Ask Your Users

Using User Studies to inform the redesign of a University website

Transcript

1. Ask  Your  Users Redesigning the Western site with User Studies
2. Project  Overview Nov 2010 – Sept 2011
3. Quick  Project  History •  Branding nearly finished by Marketing before we began •  Nov 2010 project proposal approved •  Features presented 2/11 •  Page Flow (Architecture) presented 5/11 •  Design presented 6/11; FAILS! Re-worked and presented 7/11 •  Site delivered 8/29/11
4. Quick  Project  Structure •  Small volunteer committee from different areas of campus •  (all volunteer design group) •  One full-time implementer! •  Reported to President’s Council at end of each deadline
5. Quick  Drupal  Summary •  Drupal 7 •  Hosted at WWU: 2 redundant servers •  1.5M hits / month •  Using Zend for caching and back- end monitoring •  Integrated with Google Search Appliance •  Currently building multi-domain sites for colleges/depts across campus (different Drupal 7 instance)
6. Writing  the  Proposal •  Define Audience (extranet / marketing) •  Define initial Requirements including: o  Goals: create imagery for what this site is to be; why and what o  Platform (Drupal) and Performance requirements o  Define major content areas o  Define what’s NOT included •  Define Timelines & Resources o  Functionality and page flow BEFORE design o  How approval for each stage occurs; who-when-how •  Risk Management: Create a fall-back resource o  Contractor or extra human resources o  More schedule time (hah!) o  Create prioritized requirements – so some can be left out in a crunch •  Drupal theming ended up being done by contractor
7. User  Studies   And tools that might be useful
8. When  to  talk  to  Users
9. Participation  From  Our   Users Date Description   Participants January On-­‐‑line  Survey  to  determine  Tasks 7600 April  1 Design  concepts;  Taxonomy  testing 10 April  8 Layout  and  Taxonomy  testing 5 April  15 Layout  and  Taxonomy;  Card-­‐‑sorting 21 April  29 Draft  Designs 36 May  13 More  Designs;  Video  Interviews 38 May  27 Refinements  of  Designs;  DIY  design 38+ July Hotspot  Testing  (on-­‐‑line) 600+ August Test  environments  (comments  by  email) 30+
10. User  Testing:  What  makes   it  Successful? •  Really decide what you’re testing •  What do you need to know – frame it as concretely as possible •  Analytically figure out how to get at the question •  If it doesn’t seem to work, change the test mid-stream – guerilla testing is FAST and FLUID •  Attracting attention can be hard – be bold! •  Give stuff away – it doesn’t have to be expensive •  Do some stuff that’s just fun – interactive and non-monitored is the best •  White board magnets •  Video cameras •  Design-your-own page •  Come back and try it a different way another time
11. User  Study:  On-­‐‑line   Survey •  Question o  Who are our users; What tasks are they doing •  Study Format o  On-line survey of all users coming through home page o  Responses: 7500+ in less than a week •  Tool / Cost / Strength o  KISSinsights.com o  free to $30/month (depends on # of respondents) o  When large sample useful
12. On-­‐‑line  survey •  Who are you? o Prospective Student o Current Faculty / Staff / Student o Alumnus or Community •  What are you looking for? •  Optional- provide email address.
13. Survey  Results •  7700 responses •  1100 external audience •  Provided an in- depth view of the primary destinations
14. Guerilla  User  Studies •  Who to use as Subjects o  Best case – find your users o  Adequate – find users of similar demographics •  Attracting Subjects o  Give encouragement (sweets or coffee cards) o  We held 5 events, alternate Fridays, under a lime green umbrella •  Testing o  Keep exercises short and simple o  5-8 subjects can reveal 80% of issues
15. User  Study:  Tasks  and   Taxonomy     •  Question o  What tasks are they looking for; What do they call the tasks •  Study Format o  Guerilla model; one-on-one interviews o  Screen mock-up provided •  Tool / Cost / Strength o  Paper and Recording device o  Livescribe.com Recording Pen ($79) o  Good for subjective interviews
16. Tasks  &  Taxonomy:     Method  1 •  Ask user to mark up each item and explain thinking o Useful o Don’t Need o Don’t Understand
17. Mock  up  Page
18. Livescribe  Pen •  Non-Obtrusive Recording •  Tap on notes to replay conversation at that point •  Uses special paper but you can print it yourself
19. Tasks  &  Taxonomy:     Method  2 •  Card Sorting on magnetic white board o  Leave some blank for write-ins o  move them around o  Provide pens for boxing, adding buttons etc
20. Tasks  &  Taxonomy:     Method  2 Biggest strength: •  Users enjoyed it •  Drew people in to our testing station
21. Developing  Page  Flow Big Subjects: o  Menu and Taxonomy o  What Content on each page
22. User  Study:  Page  Flow •  Question o  What are the tasks; how do they proceed •  Study Format o  On-line, let users play and comment •  Tool / Cost / Strength o  iPlotz.com – online and desktop models together o  free to $99/year (depends on # of pages) and $75 for desktop perpetual license (PC only) o  Good for modeling and demo-ing page flow dynamically; also easy to create pages
23. Page  Flow:  Wireframing   Tools •  Not just a drawing tool: Dynamic linking •  Master pages (Templates) •  Online for best access / also desktop for speed •  Good library of web objects and graphic tools •  Can also put in photos •  Reasonable Price Why  we  chose   iplotz.com  
24. User  Study:  Design   Comments •  Show concepts and designs to users early and often - take the hits early! •  Menus placement and design central to success •  Don’t neglect secondary pages
25. User  Study:  DIY you  see  things     a  different    way   users  gain   appreciation  for   design  issues  
26. Final  Design:  Live  Testing   before  Coding •  Tool: IntuitionHQ.com o  Email survey link to users o  Users are divided among two designs o  Users perform tasks on-line by clicking on images •  Results show hot- spots of how many clicked where •  600 responses
27. Other  Tools  for  Teams •  Dropbox or other cloud storage to share files •  Grou.ps – CMS for wiki, chat, blogs, file storage/ sharing, forums, $3/mo •  Unfuddle.com – During site building, provides ticketing, GIT repository, server log / notebook capability ($10/ month) •  OneNote (online and desktop; great notebook/ pg structure) •  Prezi.com – presentations, especially where you need excitement
28. Summary •  Survey - online surveys good for gathering lots of responses •  Guerilla testing good for quickly engaging the user: qualitative testing, specific task testing, functionality lists, specific questions •  Hot-Spot testing good for testing visual designs before you code
29. Summary:  Tools •  KISSinsights.com (survey tool) •  Livescribe.com (recording pen) •  iPlotz.com (wireframing tool) •  IntuitionHQ.com (hot-spot tool) •  Team tools: dropbox, grou.ps, unfuddle.com, prezi.com •  Always – your imagination!
30. Questions? For later questions: marie.raney@wwu.edu