The Usability Index of the Conservatives Party Website - Case Study Example

?E-BUSINESS EVALUATING A WEBSITE ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Executive summary Measuring usability follows a range of tests. The metrics available to help you measure your design and make improvements are numerous. They intend to make your website more efficient for users, easier to learn and more satisfying to users. Measuring the usability is mainly done by conducting usability testing. The most general factors measured in this are efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction, memorability and error frequency and severity. When measuring usability, there are two types of metrics that can be captured in a usability test; preference data – what participants think and performance data- what actually happens. This report analyses the usability index of the Conservatives party website http://www.conservatives.com/ . It follows the various available usability test methods and it examines the various ways of evaluating websites and accessibility. Usability test and evaluation has evolved and is continually changing to accommodate new technology, inventions and innovations. Since the first website appeared online; organizations, companies, and institutions went on a rush. It is not enough to be on-line with a domain name and a simple website. A good and well designed website is an important factor to consider. Website statics are a major concern for the management, who want to realize a return on investment for their money. Usability is directly tied to website design and user interface design for usability. Human computer interaction is an area concerned with the design, implementation and evaluation of interactive information systems for human use with study of their behavior and major phenomena surrounding them Preece et al. (1994, p. 48). Often, designers and HCI experts set out to create systems and specifically tailor them for a range of users; this makes it suitable for the target users but ignores the others. Recently the demand for user interfaces that are suitable for all users has increased and it therefore calls for proficiency in design. Considering the user and making usability engineering the route to follow is critical. The process of website development has a stage/ phase called website mapping. The process involves designing diagrams and sketches that in the very least give an idea of the site structure. The diagrams designed in this phase are referred to as planning diagrams and are artifacts of the design process. In most cases, they are shared by the designer and the client or the planning group, and then discarded. Still, the diagrams are considered a critical part of the design process. The diagrams include information architecture diagram, wireframe, use case diagram and site architecture diagram. Introduction In order for your web site to be productive, users must find useful information or accomplish tasks. In a goal-oriented design you must balance the needs of the users and the needs of your organizations (Concepcion 2002, p. 81). This can be achieved by setting a full set of usage scenarios for each persona. One can the use the scenarios to test the site structure making sure it offers and experience that includes all the basic elements that are needed by the users to reach their goals. In user-centered design, personas are imagined characters created to represent types of users with certain skills and located in different demographic regions. They capture the attitude and general demeanor of these personalities (Tamara & Pruitt, pp. 77-81). Criteria to judge websites Website critique, like website development, is not a defined science (Tamara & Pruitt, pp. 23). Powerful applications and new ideas arise constantly, paving way for old ideas and reshaping them. In simple language a website is much more than a sum of its constituent parts. One of the criteria to judge a website is the content. This evaluates the information provided in terms of usefulness, degree of information, interaction and presence of valuable graphics, audio or video (Mcneil 2008, p. 28). Structure and navigation of the website is also an important feature to look for. This refers to the framework of a website, prioritization of information, organization of the content and the method which you move through the website. Visual design with high quality appearance is also a feature to consider. The first impression a website gives is important and it often influences the visitor’s interest in the website. This is defined by the URL length, download time, plug-ins requirement, home screen view and depth of site. Functionality of the website is also a prominent criterion. It defines the use of technology on the site where good functionality means the site works well. The presence of live links, quick load time is a factor. Also a site that works cross-platform on different browsers is an important factor. A highly functional site will anticipate the diversity of the user requirements from file format, file size and download speed. Last but not least is the interactivity and overall experience. This is the way that a site allows you to achieve an intended goal. Allowing a user to give and receive and having the user participate is important. A user with a good overall experience comes back regularly, places a book mark, participates, stays for a while or signs up a newsletter etc. Usability & accessibility tests conducted on the website Enhancing the user experience is the sole purpose in the website http://www.usability.gov . This website has addressed a lot of issues and a broad range of factors that go into website design and development. It helps in