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Post by golbeck on Jan 1, 2013 13:31:19 GMT -5
Post your Topic 5 Homework 1 Usability homework here.
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Post by fionajardine on Jan 6, 2013 17:06:49 GMT -5
This website should be shamed! www.mva.maryland.govI'm sure most of us have had some interaction with the Maryland Motor Vehicles Administration. Recently, I moved house and needed to update the address on my license. The good news: I could do this online. The bad news: it was not easy to find exactly where on the MVA website. First impressions: there are a lot of words and categories to pick from! It takes a long time to find the right general category (compare to the California DMV website ( dmv.ca.gov/portal/home/dmv.htm), where there are only five major sections at the top). The layout is too full and confusing to search through. The headings on the left are difficult to read because of the font/color choices. Assessed from the point of view of speed, one can see how it would take a while to find something. For example, when I clicked on "Driver Licenses/ID Cards" to change my address, I was presented with a dense bullet list of options which I had to read through. Not very speedy at all. The website is terribly inefficient as well. Links do not always adequately explain the resource to which they lead - when I was trying to complete the task of changing my license address, I made so many mistakes that I ended up just doing a Google search (and I still didn't directly get to the right page - I was again faced with dense text pages). Having been on the site a few times now, I can safely say I still don't really know how to find things. I haven't learned how things are structured and would still need to resort to a search. Since this is a website a lot of us might visit, but would only visit rarely, it needs to be very simple to learn since users do not spend a lot of time committing the website's complexities to memory. Furthermore, I do not see any option on the site for translating it into other languages, to have the site read out loud, or to increase the font size. The only positive thing I can say about this website is that it does not try to be too "clever" - for example by using pop-ups or unintelligible/unintuitive buttons. |
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Post by mleist on Jan 9, 2013 12:59:54 GMT -5
MedlinePlus ( www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/) is an example of a website with exceptional usability. Because the website focuses on health information, it is likely that most users to the website are visiting it with a specific intention. In assessing the “goodness of the interface,” MedlinePlus excels at speed, efficiency, learnability, memorability, and user preference. 1. Speed- The website is quick to load and each page is quick to load. Additionally, minimal time is needed to become acquainted with the interface. It would not take the user long to determine how to interact with the website and to locate the information that he/she needs. 2. Efficiency- The website is very efficient, especially for the amount and variety of content that would lead a user to visit the website. Enough navigational text is present to provide the user with ample information to get where he/she needs to go without creating information overload. The page is cleanly designed and text size, style, and color are easy to read. The website also allows the user to determine how he/she will interact with it--the user can choose whether the experience is purely informational or if he/she wants to be engaged with the website in other ways (email, videos, social media, etc.). Contact information is also easy to find. 3. Learnability- The website is designed with a wide audience in mind and creates multiple access points to information--it appeals to different learning styles and different demographics and as a result, is easy to learn how to use. For example, on the homepage, the information above the fold contains a one-search search box for the entire website, a one-search search box dictionary, three large tabs labelled “Health Topics,” “Drugs & Supplements,” and “Videos & Cool Tools,” links to health news, tabs divided by demographic, links of popular searches, links of health issues, and a large button at the top to translate the page into Spanish. The user does not have to learn how to access information on the website because it uses a variety of navigational elements already familiar to the user. 4. Memorability- The website is memorable because the design and layout of the pages are consistent throughout the website. The ease of use and reliability of information make this page a great resource. 5. User Preference- As mentioned earlier, the website is designed to appeal to a variety of user preferences. A user could use the website like an index or an encyclopedia to locate a specific medical concern, use the one-search search box to locate this same information, or browse health topics by demographics. MedlinePlus is both a content rich and very usable website. Since discovering this website last year, I have stopped going to websites like WebMD for health information. The information on MedlinePlus is a lot more reliable and it is easy to use. |
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Post by mleist on Jan 9, 2013 13:56:43 GMT -5
