This list of problems and solutions was compiled by the 10 library staff members who acted as observers in the test.
| Problems | Solutions |
| 1. certain names confusing: Barton, RSC, Doc services, etc. | explain terminology |
| graphical distinction between things that are libraries and things that aren't | |
| put explanation next to link? …but people don't read explanations, better grouping means less explanation necessary | |
| link most important words on page | |
| 2. hard to find databases by subject | on the subject list, have subject names more prominent than database names |
| databases with other sources by subject? | |
| consistency in how subjects are named across lists | |
| 3. category name problems: ILL vs. ILB is confusing (no other library uses two different terms) | get user feedback and use terms that users use |
| 4. "services" vs. "resources" not clear | include examples of what a category contains |
| 5. organization of categories on services page confusing | rethink names of subcategories |
| more than one type of access list | |
| need visual cue that more information is available by scrolling | |
| 6. problem with the term "virtual reference" | need more than one access route to these resources |
| better terminology | |
| give examples: dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc. | |
| could be interpreted as virtual ref desk | |
| use database of resources than can be displayed in different ways | |
| ues card sorting exercises for some of these | |
| 7. hard to find staff specialties from unit pages, there is no specialists link from "ask a ref question," on services page/research assistance there is no link to subject specialists | need subject specialists list - who to contact, by subject, linked from multiple places |
| 8. people are sometimes satisfied with lesser pages, not the best page for the info sought - they give up soon | put obvious/best pages where people will find them first |
| 9. someone didn't recognize that "ejournal" meant "electronic journal", many don't know we have them | need to do more PR about ejournals, provide subject access to ejournals, make more prominent link from Home page (same as databases) |
| 10. lack of one place to find circulation policies | put all circ info in one place |
| provide more detailed circ info | |
| link on each library page to local circ info | |
| use model of OWL (page that links to each dept site) | |
| 11. people always start from Home, not much use of the navigation bar | make bar larger or more prominent? |
| 12. icon that links to Home page is not clear (it doesn't say "Home") | use an icon that says "Home" on it |
| 13. giving up, users don't keep looking, users retry same routes that don't work | make search engine more obvious |
| make whole site more user friendly with multiple paths for finding the same info | |
| 14. Lewis Music Library icon top of its page is not a clickable link, some click on it (same with all libraries) | use graphics consistently, make visual distinction between graphics that are links and those that are not |
| put navigation bar in same location on various library pages | |
| 15. users mentioned certain pages they really liked, but never knew existed before (ejournals, databases, virtual ref) | publicize important pages more and make them easier to find from the Home page |
| 16. people looked in databases or in Rotch for housing statistics - but they were really off Dewey page | put info in more than one logical place |
| meld various statistics sources, or make a page that links to stats located in different libraries | |
| 17. library hours table hard to read (and blind user's software can't do tables at all) | offer plain text alternative for hours |
| make more consistent from library to library how hours are listed | |
| 18. user didn't know which library would have U.S. company info | with topical approach users can be pointed to information they need without having to know which library contains it |
| 19. "L" icon not understood on databases | fix page that tells what "L" icon means - put info at top instead of at bottom of that long, scrolling page |
| maybe put icon info in pop-up windows? | |
| licensing could be under "policies" also | |
| 20. one user relys on WorldCat instead of Barton to see if we own a title (because ILL is built in) | Worldcat not always correct for MIT holdings - users need to be made aware of this |
| 21. user would like search engine for ejournals page | subject access needed and /or searchability for ejournals page |
| 22. databases page loads too slowly | break up long pages into shorter ones by alphabet or category (this will be solved by having a database instead of our "listbuilder") |
| 23. software for blind users reads every link on the page in sequential order - makes it hard for search engine results to know if you got any hits until it reads all the words above the input box | on search results page put how many hits received first on page, above input box (is this possible with Ultraseek?) |
| 24. some users unaware that Barton searches all libraries | provide better description of scope of Barton, more user training? It does say "Barton is the electronic catalog of MIT Libraries' collections" but users don't read paragraph, perhaps make the Barton page a little cleaner and easier to read |