TBS - Towards a user centred IA for Canada.ca - wiad2016

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1. Towards a User Centred IA for Canada.ca
 Web Renewal Initiative February 20, 2016 World IA Day
2. 2 An overview of how the needs of users have been put first during the creation of Canada.ca Purpose of presentation
3. 3 Web Renewal Basics Modernize the Government of Canada’s web presence by consolidating over approximately 1500 web properties from 91 institutions into one site, Canada.ca • Implement a user-centric model allowing users to complete tasks quickly and easily • Optimize for mobile, viewable on any device • Common technologies and platform • Consolidation target of December 2016 • Enable a reduction of infrastructure to support Shared Service Canada’s mandate, and improve security • See Annex A for more
4. 4 ✓ Launch of Canada.ca Release 1.0 (Dec 2013) ✓ Core requirements developed (Winter 2015) ✓ Managed Web Service contract awarded (Mar 2015) • CMS: Adobe Experience Manager • CDN: Akamai • Data centre: Amazon Cloud Services ✓ Canada.ca live on Managed Web Service (Dec 2015) Upcoming: • Onboarding of active web content from 91 institutions • Project close-out by December 2017 Milestones
5. 5 • Scanned the Government of Canada (GC) web presence in 2013 • Reviewed what other governments abroad and in Canada were doing Observations: • Task discoverability was a big challenge • Content consistency was an issue • There was commonality that could be leveraged • There was no silver bullet “situational awareness”
6. 6 Understanding the user Two users who need to visit a relative in a Canadian prison and want to find out what is involved to accomplish this. Karen • Has a vague idea of what information she is looking for • Does not know which GC institution she needs to get the information from Alex • Knows that Correctional Service Canada will provide the information • Needs more specifics on exactly what is involved in visiting someone
7. 7 • What do users want most from the Government of Canada? Where is the demand? • The team collected and analysed GC-wide web usage data to establish a list of the 100 GC Top Tasks • Most of the top tasks were service oriented, for example: • Find funding to start a business • Find a passport office • Apply for Employment Insurance • Get local weather information Understanding the tasks
8. 8 • To improve discoverability and structure the site in a way that reflects the demand of Canadians and other users, not only the interests of the public service • Develop a navigation approach and set of templates to be applied site-wide by all publishers, to drive consistent user experience and task discoverability • Establish more clear and precise guidance related to creating web content, to improve task success • Test and improve, test and improve! Initial conclusions
9. 9 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! • How do we ensure the site works for users? • How do we effectively engage and consult the vast number of GC stakeholders in Canada.ca? freedigitalphotos.net
10. 10 Channelling the collective imagination USER TESTING Moderated • Public participants • Prototype-based • Mobile & desktop Unmoderated • Tree testing • Loop 11 • Heuristic GUIDANCE UPDATED • Adjust approach based
 upon testing • Prepares final approach 
 for approvals & PREP APPROVALS • Director Generals • Assistant Deputy Ministers REFINEMENT • TBS Project Team reviews & aligns REALIZATION Web Renewal Content & IA Working Group • Theme Lead Departments • Representing 95% of GC web traffic Subject Matter Experts • Regulators, scientists, industry groups CONCEPTS IMPLEMENTED ON Canada.ca SPEC PERFORMANCE DATA • Provided by Service Canada and publishing institutions INITIATE TBS Project Team • Environmental scan • Analyzes source data • Initiates draft concepts CONSULTATION GC-WIDE *
11. 11 Structure of Canada.ca
12. Prioritizing organizing schemas Location Audience How critical is location to topic organization? How should audiences be served? Themes and Topics How do we create a GC-wide classification model that works for users? Institutions How will institutions be represented? Do users need to know who does what?