I completely agree with your critique of the Maryland MVA website. When the homepage opened on my browser, my eyes didn’t know where to look because there was so much clutter on the page! The navigational elements are not speedy or efficient. I immediately felt frustrated trying to figure out how information on the website was organized. From a glance at the homepage, this website was designed to provide information for a wide variety of audiences. Drivers, new residents, law enforcement agencies, international applicants, rookie drivers, and businesses are mentioned throughout the homepage, but the website misses successfully being usable by any audience. The information is dense and hard to look at. While browsing the website, I did manage to locate a “How to Use this Website” webpage ( securetransactions.mva.maryland.gov/emvastore/MainMenu.aspx), but trying to locate it a second time was incredibly difficult. The presence of the webpage was further proof that the website was not usable. On a positive note, a translate to Spanish option was available on this page, although how useful this option would be on a page so difficult to find is pretty questionable. |
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Post by Hall of Fame Smith on Jan 9, 2013 15:05:36 GMT -5
www.earthsave.org/index.htmlThis EarthSave website belongs in the Hall of Fame. I discovered it after doing a Google search for John Robbins. Not knowing anything about this nonprofit, my intent upon opening the main page of this website was to figure out what the purpose of this organization. I think this could be a common task of users. Other users, with knowledge of the organization, may have other primary tasks such as giving a donation or finding a way to get involved with EarthSave. 1. Speed. All of these tasks can be accomplished with speed using the blue toolbar at the top of the page. Before going to the toolbar and finding the succinct mission statement, I scrolled to the videos. I likely would not have scrolled to them if part of one of the video had not been partially visible without scrolling. Thus, I think the designer placed the first video well. The first video appealed to my emotions and gave me a favorable impression of EarthSave. If the designer had placed text in lieu of the video, I probably would not have read the text. If I did read it, I would not have read it carefully and I would not have had my heartstrings pulled. 2. Efficiency. I was able to view efficiently the video and read the Mission Statement from the drop down menu of the toolbar; I did not mistakenly click irrelevant links. 3. Learnability. Using this interface was easy for me to learn. Toolbars are common on websites. The dropdown menus of this toolbar compacted information leaving an uncluttered homepage. 4. Memorability. The interface has high memorability. I returned to the website for the purpose of this assignment months after discovering it and recalled how to pull up the Mission Statement. 5. User preference. I have a user preference for cool colors. I like the colors of the banner, especially against a white background. The effect is calming . . . a nice contrast to the (top) emotionally-charged video involving participants in the Meals for Health Program. Another plus to this website: the Search Box in the upper right hand corner.
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Post by susanhikerbiker on Jan 9, 2013 16:01:39 GMT -5
www.earthsave.org/index.htmlThis EarthSave website belongs in the Hall of Fame. I discovered it after doing a Google search for John Robbins. Not knowing anything about this nonprofit, my intent upon opening the main page of this website was to figure out what the purpose of this organization. I think this could be a common task of users. Other users, with knowledge of the organization, may have other primary tasks such as giving a donation or finding a way to get involved with EarthSave. 1. Speed. All of these tasks can be accomplished with speed using the blue toolbar at the top of the page. Before going to the toolbar and finding the succinct mission statement, I scrolled to the videos. I likely would not have scrolled to them if part of one of the video had not been partially visible without scrolling. Thus, I think the designer placed the first video well. The first video appealed to my emotions and gave me a favorable impression of EarthSave. If the designer had placed text in lieu of the video, I probably would not have read the text. If I did read it, I would not have read it carefully and I would not have had my heartstrings pulled. 2. Efficiency. I was able to view efficiently the video and read the Mission Statement from the drop down menu of the toolbar; I did not mistakenly click irrelevant links. 3. Learnability. Using this interface was easy for me to learn. Toolbars are common on websites. The dropdown menus of this toolbar compacted information leaving an uncluttered homepage. 4. Memorability. The interface has high memorability. I returned to the website for the purpose of this assignment months after discovering it and recalled how to pull up the Mission Statement. 5. User preference. I have a user preference for cool colors. I like the colors of the banner, especially against a white background. The effect is calming . . . a nice contrast to the (top) emotionally-charged video involving participants in the Meals for Health Program. Another plus to this website: the Search Box in the upper right hand corner. |
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Post by susanhikerbiker on Jan 9, 2013 16:13:20 GMT -5
