Lost and Found Website

Usability Test Report

Usability Test led by Sarah Holloway

December 2-3, 2007

Report prepared December 3-4, 2007 (CIF Format)

Prepared by Sarah Holloway

Contact Info:

Sarah Holloway

509A Center St.

Blacksburg, VA 24060

703-945-0435

Executive Summary

I developed a website for a homegroup called Lost and Found (LAF). We call our small groups “homegroups” because they are meant to be a place where people can form close relationships and experience a sense of belonging. This website was designed for current members and prospective members of LAF. The website is meant to be mostly informative - providing information about who we are, what we are doing, and to record what we’ve been doing.

To test this website, I conducted four individual interviews. Three of the participants are current members of LAF. One participant is currently a member of another homegroup. Two participants are female; two participants are male. Two participants are students and two participants are working. One participant has experience with web design, but the other three have little to none. Overall, I think these participants are a representative sample of people who would be interested in and care about the success of this website.

The purpose of the usability test was to present it to a small group of people before making it public to get their initial reactions and suggestions for improvement.

Summary of Results

Design: Two participants did not like the color scheme, but were satisfied with the overall design. Two participants were satisfied with the design.

Navigability: All four participants felt that the site was very easy to navigate.

Tasks: All four participants responded to the tasks with ease.

Prospective Members: All of the participants felt that those who were not members of Lost and Found would understand what the group was about by looking at the website.

Actual Use: Three of the four participants said they would visit this site at least once a week.

Main Suggestions for Improvement:

  • Use CSS instead of tables for the website design.
  • Use a full school year calendar instead of a monthly calendar, and use an actual calendar as a lay-out.
  • Clarify how to use the photo album.
  • Have the link to the photo album open in a new window.
  • Have the link to the photo album go straight to the login page.
  • Give a more detailed explanation of what a homegroup is and what ministry it is associated with.
  • Provide a way for students to indicate that they want to be added to the LAF listserv.

Introduction

Product Description

I developed a website for a small group called Lost and Found. This group is affiliated with a campus church/ministry called New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF). NLCF has many small groups, also known as homegroups. Because our church is so big (over 500 people attend weekly), we feel it is important to give students a way to get involved with a small group that would allow them to form strong relationships. We call them “homegroups” because they are meant to be a place where people can feel a sense of belonging. Homegroups meet once a week for at least an hour. There are usually 20-40 people in each homegroup. Anyone is welcome.

Because we are a college ministry, people come and go every year. Freshmen come in and seniors graduate; we are always changing. Having this in mind, this website was designed for current members and prospective members of Lost and Found. The website is meant to be mostly informative - providing information about who we are, what we are doing, and to record what we’ve been doing.

The website is made up of nine main pages. These pages are as follows: Home Page, Contact Us, Lifegroups, Get Involved, Event Calendar, Review, People, and Photo Album.

Home Page – defines and describes who we are and what we do in LAF.

Contact Us – gives important contact information.

Lifegroups – lists our small groups (3-5 people), when/where they meet, and what they are studying.

Get Involved – describes different ways a person can get involved with LAF or with NLCF.

Event Calendar – lists events the homegroup is participating in for the current month.

Review – gives a brief review of what we did in homegroup the past few weeks, for those who could not attend.

People – focuses on two members of LAF every month. This is intended to allow members and prospective members to get to know a little bit more about the people in the homegroup.

Photo Album – a place to collect pictures of events and people in our homegroup.

Test Objectives

In taking this test, users were encouraged to interact with the entire website. The overall objectives of this usability test were as follows:

  • To expose a small group of people to the website.
  • To get initial reactions to the design and navigability of the website.
  • To give participants certain tasks to compelte to test the website’s ease of use.
  • To get an outside perspective on what could be improved.
  • To make sure the content is clear to members and prospective members.
  • To make sure the website would actually be used.

Method

Participants

Participant / Gender / Age / Occupation / Level of experience with web design / Level of experience with computers/ internet / Member of Lost and Found?
Participant 1 / Female / 28 / Graduate Student – Math / None / Use both daily / Yes
Participant 2 / Female / 21 / Undergraduate – English/Comm / Beginner / Use both daily / Yes
Participant 3 / Male / 25 / Architect / None / Use both daily / Yes
Participant 4 / Male / 29 / Communications Engineer and NLCF Staff Member / Proficient / Use both daily / No

Context of Usability Test

Task #1

Task 1 asked participants the following: If you had a question about the website, who would you contact? After visiting websites in which contact information was very hard to find, I wanted to make sure that it would be very simple for visitors to find contact information very quickly, especially if their questions related to the website. After finding the specific answer to this task, participants were asked to rate how easy it was to find this information. Participants were also given space to make any comments they wanted about this task.

Task #2

Task 2 asked participants the following: Can you figure out how to upload a picture to Lost and Found’s photo album? This question was followed up with the following: How long did it take you to figure this out? 1-2 minutes, 3-4 minutes, 5-7 minutes, or over 10 minutes. This task was chosen because the Photo Album is probably the most potentially problematic feature of this website. This issue is that the actual photo album is located on another website. This could make navigating back to the Lost and Found website hard. This task also asked participants to make any relevant comments.

Task #3

Task 3 asked participants the following: What would you need to do to post something to the Lost and Found Event Calendar? I asked this because I put this information in small type and I wanted to make sure people would not overlook it. Also, it will probably be something a lot of people want to know because people always want to announce different events. This task also asked participants to comment.

