Project 1 Finding courses at UC Irvine Extension

Project 1 - Finding courses at UC Irvine Extension Deeksha Malhotra Liana Nakamura James Rose

Project 1 l Conducting usability study l Subjects are asked to sign in at UCI Extension website l Locate the courses for which they had registered l Studying navigation issues only (not content)

Problems Being Addressed l Ease of use: How difficult is it for the user to find what they’re looking for? – Intuitiveness: Can users find their course site without any outside help? – Navigability: How simple or arduous is it to navigate the UCI Extensions website? – Time spent: How long did it take the user to find their course site?

Problems Being Addressed l Can be addressed by looking at: – Simplicity – Redundancy – Links clearly indicating their destination

Methods to be Used l Usability Experiment – – – Users will attempt to navigate from their account on UCI Extensions to their course site Users will think aloud, and their actions and voice will be recorded and timed Approx. 6 different users 10 minutes in length (or until the goal is completed) Different demographics (i. e. nontechnical users, non-native speakers)

Methods to be Used l Interviews – – – Will follow up the usability experiments with a short interview Find out the user’s impressions of the website Examine any problems they encountered, and why they encountered them Ask for any recommended changes Gather any other feedback they care to provide

What We’ve Done l Gone through the UCI Extensions website to examine the issues firsthand l Each conducted a usability experiment on different users l Interviewed the users to find additional information about usability issues

Insights l Every person interviewed has been able to find the courses in the 10 minutes given.

Insights (continued) l One major complaint from our interview subjects is that to get to the Spring courses you must look at the sidebar. However, it is natural to search for the courses in the center of the page. The Spring courses link should be prominently displayed on the main page.

Insights (continued) l The user login is hard to find on the page. It is located on the upper right hand side of the page, but it should be located in a more central location

Problems l I ran into technical difficulties with the sound on Camtasia Studio but was able to fix it by using a different microphone.

Upcoming Decisions l Need to develop a plan for creating a mockup – What changes need to be made? l l – l “My Courses” link Login Delegate tasks Final Report

Updated Schedule l l We’re on schedule As of today: Task Initial Research Initial Presentation Preparation Initial Presentation Interviews Analyze Findings Interim Presentation Preparation Time Estimate (in hours) 3 Actual Time (in hours) 3 6 3 4/27/09 5/4/09 4/21/09 5/7/09 5/12/09 3 15 3 4 5/8/09 5/12/09 9 3 Start Date 4/7/09 End Date 4/21/09 4/17/09

Upcoming Schedule l All tasks will be completed by each group member Task Create Mockup Re-test Subjects Analyze Findings Final Presentation Preparation Final Presentation Final Report Preparation Final Report Start Date 5/13/09 5/22/09 5/28/09 End Date 5/21/09 5/28/09 6/2/09 6/9/09 Finals Week 6/2/09 Notes: Milestones are depicted in red Time Estimate (in hours) 12 3 6 9 18