Usability and Testing, Planning and Organizing Websites. Web Services, Office of Information Technology, University of Maryland

Planning and Organizing Websites
Lida L. Larsen
Web Services
Office of Information Technology
University of Maryland, College Park
www.inform.umd.edu/Web/Planning

Usability and Testing

Think! Plan! Organize! Implement! Test! Rethink! Replan! Reorganize! Re-implement! and Test again!

What makes a website "usable"?

Valuable content
Language and graphics the intended audience will understand - simple and appropriate for the content
Webpage elements consistent throughout the website
Navigability: where they are, where they can go, and how to get back to starting points.
Mechanism to give feedback or ask for help at their fingertips.

Check out criteria for evaluating websites at http://www.inform.umd.edu/literacy and http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfmgb/web.htm

How can you test a website? You need your users to help - so plan now to develop focus groups and to conduct interviews. (NOTE: You are NOT a user - nor is your supervisor)

Know your targeted audience and have them help design the website.
Develop more than one prototype and have your users try them out and give you feedback.
Arrange to watch users navigate the system and document their successes and failures to find the information that will meet their needs.
Develop queries based on the goals of the website and see if users can find the information to answer them easily.
Use online feedback mechanisms (surveys, questionnaires, rating scales, email forms) and then pay attention to what users say.
Visit http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic for more information.

Use every scrap of feedback you receive, make changes and re-test!

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Planning and Organizing Websites

Usability and Testing

Think! Plan! Organize! Implement! Test! Rethink! Replan! Reorganize! Re-implement! and Test again!

LLLarsen. First Published December 1998. Last revision January 2002.