6. Why did problems occur?
They didn’t listen to customer’s
wants, needs and expectations.
TAKEWAY MESSAGE: Testing
with customers gets you
valuable feedback (duh)!
7. In this hour…
1. What is usability
2. Why you need usability
3. Idea: Do your own testing!
7
17. We’ve helped these folks
• DOT • State
• Interior • FCC
• IRS • USAJobs
• U.S. Army • Census
• NASA • NSF
• Labor • NIH
• OMB • And 35
• GSA others
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18. Free @ Howto.gov/firstfridays
• Usability Testing Scripts
• Email Templates
• Best Practices
• Final Report Examples
• Project Management
• Before and After Screenshots
• Videos
• Etc.
21. Top 5 Government Usability
Problems
• Too many words
• Gov speak / jargon
22. Top 5 Government Usability
Problems
• Too many words
• Gov speak / jargon
• Top tasks hard to find
23. Top 5 Government Usability
Problems
• Too many words
• Gov speak / jargon
• Top tasks hard to find
• Ineffective navigation
24. Top 5 Government Usability
Problems
• Too many words
• Gov speak / jargon
• Top tasks hard to find
• Ineffective navigation
• Ineffective search results
49. Spending on usability
When usability is present, 10% of
development budget spent on
usability
- Usability Return on Investment (2008, Nielsen Norman
Group Report)
49
50. Staffing options (all are good)
1. Usability Contractor ($17,000 per test)
2. Dedicated Usability Staff ($60,000+)
3. Get training and do it yourself (Free)
50
51. Matrixed Approach to Staffing
• Part-time volunteers!
• Borrow from other
departments
• You are “providing skill
building opportunities”
• Flexible needs: 1 -20
hours a month
51
52. Types of First Fridays Tests
• 1. Formal, talk-aloud tests
53. Stakeholder
Meeting
Follow-up Develop
Meeting Scenarios
Formal Testing
Process
Recruit
Write
Participants
Report
+ Observers
Conduct
Test
54. It takes two (rooms) to test
Observation Room Testing Room
56. Absolute Minimum T = Tester,
F = Facilitator
Usability Staffing
T
F
Testing Room
57. Minimum First O = Observer
F = Facilitator
Fridays Staffing M = Room Manager
O O O
T
F
O O M
Observation Room Testing Room
58. Better O = Observer G = Greeter
F = Facilitator DG = Data Gatherer
Staffing M = Room Manager BU = Back up
O O F
BU
BU T
BU F
DG O M
Observation Room G Testing Room
59. Types of First Fridays Tests
1. Formal, talk-aloud tests
2. Hallway Tests
64. 4. Quick Win Evaluation (Heuristics)
• Not for newbies
• Group or single person feedback
– Checklist
– Task run-through
• PRO: Fast! <1 week
• CON: No users
64
66. Review: What you need to fish
• Executive champion!
• One morning a month
• 1-2 rooms
• Laptops
• Screen sharing
software
• Volunteers
• Food
• Incentives for testers
• Training (First Fridays!)
69. More info on First Fridays
• Observe a test
• Recommend a website
70. More info on First Fridays
• Observe a test
• Recommend a website
• Volunteer as a tester
(remote or in person)
71. More info on First Fridays
• Observe a test
• Recommend a website
• Volunteer as a tester
(remote or in person)
• Learn to fish
(Facilitator in Training
program)
SLOWLY Morning I’m jon program manager from gsa first fridays usability program Slides will be avaialble - email me
TALK SLOWLY ---- Here’s a story about bad usability. Who knows what these are? The Nov. 7 2000 United States presidential election in Florida. Florida, swing state, In Florida there was massive recount that involved the Supreme Court, No idea president for 1 month The reason? Two usability problems! This is ballot and people punch out holes next to who they are voting for, and machine reads it
Problem #1: chads don’t fall out the machines – false readings. Machine’s jammed chads – no voting at all The machine wasn’t usable
This is what dominated the news - it was CHAOS!!!!