planning and designing usable sites by collecting data on the user needs, Usability may involve prototype development, measuring trends and demographics and conducting usability tests and writing up the results. Evaluation techniques Heuristics This method of evaluation was used to focus on finding usability problems in the user interface design to be performed as an iterative design process. The task involved expert evaluators, a small group, who set out to examine the interface and measure its compliance with the benchmark usability principles “the heuristics”. It required more than one individual since a single person could not find all the usability problems in a user interface design. Involving multiple evaluators gave more hope in improving the design quality which resulted to the current design. The evaluators were expert computer users whose persona closely matched or fitted to they are aware of the design standards and served well to evaluate the design. Cognitive walkthrough In the cognitive walk through, the evaluator used the inspection to identify usability issues in the website. The evaluation focused on how easy it is for users to accomplish tasks with the website. This method is task-specific and is rooted in the idea that web users prefer to learn a system by practically using it to accomplish tasks. For instance, checking date or information a subject from a website. The evaluator chose this method since it is a low cost solution and it generated results quickly, most importantly, it could be used in the initial design phase. A user persona representing the user category for cognitive walk through is indicated. A user with a good overall experience comes back regularly, places a book mark, participates, stays for a while or signs up a newsletter etc. Current site strengths and weaknesses Strengths As I browsed the Conservatives website, I noticed the clear logo accompanied by name on the header part of the website. In addition, I liked the simple design where the webpage has been centered and it is designed with consistent colors. These colors give harmony and the required contrast to the website, highlighting the important information that needs to be seen by the user first. There are images appearing on the page. These images compliment the text and reduce a lot of prose on the website. There are several menu items, content links, displaying a list of clickable hyperlinks to other website pages. They have been arranged in such a way to give easy navigation. There are three columns that have introductory text and links to more information. These sections give the user the opportunity to skim through the website content and choose information that interests them. There are some social bookmarks at the bottom of the page that bring the aspect of social interaction. This in my opinion gives the party a social image and an aspect of online communication. The main interface looks very organized and easy to navigate and you can gather lots of information. You can also identify the mission and vision of the conservatives, in addition to the availability of content of site map. There is a quick search field that provides the functional search where a user can directly look for the topic of interest. The use of technology is very evident. This has been shown by the presence of live links and browser independence. Technology use has improved the overall user experience by allowing an advanced level of interactivity with the website. The simple framework and content organization makes the website easy to navigate and gives it a unique and beautiful structure. The content has been complimented by the visual aids and is well prioritized. Displaying course details where you get more information about the party such as join requirements, periodic updates in an orderly manner and in simple language that is understandable is a good example. The website also contains attractors, this are extra services or information that keep the user glued to the website. For instance, it has a latest news section, enrolment links and a blog. It also contains a lot of external links useful to members. This feature makes it possible to get a lot of returning visitors to the website and visitors who spend time on the website. Largely the user satisfaction has been well addressed by the available design and functionality. Weaknesses The website lacks a visitor counter. This makes it hard to monitor the web site traffic and gauge the relevance of the provided information. The length of the home screen is also not appealing since the user has to scroll down to see the information on hidden from the screen. Additionally the website cannot be easily found using a search engine with keywords that could interest a member or prospective member. In my opinion the web site has been professionally designed but needs a little adjustment to make it fully user friendly. This website has several negative aspects to it. First the download time is long and it provides very little information on the home screen. The heavy graphics and very minimal content is not an intuitive design and many users may feel lost or unaware of the site and how it is helping them. Diagrams mapping the current information architecture of the site The diagrams give the designer a preamble and a direction to follow in the actual implementation of the website. For instance, the information architecture diagram shows how the site content will be arranged and grouped in the website. It serves as an overview of the website directory and file structure. This is intended to give the website some organizational look. In terms of the site architecture diagram its a planning diagram captures more organization than the