Novice and expert users
Desktop and mobile users
Users with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive impairments
Non-native English speakers
Users with different cultural expectations
The primary purpose of our guides is to meet the needs of our users by providing access to resources and services, instructional guidance, and support information. Our website provides a needed service for our users' research needs.
Cognitive load is the amount of information a person can process in a given time. Every choice presented increases the time required to choose any option.
An excess of choices can lead to fatigue and can make people feel dissatisfied with the experience, or even worse, abandon the process altogether. Not only do we feel mentally exhausted when we have to compare too many options, but also, once we’ve decided, we are often left over with a nagging feeling that we missed something important. – Nielsen Norman Group “Simplicity Wins over Abundance of Choice”
As information gurus, we want to offer an exhaustive list of options, lots of "just in case" content, and advanced features. We may be doing a disservice to the majority of our users who do not have preferences or advanced needs.
Users rarely read every word on a page. Most scan looking for the piece of information they need or they skim to understand the gist of the material. Studies show that on the average, users only read about 28% of the words on a page.
Content should be constructed to prevent excessive scrolling.
"People scroll vertically more than they used to, but new eye-tracking data shows that they will still look more above the page fold than below it." Nielsen Group
Writing that is concise, scannable, and objective can increase 124% improvement in usability.
It is essential that users with disabilities can access the guide content in a quick and efficient manner. The library is required by law to make our site accessible. Inaccessibility is considered a severe offense and can be very expensive for the institution. See WebAIM for more information about content and design for these different disability groups.
Some of the users with disabilities will use assistive technology. Screen readers are commonly used to audibly read aloud the contents of a webpage or communicate via refreshable braille display.
Sighted users are able to visually scan a webpage and process the information so they can jump directly to what they need. Assistive technology users, who cannot see the visual design, rely on screen reader software that reads out audible textual cues like headings, descriptive text, and link labels. They may also rely on their keyboard to navigate since a mouse is designed for visually pointing and clicking.
Screen reader users often navigate a webpage using the following techniques:
"Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., is a User Advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group which he co-founded with Dr. Donald A. Norman (former VP of research at Apple Computer). Dr. Nielsen established the "discount usability engineering" movement for fast and cheap improvements of user interfaces and has invented several usability methods, including heuristic evaluation. He holds 79 United States patents, mainly on ways of making the Internet easier to use."