This document discusses principles and best practices for conducting usability testing of historic newspapers. It defines usability as ensuring a website works well and can be used as intended without frustration. Key lessons include minimizing complexity, prioritizing important content, providing consistent navigation, clear error messages, and help functions. The document outlines types of usability testing, recruiting participants, planning test tasks, and analyzing results to identify usability problems. Recommendations emphasize balancing content and white space, following standards, and enabling feedback.

1. Channa Veldhuijsen – Specialist UsabilityTesting, National Library of The Netherlands
Europeana Newspapers Workshop - September 16, 2013.
Principles of Usability Testing for Historic
Newspapers

2. What is usability?
Usability means…
…making sure something works well, and that a person of average ability or
experience can use it for its intended purpose without getting hopelessly
frustrated.
- Steve Krug

3. Usability lessons to keep in mind
• Don’t Make Me Think
As a rule, people don’t like to puzzle over how to do things. Web applications
should explain themselves. Don’t make your website unnecessarily
complicated; if users have to think too much, you’ll lose them.
• Don’t waste my time
Much of people’s web use is motivated by the desire to save time. So make
important features / content stand out or users will get frustrated.
• No Time for Small Talk
Most users don’t have time for small talk; they want to get right to the beef. So
get rid of irrelevant information on your website.

4. • We’re creatures of habit
If people find something that works, they usually stick to it. They’ll use a better
way if they stumble across one, but they seldom look for one. So first
impression is important!
• Take me back!
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked
"emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state or they’ll use the back button.
The back button is the most-used feature of web browsers (!), so make sure it
works on your website.
• Make it easy to go home
Having a home button in sight at all times offers reassurance to users that no
matter how lost they may get, they can always start over.
Usability lessons to keep in mind

5. • Don’t lose search
Some people (search-dominant users and there are a lot of them among library
), will almost always look for a search box as they enter a site, so make sure
they can find it.
• Be consistent
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions
mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
• What’s wrong?!
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely
indicating the problem and constructively suggesting a solution.
• Help me!
Even though your website should be easy to use, some people may still get lost.
Help them along with a FAQ and/or tutorials.
Usability lessons to keep in mind

6. What is usability testing?
Watching people try to use what you’re creating/designing/building (or
something you’ve already created/designed/built), with the intention of (a)
making it easier for people to use or (b) proving that it is easy to use.
- Steve Krug
The aim is to observe people using the product to discover errors and areas
of improvement.
- Wikipedia

7. Why should you do it?
• All websites have problems and most problems are easy to find… if
you try.
You probably won’t notice (some of the) usability problems on your
website, because you know how the site works. Most of your users,
on the other hand, don’t know the website and that makes all the
difference.
• If you don’t try, your users will tell you about these problems once
you have launched the website.
It is much easier to fix problems in the early stages of a project and
it’s certainly better for your reputation.

8. • Watching users makes you a better designer; it makes you smarter
about how people use things and how things can be designed for use.
Despite all the talk about “user-centered design” and “user experience”,
relatively few designers/developers/stakeholders/etc have actually
spent any time watching how people use websites. As a result, people
end up designing for their abstract idea of users, based for the most
part on themselves.
Why should you do it?

9. If it’s so valuable, why isn’t it a standard part of every web project?
Lack of time;
most web
projects have
tight
schedules.
Most people
don’t have any
experience with
usability testing,
so they just don’t
know how
valuable it is.
Reluctance to
show work before it
is finished.
The idea that web
analytics give more
than enough insight
on what people are
doing on the
website.

10. How does it work? – Different types of testing
• Hallway testing:
Bring in a few random people to test the website. The name of the
technique refers to the fact that the testers should be random people who
pass by in the hallway and not an in-house, trained group of testers.
• Remote Usability Testing:
Instead of bringing the users to you, you go to them – electronically, via
web tools and by talking on the phone. Easier recruiting (anybody with an
internet connection), no travel required, easier scheduling, good results.
 So why not do all tests remotely?
Good results, but being right next to the participant gives even
better results. You do lose something not being in the same
room as the participant. Compare it to talking face to face vs.
talking on the phone. It works, but you do spend more time
clarifying things.

