Hi Sarah

We did a re-organisation of our site a while ago using consultants.
While the Library site was a small component of the overall
institutional site the process was the same. I think it is more than
do-able, indeed often advisable to outsource this kind of testing  - the
results end up being better focussed and more empirical (i.e. less
swayed by vested interests) than if you try to do this in-house.
An example of an organisation that does this kind of thing is
www.akendi.com

Peter


-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Sarah Kahn
Sent: February 3, 2010 4:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CODE4LIB] usability testing in libraries

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had any experience with outsourcing the usability testing for
big library web projects? My organization just rolled out our first
website redesign in several years and are looking to potentially bring
in a 3rd party for testing. Any insights into anyone's process or
experiences would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Sarah

Sarah Kahn
NC LIVE
Online Services Librarian
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 919.513.3511
fax: 919.513.2588
www.nclive.org
Find us on Twitter! www.twitter.com/nclive