Title: eGovernment Working Group Meeting
1- eGovernment Working Group Meeting
-
- Chris Niedermayer, USDA eGovernment Executive
- January 14, 2004
2Agenda
- Welcome
- Introduction Usability Studies
- Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- FSIS
- ERS
- QA and Next Steps
- Appendix
3What is Usability?
- Usability is the overall measurement of the
satisfaction of interactions a user has with a
product or system such as a Web site, software
application, mobile technology, or user-operated
device. - A high level of satisfaction occurs when users
find a Web site that is useful and usable this
is termed an engaging user experience. - Quality of the users experience on a Web site
can be measured using the following usability
principles, or heuristics - Use a simple page design
- Know your users and speak their language
- Ensure consistency throughout the site
- Design your site for efficiency and ease of use
- Provide an engaging experience
- Support the user and provide feedback
- Use a clear navigation structure
4Why is Usability Important?
- An engaging user experience on a particular Web
site results in - Increased usage of the Web site
- Improved user productivity
- Reduced training, support, and development costs
5Agenda
- Welcome
- Introduction Usability Studies
- Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- FSIS
- ERS
- QA and Next Steps
- Appendix
6USDA.gov Usability Approach
- The USDA.gov team conducted usability testing
with a sample user community to test the
effectiveness and ease of use of the redesigned
site. - Test participants were selected to represent
segments of USDAs vast customer base. - Participants included Agribusiness and
Cooperatives, Consumers and Families, Educators.
Producers, and Researchers, to name a few. - Feedback obtained from participants during
usability testing focused on the following - Is the page design simple and easy to follow,
even for inexperienced Web users? - Does the site provide users with content written
for them, using wording/language they understand?
- Is the site consistent throughout?
- Is the site designed to promote efficiency and
ease of use, enabling users to achieve their
goals on the site? - Does the site provide interesting information,
the foundation for an engaging user experience? - Does the site support users and provide
sufficient feedback to help them complete tasks? - Does the site use a clear navigation structure
that users understand? - Does the site offer useful, convenient
functionality to allow users to perform tasks
such as subscribing to email notifications or
personalizing their My USDA page?
7USDA.gov Test Structure
- Each test session enabled the participant to
explore and provide feedback on the features and
functionality of the usda.gov site. - Test participants used an HTML mockup as their
interaction mechanism. - A sample test session was comprised of the
following tasks - Review and browse through the home page.
- Find specific pieces of information relevant to
your user group. For example - Producers were first instructed to locate
information on crop insurance and then on export
requirements for a product. - Consumers/Families were asked to first locate
information on food assistance programs for
children and then on park permits for an upcoming
trip. - Find a news article, event, and report.
- Customize your My USDA page.
- Following each session, test observers
participated in a debrief session to highlight
usability issues and other observations from the
test. - Final test data was compiled into a results
matrix. All items in the matrix were
prioritized based on their usability impact. A
design recommendation was proposed for each issue
detailed in the matrix.
8USDA.gov Key Findings and Recommendations 1
- Key Finding Navigation
- Participants often did not notice the Information
For dropdown box. - It was common for participants to glance over the
box altogether, since they commonly associated it
with the My USDA section of the site. - Some participants thought they had to be logged
in to the site to use the Information For box. - Recommendation
- Information For should be positioned in its own
area, with the topic heading "Browse by
Audience". - This will draw more attention to the box and
separate it from My USDA. If possible, this
issue should be re-tested after we create a
design in which the user will more readily be
able to find the Information For area and explore
its benefits.
9USDA.gov Key Findings and Recommendations 2
- Key Finding Navigation
- Participants tended to glance over the right
navigation menu, and sometimes missed that it was
related to the page-specific content. - Additionally, some participants felt the right
navigation menu was in conflict with the left
navigation menu and it was cumbersome to navigate
between the two of them or understand what they
should be using. - Recommendation
- Coordinate graphically the left navigation and
top navigation menu to highlight correlation and
express the higher precedence of those menus over
the right menu. - Make left navigation graphical links to further
increase its precedence graphically over the
right menu. - Better integrate graphically the right menu in to
the content area.
10Additional findings are documented in the
Appendix.
11Agenda
- Welcome
- Introduction Usability Studies
- Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- FSIS
- ERS
- QA and Next Steps
- Appendix
12FSIS Goals of Testing
- The objective of this design evaluation was to
assess usability issues that impact the user
experience for www.fsis.usda.gov. - FSIS Usability Testing enabled the re-design team
to inform their design process with relevant
customer feedback. - Layout- Tests helped confirm that proposed
layout was logical for users and reflected their
needs. - Navigation- Good navigation allowed users to
find information quickly. It provided subtle
clues on what the site offered, and where users
were on the site. Slow and confusing navigation
forced users off the site. - Content- Usability tests helped the re-design
team analyze user understanding and opinion of
defined content areas. Tests also gave insight
into the accuracy and clarity of the labels used
to identify that content.