11. • A/B testing:
Two versions of (part of) the website (A and B) are compared. Version A
might be the currently used version, while version B is modified in some
respect. Which one do users prefer?
• Expert review:
This method relies on bringing in experts with experience in the field
(possibly from companies that specialize in usability testing) to evaluate the
usability of a product.
How does it work? – Different types of testing

12. How does it work? – Rounding up test participants
Find users via newsletters,
social media, feedback
forms, the reading rooms,
customer panels, etc.
Try to find users
who reflect your
target audience, but
don’t get hung up
about it.
The more users you
watch, the fewer
new problems you’ll
see. Three to eight
users per test is
enough (depending
on the scale of the
test).
Ask people who
are not (yet)
familiar with the
project/website.

13. How does it work? – What you should test
Decide what to test, based on:
•The things that people must be able to do in order to make your website a
success.
(for instance; being able to open digital image of historic newspaper)
•The things that you suspect people are going to have trouble with; that
may confuse people.
(features that have caused debate within the design team)
•The things that your other research suggest may not be easy to use.
(based on the questions costumer support gets, web analytics, etc)

14. How does it work? – Attitude
• Stay neutral
Hide your personal agenda. You don’t want to influence the participants
or your testing will lose its credibility. And never criticise the participant.
Keep in mind that whatever problems the participant encounters, it is
your website that is causing these problems, not the participant.
• Keep your promises
Don’t ask people to test
your website if you are not
going to be using their
feedback. Make sure the
test results are integrated
into future developments
of the website.

15. How does it work? – Roles
Moderator:
Right next to the
participant.
Tells participants what
to do, makes them feel
comfortable, gets
them to verbalize their
thoughts, keeps them
talking.
Does not give his/her
own opnion about the
website and does not
answer questions; the
participants have to
figure it out on their
own.
Observer:
In another room, but
able to follow
everything the
participant does.
Takes notes.
Particulary interested
in moments when
the participant gets
confused or
frustrated.

16. Conclusions and debriefing
Make a list of the
most serious usability
problems that the
participants
encountered.
To determine to most
important problems,
ask yourself:
•Will a lot of people
experience this
problem?
•Will it cause a serious
problem or just an
inconvenience? Discuss the list with (your fellow) developers and
decide which problems you are going to fix first.

17. Keep the before mentioned usability lessons in mind! And…
•Balance is everything
Make sure the interface keeps a good balance between text, image and
empty space:
 Try to avoid long texts; most people do not take the time to read
properly and a lot of text will scare them away. If you have to use a
lot of text: please use alinea’s, and subheadings.
 Images and icons make your website visually attractive. Please
don’t forget to use alt texts for images and icons.
 Empty space creates overview; most people don’t have the patience
to scan the whole website to find what they are looking for.
•Follow web standards; they exist for a reason.
For instance; people expect to go to the top right corner to log out. Don’t
confuse or frustrate users by putting the log out button somewhere else.
Usability: historic newspapers

18. • Don’t hide it
If the historic newspaper site is part of another website, make sure users immediately
know where to look for the newspaper section.
• Let them browse!
Users want to know what kind of content they can expect on your website (titles, years,
more information about each title, etc) and they want to be able to browse through it.
• First things first
Ask yourself; what is the main feature on this page? Make sure the user’s attention is
immediately drawn to it (in this case; search engine, digital image of newspaper).
• Open access is preferred
If you do ask users to pay, I am sure you’ll have your reasons for it. So please explain
them to your users.
• Always enable users to give feedback on the website.
It satisfies users to be able to ask questions or leave suggestions/complaints and it will
give you a lot of useful information about the usability issues on your website.
Usability: historic newspapers

19. Recommendations
Books
•“Don’t Make Me Think” - Steve Krug
•“Rocket Surgery Made Easy” - Steve Krug
•“Handbook of Usability Testing” - Jeffrey Rubin
& Dana Chisnell
•“A Practical Guide to Usability Testing”- Joseph
Dumas & Janice Redish
•“Usability Testing Essentials: Ready, Set...Test!”
- Carol Barnum

20. Recommendations
Websites
•http://www.sensible.com/
Steve Krug’s website; full of useful information on usabilty testing,
including chapters from his books, video’s, etc
•http://www.nngroup.com/people/jakob-nielsen/
Jakob Nielsen’s website; lots of useful articles on web usability, user
testing, writing for the web, etc.
•http://www.usefulusability.com/24-usability-testing-tools/
List of 24 usability testing tools

21. Questions?
Contact: channa.veldhuijsen@kb.nl