Test Valley Council
A usabilty project
Test Valley is looking to update their whole website in the coming year. Before this they are wanting to carry out a series of usability tests to discover weak areas of their website. They want to receive a set of recommendations, which can be implemented to improve the experience of the site.
- Identify weaknesses in the website to be improved in the new website
- Recommendations should include a better experience for the user
Background
The council website was tested with 5 participants to provide useful information about how their users interact with their website. These findings could then be implemented into a new website they plan on building in 2021, ensuring an improved user experience.
AS TEST VALLEY were wanting to gain as much information as possible the following testing included:
- A deductive route
- Testing multiple metrics (navigation, layout, feedback and terminology)
- Current website design
Website objectives
- The objective of this website is to provide a service and information to the residents of the borough, some of these services include being able to pay council tax, report issues, find out information about the community and other items related to owning a business within the council territory. A good and easy to use the website will allow for those who really do need help and assistance to receive it more promptly.
- This can only be achieved by providing clear information that can support the residents and help them achieve their goals. Examples of these goals are “Paying council tax online easily” or “Wanting to find out information about councilors within the area”.
- Users should be the center of attention to make it easy to use for all age groups
User groups
- Adults = the services provided by the council are mostly for those 18 and over
- Residents within the borough who are either living in owned or rented properties
- Those who have businesses within the area or are thinking of starting a business/company.
- Adults = the services provided by the council are mostly for those 18 and over.
- Individuales who are looking to move or visit the area and are wanting to discover specific information about the place in general – these won’t necessarily be people who live within the Test Valley district
Information Architecture
One of the Government guidelines for service design is that “a user has to do as few things as possible” to get to the information necessary. Currently, it can take numerous steps to arrive at certain information.
- Navigation/Search system : Current have search, A-Z search, navigational page instead of navigation bar. Search and A-Z works well, the navigational menu could be improved, especially as this is likely how users will interact with the site the most.
- Labeling system: Burger menu does not react in a way that users would expect since this should be a drop down menu. Also the menu doesn’t disappear after selecting it
- Content: The website is overloaded with information, this has to be more structured. The volume of information appears to be larger than on other council websites.
- Organization: Council should include what the user needs specifically. This could be divided in different sections like: council, business, resident
- Users: Test Valley has to define their users making it more clear as to what they would like to achieve.
Words
Correct language/terminology for buttons is imperative for user comprehension. As there is so much content/options/multiple routes to different areas it is hard to identify if all of these buttons include the correct terminology.
Visual representation
This refers to visual design elements
Interaction Design
Time & behavior
Animation for the slideshow of news on the homepage. No real way for users to pick up where they started if they take a break from what they were doing. However, all buttons/forms have appropriate feedback, including hover and selected states.
Space or physical objects
Consistency of overall media devices (laptop, computer, mobile, tablet)
Interaction Design
Words
Correct language/terminology for buttons is imperative for user comprehension. As there is so much content/options/multiple routes to different areas it is hard to identify if all of these buttons include the correct terminology.
Visual representation
This refers to visual design elements
Time & behavior
Animation for the slideshow of news on the homepage. No real way for users to pick up where they started if they take a break from what they were doing. However, all buttons/forms have appropriate feedback, including hover and selected states.
Space or physical objects
Consistency of overall media devices (laptop, computer, mobile, tablet)
Visual Design Elements
- The blue page colours are very harsh – this blue should more than likely be a CTA colour.
- Icons on menu pages are quite large in comparison to the title text. In addition, not all icons appear to be the same size, which makes them look as if they’re floating against the background (see pictures below).
- The button to access the accessibility feature does not look like a button – would a user know to click on this to get to these features.
- The accessibility feature looks good – it resolves a lot of the issues that are seen on the original website as it segments sections a lot better. E.g
- Accessibility features when using the largest font does incur some issues. Not all pages have been adapted for a larger font. The results in text being outside of their designated boxes, as well as some elements of the website being disorganized.
- News pages should be placed at the top of the website or presented differently. Images are cut off in the banner. There is also no button that directs the user to this section immediately.
Usabilty Test plan
Test Approach: Deductive
- Test Valley wants to discover as much information about their website as possible.
- More data about all metrics and providing a high level overview across the whole website.
Testing Techniques: CTA + CP
- Concurrent Think Aloud (CTA) understand participants’ thoughts as they interact with a product by having them think aloud while they work. The goal is to encourage participants to keep a running stream of consciousness as they work.
- Concurrent Probing (CP) requires that as participants work on tasks—when they say something interesting or do something unique, the researcher asks follow-up questions.