13FSIS Usability Approach
- FSIS followed a defined Usability Testing
process to ensure consistent, conclusive results.
- Conducted seven one-hour test sessions on
Thursday, October 30th, with participants from
various pre-determined site user groups. - Scientists / Researchers
- Constituent Groups
- Consumers / Educators
- Businesses
- Tests used a paper-based prototype of the
re-designed site. The facilitator used detailed
test scripts to lead users through each session.
- Facilitator encouraged participants to think
aloud during the tests. Their physical actions,
and verbal feedback were video-taped and logged. - Final test data was compiled and a design
recommendation was proposed for each usability
issue.
14FSIS Key Findings and Recommendations 1
- Background
- Consumer focused articles, one-page fact sheets,
and food safety newsletters were originally
grouped under the global navigation item
Publications. - Key Finding Publications
- Users were not clear on what to expect of the
Publications section when reading the label.
Some thought the term implied professional or
technical documents. - When asked to find an article on the safe
preparation of turkey users did not think to look
in this area. - Recommendation
- Remove Publications from the global navigation
bar. - All consumer publications, backgrounders, and
topics of interest should instead be labeled as
Fact Sheets. - Science related publications, such as guidebooks,
should be included in the Science area of the
site. -
15FSIS Key Findings and Recommendations 2
- Background
- FSIS content is separated into five main content
areas- Education, Science, Regulations
Policies, Food Recalls, Food Security Emergency
Preparedness. - Originally all consumer education information AND
employee education and training information was
located in this Education area. - Key Finding Workforce Training
- Users did not understand why Workforce Training
was included in the Education area of the site. - Recommendation
- Remove FSIS employee specific information from
the Education area aimed at consumers and
educators. - FSIS Workforce Training content should instead
be included in the FSIS Employee area of the
site.
16Usability sessions informed more than a dozen
significant design changes. Additional findings
are documented in the Appendix.
17Agenda
- Welcome
- Introduction Usability Studies
- Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- FSIS
- ERS
- QA and Next Steps
- Appendix
18ERS Usability Approach
- ERS intends to regularly test its online services
and products for - Performance,
- Quality,
- Usability, and
- Value to users
- Appointed a Web Analytics Manager to
- Track / analyze site usage trends
- Perform usability testing and expert (heuristic)
analysis of ERS web products - Train and coach staff on usability and other user
assessment techniques - Manage ERS usability testing facilities and
equipment - Brief, "sell, and educate ERS managers,
technical experts and program executives on
performance measurement, user assessment, and
customer relationship management initiatives - Implement an integrated Web performance
measurement system
19ERS Methodology
- Guerilla Usability Testing
- Conducted on-site at ERS
- Follows testing protocol
- Good for agencies with limited resources
- Produces valuable results
- Testing protocol includes
- Preliminary interview using scripts
- Specific tasks
- Post-test debriefing
20Agricultural Resource Management Survey Test
- Objective
- Increase user access to actual ARMS data
- Create an easy-to-use and rich interface to
enable users to understand the data - Support ERS decision makers, enabling them to
better understand how customers use the data - Address specific challenges faced by users of
ARMS data products - Lessons Learned
- Need to improve access to ARMS data by
- Showing user whats available on the page
- Enabling users to see shortcuts and providing
more visual cues to take people to the next step - Cutting text, chunking text, incorporate more
headings, subheadings - Need to improve the ARMS Data tool by
- Improving the structure at the programming and
interface level - Setting expectations say upfront what you can
and cannot get - Graying out areas that are not available
- Crafting self-evident help
- Clarifying terms
- Outcome
- Received management buying on new prototype
21Latest Test Redesigned Data Page
- Objective
- To qualify difficulties in usability so team can
prioritize choices for redevelopment - Lessons Learned
- Users didnt pay much attention to headings
- Users didnt understand or care about the key
indicators section - Users saw only one search box on the page, even
though there are two - Users want lists--they want to find info quickly
and easily - Outcome
- Will make easy cosmetic changes
- Are developing a data classification scheme
- Will test the new classification scheme on the
data page before doing too much work
22Agenda
- Welcome
- Introduction Usability Studies
- Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- FSIS
- ERS
- QA and Next Steps
- Appendix
23Questions and Answers
24Next Steps
- Revised Agency eGovernment Tactical Plans likely
due in 2nd Quarter of FY 2004. - Schedule Agency eGovernment Steering Committee
Meetings for first week of February. - Upcoming EGWG Topics
- Usability Panel II January 21st, 2004.
- USDA Smart Choice Enablers Update February 4th,
2004.
25Agenda
- Welcome
- Introduction Usability Studies
- Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- FSIS
- ERS
- QA and Next Steps
- Appendix
26Appendix
- Usability Studies Statistics 27
- Presenter Contact Information . 28
- USDA.gov Testing Methodology .. 29
- USDA.gov Additional Key Findings .... 30
- FSIS Additional Key Findings ... 32
- ERS Personas ... 35
- ERS Additional Key Findings ... 37
27Why is Usability Important?
