Test report
U.S Fish & Wildlife Service TestMatthew Cruz.December 4th, 2019Table of ContentsTable of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u [U.S Fish & Wildlife Service] Test PAGEREF _Toc23449961 \h 1Table of Contents PAGEREF _Toc23449962 \h 2Introduction PAGEREF _Toc23449963 \h 3Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc23449964 \h 3Methodology PAGEREF _Toc23449965 \h 4Usability Test PAGEREF _Toc23449966 \h 4Participants PAGEREF _Toc23449967 \h 5Evaluation Tasks/Scenarios PAGEREF _Toc23449968 \h 5Results PAGEREF _Toc23449969 \h 6Plain Language Guideline Adherence PAGEREF _Toc23449970 \h 6Overall User Experience & Ease in Finding Information PAGEREF _Toc23449971 \h 7Time on Task PAGEREF _Toc23449972 \h 8Errors PAGEREF _Toc23449973 \h 8Recommendations: PAGEREF _Toc23449974 \h 8Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc23449975 \h 10IntroductionThe purpose of this report is to showcase the feedback I’ve gotten from my user test and present my findings to the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service. They can then decide what changes to make to their website to better follow the Federal Plain Language Guidelines, based on my recommendations. The U.S Fish & Wildlife Service is a government agency who’s focus is to protect animals, plants, fish, essentially all forms of wildlife and their habitats from potential harm. They make sure our fish and wildlife are being well conserved and treated fairly by anyone who could potentially have any impact on the environment itself. As the name implies, their reach covers all parts of the United States, meaning that anyone in the U.S can access it for whatever reason they might have. The purpose of the website itself is to provide people with a resource they can use to search for things related to efforts. Whether this is looking into endangered animals in their area, getting a proper fishing license, finding volunteering opportunities to help certain animals and so on. Executive SummaryThe usability test took place on October 24th, 2019, where the test was done in a classroom at the University of Central Florida. The purpose of the test was to show if there are any parts of the website that don’t live up to some of the Federal Plain Language Guidelines. Where if there are any issues, then I would provide some recommendations that the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service can read into and make the appropriate changes to fix these problems in their website. I had one person participate in the usability test and the session lasted up to about 35 minutes. For the test I had 6 main questions I asked as tasks for them to accomplish. One thing that’s worth noting is to gather info on one of the guidelines, I asked the participant not to use the search engine in the website for one minute at the start of each question to see if they can find what they’re looking for. If they couldn’t within the first minute of the question, then they were free to use the search bar to help them. To briefly go over the results, my participant was able to complete all six of the questions I asked of him but each with their own varying degree of difficulty. It was noted in the user test that while it would prove difficult and take up some time, one could find the info they’re looking for without using the search engine. My participant, who was a young African American male student at UCF named Anthony, felt that the website was somewhat simple to use and usable. However, he did have one or two complaints about the website he wanted to bring up.To clarify, the website itself seems to follow the Plain Language Guidelines I tested well, but there are still two problems that should be addressed.There were a few links that were labeled more vaguely than others were, where the participant then struggled at first finding the correct place to look for the information. While for some of the more complex terms, the website provided brief explanations as to what they were, there were other terms that didn’t give us that luxury. The main issue here would be consistency, where some pieces of information were easier to comprehend than others.In my report you will find a lot of things that go over the results of my user test and what I ultimately decided should be done about the website. You will see the methodology where I talk more about the usability test itself and what were the questions I asked. Then there’s the results, where I go in depth what I gathered from the test, what did our participant think about the website and bringing up anything that stood out in the user test. Finally, I have the recommendations at the end, where after that is my final thoughts in the conclusion. MethodologyUsability TestFor the usability test, I spent some time looking over the website to find out what plain language guidelines I wanted to test for and what kinds of the kinds of questions I wanted to ask. After browsing U.S Fish & Wildlife Service website for some time, I picked the three guidelines I wanted to devote my focus to which were:Link Labeling/EffectivenessContent ComprehensionSearch Bar’s UsabilityI wanted to focus on these guidelines because I felt that they were the ones that could have the biggest impact on the users of the site, whether they worked correctly or not. If how the links are incorrectly labeled or are too vague for the user to understandable, then this could impact how difficult it is to navigate the site. If the content is too incomprehensible and the average user can’t really understand any of the information, then the website would be unusable. If the search engine can’t find what you’re looking for consistently, then no one will want to use it. All these aspects of the websites are essential to the usability of it, which is why I felt the need to test them. You’ll see the questions I asked below, but something I felt I had to explain was the rule I had for my participant to follow. The rule was for the first minute of answering the question, Anthony could not use the search engine to help him search for the answer. At first this could be confusing to some, since I’m supposed to be testing the search bar, but there is a good reason for this. I wanted to see how effective the links were and if