information architecture diagram. It is intended to group the website information into concepts that make design sense to the client. Lastly, the wireframe is a diagram that represents a page schematic, visual guideline, of the website in progress. It shows the page layout and arrangement of content, including interface elements and navigational links and how they are fused together. It has omitted color, graphics, and typographic style and has squarely focused on functionality, behavior and priority of content. Site map Blueprint Wireframe Diagrams proposing improvements to the site information architecture Proposed Sitemap A multilevel site map is better with better navigation. I will recommend is to have the Conservative party at the top strip and quick links on the left side of the main page. This will quickly identify the website and give a brief overview of the contents. For the navigation I will recommend a block design with pop up links. This will allow the content links to provide handy and easy access to as many pages as possible. Proposed blue print The proposed blueprint shows a hierarchical organization of the menu items to aid the user navigation. They are intuitively grouped as opposed to the plain unrelated listing. Under one menu item, the sub menu items show the categories. This diagram captures more organization than the information architecture diagram. It is intended to group the website information into concepts that make design sense to the client. Most importantly, the intention is to show how the website content is structured and how the navigation menus will fit into these plans. It gives the designer a glance and comprehensive look at the whole website and serves as a prototype for the designer. The blueprint enables site planning and it evolves as the plan evolves. It closely resembles the final website content arrangement. The above diagram shows how the content links are arranged on the home screen. This content links show the navigation of the website. Proposed Wireframe The above diagram represents a page schematic, visual guideline, of the website in progress. It shows the page layout and arrangement of content, including interface elements and navigational links and how they are fused together. It has omitted color, graphics, and typographic style and has squarely focused on functionality, behavior and priority of content. Explanation of proposed improvements The primal requirement that is charged to the website designer is to give a product that has great user experience. This calls for a user centered design with the usability engineering principles. It is important to have a designer that has the best interests of the user at heart. The proposed improvements follow a heuristic evaluation and user feedback on the existing website which is then implemented as part of the proposed designs. This website intent and purpose will be to provide information to the users. It will be accessed by users who want to learn and improve their basic skills and also those who are advanced users. The first requirement is a visually attractive site that creates a good first impression. This will include a memorable URL, full view of the home screen, contacts and short download time. Additionally, this website should demonstrate use of technology by having advanced functionality that can allow user interaction and overall design experience. This will be achieved by following the proposed structures and organization. The navigation and structure of the website should be simple and straight forward with neat content organization. I recommend including attractors in the website, this will keep the user coming back to the website. The attractors are features like newsletters, career options, polls etc. A user, for instance, technical expert will be looking for current content and trends in information systems and technology. Prioritizing this information will help her in achieving the set goals. I further recommend a site that has knowledge of users. This feature makes the website adaptive and provides important statistics. Last but not least, including a website counter to monitor the traffic is important in making improvements to the website. References Beaird, J 2007, The Principles of beautiful web design, SitePoint,New York. Bringhurst, R 2005, The Elements of typographic style applied to the web, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Concepcion, A 2002, Professional Web Site Design from Start to Finish, How Design Books, San Francisco. Horton, S 2005, Access by Design online, New Riders Press, California. Jianfeng, Wang. (2010). A study of the Impact of Individual Differences on Online Shopping,” International Journal of E-Business Research, 6, no. 4 (2010): 52-67. Krug, S 2005,Don’t make me think: A Common sense approach to web usability, New Riders Press, California. Johnson, J 2010,Designing with the mind in mind: Simple guide to understanding user interface design rules, Morgan Kaufmann, Massachusetts. Mcneil, P 2008, The web designer’s Idea Book: The Ultimate guide to themes, trends and styles in website design, New Riders Press, California. Shawn, L.H 2007, Integrating accessibility throughout design, Lawton Press, Madison. Tamara, A & Pruitt J 2005, The essential persona lifecycle, Morgan Kaufmann, Massachusetts. Rhee, Hyuk and David, Sprague. (2004). Information Technology and E-commerce Strategy of Entrepreneurial Ventures: A contingency approach based on information –processing theory. Journal of E-Business, 4, no. 1 (2004): 80. Villiers, C 2000, Using HCI techniques to evaluate electronic commerce sites, viewed 28th November 2011, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.112.142&rep=rep1&type=pdf Read More