MedlinePlus ( www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/) is an example of a website with exceptional usability. Because the website focuses on health information, it is likely that most users to the website are visiting it with a specific intention. In assessing the “goodness of the interface,” MedlinePlus excels at speed, efficiency, learnability, memorability, and user preference. 1. Speed- The website is quick to load and each page is quick to load. Additionally, minimal time is needed to become acquainted with the interface. It would not take the user long to determine how to interact with the website and to locate the information that he/she needs. 2. Efficiency- The website is very efficient, especially for the amount and variety of content that would lead a user to visit the website. Enough navigational text is present to provide the user with ample information to get where he/she needs to go without creating information overload. The page is cleanly designed and text size, style, and color are easy to read. The website also allows the user to determine how he/she will interact with it--the user can choose whether the experience is purely informational or if he/she wants to be engaged with the website in other ways (email, videos, social media, etc.). Contact information is also easy to find. 3. Learnability- The website is designed with a wide audience in mind and creates multiple access points to information--it appeals to different learning styles and different demographics and as a result, is easy to learn how to use. For example, on the homepage, the information above the fold contains a one-search search box for the entire website, a one-search search box dictionary, three large tabs labelled “Health Topics,” “Drugs & Supplements,” and “Videos & Cool Tools,” links to health news, tabs divided by demographic, links of popular searches, links of health issues, and a large button at the top to translate the page into Spanish. The user does not have to learn how to access information on the website because it uses a variety of navigational elements already familiar to the user. 4. Memorability- The website is memorable because the design and layout of the pages are consistent throughout the website. The ease of use and reliability of information make this page a great resource. 5. User Preference- As mentioned earlier, the website is designed to appeal to a variety of user preferences. A user could use the website like an index or an encyclopedia to locate a specific medical concern, use the one-search search box to locate this same information, or browse health topics by demographics. MedlinePlus is both a content rich and very usable website. Since discovering this website last year, I have stopped going to websites like WebMD for health information. The information on MedlinePlus is a lot more reliable and it is easy to use. I agree MedLine Plus is a quality webiste. I had been exposed to it prior to visiting it for this assignment so I knew its purpose. My task was to find information on a a vegan diet. I was able to find information about a vegetarian diet with SPEED. On the homepage, I clicked the far left button of the tool bar "Health Topics." I appreciated having a tool bar with a limited range of options. This made finding the button I needed EFFICIENT. This brought me to a subject toolbar organized by letters of the alphabet. The web designer was able to condense a lot of information in this toolbar in a logical manner using the letters of the alphabet. I didn't need a tutorial to figure out how to use this toolbar - just kindergarten! I selected "D" for Diet, this led me to "N" for Nutrition. On the right of the Nutrition page, I found a link for vegetarian diets. I learned how to navigate this website easily. I especially appreciated the Search Box in the right hand corner where I was able to search for bone density tests - something I would not expect to be on the Health Topics toolbar. The Search Box brought me information that I can use. If I needed to come to the website again, I think I would REMEMBER how to use it. I have a preference for cool colors so I appreciated the greens and blues on a white background. I found the spacing of the three columns on the homepage provided just enough business for me. Four columns would have been too much. |
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Post by fionajardine on Jan 9, 2013 20:10:38 GMT -5
I have to admit that the website initially took a little time to load for me, but I agree with most other things. I know that this is not strictly usability, but I'll continue with the theme of looking for languages other than English on government sites, and this had a quick link to a Spanish version, then a huge list of languages on the "multiple languages" page. The layout is clean, there is no long text to search through until you get to the pages themselves, and lists are in alphabetical order with links to other list items. Considering the basic question of what users would go to the website to do (look up health-related information), this website truly does this with speed, efficiency, learnability, and memorability. Thanks for introducing me to this website! I agree with much of the praise for this website. It is certainly simple and easy to navigate that does not require much internet expertise. However, I don't like the front page. There are too many unrelated boxes with too many different colors. When I visit an unfamiliar organization's website, I want to know what they do without much additional information (for example: bythegraceofgeorge.wordpress.com - but I'm biased as it's a wordpress site I'm in the middle of designing for my partner's charity). So, I think that one of the main purposes of a homepage is lacking and therefore the website is inefficient. |
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Post by mleist on Jan 10, 2013 10:23:36 GMT -5
The website is easy to navigate from the top menu bar and the drop down menu selections are a nice feature-- there are not too many to be cluttered, but they provide an adequate preview to what's in the subpages.
