The Finding Aid Container List Optimization Survey: Recommendations for Web Usability

This paper examines the results of a usability study for finding aids from the Special Collections Research Center at North Carolina State University. In 2005, the Special Collections Research Center reformatted its finding aids so that the container information, typically located on the left-hand side of the document, moved to the right-hand side of the document. The study tested the effectiveness of this change, and determined that traditional finding aids performed better. The analysis of the study's results is followed by a discussion about Web usability guidelines for online finding aids