Marylou Novak    UX Research  |  Content Strategy

Summative usability evaluation of updates to University’s free self-publishing platform for students, faculty, and staff to build academic and research-related sites and blogs

Business Problem

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• Current users frequently don't take advantage of the platform's full capabilities

• Current users often do not follow required branding standards

• Current users rely on telephone/email support from one individual with other obligations

• Potential users often use outside consulting and commercial platforms and produce sites that are not properly branded

Project Goals
 

• Facilitate users’ ability to follow the University brand standards with templates

• Increase ease-of-use for novice users and encourage experienced users to take advantage of additional features

• Attract new users with updated design, increased usability, and enhanced marketing

• Reduce strain on existing support staff by providing new documentation available from within the tool

Challenges

 

• Decisions to this point had relied on the developer and support person's opinions, not on user research

• Management saw usability testing as a way to confirm, not challenge, these assumptions

• Timelines had been delayed for technical reasons prior to usability testing, and launch was imminent

 

Research Goals

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• Discover current and potential users' familiarity and comfort with blogging, content management, and web design platforms in general

• Evaluate ease-of-use and appeal of new introductory page and templates

• Ascertain users' likelihood of seeking out support documentation

• Probe sentiment around general topic (web design) and specific solution (CampusPress and branded templates)

    
Research Approach

 

Primary Questions    

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1. Are typical NUsites users comfortable with web-based site/content tools in general?    

2. Will users consult support/training documentation? Under what circumstances?    

3. Will providing fill-in templates make it easier to follow brand standards?    

4. What is overall impression of the redesign?

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Methods

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I worked with eight current and potential users with a mix of platform-related experience and comfort levels.

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• User interviews 

• Usability testing (introductory web page and sample template)

Results

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Overall, testers did not want to read introductory text or support documentation, and found platform-specific terminology confusing.

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1. Text Quantity: Most testers were drawn to icons, but wouldn't read the text associated with them if it was more than a phrase/heading's worth.
   
   Recommendation: Significantly reduce, bullet, and/or eliminate text under the bold step-by-step headings.
    

2. Visual Design: Large hero images impeded some users' scrolling.
   
   Recommendation: Reduce size of hero image so that content lower on the page is visible; include small arrow icon overlay to prompt scrolling.
    

3. Naming/Access: All testers resisted using available documentation even when they were stuck.
   
   Recommendation: Consider referring to documentation as “Help,” “How-to’s,” or “Resources” and remove any references to “documentation” or “instructions.”
   
   Recommendation: Where possible, include tooltips, icons, overlays, and/or very brief inline explanatory text within the application rather than forcing people to click away for help. 

    

4. Vocabulary: Most testers struggled with platform terminology.
   
   Recommendation: Consider including alternative names, a key, or a glossary for unfamiliar terms, such as hero, divi, and lockup.
   
   Recommendation: Provide inline and/or obvious cues for novices; let them know they won’t “break” anything while they gain experience.
   
   Examples: 
      - tooltips
      - confirmations/dialogues
      - preview function
      - sandbox
    

5. Context: Testers had difficulty distinguishing site-level settings via the customizer and content administration via the dashboard. They often tried to do one type of edit in the other area.
   
   Recommendation: Add note to the customizer to let users know that it is exclusively for site-level settings and that content changes should be handled from the dashboard.
      - Add note that the customizer must be closed to return to content editing.
   
   Recommendation: Look into a way to better differentiate which function they are currently using (background shading? Font color? Highlighting?).
   
   Recommendation: Consider hiding admin bar customizer preview and possibly removing customizer link from top admin bar, forcing users to navigate there through appearance, to help understand context better.
   
   Recommendation: Consider very brief, forced introductory overlay for first-time users to point out the features on the screen and/or distinguish the two possible types of administration (site vs. content).