I couldn't get a sense of what the website was about or who EarthSave was from the homepage. Not being familiar with the organization, my initial reaction was confusion because the boxes on the homepage didn't seem to be unified or well-organized. I do like the inclusion of the videos, but as a first-time visitor to the website, I wouldn't commit time to watch the videos without having a better sense of the organization first. I didn't understand why the "What is EarthSave" section was at the bottom of the homepage-- that would have made more sense to me to include at the top instead of the additional "Meals for Health TV News & Video Reports."
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Hall of Shame reply SMITH
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Post by Hall of Shame reply SMITH on Jan 10, 2013 11:49:14 GMT -5
This website should be shamed! www.mva.maryland.govI'm sure most of us have had some interaction with the Maryland Motor Vehicles Administration. Recently, I moved house and needed to update the address on my license. The good news: I could do this online. The bad news: it was not easy to find exactly where on the MVA website. First impressions: there are a lot of words and categories to pick from! It takes a long time to find the right general category (compare to the California DMV website ( dmv.ca.gov/portal/home/dmv.htm), where there are only five major sections at the top). The layout is too full and confusing to search through. The headings on the left are difficult to read because of the font/color choices. Assessed from the point of view of speed, one can see how it would take a while to find something. For example, when I clicked on "Driver Licenses/ID Cards" to change my address, I was presented with a dense bullet list of options which I had to read through. Not very speedy at all. The website is terribly inefficient as well. Links do not always adequately explain the resource to which they lead - when I was trying to complete the task of changing my license address, I made so many mistakes that I ended up just doing a Google search (and I still didn't directly get to the right page - I was again faced with dense text pages). Having been on the site a few times now, I can safely say I still don't really know how to find things. I haven't learned how things are structured and would still need to resort to a search. Since this is a website a lot of us might visit, but would only visit rarely, it needs to be very simple to learn since users do not spend a lot of time committing the website's complexities to memory. Furthermore, I do not see any option on the site for translating it into other languages, to have the site read out loud, or to increase the font size. The only positive thing I can say about this website is that it does not try to be too "clever" - for example by using pop-ups or unintelligible/unintuitive buttons. This website wasn't all that bad when I approached it with specific purposes. Initially, when opening it I felt overwhelmed with information. Then, I decided I had to pick a couple of tasks to assess speed, efficiency, memorability and learnability. I picked the two tasks for which I have needed the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles: getting a driver's license and getting my car inspected. Both tasks scored high for me on all four criteria with a caveat. I knew that "VEIP" in the left-hand tool bar was related to Inspections. If I had not had prior experience with this gov't agency, I would not have known this and my speed/efficiency in accomplishing my task would have been negatively affected. A third task, finding out if there are taxes associated with owning a car in Maryland did not score high on speed and efficiency. I couldn't find the information in a timely manner and decided what I would likely do is use the "contact us" link in the top tool bar. Ironically, when I used the Search Box in the top right for taxes, I got a link that suggested everything I needed to know about taxes could be found on this link. The link opened a page that did not direct me immediately to anything about taxes. A user preference that I have is to have a main tool bar organized by subjects. Under the subjects, have drop down menus. This facilitates a less cluttered page; information is more compacted. Nevertheless, two out of my three tasks were accomplished with speed and efficiency. I did not need anyone to teach me how to find the relevant links. I believe that I would remember how I found them if I visited the site again. |
