Usability report First round of testing (analysis of our current site) Executive summary. What we have tested? The goal was to understand if our site is user friendly and if it is easy to find information. We have focused our attention on the website architecture, gathering specific feedback on current site home page, subscriptions, publications, events and news features, to determine expected performance on the current site and identify serious problems prior the next phase of production. Top three problems: 1. Logic/architecture of the website: the information isn’t well organized at a structural level. 2. Naming conventions: our labels are not clear for our audience, some tabs are confusing. 3. Information flow: the paths to get to the content are not clear. Too many steps to get specific information. The list of tasks participants did: a)
You are making a research on agriculture related topics. You want to get updates on
all new papers and research released under that topic. Find the latest research in ICTSD website in this area and subscribe to RSS feed. b)
You are interested on Environmental topics and someone suggests you to subscribe
to an ICTSD magazine that provides analysis and news on trade and environment. You also want to download its latest issue. c)
You want to know more about ICTSD, its donors, and its staff.
d)
You want to find out if there’s any upcoming event on trade and sustainable
development issues near you that you would like to attend organized by ICTSD or where they participate. e)
You want to find ICTSD’s contact information
f)
You want to write on ICTSD’s Facebook wall. Find social media tools on ICTSD
website. g)
You know that many researchers and subject-matter specialist are working with
ICTSD as consultants or external collaborators, writing research papers, news articles etc. You want to see who these researchers are and you want to know more about them. h)
You want to find a negotiating report.
What is working? All participants were able to easily find general information about the organization (tasks C and E), and to find the Agriculture programme in our site (tasks A).
What is not working? Participants don’t click on the ‘News’ tabs when they have to look for Biores (task B); if they have to look for an information by issue (e.g. Environment), they always click on the ‘Programmes’ section, even if we asked them to look for a Magazine. All users found our navigational scheme, our main menu, really confusing and too crowded. People don’t read the text description contained in the drop down menu, they only read the titles. Participants found frustrating the drop down menu because it contains too much text/information/options and they don’t know where to click (task D). Participants expected to find the social media icons on the home page or in a very relevant position, at the top or bottom of each page (task F). Some of the participants were looking for information related to our experts in the ‘About us’ section (task G). All participants were not able to find our negotiating reports from the WTO Ministerial Conferences (task H). Methodology Usability testing of six individuals selected from our target audience. Each session took approximately one hour. Participants were asked to fill out a basic questionnaire and background information, and non-disclosures were signed. A microphone, screen recording software’ and screen sharing software were used for every testing session. Testing Outline: I.
Orientation
II.
Background: Testing Site
III.
Begin Task list
IV.
Fill Out Post-Test Survey
V.
Debrief participant
Participants Diana Rizzolio – Coordinator of the Geneva Environment Network Tommaso Soave – Associate, Sidley Austin Gueye Kamal - Green Jobs Policy Specialist, ILO Jeremy Fancher – ICTSD Intern Facilitator Massimiliano Leone Tests Observers Andrew Crosby Andrew Aziz
All videos and the related documentation are available on request. Please contact Massimiliano Leone or Andrew Crosby if you are interested in watching/reading them.