1. Web Sites and Education: Improving Your Education Websites Through Usability Testing
Katherine Prentice, MSIS Richard Usatine, MD
University of Texas HSC at San Antonio

2. Goals
Be familiar with the Family Medicine Digital Resources Library (FMDRL)
Understand how usability testing can be applied to all sites
Be able to describe usability process and techniques
Be able to identify appropriate usability tools
Be able to apply usability principles to participants’ own Websites

3. Family Medicine Digital Resources Library
FMDRL is a site designed for family medicine educators and other medical educators, to contribute, find and share learning tools
FMDRL contributions are screened and submitters may request peer review
FMDRL uses two index methods:
FMDRL educational taxonomy
NLM’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

4. FMDRL Usability Testing
UTHSCSA Library recruited five librarians to test the site
Data collected on user perception, satisfaction, and site performance
Test results contain design recommendations aimed at making the FMDRL easier to use
Results confirmed editors’ perceptions and some changes have been made

5. Participant Ratings Attribute/Participant A B C D E
Appealing color & layout design 3 2 4
Easy to navigate & understand 1
Useful information & content 5
Navigation links correspond to information
Number of navigation options available
Easy-to-read font text/size
Quality of graphics/photos
Scale:
1 = Poor
2 = Below average
3 = Average
4 = Good
5 = Excellent

6. Actual Comments Oooh, MeSH headings, that is interesting.
It took me a while to figure out how to browse and search within my results.
Offer a site glossary that works with a mouse hover.
The back button did not work as expected.
Offer help searching or more instructions.

7. From the Usability Report
Changes that could be easy to implement:
Reduce the volume of text on the home page
Offer the file download button near the top of the record, or offer an in-page shortcut the link
Offer “help searching” instructions
Add content to the About Us section to explain more about the site and creators

8. Changed front page – got rid of list that was not clickable

9. Separated out the search and filter functions

10. Moved the file attachments to the top of a resource

11. Added new help screens

12. What is Usability?
Usability.gov: “Usability measures the quality of a user's experience when interacting with a product or system.”
ISO : “[Usability refers to] the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of user.”
Sounds like human factors or ergonomics? The concept is the same, but for websites, just as critical as furniture.

13. Why? So? Sites that do not work properly do not attract or keep users
Usability to make websites easier for everyone
Sites are that are easier to use are also easier to edit, update, and keep current
Educational websites are required, users have to visit, don’t let that be an excuse.

14. Some Usability Methods
Heuristic* Evaluation
Card Sort
Link ranking
Focus Groups
Surveys
Usability Testing
*Heuristic = rule of thumb

15. Examples… Heuristic Evaluation
Evaluate site against a list of usability criteria (rules of thumb)
Provides information quickly
Example heuristics from Jakob Nielsen:
Have a good match between the system and the real world
Design to facilitate recognition rather than recall memory
Provides for flexibility and efficiency

16. Examples…
Card Sort
Great for sites where organization of information is the greatest need
Take all the link labels and give them to small number of participants and ask for organizational groupings
Use this information to see how others would organize your site
Heuristic Evaluation
Site experts evaluate against criteria

17. Examples… Link Ranking
Create a linear, alphabetical list of all of your site links and ask individuals to rank the links in the order of their importance
If there are institutionally “required” links, tell participants those must be included
Results identify specific links that have a greater perceived value
UT HSC example, main page has 57 visible links. Asked participants to rank 30 for new site, but 6 were required, so they only had 24 free options.

18. Examples… Surveys & Focus Groups
Directly ask site visitors what they think
Use both multiple choice and open ended questions for online surveys
Use a survey at the end of case exercises; ask the user to explain what worked well as well as what didn’t
a survey to outgoing students
Ask questions at the end of a lecture in a discussion format

19. Examples… Usability Testing The full-fledged classical test
Develop a list of common site tasks and then ask volunteers to work through them without assistance, speaking out loud with observer and recorder present
Institution might require IRB approval
Best with expert assistance

20. Take Home Thoughts Small steps are still steps
Set a goal to try one usability exercise
See if your library can help
Hire a professional or recruit a graduate student
Questions????
Handout and slides at FMDRL will have resources/websites/books that have additional information.

21. Get the Handout
Will be available shortly.