A Revised User Interface Design for the Discovery Search Tool 'Summon': A Case Study and Recommendations

The research investigated the usability of the “Summon” discovery tool’ user interface among External and Internal students’ at Charles Darwin University (CDU). Summon is a “Discovery” search tool which supports users in their search for scholarly literature (library catalogs, journal articles, and books). The library at CDU was faced with the challenge of offering users with an easy experience with the tool as a result of increase users’ dissatisfaction. Issues and concerns were raised regarding the adequacy and the usability of the tool. The research is conducted in order to find out these issues and in order to provide users with a highly depend tool for finding academic sources. Two experiments based on interviews and questionnaires were conducted on external and internal students using diary studies, heuristic evaluation and usability testing in order to explore the users experience with the tool and in order to identify its usability problems. Data from external and internal users were collected as a set of measureable factors for user interactions. The data collected from the interviews and the questionnaires was analyzed and the poor usability aspects of the tool were identified as well as the
reasons of the users’ dissatisfactions was identified. The research did not address error prevention and a lack of step‐by‐step instructions. The findings from the experiments together with a revised interface for the tool where highlighted and the administration of the CDU library were provided with the findings and the recommended changes to the tool. These recommendations were adopted by the CDU library. These recommendations included a revised user interface design for the Summon tool which highlights the necessary changes to be considered. These changes contribute to an easier, clear and user friendly experience which will enhance the user’s interaction and user experience.