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Usable Government Forms and Surveys: Best Practices for Design (from MoDevGov)
This document discusses best practices for designing usable government forms and surveys. It covers topics like usability testing methods, navigation patterns, input field design, and placement of instructions. Specifically, it recommends: - Conducting one-on-one sessions, focus groups, and surveys to test designs - Placing the "Next" button on the left for primary navigation - Avoiding vertical and horizontal scrolling for open-ended responses - Using radio buttons and checkboxes according to conventions - Placing instructions near related questions to reduce cognitive load
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Usable Government Forms and Surveys: Best Practices for Design (from MoDevGov)
- 1. Usable Government Formsand Surveys: Best Practices for Design Jennifer Romano Bergstrom February 26, 2014 MoDevGov| Rosslyn, VA @romanocog @forsmarshgroup
- 2. Usability vs. UserExperience (UX) Whitney’s 5 Es of Usability • • Peter’s User Experience Honeycomb The 5 Es to Understanding Users (W. Quesenbery): h;p://www.wqusability.com/arCcles/geDng-‐started.html User Experience Design (P. Morville): h;p://semanCcstudios.com/publicaCons/semanCcs/000029.php 2
- 3. What People doon the Web Krug, S. Don’t Make Me Think 3
- 4. UX Design Failures • Poor planning • “It’s all about me.” (Redish: filing cabinets) • Human cognitive limitations • Memory and Perception • • • • Primacy Recency Chunking Patterns 4
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- 8. Mental Models &Repeating Behavior 8
- 9. Mental Models &Repeating Behavior 9
- 10. Activity 1. Today’s date 2. How long did it took you to get here today? 10
- 11. Measuring the UX “theextent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” ISO 9241-11 + emotions • How does it work for the end user? • What does the user expect? • How does it make the user feel? 11
- 12. Where to Test LABORATORY • Controlled environment • All participants have the same experience • Record and communicate from control room • Observers watch from control room and provide additional probes (via moderator) in real time • Incorporate physiological measures (e.g., eye tracking, EDA) REMOTE IN THE FIELD • Participants in their natural environments (e.g., home, work) • Participants tend to be more comfortable in their natural environments • Use video chat (moderated sessions) or online programs (unmoderated) • Recruit hard-to-reach populations (e.g., children, doctors) • Conduct many sessions quickly • Moderator travels to various locations • Recruit participants in many locations (e.g., states, countries) • Bring equipment (e.g., eye tracker) • Natural observations • No travel costs 12
- 13. How to Test ONE-ON-ONESESSIONS • In-depth feedback from each participant • No group think • Can allow participants to take their own route and explore freely FOCUS GROUPS SURVEYS • Participants may be more comfortable with others • Representative • Interview many people quickly • Opinions collide • No interference • Peer review • Remote in participant’s environment • Qualitative • Large sample sizes • Collect a lot of data quickly • No interviewer bias • No scheduling sessions • Quantitative analysis • Flexible scheduling • Qualitative and Quantitative 13
- 14. How to Test ONE-ON-ONESESSIONS • In-depth feedback from each participant • No group think • Can allow participants to take their own route and explore freely FOCUS GROUPS SURVEYS • Participants may be more comfortable with others • Representative • Interview many people quickly • Opinions collide • No interference • Peer review • Remote in participant’s environment • Qualitative • Large sample sizes • Collect a lot of data quickly • No interviewer bias • No scheduling sessions • Quantitative analysis • Flexible scheduling • Qualitative and Quantitative 14
- 15. How to Test ONE-ON-ONESESSIONS • In-depth feedback from each participant • No group think • Can allow participants to take their own route and explore freely • No interference • Remote in participant’s environment • Flexible scheduling • Qualitative and Quantitative FOCUS GROUPS SURVEYS • Participants may be more comfortable with others • Representative • Large sample sizes • Collect a lot of data quickly • Interview many people quickly Scale Overall Experience Did not like it at all (1) – Liked it a lot (5) 3.9 • No scheduling sessions Likelihood to Use Site in the Future Not likely at all (1) – Extremely likely (5) 3.1 • Quantitative analysis General Organization of Website Not clear at all (1) – Extremely Clear (5) 3.6 Helpfulness of Search Functionality Not helpful at all (1) – Extremely helpful (5) 3.9 Ease of Navigation Very Easy (1) – Extremely Difficult (5) 2.0 Usefulness of tool Not useful at all (1) – Extremely useful (5) 3.7 • Opinions collide • Peer review • Qualitative Mean • No interviewer bias Question 15
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- 17. What to Measure EXPLICIT OBSERVATIONAL + Post-task satisfaction questionnaires + In-session difficulty ratings + Verbal responses + Moderator follow up + Real-time +/- dial + Ethnography + Time to complete task + Reaction time + Selection/click behavior + Ability to complete tasks + Accuracy IMPLICIT + Facial expression analysis + Eye tracking + Electrodermal activity (EDA) + Behavioral analysis + Linguistic analysis of verbalizations + Implicit associations + Pupil dilation 17
- 18. Why is DesignImportant in Web Surveys and Forms? • No interviewer present to correct/advise • Visual presentation affects responses • While the Internet provides many ways to enhance surveys, design tools may be misused 18