Usability problem #2 - butterfly ballot Voters unable to see which name goes with which slot – 2 nd name on the left was actually the 3 rd hole
Working with users = Important piece of information overlooked constantly, especially in terms of websites
How to get some usability momentum at your agency
Lots of buzzwords
Market research is what people say about your product, usability is how they actually USE IT
Quality control is – it works – pages load, links work, etc/ Usability – people can find what they are looking for
more recent example about design - august of 2012. What is this? How do you use this?
Simple, right? Actually….
You use it like this. Fan it put for more Do you feel stupid? you shouldn’t! bad design, or lack of training You have to test with users!!!
Which brings us to
GSA First fridays usability program. 3 goals – train and mentor in usability testing, fix problems for federal agencies, raise awareness We test federal gov websites, apllications, mobile sites and prototypes First Friday and 3 rd wed
Here’s who we’ve helped – nearly 50 agencies
We post templates, best practices, roles and responsbilities, checklists and much more on our website
Example 2 GSA Intranet – InSite (click to zoom in) BEFORE: we had a left-hand accordion navigation. Topics were redundant and jargon-filled. Plus the accordion functionality hid the topics and most users didn’t understand how to work the accordion.
AFTER watching the tests the web team removed the accordion navigation, replaced it with simplified static navigation Eliminated redundancy – Plain language links in parenthesis
Such a thing of beauty. Stare it every night before I go to sleep
Let’s talk about the only thing your boss cares about – ROI. Why bother, what’s the REAL, tangible benefit
Less time coding = more time on other things. Create it righ the first time Less likely you need a costly overhaul, or a code-all-weekend crisis
The more training someone needs, the more difficult it is to use. Good usability example - GSA rolled out a HR system called ALOHA – training but many people didn’t need it. Use it once, you’re good
A huge one for sites that provide services They can’t find answer – they COULD look at the FAQ or look around, but instead they’ll call or email Recent survey: $12 per customer service call $5 per web chat, 10 cents or less for self-service
Whatever people come to your site to do – find info, request something, order something They get through the entire process Obviously if they suuceed – that’s why you have a site in the first place
Market yourself well. Bad usability sends message – we don’t care about our customers
Usability = talking to users and finding out what they want. NOT what you think they want, especially if you’re a manager. Your field knoweldge and experience make it MORE difficult for you to understand a users needs You are in insider, not a user
Jon, user testing sounds like a good idea, but we don’t have the time or money to do it.
The bible of do it yourself testing If you have to buy one book this fall. Steve krug method A conference between two covers -met some at a usality metup - read book, did tet, thought shw was a genius
You can add all sorts of tools, but what’s the bare minimum that you need?
No special labs are required
Morae or Gotomeeting / gotowebinar
Staff size get into later, 3-5 volunteer testers to look at your product
Training – rocket surgery is a start. classes
How many people do you need?
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/roi.html
First Fridays approach to staffing – 1 full time employee, all others borrowed
We teach these fast, effective testing methods
Monthly test process - quick fixes, not huge redesigns
Testing room - ask them to speak aloud what they would normally do if we weren’t there
Tests people are watching live. Afternoon debrief collects usability problems seen by oservers that day Collect problems, prioritize, top 3 solutions that can be fixed in 30 days Leave with list of problems and top 3 issues and solutions.
It is possible to do in 1 room – but limited Red = staff, white = volunteer Facilitator (must be trained)
Facilitator (must be trained) Observation Room Manager (tech support)
Facilitator (must be trained) Observation Room Manager (tech support)
Hallway test – more users, informal, public space. Very successful – army.mil test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC0ODg2MpuE
Menu items and navigation on site – ask them to organize pages /topics into group to see how people think
FF testing gives you more resources for your mission Makes sense for agencies to test (fish) for themselves And to realize the savings in customer support after the design has been improved.
You can learn how to fish too….
We post templates, best practices, roles and responsbilities, checklists and much more on our website
Once a month, you can create culture change at your agency
