Website Usability of Coventry University Students Union - Assignment Example

Website Usability of Coventry University Students Union The aim of this evaluation is to find out how well the Coventry university students website can best meet the demands from the users, as well as other stakeholders of the university. In this test and investigation of how well the website is usable, we test how the student’s union website was designed, how well users can navigate through the web site without experiencing problems. Usability, as ISO 9241 defines it, is the level with which users of a specified product can be able to use that product without much hustle, and making sure that they achieve efficiency, effectiveness, as well as satisfaction (Dumas, 1999). Effectiveness in this case means the ability of users to actually, complete, or do a specific task using the software product. In this case, the software product is a web site where students find information from their student’s union. Efficiency refers to the ability of users to be able to complete their duties and tasks without getting bored or without being bored in the process of doing the task. Satisfaction means or rather refers to the fun the users get when doing their tasks. In the case of testing for the usability of a web site, it is not only enough to criticize the web site. There is more to the usability of a web site than simply criticism. Apart from the efficiency of the software product or web site, and the effectiveness of the web site towards its goal, the web site should also aim to maximize learnability to the users. This means that when users visit the website, they should not find it difficult to use the web site or ask for help whenever they want to access certain information on the web site and so on. There are different ways usability can be determined for a given software product. These different ways are known as the usability evaluation methods. They include usability testing, usability inspection, and lastly, usability inquiry. In usability testing, we look at how users use the software product or website to accomplish various tasks. Then, as evaluators, we use the different results we receive from the whole process to determine whether the user interface is usable enough to support the demands of users as they go about accomplishing their different tasks. Under usability testing there are several other different sub-methods (Nielsen, 1994). The sub methods include co-discovery learning, coaching method, question-asking protocol, performance measurement, shadowing method, thinking aloud protocol, remote testing, and lastly, teaching method. The next testing method or evaluation method for the usability of a software product or a website is usability inspection. In this case, as the software developer, or as a user and or a professional in the usability field, we look at the various aspects of the user interface that are related to each other. There are different ways of doing this. We could decide to do this using pluralistic walk through, or using cognitive walkthroughs, or heuristic evaluation, or feature inspection, and lastly, through perspective based inspection. The last evaluation method is done through, usability inquiry. In this evaluation method, as professionals and evaluators, we talk to the users to find out information about what they like about the product we are giving them. In this process, the target or aim is to get to know the dislikes, the likes, the needs, as well as the understanding of the users. This can be done by watching them use the system to do real work, or through talking to them and asking them questions and noting down the answers. Additionally, the questions could be written or asked aurally. The different ways inquiry evaluation takes place is through, focus groups, field observation, interviews, questionnaires, proactive field study and so on and so forth. www.cusu.org is the website run by the Coventry University Students Union. The Coventry University Students’ Union, abbreviated CUSU, represents the voice of the students within the university. However, it is much more than that. Students can use the web site to find new people and make new friends in the process. They can also be able to discover new things as well as new passions in the process of visiting the web site. The web site provides students with various opportunities like volunteering, participating in sports and accessing information on sports events in the university, opportunities of employment, entertainment spots, teams of sport to support, as well as social clubs they could join to meet new people (Hom, 2012). Additionally, the Coventry University Students Union website contains information on topics such advice, as well as support and opportunities to campaign on issues the students have a strong feeling about. Additionally, the website contains more information about the student’s union like where the union offices are found, how students can access the offices and facilities the union provides to them and so on. In the usability test, we would like to find out whether students can be able to complete various tasks on the web site. On the forefront among these tasks, we want to see whether the students are capable of completing is, whether they can be able to find about the students societies and even go ahead to join a student’s society. The next batch of tasks we would like to look at is whether students will be able to register, and go ahead to become student representatives on their own. The usability test also aims to find out whether students are able to find information on support, access it and get advice from the students’ union too. Lastly, when all is said and done, the usability evaluation will find out from the students whether the webs site offers them the satisfaction they need when using it to accomplish various tasks. Enjoyment in experience is a very important aspect of usability of a software product or a web site. For a conclusive and in depth evaluation of the usability of the Coventry University Student’s union web site, we start by doing an inquiry usability evaluation. In this test, the users, who in