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. Overview Introduction How to do it Impact
3. What is usability testing? focusing on the user, not the
product testing the product, not the user
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. The Old Website
6. The New Website
7. The Old Model
8. The New Model
9. Our Process
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. Usability Testing @NYUOGS Includes 1/2 day a month Focuses
on one or two aspects of the site 3 users and food!
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. 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. 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. editorial calendar identify the stakeholders create tasks
develop scenarios Determine topic for the month
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. 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. Goal: Recruit 3 articulate and reliable users social media
flyers in lobby phone screening reminders Recruit users
19. Invite Observers Stakeholders Executives (optional but
recommended)
20. Game Day
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. Demo
23. Debrief Session
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. 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. 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. Debrief share top three usability problem observations
28. identify top 10 most serious problems Debrief
29. Debrief come up with a short term fix
30. Debrief delegate content and design tasks
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. Impact
33. The Old Website
34. Within 2 months of usability testing
35. The New Website
36. The Old Model
37. The New Model
38. Key to Success? Buy-In Executive buy-in Stakeholder buy-in
and accountability
39. Whats great about usability testing in higher
education?
40. Additional Resources
41. Thank You Follow us on Twitter @melissazuroff @hannasoyk
@nyu_ogs