Exploring the usability of the central library websites of medical sciences universities

Abstract

This research aims to determine the usability of the central library websites of medical sciences universities in Iran. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study which employed a heuristic evaluation method to evaluate the usability of the websites. Three trained evaluators independently examined the 12 library websites from 11 July to 10 September 2013 using Nielsen’s usability heuristics. A list of usability problems was obtained and the severity of identified problems was determined. We identified 668 usability problems. The highest number of problems concerned ‘aesthetic and minimalist design’ (27.1%) and the lowest number concerned the ‘help and documentation’ heuristic (1%). Since the importance of libraries’ websites cannot be understated, the websites should consider the identified problems and attempt to address them.