Week 14 Outside of Class

I had used this time to complete almost all of my visuals and layout of my website. This includes visualizing my System Usability Scale, User responses, and other elements. I had to experiment with a lot of different layouts for my website, as I worked a little backwards where I shouldn't have (creating visuals over the layout first.) I decided to go with a darker theme and brighter visuals to make the information stand out more. Below is what my web-page is looking at at this current time.

Week 14

No Class.

Week 13 Outside of Class

With Thanksgiving break approaching, I used this time to finish gathering new participants for my last two UX Methods. For System Usability Scale, I had found three common questions that UX designers often ask participants. I began by giving them the same tasks as the first group, then asked for them to rate questions from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The questions I had asked my participants are:

•  "I felt very confident using this system"
• "I found this system unnecessarily complex"
• "I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system"

While most of their replies were around neutral, their responses hovered more towards having a negative than positive experience. All of them were able to navigate the site without too much issue, but it appeared that it had taken longer for them to find key information than they should have. 

For the second response, they were again able to navigate without too much problem. Some did find the system slightly complex, as the navigation on the website was scattered almost everywhere. With links on the bottom of the page, a large navigation bar and several windows littering the body of the page, navigation was tiresome. Lastly, all participants leaned towards agreeing with this last statement. I had the opportunity to ask a friend of mine who is experienced in webdesign and was given really interesting feedback. She had mentioned the use of icons replacing key information and how ineffective it was, as first time users wouldn't understand what they stand for. These icons aren't used anywhere else on the website, so it was an odd choice. She also mentioned other elements that were used on only one page and not others, leading to a lot of inconsistency. 

After compiling all of the responses from my previous UX methods, I took the most common compliments, complaints and suggestions and had created an "I Like I Wish What If" visual. Below is the finished visual that summarizes all of the gathered data.

 

Week 13

So far, I had finished three out of my five UX methods. At this point, I need to finish I Like I Wish What If, and System Usability Scale, which was not part of my original UX methods. To clarify, the five finalized methods that i'm doing are

• I Like I Wish What IF
• System Usability Scale
• Five Second Testing
• Competitive Analysis
• Informal Usability Testing

I had changed my methods around a few times since I felt as if better ones could be applied to my website. After doing my older methods such as card sorting, I didn't feel like it was performed to the best of my abilities and better methods could be used. 

I used this time to begin working on my website presentation. I began creating the visual elements that I will use and will begin working on the layout of the page afterwards. I was brainstorming how I could visualize the data of these different UX methods and figured that using graphs and scales would be the best way to do this (similar to the graph in my previous post.) I plan to break up each section into a different UX Method and giving it its own header. Right now i'm experimenting with different visuals for that. (Both still unfinished)

Week 12 Outside of Class

The UX Method I did was Informal Usability Testing. I had asked four users (will find an extra person soon) nine different questions. How to signup, FAQ's, Searching for a Tavern Business, About Us, Searching for Dairy Queen, Job Searching, Renting Properties, Business Spotlights, and searching for the Keytag Program. Below are graphs I had used to keep track of my data. I had tested five users in total.

I found it pretty interesting how some of the participants I had asked had found trouble finding simple features such as the FAQ and About us sections. While they technically were able to find it, if they felt as if they had more trouble than they should have or gave up, I had counted that towards an incomplete. The reason I had done it this way is to show if the participants felt as if the items were in the best place they could be and if the placement was effective. They could have found these items, but it doesn't mean the placement of them was effective. To clarify, I had used this test to see if the users were satisfied with the organization, not just simply measuring if they could do it.

While the users had performed the first task, I had also taken note of how long it took them to complete each task. To do this, I had added all of individual their times up and averaged them out in seconds (rounding up). Once the participants had reached over thirty seconds, I had decided to indicate this as (30+) rather than an exact number. Once they reached over 30, I felt as if that was too long to search for an item, meaning that it could possibly use improvement.  

Week 12

Before class, I had finished interviewing two other users for the 5 Second Test method. I thought their answers were both pretty interesting. Marcus, who I had asked first, said that the website looked "off" to him and that it reminded him of a pyramid scheme which was an interesting take. He stated that everything looked vague and lacked any kind of description. The images and overall feel of the website in conjunction with the vagueness gave him that impression, making him feel odd about it.

The second person I had asked, Hannah, thought that they were some kind of organization that hosted events for their community. During the five second test, she focused almost exclusively on the slideshow. In the slideshow, they show images of their mixers, luncheons, and festivals. 

In class I had performed the Competitive Analysis method. This was another method that I did not originally intend to perform, but I had decided to replace the original card sorting method with. I thought this very valuable, as it allowed me to look at a website that hosts similar content and see how they handle their organization. The website I had decided to look at was Entrepreneur. This website also offers a huge amount of information such as selling books, seminars and other things. I exclusively paid attention to the organization and navigation though. To start, It was much more spacious and clear than Sun Prairie. A majority of their information was neatly laid out on their homepage and accurately categorize, minimizing the need for drop-down menus and jumping from page to page.

Week 11 Outside of Class

Over the weekend, I had performed the 5 Second Test method on three participants. Originally, this method was not part of my project, but I had decided to change my Empathy map to this as I was told it was too similar to my I Like I Wish What If method. For this, I had gathered three participants to view the Sun Prarie web-page for five seconds and to explain what the web-page was about to their understanding and to explain their reasoning.