Anthony could find the information without the search engine, and just how important a role it plays in the website. I didn’t have any other major rules for the usability test besides that one, other than if he couldn’t answer the question within the allotted four minutes then he had to move on. The usability test itself went fairly well and showed how usable the website was, though it did have a few issues worth mentioning.ParticipantsFor the usability test, I only had one participant that took it. The participant’s name was Anthony Williams, he’s an African American male in his early to mid-twenties. He currently goes to University of Central Florida as a student there, he is either in his third or fourth year at UCF.Regarding who could be the potential users of the U.S Fishing & Wildlife website, The main demographic would be those who are living in the United States, which is fitting considering the agency is based in the US. I would see people who are devoted to protecting wildlife and nature in general on this website, so they could find or learn about more ways to help in their community. You’ll find people who are into finishing or hunting on this website, where they’ll be using it to try and find places where they can get a license to do those activities. It’s difficult to say which specific demographics might use this sight, since anyone in the US can use it, and I only really had one participant to go off data wise. Evaluation Tasks/ScenariosI had 6 questions that my participant had to answer during the usability test. For the first 3 I had scenario-based questions that placed Anthony in the shoes of another person to find what he needed. For the last 3 questions, I used task analysis type questions to help us see how he would respond to certain tasks and see if he would be successful. What all these questions have in common is they were all made to test the three guidelines at once. I felt that each of the guidelines are closely connected to one another when it comes to completing the task itself. Since these guidelines do come into play when you are trying to search the website for answers on a certain subject or whatever the case may be. I wanted to ask a wide enough range of questions so that I could cover as many areas of the website as possible, to see how my participant reacts to these different places and to see if website proves to usable in these cases. If I were to do another user test, it would be better to ask more varied questions. Since I felt that there were still other areas, I hadn’t explored yet on the website that would be worth exploring. Though at least with the questions I asked, I were able to fairly test the website’s usability and see how well they followed the plain language guidelines I focused on. Scenario:You are an aspiring young fisherman in Minnesota, and you would like to buy a fishing license in the state you live in. What would be the steps you take to find and purchase this license? You are a professor in a university, and you are looking to explain to your class ways can prevent the spread of invasive plants. What would you do to find this information and what problems did you run into along the way?You are an animal rights activist and you’re trying to find out what kinds of bats in Arkansas are in danger of becoming extinct. How would you find this information and explain why you took the steps you did?Task Analysis:How many plants in the state of New Jersey are in danger of being extinct? What were the steps you took to find this information?If I asked you to look for different kinds of sea turtles that are endangered in Florida and write them down, how would you approach this activity?How would you find the page for National Wildlife Refuges of Lake Wales Ridge in Florida? Was it more difficult than you anticipated?ResultsPlain Language Guideline AdherenceWhile conducting the usability test, I was responsible for writing down everything I saw from the participant, from how he went through the website, what seemed to be his thought process, and how long it took him to complete each task. Anthony was successful in answering each question I had for him, something that I felt shows us that the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service’s website does follow the plain language guidelines I tested for. Since if Anthony had failed to answer three out of the six questions, then I would have felt certain that the website itself is not very usable and needs immediate adjustments. But that is not the case, the user was able to eventually successfully accomplish every task laid out. Anthony did this by taking his time browsing through the website, he didn’t rush himself despite the time limit he had, clicking through different links, looking over texts and images to find what he was looking for. And when he could use the search engine after a minute had passed, he was able to use it to his advantage, where he eventually found what he was looking for and was ready to move on to the next one. The website is usable for their users and while Anthony took full advantage of the search engine, I saw that even without using it he found success searching for what he needed. However, it’s worth noting that were a few issues that came up during the usability test that would need to be addressed by the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service at some point. There were questions that seemed to give Anthony more trouble than others did, specifically first two scenario questions. Overall User Experience & Ease in Finding Information Regarding when asked why it almost took him the whole four minutes for both of those questions, he explained that they were very specific in nature, which meant he had to go deep into the website to find what he was looking for. Especially during the first minute when he wasn’t allowed to use the search engine and had to rely on the website’s links and tabs to take him there. However, even when he could use the search bar and it did help him, he still had to go through a few extra pages to find the exact information. While it didn’t happen often, there were a few occasions where Anthony would click on the wrong link, thinking it was the correct one, when it actually took him to the wrong place. He