University of Southern California
Background
The University of Southern California is a private research university. The university has a number of campuses in Los Angeles including University Park which is situated 2 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The university offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered by 21 academic schools and units.. It has approximately 43,000 students enrolled.
The Exercise
I undertook an usability testing on the USC website. The usability tests focused on the following tasks:
- Finding the school mascot
- Finding a course on Arabic language instruction
- Finding the nearest airport to the school.
The user was also asked of her impression of the website and the navigation of the site.
Scheduling and Setting up the Test
Scheduling the Test
Recruitment of participants to complete the test proved challenging. This was primarily due to the following:
- Availability over the festive season
- Location of suitable participants.
Setting up the Test
An script was created to ensure that the instructions given were clear and precise.
A site was chosen to carry out the test.
The test had to be conducted remotely. Skype was used to facilitate the test. Setup was challenging as both the tester and the participant were unfamiliar with the software. This added additional time to the test setup.
Problems Identified
Effectiveness and Efficiency of the Site
The participant initially described the site as bright, engaging, not wordy and eye-catching. The first impression of navigation was that it straightforward. The outcome of the tests indicated that the users initial impressions were incorrect
Finding a Mascot
Cultural issues were highlighted during the process. The participant was unfamiliar with the US tradition of having university mascots. Additional explanation was required as a result.
The participant could not find the mascot by navigating the site and defaulted to using the free text search facility. The user conducted a number of searches. The results returned were not consistent and proved confusing.
Finding Arabic language courses
The same behaviours were observed during the test to find an Arabic language course. The participant resorted to running a free text search. The search proved successful as the participant found a relevant course. However the participant expressed concern at how challenging it was to find an academic course when this was a university.
Finding the nearest airport
The participant resorted to running a free text search to find the airport. The search results took the participant off the site to google maps. This resulted in the participant assuming that the nearest airport was LAX.
Main Problem to Solve
The user expressed concern that the site did not allow her to find academic courses easily. As a result I looked to solve this problem.
The participant was looking for information about courses available. Based on the discussion I had with the participant I believed that progressive disclosure of information about courses would meet the user need.
The user would be given the option to carry out a free text search for courses by course type (e.g. undergraduate degree, standalone course). This would return a list of results. The user would be able to see summary information about the course and could view additional information that would allow them to discover more. The attached images show how this would progress:
Lessons Learned
- Be aware of the cultural background of individual participants. The participant’s may not be aware of the meaning of concepts within the organisation’s domain
- Prepare scripts in advance to ensure that the participant understands the purpose of the test and what is being asked of them
- Carry out an test runs with both the equipment and any supporting documentation. Identify and resolve issues prior to conducting the test. n