this case are the students of the Coventry University, are interviewed to find out their dislikes and like about the Students Union web site. Thereafter, questionnaires are formulated that contain questions about their take on the services provided on the web site and what should be improved from the web site. When their answers have been obtained, they are analyzed to find about what they think of the web site. This test is used to evaluate the satisfaction of the students as they access the students’ union web site. Apart from the interviewing and administration of questionnaires, the students could also be observed as they use the web site to perform their duties and tasks on the web site. This will provide the professionals, who are the evaluators with the first-hand information on the user habits, likes and dislikes, and consequently optimize the web site to suit the needs of the users. The whole process of inquiry usability evaluation provides enough information, which may then be used by the students’ union to improve on the design of the web site when the need arises. They will have known about the trends and habits the users provide when using the web site. This includes such things as what menus do users access first when they go to the web site, what kind of articles the users like to read from the web site and so on. The next method to be used to evaluate the usability of the website's user interface is to conduct a usability testing on the web site (Nielsen, 1994). This is done through such methods as question asking protocols as indicated in the discussion above in this paper. In this test method, only one usability expert is needed who administers the test. The expert gets a number of users; the students in this case. By asking the students direct questions about the web site, and what kind of actions they perform when they visit the web site, the expert who is the evaluator of the usability of the web site is able to understand the areas and tasks the students have trouble in using and understanding. This testing method covers such issues of usability as efficiency, satisfaction, as well as effectiveness of the web site. A test example would be to ask them to describe the process of accessing the advice section of the web site. The more accurate the answer, the more the evaluator knows that the user interface is simple enough. Therefore, is effective in letting the students perform duties and tasks from the web site. Alternatively, a test could be formulated to ask them to describe the steps involved in accessing the representatives section of the web site. While some of the tests could be obvious, this is not always the case. Aspects of usability, such as learnability of the web site, are also being investigated by such tasks and tests that are administered under usability testing (Dumas, 1999). From the tests and steps of usability evaluation above, the majority of students were able to perform the tests administered to them successfully. The web site has various tab menus that enable easy navigation through the desired page to perform a task or access certain information. Additionally, the students could easily describe the steps involved in doing some tasks on the web site. When observed doing these tasks, we can conclude that the web site is efficient in its bid to provide information to students promptly. Very many students access the web site for information on various subjects such as entertainment spots, sports events and schedules, information on major issues all over the world and so on. The other thing the web site was successfully in achieving is learnability of the tasks and actions done to finish tasks on the web site. Students did not get stuck doing things the second time they visited the web site. This shows learnability is good, and the web site is effective too. The only issue observed on the web site is that there is no consistency in the coloring of the tab menus of the web site. This makes it difficult for the user to know which tab has been selected in the first place. Some of the tab menus are blue; some of them are green, and others pink. Consistency is important in designing for a user interface for a public utility product like the students’ union web site. Among the things I could recommend being changed, is the coloring of the tab menus. They need to be consistent in the coloring in order not to trouble the users; the students in keeping track of which menu they have selected. Additionally, some menus on the web site should be merged in order not to confuse the students. For instance, the ‘what’s on’ and the news tab on the menu should be merged because they almost contain the same content; providing the students with new things about the university student’s union and the world. They should be merged and named ‘news’. Then, they would be sub-categorized into sub-menus, which would be named, for instance, as world news and college news. The test methods used in evaluation of the usability of a web site or a software product say a lot in the kind of result obtained from the whole evaluation process. It also tells whether the student’s love the product or not. Additionally, it tells what they would love to have in the future. These testing methods in place during evaluation enables the stakeholders involved to better serve the students, and to anticipate what value they would find in using the web site; and any other software product for that matter (Hom, 2012). Overall, the Coventry University Students Union web site gets a ‘good’ as a rating on the work done and attempt to give students information and services in a well-organized way. References Card, S.K..M.T.P..&.N.A., 1983. The psychology of human-computer interaction. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Dumas, J.S.a.R.J.C., 1999. A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Bristol: Intellect Books. Hom, J., 2012. Usability Evaluation Methods. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.usabilityhome.com/" http://www.usabilityhome.com/ [Accessed 11 March 2012]. Nielsen, J., 1994. Usability Inspection Methods. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Read More