Usability Testing Report

ITS Site Navigation

A Usability Testing Report is the key document to gain a deeper understanding of our audience's needs and frustrations. Whether it’s for a website, mobile app, physical product, or anything you can test in front of people, usability tests can help you discover product flaws as well as areas of confusion.

Table of Contents

  • Executive Summary
  • Goals
  • Methodology
  • Results
  • Disclaimer

Research Team

  • Will Burns
  • John Cady
  • Kevin Jeong
  • Alissa Chan

Executive Summary

The purpose of this user research is to gain a better understanding of the audience's needs and frustrations in navigating the ITS website. It is to help discover flaws and areas of confusion with the site’s navigation menus, the "navigation bar," as well as the secondary navigation pages, the "landing pages."

As a result, the navigation can be designed to better match the audience's mental model, or expectations, when they are looking for information on the ITS website.

Factors of usability test:

  • Findability
  • Clarity
  • Appeal

Test participants represented ITS staff and university students studying Computer Science. Each participant were given three random tasks to complete to test the ITS site navigation. The participants were instructed not to use the search functionality in order to complete the tasks. However, they could comment if and when they would resort to using the search during the test.

This report includes the details of how the research was conducted and the results that are being used to influence the design decision of the ITS site navigation.

Key Findings

78%
of the usability tests resulted in successful completion of at least 2 out of the 3 tests.

67%
of participants said they would use the search function rather than the navigation menu.

1-2 minutes
was the average time spent per task by participants.

 

Goals

Test the ITS site navigation with likely target audience.

Reveal pain points and confusing experiences.

Discover users' preferred way of navigating the ITS website.

 


Methodology

Screening

Screening Criteria:

  • Must be familiar with the ITS organization.
  • Should have a general understanding of ITS products & services.

Participants

  1. Staff - Technical
  2. Staff - Technical
  3. Staff - Technical
  4. Staff - Non-Technical
  5. Staff - Non-Technical
  6. Staff - Non-Technical
  7. Student - C.S. Major
  8. Student - C.S. Major
  9. Student - C.S. Major

Testing Setup, Moderation & Post Test Questions

1. Introduction

The participants were told that the test session would consist of two parts, both of which should take about 30 minutes. They were assured that no identifying information would be published, and any off-the-record comments will be kept confidential by the research analysts.

2. Tasks

The participants were given three random tasks to complete, out of the six tasks pre-determined tasks, to test the ITS site navigation. They were instructed to “think out loud” while they were trying to complete the tasks. They were instructed not to use the search functionality, however, they could comment if and when they would resort to using the search at any time.

  1. How to host a BlueJeans conference
  2. Get info about ITS data centers
  3. How to reset your password
  4. Find information about MPrint
  5. How to connect device to Wi-Fi
  6. Request MiWorkspace services for a new employee

3. Post-Test Questions

After the tasks were completed, the participants were given the rest of the test session to give us any feedback, comments, or questions the ITS website or anything else, if they wished. Follow-up questions were asked by research analysts for clarification or to gather better insight.

ITS Staff to Students

67%
33%

67%
ITS Staff

33%
Students

ITS Staff: Technical to Non-Technical

50%
50%

50%
Technical ITS Staff

50%
Non-Technical ITS Staff

 

Results

Tasks

How to host a BlueJeans conference

Navigation Accuracy
50%
Search Instead
33%

Get info about ITS data centers

Navigation Accuracy
50%

How to reset your password

Navigation Accuracy
75%
Call 4HELP Instead
25%

Find information about MPrint

Navigation Accuracy
75%
Search Instead
25%

How to connect device to Wi-Fi

Navigation Accuracy
71%
Search Instead
29%

Request MiWorkspace services

Navigation Accuracy
100%
Search Instead
33%

Engagement

Some participants, including staff, do not use the ITS website often or at all. They did not recall the last time they visited the ITS website.

Students were apathetic about the ITS website because its purpose is not clear (other than ‘Get Help’) and there’s too much technical content. They used the General Computing sites in the past.

Most participants did not notice, or just scanned, the content "below the fold," i.e., they did not scroll down the page very often.

Look & Feel

Most participants commented that the site is visually pleasing and appear to be "modern" looking.

Behavior

Many participants prefer to search rather than to use the navigation menu. They tend to recall where information was last located or rely on bookmarks to get back to the information they need.

The Good
  • No nested menus
  • Appears to be well-organized generally
The Bad
  • Still too many options to choose from
  • Text reads like dictionary or glossary terms
  • Unclear what audiences need all this content/information
 
 

Disclaimer

It's important to remember that people bring their own experiences and biases into a test without realizing it. Some factors that can affect the results of a usability test:

  1. The sample size is not representative of all people that may use the product.
  2. Questions and tasks administered varied from participant to participant.
  3. Human error and misinterpretations of qualitative feedback.
  4. Human error and miscalculation of quantitative data.