id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
crl-16739	Thorngate, Sarah; Hoden, Allison	Exploratory Usability Testing of User Interface Options in LibGuides 2	2017	18	.pdf	application/pdf	9265	342	50	With the widespread adoption of research guides, the academic library community has begun to explore the connec- tion between research guide usability and student learning, with the aim of designing guides in a way that increases their effectiveness as pedagogical tools.1 A growing body of literature on the usability of LibGuides, a widely used platform for creating online re- search guides, identifies several common usability challenges within these guides—from use of library jargon to lack of visual focal point to extraneous content.2 Such usability challenges can be an impediment to learning because they add to students’ cognitive overload as they undertake the challenging work of academic research.3 While librarians creating LibGuides can draw on this existing research to identify best practices and common usability pitfalls for their own guides, there is a relative lack of research into design choices made at the system level rather than at the guide level. Hungerford et al., “LibGuides Usability Testing”; MIT Libraries, “LibGuides: Guidelines for Staff LibGuides,” available online at http://libguides.mit.edu/staff-guidelines	cache/crl-16739.pdf	txt/crl-16739.txt