! This could lead to many other questions. I wish the navigation bar would change color to remind me of the places I have already been. Discovery/Explore seem to go hand in hand." Mr. Marosz gr. 5 teacher
"I think this is a great site for your first one. I would work on the navigation bars a little so that the users can see which sites they have already visited. I would also recommend the Dynamic HTML website for ideas and scripts you could use to Jazz up the site. All the links are working which is extremely important, remember to check them often. This site works well in both Netscape and Internet Explorer." Angela, Webmaster
"I love the idea of seeing the Discover page set up as the reference rooms in the library. I would think this would help them narrow their choices much quicker. I love the Eqypt sites especially the links in the Explore section. What a great extension for the students to go to after the have researched their topics." Mrs. Amato, gr. 7
"I will have a lot of fun playing on this site. The links are great and fun to explore. It's great to be able to enjoy the site and learn something as well. I think the kids are gonna love some of the sites on this webpage. I love the images you chose to use, very eye-catching. " Mrs. Graham gr. 5
"My favorite thing about the site is the buttons. This site is very easy to use compared to a lot of sites I have been to. It's fun discovering things on all the different pages. I really liked finding the hidden sites. Some of the questions were hard to answer but after I found the answer It made sense that s where they were and I'll know the next time I use it. Like I thought the Discover page was where I would find the card catalog because I could discover a book in the library but then I thought well maybe it's in the Read section and it was." Derrick gr. 5
"I'm so glad there is a site index or I might still be searching for information. I didn't really understand the navigation terms until I found information in the About Us section. Then I had a good idea of the type of information I would find the different pages. I would recommend that the question page be changed. I went to the question page whenever I had a question about the site but I couldn't find anything there. Maybe the question page should have a section that answers questions about the website." Mrs. Waggy, parent