1. 1. Usability Testing and Design for Higher Education Web Sites Friday, February 14 10:15am-11:15am by Hanna Kang-Brown and Melissa Zuroff
2. 2. Overview Introduction How to do it Impact
3. 3. What is usability testing? focusing on the user, not the product testing the product, not the user
4. 4. Why usability testing? Hear directly from the people who use our website and services Understanding why and not just guessing from site analytics Identifying and prioritizing major problems A way to get stakeholder buy-in
5. 5. The Old Website
6. 6. The New Website
7. 7. The Old Model
8. 8. The New Model
9. 9. Our Process
10. 10. Usability Testing @NYUOGS Our Motto: Its about making it better, not perfect. Modeled after Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug Based on Lean UX principles
11. 11. Usability Testing @NYUOGS Includes 1/2 day a month Focuses on one or two aspects of the site 3 users and food!
12. 12. Typical Schedule 11.15 to11.30 Introduction / Lunch 11.30 to 12.30 1st User 12.30 to 1.30 2nd User 1.30 to 2.30 3rd User 2.30 to 3.30 Debrief
13. 13. What do you need? Observation room with screen and phone Testing room with computer (any office will do) A budget for food and rewards for the users Google Hangout for screen sharing (free) Screen Recording Software ($99) Computer and Mic
14. 14. Yearly Budget Lunch, snacks, beverages for 10 people, once a month ($200) Screenflow screen sharing software, $100. One time purchase. Incentives - $25 Amazon gift card, 3 x month. totals around $3400
15. 15. editorial calendar identify the stakeholders create tasks develop scenarios Determine topic for the month
16. 16. Find out what kind of visa you need. Find out what you need to do in order to get the visa. Find out what financial documents you need to provide in applying for the visa. Tasks
17. 17. You just got accepted to Stern Business School as an M.B.A. student. Youve been instructed by your academic department to contact the Office of Global Services in order to get the right visa before you start your program. Find out what kind of visa you need to apply for. Scenarios
18. 18. Goal: Recruit 3 articulate and reliable users social media flyers in lobby phone screening reminders Recruit users
19. 19. Invite Observers Stakeholders Executives (optional but recommended)
20. 20. Game Day
21. 21. What do observers do? Watch and learn Take notes Ask questions to the participants Identify three most important usability problems they saw in that session Come to the debrief
22. 22. Demo
23. 23. Debrief Session
24. 24. Guidelines for Success Stick to what you observed Focus on the most serious problems. Objective: a list of problems well fix within the next month and doable fixes.
25. 25. Prioritize the most serious problems Will a lot of people experience this problem? Will it cause a serious problem for the people who experience it, or is it just an inconvenience?
26. 26. Doable fixes take less than 2 hours to tweak, edit or write. are doable within a monthly timeline are based on user testing observations If it doesnt fit that criteria, its not a doable fix!
27. 27. Debrief share top three usability problem observations
28. 28. identify top 10 most serious problems Debrief
29. 29. Debrief come up with a short term fix
30. 30. Debrief delegate content and design tasks
31. 31. Sample Timeline Week 1 - Content Due Week 2 - Review and Final Approval Week 3 - Design Due Week 4 - Email / Blog Updates on Changes Next Usability Testing
32. 32. Impact
33. 33. The Old Website
34. 34. Within 2 months of usability testing
35. 35. The New Website
36. 36. The Old Model
37. 37. The New Model
38. 38. Key to Success? Buy-In Executive buy-in Stakeholder buy-in and accountability
39. 39. Whats great about usability testing in higher education?
40. 40. Additional Resources
41. 41. Thank You Follow us on Twitter @melissazuroff @hannasoyk @nyu_ogs