Test Facility

The testing facility was different for each participant.

Participant 1 completed this usability test in her office on campus in the morning. This means there were probably little to no distractions. It was probably quiet. Being a graduate student, I feel that she probably brought great focus and attention to this test.

Participant 2 completed this test in her dorm room at her desk. She may have had some distraction with a roommate and possibly music or a tv turned on. I believe this participant brought a lot of enthusiasm to this task.

Participant 3 completed this test at his computer at home. He completed this task in the evening after work. He may have been somewhat tired and probably had the tv on in the background. I believe this participant brought great care to this test.

Participant 4 describes his testing environment as “my kitchen table amidst Christmas décor and after a long hard day of kids throwing tantrums.” It is clear that he had much to distract him. But this participant, being a web designer himself, probably brought great attention to detail to this evaluation despite the fact that he was in a busy environment.

Test Administrator Tools

A full copy of the questionnaire used is in Appendix A.

Participant Instructions

Participants were asked to review the website and to respond to the questionnaire. After responding to the standard questionnaire, I discussed their responses further with them.

Results

  • Overall, participants felt that the homepage gave a good description of what Lost and Found is/does.
  • Overall, participants had trouble with the Photo Album page. Two participants expressed that they wouldn’t really put much effort towards using the photo album because they didn’t want to “login” or “register” with the site ( although neither of those actions is necessary to view the pictures. Two participants said it took them 1-2 minutes to figure out how to upload a picture. The other two participants said it took them 3-4 minutes.
  • Three out of four participants thought that this website would portray information about Lost and Found to non-members very clearly.
  • Three out of four participants thought that this website achieved its purpose of informing prospective/current members about Lost and Found very well.
  • Two participants specifically mentioned the “Review” page as a feature they really liked.
  • One participant felt that the website had no personality; a different participant felt that the photos did a great job communicating the fun personality of the group.
  • All participants liked the overall design.
  • All participants agreed that the site is easy to navigate.
  • Three of four participants said they would visit the site at least once a week.

Analysis

After reviewing the results of the questionnaire, I found that all the participants agreed that they liked the overall design of the website. Though participant one and four both disliked the color scheme, it didn’t seem to affect their overall opinions of the design. The design seems to work because it makes for easy navigation. And as participant four said, the pictures seem to really express the personality of the group. Though participant one said that the website seemed to lack a sense of personality, I would assume that came more from the written content of the website, rather than the graphic design elements (color, font, pictures, etc.) of the website.

I think the three pages that will need the most improvement are the homepage, the event calendar, and the photo album. The homepage needs to clarify what a homegroup is for those who are not familiar with them and it needs to state its affiliation with NLCF. The event calendar would benefit from having more than one month’s worth of events. I would like to prepare at least 2 months in advance so that users can look forward to what the homegroup will be doing. Finally, I think I need to add to the instructions on the photo album page on how to use the website that the actual photo album is located on. I will also try to figure out how to make sure the link opens in a new window when users click on it.

Conclusion

One participant said of his overall impression of the site that he “think[s] this is an excellent idea for all homegroups. It could become as much a tool as ‘facebook’ for all connections within homegroups.” I conclude with this quote because this was my initial thought in beginning this project. Homegroups are about developing deep relationships and connections with people with whom you share a common faith. My hope is that having a homegroup website will only add to this effort. Things like facebook and myspace are good for networking and expressing identity, and I hope to bring these elements to our homegroup website. I hope it helps us to network with those looking to get involved with us, and to help express our group identity.

Appendix A

Lost and Found Website

Usability Test

Participant Questions

  1. Name
  1. Gender
  1. Age
  1. Occupation
  1. Level of experience with web design
  1. Experience with computers and the Internet
  1. Member of Lost and Found? Prospective Member?

Preliminary Questions

  1. Just by looking at the homepage, how would you describe the purpose of this website?
  1. Just by looking at the homepage, can you tell what Lost and Found is/does?
  1. Describe the setting in which you are taking this usability test.

Tasks

1. If you had a question about the website, who would you contact?

How easy was it to find this information? (Check one)

__ Difficult

__ Somewhat difficult

__ Somewhat easy

__ Easy

Comments:

2. Can you figure out how to upload a picture to Lost and Found’s photo album? How long did it take you to figure this out?

__ 1-2 minutes

__ 3-4 minutes

__ 5-7 minutes

__ Over 10 minutes

Comments:

3. What would you need to do to post something to the Lost and Found Event Calendar?

4. How clearly would this website portray information about Lost and Found to someone who is not a member?

__ It would be very clear.

__ It would be somewhat clear.

__ It would be somewhat unclear.

__ It would be unclear.

What might the website need to clarify about Lost and Found?

5. The purpose of this website is to inform prospective and current members about Lost and Found – who we are, what we are doing, and to record what we’ve been doing. How well does this website achieve its purpose?

__ Very well

__ Good

__ Fair

__ Poor

Comments:

6. Do you like the overall design of the site?

Is the site easy to navigate?

Exit Questions

1.What is your overall impression of the site?

2.How often do you think you would visit this website per week?

3.What did you like best about the site?

4.What did you like least about the site?

5.If you were the website developer, what would be the first thing you would do to improve the website?

6.Is there anything that you feel is missing on this site?

7.Do you have any other final comments or questions?

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