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Post by stuszynski on Jan 10, 2013 12:46:54 GMT -5
Website: duckduckgo.comDuckDuckGo is in the "Hall of Fame" I guess. It's the best option for searching the internet and not being tracked by Google/Yahoo/Microsoft any of the other major corporations that employ extensive surveillance to violate your privacy online to sell you targeted ads. The site mimics Google's design with a very minimal appearance, hiding annoying options about the type of search in the drop-down menu. There are links explaining who DDG is and why they value user privacy down at the bottom, well out of the main visual field of the site, unlike Google's proclamation of their all-important business side under their search bar. 1) Speed - minimal design means very fast loading 2) Efficiency - high. No extraneous anything on the main page. 3) Learnability - Only one button, overall page design mimics Google which makes it extremely simple to learn 4) Memorability - again, only one button, very easy to remember 5) User Preference - Anyone looking for a basic search without the clutter (or privacy violations) of Google would prefer DDG since it doesn't cloud the options with a bunch of different categories. People who have Google accounts and don't mind Google following their every move on the internet may prefer to have those options (or as I do sequestering Google into it's own browser to keep it from tracking anything but my Gmail activity). Using DDG is about balancing Google's proprietary services and accepting their intense monitoring versus being able to search without any tracking, while accepting the lower level of services as a price. |
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Post by stuszynski on Jan 10, 2013 13:09:12 GMT -5
I dislike Medline Plus for a number of reasons, however, these reasons are endemic to a lot of websites, especially the health-related ones.
1) Speed - the site did load quickly.
2) Efficiency - I don't find that level of clutter efficient myself. It's good that they have larger font size than most sites (I assume this is because elderly people are their primary users) and that the big green buttons are right at mid page, but they're obscured by the moving image for me. I know the image stops rotating at some point, but how many people are going to wait around for it to cycle through all the images and then stop? At least they put the basic necessities in the middle but all those widgets on the bottom are cluttered and confusing.
3) Learnability - I dislike that there are 2 different "search" boxes on the main page. I can't help but wonder how many people have used the wrong box because they couldn't see the main search field up above, due to the obnoxious, revolving image in the middle, and then ended up without getting the information they wanted and leaving the site in disgust.
4) Memorability - I guess if someone managed to successfully use the site once they would be able to find the main searches or the big green buttons again.
5) User preferences - as you can tell, I have serious problems with reading any site that has something moving constantly, especially when it's next to text (I had to type this in Notepad. The "smiley" things, whatever they're called, on top of the field were moving constantly, making it nearly impossible to type). I suspect this problem would be even worse for the elderly user base of the site. I have extensive script and ad blocking on my computer and I can usually disable any image that is in motion so I can use a page, but older people likely wouldn't know how to do that.
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Post by stuszynski on Jan 10, 2013 13:15:29 GMT -5
I have to concur with the evaluation of the MD MVA site.
1) Speed - it did load quickly initially
2) Efficiency - terrible. Just way too much information with very little attempt at differentiating the categories of info or uses.
3) Learnability - also low. There's too many menus and they aren't clear about what to find where
4) Memorability - if learnability is low, this is probably also low, it seems. Struggling to do something on a website once means it's still hard the second time
5) User Preferences - this is definitely a site where lower tech/lower clutter home page that took more clicks to do something but was easier to understand would be preferable!