13. 13 Canada.ca Themes and Topics • To support users like “Karen”, a Canada.ca theme- based taxonomy was developed, based on the Top 100 Tasks GC-wide • Top 100 tasks grouped into Canada.ca Themes, tested with stakeholders and with users • Themes consist of related topics and sub-topics at levels below, with the objective that each topic be as GC-wide as possible • Each Theme is overseen by a Lead Department, participating in Web Renewal governance
14. 14 Canada.ca Themes and Topics • There are currently 1800 total topics published or planned for Canada.ca • Likely 30-40% will involve more than one GC institution Theme Lead Department Jobs and the workplace Employment and Social Development Canada Immigration and citizenship Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Travel Global Affairs Canada Business and industry Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Benefits Service Canada Health Health Canada Taxes Canada Revenue Agency Environment and natural resources Environment and Climate Change Canada National security and defence National Defence Culture, history and sport Canadian Heritage Policing, justice and emergencies Public Safety Canada Transport and infrastructure Transport Canada Canada and the world Global Affairs Canada Money and finances Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Science and innovation Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
15. Growing a GC Topic Tree First version of whole of GC Topic Tree complete Establish MVP Engage the Community Card sorts and tree tests with Theme Leads to expand/validate existing topic structure Validate GC-wide Tree Topic Tree Maturity Validation of Theme names and top-level structure Content inventory completed by all institutions – mapping to topic tree to validate Expansion of the Theme navigation structure Preliminary Theme structure and set of topics for Canada.ca established Content inventory analysis undertaken by each Theme Public Treejack studies for the entire Topic Tree (4 studies, 140 tasks) 95,736 trials by 11,967 public participants Analysis of government-wide usage data to establish Themes and initial Topics Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Maturation and refinement of the GC Topic Tree
16. Discoverability for Karen and Alex Policing, justice and emergencies Policing Corrections Emergencies Justice Victims of Crime Parole, record suspensions and clemency Theme and Topic Navigation (GC-Wide Topics) Correctional Service Canada Canada’s correctional system Community corrections Correctional facilities and security Institutional Navigation (Institution Specific Topics) Destination Content Karen Alex Corporate Content Information and Services Program and policy dev’t News Promotion
17. 17 Plan for change Defence and security Public Safety Relabel Testing results trigger Theme or Topic renaming National security and defence Policing, justice and emergencies National Parks Arts culture & heritage National Parks Travel and tourism Reorganize Testing results trigger a topic relocation New organizing models Other models are required to meet user needs Funding Culture, history and sport Business and industry Canada and the world Funding Funding
18. IA flexibility Business and industry Starting a business Business registration and incorporation Hierarchical representations, such as the topic tree, will be loosely tied to storage Other facets in the IA will be managed using metadata Increased flexibility to adjust the IA based on business needs Allows many different representations of information Approach Benefit
19. 19 Navigation, Templates, Content
20. 20 New GC-wide presentation templates have been developed to improve discoverability by creating a consistent user experience and reinforcing the priority organizing schemas for Canada.ca ✓ Topic Pages ✓ Institutional Profiles ✓ Ministerial Profiles ✓ Promotion ✓ Service Initiation ✓ Publications ✓ Laws & regulations ✓ “Contact Us” ✓ Corporate reporting Templates
21. Creating a GC-wide Topic Page 21 Financing Licenses and permits Incorporate Business number Taxes Business Visa How do I start a business? Industry Canada Industry Canada Industry Canada Canada Revenue Agency Canada Revenue Agency Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
22. 22 Creating a GC-wide Topic Page
23. 23 A consistent experience for users?
24. 24 CORP INFO SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTATION WHAT WE ARE DOING WHAT WE ARE DOING NEWS FEATURES NEWS- CAROUSEL MANDATE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE
25. 25 Mandate News Services and Information Program and Policy Development Promotions Corporate Information
26. 26 • The use of plain language has long been a requirement of the Government of Canada Communications Policy • How can publishers tell if their content is plain enough? Not consistently understood or implemented • New requirement that all web content to be: • Assigned an appropriate reading level based on audience • Assessed using specified tools • Revised, or otherwise managed over time • Details in Canada.ca Web Content Style Guide Content: Plain language
27. 27 Usability Testing
28. 28 Testing approach • Evidence-based decision-making a core principle of the project • Iterative, quarterly cycles of design-test-improve, undertaken with expert consultants • Focused on • Task success for specific top tasks on Canada.ca • common approaches - IA models, navigation menus, page templates, design patterns, Web Experience Toolkit What gets tested Why it’s tested WET components • Improve existing components, identify gaps, generate new designs Canada.ca prototypes • Evaluate proposed page templates, IA models, design patterns Mobile devices • Generate and improve mobile-first design patterns • Test implementation of page templates, IA models Assistive devices • Validate usability of WCAG-compliant code • Test implementation of page templates, IA models