admitted that this error could have just been on his part, but he felt that changing the wording on some of the links would be helpful in figuring out which one you want to click. Anthony made it clear that not all the links and tabs were like this since if they were, he probably wouldn’t have completed the tasks, but the ones that do suffer from this need to be fixed. Anthony did bring up one, albeit minor complaint with the website. He found that while the content in the website was mostly comprehensible, there were a few terms that he came across that he wasn’t familiar with. But what confused him was that he found instances where the website took the liberty to define and explain other terms that seemed complicated, but there were times that they didn’t explain other complicated terms. There was a lack of consistency there and he hopes that those responsible for the website will fix this minor issue. He didn’t have any other complaints since he felt the website So, while there are two issues that should be addressed, the website itself has proven to be usable and for the most part followed the guidelines I focused on. Time on Task Scenario:You are an aspiring young fisherman in Minnesota, and you would like to buy a fishing license in the state you live in. What would be the steps you take to find and purchase this license? Time remaining: 12 seconds You are a professor in a university, and you are looking to explain to your class ways can prevent the spread of invasive plants. What would you do to find this information and what problems did you run into along the way?Time remaining: 30 secondsYou are an animal rights activist and you’re trying to find out what kinds of bats in Arkansas are in danger of becoming extinct. How would you find this information and explain why you took the steps you did?Time remaining: 2 minutes and 30 secondsTask Analysis:How many plants in the state of New Jersey are in danger of being extinct? What were the steps you took to find this information?Time remaining: 2 minutes and 16 secondsIf I asked you to look for different kinds of sea turtles that are endangered in Florida and write them down, how would you approach this activity?Time remaining: 1 minute and 22 secondsHow would you find the page for National Wildlife Refuges of Lake Wales Ridge in Florida? Was it more difficult than you anticipated?Time remaining: 2 minutes and 47 secondsErrorsThe only error Anthony made while he was answering the questions was occasionally, he would click on the wrong link. It would take him a few seconds before he realized that he had pressed the wrong link or tab, where he would then go back to the last page and continue looking for the answer.Recommendations:After going over the data I’ve collected, I’ve come up with my recommendations for the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service’s website. I believe that while the website itself is usable and for the most part follows the three guidelines, the problems that I discovered with the links and content must be addressed. In the case of the first issue, links and tabs on the website can sometimes come across as too vague and misleading, causing the user to accidently click on the wrong link and end up in the wrong page. The other issue is how there are certain terms they use in the website that may make sense to a specialist in that field, but to the average citizen like Anthony, these “specialist” terms doesn’t make any sense. There were no major issues with the website’s search bar, which means that nothing really needs to be changed with that. My hope is that my recommendations will be taken into deep consideration and implemented when possible. ChangeJustificationSeverityIssue 1: Fix some of the labels on the links to be less misleading/vague and instead more straightforward and specific.Issue 2: Add more definitions and explanations to some the more complex terms on the website.Based on my usability test, I discovered how Anthony struggled with finding the correct page sometimes, due to the way some of the links were worded. He would get confused and realize he had clicked on the wrong link, which shows that there is an issue that must be addressed in the website. If the links are worded in a manner that leave users confused, that just shows this needs to be fixed. So, the idea would be to look for links that are misleading or vague, and editing them to be clear.Anthony saw how while there were some terms that the website was kind enough to explain what they were. There were other “specialist” terms that didn’t get the same treatment, implying that they’re assuming their audience already knows what that it is. But it’s not safe to assume what your audience does or doesn’t know, as you run the risk of having your user’s comprehension of the text be damaged. So, it would be in the best interests of the website to go through some of their web pages and find those complex terms that could confuse their audiences. Once they do, then add the appropriate definitions and explanations to them. MediumMediumConclusionIn conclusion, Anthony found that although the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service’s website was usable for the most part and followed the federal plain language guidelines. There were still a few issues that needed to be addressed in order to make the website even more usable for the audience. But with the help of my recommendations they will be able to fix these problems, how by editing some of the tabs and links to be clearer, this will help their users find what page they’re looking for. And by adding more definitions to the more complex terms, their audience will be able to understand the content a lot better and not be left confused. My hope is that my recommendations will be taken seriously and changes to the website will be made whenever possible. I am also considering doing another usability test for this website to test some of the other plain language guidelines that the website is supposed to follow. For this potential usability test, I would get more people to participate in it to get a stronger round of data that I can analyze and if needed, make more recommendations for the website. ................
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