- An engaging user experience on a particular Web
site results in increased usage of that site,
improved user productivity, and reduced training,
support, and development costs. There is always
room for improvement - The average usability test results in 70-100
recommendations for improvements.1 - Users cannot find the information they seek on
Web sites 60 of the time leading to wasted time,
reduced productivity, increased frustration and
loss of repeat visits and money.2 - 95 of users will use less than 5 of features of
a site 75 of the features will never be used.3 - In private industry, 62 of online shoppers gave
up at least once while looking for products.4 - For every 10 spent defining and solving critical
usability problems early in development using
professional usability research, you will save
about 100 in development costs.5
1 Mary Harrison, Richard Henneman, and Louis
Blatt, Design of Human Factors Cost
Justification Tool 2 Nielsen Norman Group,
Usability Return on Investment 3
MauroNewMedia, Charles Mauro 4 Internet Access
in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms, National
Center for Education Statistics 5 MauroNewMedia,
Charles Mauro
28Usability Studies at USDA
- USDA.gov
- Kim Taylor, Office of Communications,
Director of Web Services - Kim.J.Taylor_at_usda.gov, (202) 720-2168
- Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
- Holly McPeak, Public Affairs Specialist
- holly.mcpeak_at_fsis.usda.gov, (301) 504-0168
- Economic Research Service (ERS)
- Brenda Powell, Web Analytics Manager
- bapowell_at_ers.usda.gov, (202) 694-5134
29USDA.gov Methodology
- The USDA.gov team followed a consistent
methodology for usability testing that is based
on industry best practices and previous testing
experience.
30USDA.gov Key Findings and Recommendations 3
- Key Finding My USDA
- A large number of participants interviewed would
use the My USDA customization feature. - Thirteen out of sixteen participants said that
they would use this feature to personalize their
USDA home page. - Recommendation
- Promote the benefits of My USDA customization
from the home page and continue to feature it
prominently on the navigation bar.
31USDA.gov Key Findings and Recommendations 4
- Key Finding Overall
- Inexperienced participants were sometimes
confused as to how to enter and use the site. - Recommendation
- Through use of color, graphical text and simple
icons, make the primary navigation areas of the
site appear "clickable". - Use the I Want To section to draw inexperienced
users into the site.
32FSIS Key Findings and Recommendations 3
- Background
- Speeches and communications to Congress were
originally only located with other news and
events information on the top navigation bar. - Key Finding Speeches
- Users (specifically those from Businesses and
Constituent Groups) verbalized a desire to read
through recent speeches and presentations from
agency leaders. - They also desired quick access to communications
distributed to Congress. -
- Recommendation
- Speeches should be made available to users from
both the News and Events area, as well as the
Businesses, and Constituent Groups audience
landing pages.
33FSIS Key Findings and Recommendations 4
- Background
- The proposed homepage prominently features two
recent agency news releases. - These releases will be updates several times each
week. - Key Finding Recall Releases
- Knowledgeable users recognize that FSIS releases
recall related news frequently. - These users did not think value was added by
displaying recall releases within the In the
News section of the homepage. -
- Recommendation
- The In the News area should be reserved for
non-recall related news releases. - Recall releases can still be accessed through
both the FSIS Recalls section and the News and
Events section of the re-designed site.
34FSIS Key Findings and Recommendations 5
- Key Finding - Depth
- Users were surprised at the depth of information
on the site. - There is a significant amount of content included
that they would not originally think to find at
FSIS. -
- Recommendation
- Promote value add information more clearly on
the homepage. - Content that is not necessarily top of mind for
users could be rotated through the promotional
area on the homepage as a content marketing
technique.
35ERS Development of Personas
- Personas are not real people, but hypothetical
archetypes used to classify and represent a
specific group of users. - Provide focus for design decisions
- Describe users needs and tasks
- Help decide what groups to test
36An example of a persona
- USDA Senior Management Gatekeeper
- Background
- 51-years-old
- Married, 3 children, 1 grandchild
- Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics
- Comfortable using a computer, intermediate
Internet user, with a T1 - connection at work and dial-up at home
- Uses email extensively uses the Web about 1.5
hours a day - Informational goals
- Narrow subject focus
- Seeks decision level information
- Prefers summaries, but also quick access to
specific information - Access to experts in subject matter
- Seeks recent developments and publications in
areas of interest - Values timeliness, credibility and accuracy of
information
Matthew Johnson Program Staff Director, USDA
37ERS Usability Test The Food borne Illness
Calculator
- Objective To see whether the users understand
the layout of the site and the functions of the
calculator. - Lessons Learned Product builders learned that
the users had problems in the following areas - Navigation
- Page layout
- Visual clues
- Text
- Outcome
- The application developers incorporated many of
the suggestions into the calculator. - The calculator is easier to use and understand
now than when it was first built.