A user-centric website UNECE work session on communication of statistics 29 June – 1 July 2011 Terri Mitton, OECD Publishing
Overview Background on How to find out what users want How we measure success Conclusion
New website… Source:
What the organisation wants Source:
What the user wants To accomplish his/her task To find what he/she are looking for as fast as possible
Approach to meet users needs 1.Ask users what they want to do on your website 2.Measure how users succeed at performing the top tasks 3.Continuously test and improve
OECD users voted on the top tasks Tasks2120 Voters 1Country survey/review/reports 7% 2Compare country statistical data6% 3Statistics on one particular topic6% 4Browse an online publication for free5% 5Working papers5% 6Publication by topic 5% 7Basic facts, summaries, overviews4% 8Statistics on one particular country4% 9Statistics forecasts / projections4% 10Access to raw data3% Top 25% Top 25-50%
Bottom 20 tasks: 3% of the vote TasksVotes How OECD interacts with non-member countries 92 How OECD is funded (budget) 70 Find OECD officials (directors, ambassadors) 59 Personalize the website 56 Press conferences (calendar accreditation)56 Find a local bookshop51 Publishing rights and permissions45 What’s involved in OECD membership44 Secretary General speeches and activities 39 Find OECD locations38 Tour of the OECD37 Hotels near OECD locations24 Password problems23
We cannot change what we cannot measure Source: flicker creative commons license: jeff_golden
Usability test approaches 1.Task Performance Indicator Gerry McGovern, Customer Carewords 2.Steve Krug based-method
How do users perform on top tasks? Task performance indicator
Task Example 1: How much did Korea spend on health in 2008, in percentage of its GDP (gross domestic product)?
Cross-search hid navigation bar
After testing
Task Example 2: –Find a table that gives key statistical information, such as government deficit and CO2 emission levels in Japan for 2007 (Browse statistics on a particular country)
Most users navigate by country
Users find the wrong number…
Task Example 3: –In 2009, which country – Germany or Spain - had the highest number of obese people (based on self reports)? (compare countries)
Too much long text…
Some users find the right page…
Multi-tab excel files problematic
Navigation overwhelmed users..
Simplified navigation
Conclusion The website is the primary means with communicating with the public. A good way to gain support in the organisation is to show that the website is working for users.