- 19. Why is DesignImportant? • Respondents extract meaning from how question and response options are displayed • Design may distract from or interfere with responses • Design may affect data quality 19
- 20. Why is DesignImportant? Note: We don’t have much confidence in the totals for ages 5-7 because it appears that some respondents chose these responses rather than scroll through the list to their correct age. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/ 20
- 21. Why is DesignImportant? • Respondents are more tech savvy today and use multiple technologies • It is not just about reducing respondent burden and nonresponse • We must increase engagement • High-quality design = trust in the designer Adams & Darwin, 1982; Dillman et al., 1993; Haberlein & Baumgartner, 1978 21
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- 23. Considerations • Navigation • Editsand Input Fields • Checkboxes and Radio Buttons • Instructions and Help 23
- 24. Navigation • In apaging survey, after entering a response – Proceed to next page – Return to previous page (sometimes) – Quit or stop – Launch separate page with Help, definitions, etc. 24
- 25. Navigation: NP • Nextshould be on the left – Reduces the amount of time to move cursor to primary navigation button – Frequency of use Couper, 2008; Dillman et al., 2009; Faulkner, 1998; Koyani et al., 2004; Wroblewski, 2008 25
- 26. Navigation NP Example Peytchev & Peytcheva, 2011 26
- 27. Navigation: PN • Previousshould be on the left – Web application order – Everyday devices – Logical reading order 27
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- 32. Comparing the Two Romano& Chen, 2011 • Participants looked at Previous and Next in PN conditions • Many participants looked at Previous in the N_P conditions – Couper et al. (2011): Previous gets used more when it is on the right. 32
- 33. Navigation Alternative • Previousbelow Next – Buttons can be closer – But what about older adults? – What about on mobile? Couper et al., 2011; Wroblewski, 2008 33
- 34. Navigation Alternative: Largeprimary navigation button; secondary smaller 34
- 35. Navigation Alternative: Noback/ previous option 35
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- 37. Considerations • Navigation • Editsand Input Fields • Checkboxes and Radio Buttons • Instructions and Help 37
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- 39. Open-Ended Responses: Narrative • Avoid vertical scrolling when possible • Always avoid horizontal scrolling 39
- 40. Open-Ended Responses: Narrative • Avoid vertical scrolling when possible • Always avoid horizontal scrolling 32.8 characters 38.4 characters ~700 Rs Wells et al., 2012 40
- 41. Open-Ended Responses: Numeric • Is there a better way? 41
- 42. Open-Ended Responses: Numeric • Is there a better way? 42
- 43. Open-Ended Responses: Numeric • Use of templates reduces ill-formed responses – E.g., $_________.00 Couper et al., 2009; Fuchs, 2007 43
- 44. Open-Ended Responses: Date • Not a good use: intended response will always be the same format • Same for state, zip code, etc. • Note – “Month” = text – “mm/yyyy” = #s 44
- 45. Considerations • Navigation • Editsand Input Fields • Checkboxes and Radio Buttons • Instructions and Help 45
- 46. Check Boxes andRadio Buttons • Perceived Affordances • Design according to existing conventions and expectations • What are the conventions? 46
- 47. Check Boxes: Selectall that apply 47
- 48. Radio Buttons: Selectonly one 48
- 49. Radio Buttons: Ingrids 49
- 50. Radio Buttons onmobile • Would something else be better? 50
- 51. Reducing Options • Whatis necessary? 51
- 52. Reducing Options • Whatis necessary? 52
- 53. Considerations • Navigation • Editsand Input Fields • Checkboxes and Radio Buttons • Instructions and Help 53
- 54. Placement of Instructions • Place them near the item • “Don’t make me think” • Are they necessary? 54
- 55. Placement of Instructions • Place them near the item • “Don’t make me think” • Are they necessary? 55
- 56. Placement of Instructions • Place them near the item • “Don’t make me think” • Are they necessary? 56
- 57. Placement of Instructions • Place them near the item • “Don’t make me think” • Are they necessary? 57
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- 65. Placement of ClarifyingInstructions • Help respondents have the same interpretation • Definitions, instructions, examples • Before item is better than after Conrad & Schober, 2000; Conrad et al., 2006; Conrad et al., 2007; Martin, 2002; Redline, 2013; Schober & Conrad, 1997; Tourangeau et al., 2010 65
- 66. Placement of Help • People are less likely to use help when they have to click than when it is near item • “Don’t make me think” 66
- 67. Placement of ErrorMessage • Should be near the item • Should be positive and helpful, suggesting HOW to help • Bad error message: 67
- 68. Placement of ErrorMessage • Should be near the item • Should be positive and helpful, suggesting HOW to help • Bad error message: 68
- 69. Placement of ErrorMessage • Should be near the item • Should be positive and helpful, suggesting HOW to help • Bad error message: 69
- 70. Placement of ErrorMessage • Should be near the item • Should be positive and helpful, suggesting HOW to help • Bad error message: 70
- 71. Error Message AcrossDevices 71
- 72. Error Message AcrossDevices 72
- 73. Better UX means… • Higher user satisfaction – Increased efficiency and accuracy – Repeat visits and recommendations • Decreased costs for the organization – Reduce call center phone calls and staffing • Data you can trust – Empirically tested products • From the end users’ perspective 73
- 74. Thank you! • Twitter:@forsmarshgroup • LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/fors-marsh-group • Blog: www.forsmarshgroup.com/index.php/blog Jennifer Romano Bergstrom @romanocog jbergstrom@forsmarshgroup.com MoDevGov| Rosslyn, VA