Building a Solid Foundation: Usability & Information Architecture WIAD Tampa 2015

WORLD IA DAY 2015 Building a Solid Foundation: Usability & Information Architecture

Building a Solid Foundation: Usability & Information

Architecture

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TODAY’S DISCUSSION

• What is usability testing?

• Benefits of usability testing

• Planning a usability test

• Goals for an IA usability test

• Common test approaches for IA

• Reporting test results

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“Usability testing isn’t about checking whether the people can use your website. It is about checking that your website lets them do what they need to do. It’s a subtle but important difference, and one to keep in mind when you’re testing. You are testing your work, not people’s abilities.”

Donna Spencer, A Practical Guide to Information Architecture, 2nd Edition

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Usability testing

• Usability testing is a process where actual users are observed performing real

tasks using the product being evaluated by the testing (Barnum; Dumas and

Redish).

• Evaluates the usability of a design against defined success criteria

• Conducted throughout the life cycle: “test early, test often”

• Tests the following questions:

• Does the product meet user needs?

• Does the product meet user expectations? ?

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Image credit: Cached from ranign.com


Benefits of usability testing your IA

• Learn early whether your design matches user success criteria

• Where gaps and miscues occur

• Where the design is successful

• What alternative paths and relationships are expected

• What other terminology is needed

• Probe deeper into the mental models of those who have to use your IA

• Engage users in the design process

• Gain team support for user-centered design

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Planning a usability test

• WHY: What you want to learn – study goals

• WHO: Groups of users you need to talk to

• WHAT: Specific information to discuss and scenarios to cover

• HOW: Methods to use, success criteria, and reporting structure

• WHEN: Session schedule

• WHERE: Location of session

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Goals for an IA usability test

• Verify terminology matches that of your users

• Make sure groupings and relationships make sense to users

• Identify alternative terminology

• Verify navigation flows match real work flows

• Understand user satisfaction and perception of success with the foundation of

your work

• What would you test for?

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Example test summary

Navigation [1]

User: Current insurance customer Location: Marketing Research Facility

Method: Remote, Treejack Study Date: March 2015

Materials: Site outline Status: In progress

Goals: • Discover whether the site organization matches how users look for quotes.

• Discover whether the terminology makes sense to a general audience.

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WORLD IA DAY 2015 Building a Solid Foundation: Usability & Information Architecture 9

Common test approaches


Card Sort Tree Navigation

Generative: openEvaluative: closed or hybrid

Categorization not structure

Users establish relationships and sometimes terminology

Evaluation of findability

Outline of site structure without content

Users navigate through a simplified structure

Image credit: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/comparing-user-research-methods-for-information-architecture.php

Image credit: http://www.optimalworkshop.com/treejack-demo

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Navigation Prototype

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Evaluation of findability

Full site structure, still without content

Users navigate through a simplified context



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WORLD IA DAY 2015 Building a Solid Foundation: Usability & Information Architecture 14

Sharing results


Reporting test results

• Keep study goals in mind and answer those questions first if you can

• Tailor how you report to your audience

• Focus on significant conclusions and provide actionable recommendations

• Recognize the limits of your data

• Avoid forcing more conclusions than the data support

• Acknowledge the other constraints (business drivers, schedule, budget, and

so on) on development when making recommendations

• Recognize that the details that may grab your attention may not be that

significant

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Optimal Sort Example TreeJack Example

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Resources

• C. Barnum. Usability Testing Essentials: Ready, Set...Test!

• J. Dumas, D. Chisnell. Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and

Conduct Effective Tests, 2nd Ed.

• S. Krug. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability.

• S. Krug. Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and

Fixing Usability Problems.

• D. Spencer. “How to Test an Information Architecture.” UX Mastery:

http://uxmastery.com/testing-information-architecture/ (Excerpt from Card

Sorting)

• J. Ross. “Comparing User Research Methods for Information Architecture.” UX

Matters Archives: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/06/comparing-

user-research-methods-for-information-architecture.php#sthash.ZDFVVYvo.dpuf

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THANK YOU.QUESTIONS?Contact:Karen BachmannResearch Practice Lead, [email protected] | @karenbachmann

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mailto:[email protected]


Karen Bachmann, the Research Practice Lead with Perficient, helps clients deliver usable products that support how users need and expect to interaction with information and perform their tasks. Karen is a member of STC, UXPA, and ACM SIGCHI.

She lives with 7 ferrets who view her and the other human in the house as necessary, although hard-to-train, staff.

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Got treats?