The first person I had asked (Sebastian) had thought that it was some kind of forum for entrepreneurs. What led to him believing this was their slogan "Where Business Grows".  While the website is for those starting a business, he said that he was unsure because that was almost the only lead he had. While the website does mention lectures and seminars, it wasn't enough for him to come to any definite conclusion.

The second person I had asked (Imahni) was mostly spot on. She had concluded that the website was for those who were looking to get started with their own business. But the website is geared more towards networking and promoting an established business rather than starting from zero. What stood out to her were some of the keywords on the front page such as "Business Seminar", "Business Resources" and "Youth Apprenticeship Programs".

The third person I had asked (Tristen) wasn't really sure at all. He said that it was too much information for him to take in and that too many things stood out. He took a guess and stated that he thought it was some kind of job agency, only because of the events and jobs button located at the bottom of the website.

I plan to use two more participants for this method, as I would like a wider range of answers since i'm still unsure whether or not the website gets its message across clearly. While everyone realized it was business related, they were slightly off the mark.

Week 11

In class, I was able to get feedback on the methods that I was considering performing. For a refresher, the methods that I was thinking of performing were Card Sorting, Informal Usability Testing, First Click Testing, I Like I Wish What If, and Empathy Map. However I was advised to change empathy map into a method that would take more time to perform and was more in-depth. I was also brainstorming the questions I would asking during the Informal Usability Testing and how I was going to perform it. Since this method requires users to complete several tasks, I was planning on creating (around five) tasks that the participant would need to complete ranging in complexity. Due to the large amount of information on the site, I would give a user a task such as searching for a specific business and seeing how they would go about searching the business directory for an example.

Week 10 Outside of Class

Over the weekend I had got in touch with someone who was able to tell me a little more about the Sun Prairie Chamber of Commerce. Although the conversation was very brief, I was able to confirm the purpose of the website and learn about some of the services and seminars offered. I was told that the purpose of the website was to allow visitors to see what services would be provided by the Chamber, events, helpful links and etc. I had also chosen five UX Methods that I thought would be effective to use for my website. The five methods i'd use are:

• Card Sorting - I'd use card sorting to let users organize where they believe content should go. Although the website is organized to a degree, each dropdown (seven different options) on the navigation bar has around eight different options on the dropdown. This can be overwhelming to the user, and if tasked to find a specific piece of information it could be a challenge to them. Users could find a better way to organize this.
• Informal Usability Testing - This UX Method would be incredibly useful, as it would gauge whether or not the current method of organization is effective. Since every tab has so many different options, I think it'd be interesting to see whether or not the average user would find the site difficult to navigate in a relaxed and casual setting. 
• First Click Testing - On my website, there's multiple navigation windows that users can click to navigate the site. I wonder if an average user would know where to start, as there's a navigation bar, scrolling events window and five separate windows each with different clickable links in them. This method would be effective as it would gauge whether or not users will know the first step to accomplishing their task. With so many different ways to navigate the site, will a user know which one to use? 
• I Like, I Wish, What If - Although this ties into my other UX methods I've mentioned, I feel like having feedback from users is incredibly important if you want to have an effective website structure, etc. This would allow users to navigate the website and give recommendations as to better ways to navigate the site. As mentioned before, each tab has many different options which could surely be condensed in some way. Hopefully the IL/IW/WI method could provide valuable feedback for improving organization.
• Empathy Map - An Empathy Map is a type of chart that helps us understand a user's thought process and needs. As mentioned previously, feedback from users is incredibly valuable. Since the goal of these maps is to provide insight as to who the user is as a whole, it would allow us to get a better grasp of the target audience, and whether or not the website meets their needs based on the map.

Week 10

In class I was recommended to choose ( http://www.sunprairiechamber.com/ ) for my upcoming project. Although I felt the other websites were more unorganized, this website has a lot of content which may be beneficial to me depending on the criteria for the project. When skimming through the website, I noticed it has a lot of different pages that branch off from the navigation bar, so it does seem like it has a bulk of content at first glance. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to search through.

Week 9 Outside of Class

For the upcoming project we were tasked to find three websites that we found to be unorganized (not focusing on bad graphic design.) Below are three unorganized and/or difficult to navigate websites. 

http://www.washington.edu/

Although the website is designed nicely, I feel as if the navigation for it can be confusing. If you enter one of the subpages using the navigation located at the top of the page, the entire navigation changes. The navigation at the top of the page changes depending on what section you're on. I feel as if this could cause a lot of other uses to get lost navigating the site like I have.

http://sunprairiechamber.com

Overall, this website was a little confusing to navigate as well. Having a navigation placed in the middle of the page forces a lot of the content to be placed towards the bottom, making navigation somewhat confusing. It felt as if the content should be higher up where the user was met with the banner and slideshows instead. 

https://dor.mo.gov/business/smallbusiness/maintnonprofit.php

Navigation and links for this website were placed almost all over the place. If I were a user looking for something specific, I feel as if i'd have a difficult time with all of the different necessary links placed at the top, right, center and bottom of the page. On this website, I feel as if it gives the user too many places to access information, as many pages are filled with links. 

Week 9A

During class, we had taken time to view everyone's observational presentations. It was very insightful seeing how students found, researched problems and created their own solutions using various UX methods. It was very interesting and brought a few problems to my attention that I wasn't aware of that even took place on our campus. Unfortunately we didn't receive feedback during the critique for the sake of time, but it was neat nonetheless.