simple user research methods: the first step to improving your website
DESCRIPTION
AzLA 2013 presentation by Ginger Bidwell, Rebecca Blakiston, and Rachel Hawes. November, 2013, in Fort McDowell, Arizona.TRANSCRIPT
Simple User Research Methodsthe First Step to Improving Your Website
Ginger Bidwell • Rebecca Blakiston • Rachel Hawes
November 2013
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Center for Creative Photography website
Special Collections website
Many other websites
Google Analytics: a starting point
• What are my users tapping on?
• Where did they come from?
• What were users looking for?
• What content do they use the most?
• Where do they go on the site?
Free up your time with users in-person for other questions
Google Analytics: learn what and where
What are my users tapping on?
Google Analytics: learn what and where
Google Analytics: learn what and where
What are my users tapping on?
Google Analytics: learn what and where
Where did they come from?
Google Analytics: learn what and where
Where did they come from?
Google Analytics: learn what and where
What were users looking for?
Google Analytics: learn what and where
What content do they use the most?
Google Analytics: learn what and where
Where do they go on your site?
• Who they are
• What they gained
• How they felt
• Why they left
Use in-person methods to discover some of these insights
Google Analytics can’t tell you:
User interviews help you learn why and how
• Why they use a service
• How they think about things
• Whether they would use a service
• How they describe things
Make sure you’re getting information you can act on!
User interviews can tell you:
• Formulate questions that can be answered quickly
• Find a place where your users hang out
• Offer incentives for participation
• Ask questions and record user responses
• Interpret those results
Share your results widely – tell your user’s story.
How to do user interviews
https://vimeo.com/78376929
User interviews help you learn why and how
What is Document Delivery?
Focus Groups can give you longer stories from users and conversations that can help shape the project
• Formulate questions that will generate discussion
• Find people from your target audience
• Invite them in, offer incentives for participation
• Ask questions and record user responses
• Interpret those results
You might learn something surprising!
How to do focus groups
“Show me what you’ve got!”
“What materials are you usually looking for?”
Focus groups help you learn more about who, why, and how
Users having a conversation about your site
Use card sorting to guide your labels and structure
Openvs.
Closedvs.
Hybrid
Entire websitevs.
section of website
Remotevs.
in person
Recruit actual users.
Pay attention to the way they describe things.
Why test your website?
Usability testing can lead to changes that directly help your end user
• Who they are
• How they feel about your site
• What obstacles exist
• Where changes need to be made
All information gathered during usability testing can be informative!
Usability testing can tell you
What and how to test
What and how to test
Intercept Usability Testingvs.
In-depth Usability Testing
Intercept Testing
Intercept Testing: Message to your users
Task: To learn about renewing a library book
Scenario: You have a library book that is due soon. You would like to extend the due date as it is a book you are using in one of your classes. How many times can you renew the book?
What: Tasks and Scenarios
User 1: Sophomore, English
• Attempt 1: My Account > Sign-In > Fail
• Attempt 2: Help > How do I? > FAQ > Borrowing
Information > Renewals > Success!
How: Chart paths to see user drop points and success rates.
• Could renewing be grouped under borrowing privileges?
• I wouldn’t look under services for this because late fees aren’t a service.” Could you call it “fines” instead of “fees”?
• I think it should say “Want something we don’t have?” or “Tell us what you need.”
Capture comments to relay at decision meetings
Task UsersSuccess
(Users)%
Total
Attempts
Success
(Attempts)%
1Find out circulation
periods6 5/6 ≈83 11 5/11 ≈45
2Find out how to get
something using ILL5 5/5 100 5 5/5 100
3Find information on fines,
late fees, etc.5 4/5 80 5 4/5 80
4To learn about renewing a
library book5 4/5 80 8 4/8 50
5 Request an article 7 5/7 ≈71 10 5/10 50
6 Suggest a purchase 3 0/3 0 10 0/10 0
Show your results
• Tests more in-depth functions
• Video-tape
• Duration: 30-60 minutes
• Substantial reward
• Test members from each target user group
(undergraduate, faculty, graduate, archivist)
In-depth usability testing
UndergraduateStudent
Archivist
Graduate Student Faculty Member
In-depth usability testing: Primary User Groups
https://vimeo.com/78200435
In-depth Usability Testing
Intercept Testing
• Perform intercept usability test
Where does user research fit in?
• Designers and developers can make data-backed
decisions
• Content editors get familiar with how users think
about their content
• Project managers learn key benefits from the
user’s point of view
And, of course, your users benefit because your website improves.
Who benefits from user research?
• More people care about improving the website
• Your knowledge builds over time and you can make better educated guesses
• You stay connected with users and understand what it’s like inside their heads
• You start to consider the user’s journey through your services
• You’ll have data to fall back on when making decisions later in the process
• A culture of user-centered thinking develops
What happens when you add user research to your process?
Rebecca• @blakistonr• [email protected]
Rachel• [email protected]
Ginger• @liquid06• [email protected]
Questions?