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Post by ewrenn on Jan 10, 2013 15:39:59 GMT -5
Hall of Fame Web site: The Art Institute of Chicago (http://www.artic.edu/) I approached the site as a prospective museum visitor who also is interested in accessing the institute's library and archives collections. - Speed: Each time I looked at the site I had access to fast internet service. The front page loads quickly and so do the pages for the institute's main services. There were no demographic questions or questions of any other nature! The library catalog returns results quickly. - Efficiency: Fonts are good. The Web site overall is very clean/neat with good usage of space. I also appreciated the quicklink icons in the top right corner of the page. Of the six, the user (at least me) only needs to hover over one image--the person icon with the plus sign at the shoulder--to discover what it links to. - Learnability: the site is easy to learn; page design is consistent from one page to the next, save the shop page, which is the only one that automatically opens in a separate tab. The seven main categories are user-centered. Therefore visitors easily can identify where they should select to find the information they seek. Searching is quick and intuitive. If confused, users can see more information about each category when hovering on top of the main categories. - Memorability: I found the main page memorable because of its simplicity. The consistent style of the subcategories encourages memorability. Steps I took to find information was logical and successful. A point that could be confusing for a researcher is that "collections" and "research" can overlap. The collections section on the Web site appears to refer to the museum collections, not necessarily the library or archives collections. - User Preference: I enjoyed looking through the site. The Art Institute of Chicago clearly put thought into the sites design and usability. I found the site's initial simplicity to be a great benefit. The categories are clearly defined. For instance, it compares favorably to the National Gallery of Art page (http://www.nga.gov). And just for fun: www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/index.html |
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Post by areigle on Jan 11, 2013 10:39:56 GMT -5
My hall of shame link is actually my old e-mail service's webmail site: www.juno.com. This might be a bit of a weird choice, since you can only see the main page if you don’t have an account, but I have taken a screenshot just so you can get a better picture (but honestly, the homepage should be enough). Right away, the first thing you should notice is that maybe only 10% of the page is dedicated to the actual e-mail service it self, the majority of the page is devoted to ads and links to content that they did not create themselves. What is also noticeably inefficient is how awkwardly spaced the few bits of Juno’s actual content is. You can see the e-mail login on the right of the page. In order to make that one task, the highest priority task, of loging in more confusing, they added a bar below it about “One-Click Email Access” that displays icons that belong to other e-mail services, potentially leading users away from their service to other competitors. On the left of the page, hidden amongst the ads, are a couple of choices for “current members” which is not differentiated or clearly marked from the other content through conventions like font size or color, which is also the case for the small line of links concerning their terms of service near the bottom of the page. Already, all of this extra content will confuse users, particularly new ones, who will not be certain how to login or even how to find help concerning their account. This means that the speed is already horrible, since you have to search for what you need to do. Efficiency is also compromised by the high possibility that you will click on something that has nothing to do with your Juno account. Learnability and memorability are not as big of an issue, as there is technically one thing that you can or want to do, which is login. Once you see the login fields, and experience it once, it is not difficult but is also unlike any other web service you may use. However, it is not enough to make up for the confusing design and the uneasy feeling that you will be soon downloading a virus of some sort which certainly compromises user preference. Here I have included a screenshot of what you see when you immediately enter your login information. As you can see, my inbox is tiny and engulfed by ads. On the left you can see a list of options that are loosely organized, poorly labeled, and are not consistently designed. The part of this screenshot I want to emphasize the most is that the search field on the left of the page for my e-mails is so inconveniently placed, especially when compared to the Google search box in the right corner. As a user, I would be confused about which search field I should use and would most likely use Google first. This is detrimental to the speed with which you can find e-mails of interest, efficiency with with you can access them, and the length of time it takes to learn how to use the search function. You can only imagine what it is like going further into composing and reading mail, but I think that the homepage is enough to get an understanding. |
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