Studenternas upplevelse av Umeå universitetsbiblioteket på webben
användarupplevelsen och surfbeteendet på universitetsbibliotekets sajt, med särskild hänsyn till de med synskada
The purpose of this essay is to function as a guide in the future development of the Umeå University Library?s webbsite by examining its users? web experiences as well as their web surfing behaviours. In this essay, a number of opinions in usability and accessibility coming from writers and organisations are presented. Using the writers? theories and previous research, along with the results from the evalutation, the essay attempts to explain the behaviour of users when they get in touch with technology, aswell as what the web users perceive as user friendly. During the course of this essay, five students were interviewed with the purpose of capturing the user experience and to use it as a primary measurement for the evaluationof this website. In order to find out whether the site is perceived differently for those with or without impaired vision, two students with impaired vision and three without have participated in the evaluation. Despite the difference in eye vision between the students, findings show that the students usually experienced problems in similar areas and behaved in a similar manor. While comparing the gathered data from the interviews, with the other writers? theories and previous research, similarities were found in the user behaviour. From Jakob Nielsen?s and Hoa Lorangers?s definition of good usability design, it was possible to interpret on one hand their research results on usability testsand the other hand the behaviour shown by the participants of this essay?s interviews. In conclusion, while people are stuck in their squirrel wheels, they get better at usingsomething the more they keep using it. Based on users? own experiences, the typicalwebsite visitor have certain expectations. Even if everyone have their own individual experience in using the web, there are certian common fundamental principles whichcan be used as a guide in the development of a website. There is no singled out correct answer on how a design should look like, however a few of the fundamental principlesare: be consistent, unified, only include the most important information, do not repeat something which is already displayed on the website such as duplicate links, and never forget to let the user be part of the development. Lastly, in the conclusion of this essay, a couple of improvements are suggested based on the users? experiences, as well as a suggestion on a continued evaluation.