29. 29 How do we know our IA is working? As themes and topics are developed and published on Canada.ca, task discoverability is improving
30. 30 Issues and Solutions: Topic/task navigation vs promotion • Issue: when topic/task navigation and templates were used for promotional content, it caused task failure – users could not discern between the enduring content and the features • Solution: design an approach to promotion that complements topic/task navigation • Canada.ca design now clearly separates topic/task navigation from promotional content • Test results triggered the development of guidelines and processes for promoting on Canada.ca
31. 31 Issues and Solutions: Content Design and Plain Language • Issue: Moderated testing confirmed several prevalent issues with content design on many destination pages – Dense prose instead of plain language – On-page copy not chunked for scanning – Key links embedded in body copy – Too many sidebars and callout boxes – Content structure not web-oriented (e.g. print style publications) • Solution: include solutions for these anti-patterns in Canada.ca requirements documentation • Status: enhanced guidance for content design in progress (Style Guide v1.5) Watch quick task renovation video
32. 32 Issues and solutions: initiating a service Desktop view Advanced service initiation template – strong design pattern • Moderated testing showed this step-by-step pattern works well when content designed accordingly • Testing revealed some issues with mobile design – step buttons took up too much space, prev-next buttons too large • Solutions to slim down the design have been implemented in WET code for template, and reflected in the Canada.ca Content and IA Specification Mobile view
33. 33 Looking ahead • Continue to work with Theme Lead Departments to mature the topic tree. Opportunities to: • flatten it, make it more consistent • encourage the ongoing development of GC-wide topics, with partners • Finalize templates, ensure the guidance is well understood by the GC publishing community, and implementation is successful on MWS • Establish framework for more clear and direct oversight of plain language publishing • Build usability testing capacity within GC institutions • Online testing tools that are inexpensive, simple to implement, deliver actionable, task-oriented results • Methodology that will enable GC institutions to deliver measurable results on Canada.ca
34. 34 Annexes
35. 35 • Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS)is leading the early conceptualization of Canada.ca, managing the set-up of the suite of new outsourced web services and is coordinating the transition by departments • Service Canada (SC), as the Principal Publisher, operates the platform and manages the MWS contract • TBS co-chairs two ADM-level Web Renewal committees which are accountable for, respectively: • the successful implementation of the WR initiative, and • ensuring that Canada.ca meets the needs of Canadians. • The membership comprises representatives from TBS, SC, Privy Council Office, and key stakeholder departments Annex A: Project Roles
36. 36 Annex B: Testing Overview R4 Round 1 R2 R3 2014 2016 R5 R6 R7 C&IA Spec V1.0 C&IA Spec V1.2 C&IA Spec V1.3
 Style Guide v1.5 C&IA Spec v0.5
 Style Guide v1.4 Tree testing - themes Tree testing – GC-wide Tests Participants Task scenarios Task trials Tree testing – unmoderated Themes 30 11,559 410 92,472 GC-wide 8 11,967 143 95,736 Usability testing – moderated R1 – R3 7 105 84 1154 R4 – R6 5 85 72 994 GC Web Renewal: Testing Common Approaches since the launch of Canada.ca 2015
37. 37 Plain language on topic pages • Canada.ca design includes templates to support finding and using services and information • Issue: testing uncovered that complicated, unclear content causes task failure regardless of templates used • Solution: WR project has developed an approach to ensure content on Canada.ca is written in plain language Annex C: Issues and Solutions
38. 38 Local and Mobile Navigation • Issue: Moderated testing uncovered that users do not expect local navigation (i.e “leftnav”) options in global menus • Issue: Moderated testing revealed that local navigation that did not include lower-level pages resulted in task failures for participants 
 • Solution: WR project iterated local and mobile menu design to (1) include lower- level pages, and (2) remove local navigation from hamburger menu and include it in-page instead • Status: further testing of improved menu design in progress In mobile view, must touch global menu button to reveal local navigation Annex D: Issues and Solutions
39. 39 Annex E: Issues and Solutions Contact page Finder Footer Canada.ca approach for Contact Us – solid design pattern • Moderated testing validated the proposed approach to Contact Us: footer labels, a contact finder and contact page templates • Minor issues with the prototype; design to be updated to reflect best practices for finder patterns • Documentation of the Contact Us approach in the Content and IA Specification in progress, with WET implementation to follow • IA evolution to follow: incorporating redirection back to self-serve 1 2 3 4