Uncovering the Mystery of How Users Find and Use eBooks through Guerilla Usability Testing

Abstract

This case study focuses on user research that was conducted to enhance our users’ ebook discovery experience. We took an outward-facing approach by seeking the users’ perspectives. We wanted to know: How do users find ebooks? How do they perceive multiple records for the same title? Would users find additional metadata useful, such as download availability, file format, and chapter titles? We coordinated guerilla usability testing in our library lobby, inspired by low-overhead, high-impact user experience work at other academic libraries. The resulting data gave us a much-needed new perspective of ebook usage that supplements what we already know from our day-to-day work.