Task 1 | Could you please find your weekly bin schedule for the SO51 0AR? |
Task 2 | Could you please tell us what the price of an annual car parking permit ticket? |
Task 3 | Please can you find the application form for the full planning permission? |
Task 4 | Please select the COVID-19 advice for businesses? |
Task 5 | Could you make a request for pest control? |
Task 6 | Could you please pay your council tax (online payment form)? |
Pass-Fail Benchmarks
All results will be compared to a pass or fail benchmark. This benchmark is based on research alongside our own times and steps to complete these tasks. An older generation of usability testers was considered.
For the whole task to be considered a pass, a participant must meet the requirements set out which are:
- Completion of the task
- Number of steps (max 5 steps)
- Time (max. 45 seconds)
Found Bugs
Page loading times
… sometimes very long, regardless as to if someone was using a laptop or Ipad. Pages with longer loading times are likely to have higher bounce rates. The homepage of the website has been looked at by Google Page Speed Insights and has shown that both mobile and desktop optimization could be improved.
Please note only the homepage was tested so other areas of the site could be better/worse.
Mobile: 37 (poor)
Desktop: 66 (needs improvement)
Documents
…completed the usability testing on an iPad. Multiple PDFs and documents which did not correspond to the device and therefore affected the test results. In addition to this, the pages took long amounts of time to load on this device. It is of note that the participant who completed the testing on her ipad said that she would be quite frustrated if she would have to get out their laptop as they use their ipad for everything.
Test results
1. Identified issues
The overall issues found through testing was the metric:
- Layout
- Navigation
- Terminology
The problems were created by pages including too much information, causing overload, or unclarity in the user journey.
Every metric is interconnected to each other, often affecting the latter ones and ultimately resulting in poor usability and a time-consuming experience.
2. Pass/Fail benchmark
Overall participants did not fulfil the benchmarks, event though they completed the task. This is related to the number of steps and time it took to complete these tasks. The reason is related to the found issues in the metrics layout/terminology/navigation.
Most users passed task 3 and 5 because they already had done this task in the past. Task 4 had pass rates due to the use of a banner on the homepage.
3. Participant ratings
These findings are subjective and contradictory to the other findings as many participants failed tasks and said they were easy.
Critical reflection of participants computer skills and being polite towards the interviewers could have skewed the results.
The sentiment of “It was difficult for me, but someone else would probably be fine” or “I did struggle, but I got there in the end” was often used.
Design Ideas and Suggestions
The following designs are only examples and do not include accurate information. The ideas shown are focused on the UI and layout and has been created to give you some idea how the results from the test can be used to improve the websites experience.
Home page
Place this button next to the search bar for easy access
Different colors for banner, which is striking and will get people’s attention to key information
These should be put on the homepage, labelled clearly. This area should consist of the main tasks that people come to the website. Thereby the council has to properly identify, using Google Analytics.
By clicking this button all services that Test Valley provides will drop down and appear on the homepage.
Hiding this, does not overwhelm a user, but the button will be clearly labeled ‘view all services’ to view more options. This can also be used in the nav bar.
Forms
This should ideally say: “Online payment form for council tax” . The title should be in line with the rest of the form.
Boxes should be aligned. This creates consistency and makes the website look professional.
Buttons have to be highlighted in a different color, this will help make it more visible that it is a button.
These buttons should be spaced out accordingly as well as they are currently too small and close together that mistakes could easily be made. We would suggest
Design ideas for IA
How Test Valley currently presents items in menus can lead to information overload as seen in our results through the usability testing. Instead of putting these into one big list, Test Valley should seek to reduce, combine, categorise and organise lot of the items they have in sub menus.
A suggestion would be as seen in the image on the right. This will mean that users can easily identify what area they need to be in, instead of having to look through everything.
Key takeaways
With how the website currently is, users will be encountering numerous issues that will be affecting their experience. Some of these may only be minor issues, but this can have an impact to users reservoir of goodwill, which will eventually add up to frustration and anger from a user, which is not how Test Valley wants to be perceived.
Search results
Search results should be improved immediately.
Target audience
There is a large variety of users, which has to be mirrored in the options a visitor can experience the website.
Problem solving
Minor issues that can be resolved in a short amount of time and should be a priority to the council.
Know yor user
when potential end-users are studied prior to a re-design of a website
are not necessary. Thereby it is essential to choose the most desired ones, based on your clients
Users should be successful at what they need to find
Skills incorperated
Throughout this job I was working with Test Valley Council as a UX consultant to improve their current website. To meet their goals and expectations, the project included to provide user research, usability testing, context analysis and project management.
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