Penn Homepage Usability Testing

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Penn Homepage Usability Testing
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We tested

• 4 faculty members
• 10 staff members
• 4 Penn students
• 4 prospective students
• How we did it
• Gave participants a list of tasks/questions.
• Two testers and one participant. One tester
  writes down responses while the other asks
  questions.
• Created a page online that contained links to web
  page mockups in the same order that we asked the
  questions.

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What we tested

• General impression of the old homepage design.
• What type of information are you interested in
  when you go to that page?
• What are your thoughts on the speed the photos
  rotate? Do you prefer 5 seconds, 7 seconds or 9
  seconds?
• How do you go about finding that information?
• General impression of the new homepage design.
• Dr. Gutmann wanted photos to rotate on the
  homepage, so we showed participants a mockup of
  the new design where the photos rotated.
• What are your thoughts on the speed the photos
  rotate? Do you prefer 5 seconds, 7 seconds or 9
  seconds?
• Received really positive response to new design.
  People really loved the large photos, thought
  that they were visually appealing, professional,
  exciting and a good use of space and liked the
  messages that were on top of the photos.

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General impression of the photo slide show

• What do you think the slideshow button does?
• How do you think you can stop the images from
  rotating?
• Do the photos need further explanation, such as a
  caption or rollover? Many thought they did.
• Couldnt provide additional photo information
  with rotating photos, so we changed it so
  participants manually clicked on a See Next
  Photo link to see the next photo?

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• Would you like to see a rollover that contains
  more information about the photos when you roll
  over them?
• Several participants said they wanted to learn
  more about the photos.
• Due to the high cost of rotating photos and that
  participants wanted more photo info, we added
  Next and About This Image buttons.

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Homepage photos
Before we showed the participant a photo we would
ask them what a particular phrase means to them.

• What does Engaging Locally mean to you?

• Ask the participants what each photo
  communicates.

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• Which of these four photos best communicates
  Engaging Locally?

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Increasing Access Photos

• What does Increasing Access mean to you?

• What do these photos communicate to you?

• Which one of these photos better communicates
  Increasing Access?

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News and Events Box Questions
We showed participants news and event boxes with
different background colors and asked their
opinion on each.
Transparent black background
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We asked participants what they thought the More
News Events at Penn Digest and News Room
buttons were for.

• There was a lot of confusion with these two
  links.
• Many thought they were too similar or didnt know
  what the terms meant.
• The News Room link went to the News Office but
  no on knew that.

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Solution to News and Events link problem

• Changed the link for News Room to News
  Office
• Put more space between the two links
• Added the word View to the Digest link

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Type Treatments
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Special bulletin

• Showed participants a choice of two colors which
  stands out more and is more appropriate for a
  special bulletin?
• Majority of respondents felt the yellow bulletin
  stood out more on the page and that the red
  bulletin blended in with the page.

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Summary

• Usability testing for the new Penn homepage was
  very successful.
• Participants overwhelmingly liked the new design.
• The testing did help us determine such items as
  font type, photos, and link placement.