Unit 2 Best Practices and Heuristics Goals

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How important is IA anyway?

• Have you ever experienced poor navigation on a
  website? Gotten lost within a website or online?
• Have you used the search feature of a website to
  find the results did not return the information
  you were seeking?
• Have you ever left a website for either of these
  reasons and gone to a different site or used an
  off-line channel instead?

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IA affects the bottom-line.

• Abandonment and attrition of website visitors is
  often caused by poor IA and design defects
• If customers can not find what theyre looking
  for on a site, they will go to another site, or
  select an alternate channel instead
• Loss of interest and/or revenue results when IA
  flaws such as poor navigation and search errors
  exist

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Breakout Activity Making the (IA) Grade
Evaluating Websites

• In small groups, evaluate several websites on a
  four-point scale using the criteria provided
• Appoint a group spokesperson to record and report
  your findings
• Activity Time 30 minutes

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Website Evaluation Matrix

• 1. What is the URL for the website you will be
  evaluating?
• 2. Is site navigation presented on the home
  page? YES NO
• 3. Is there a Site Map or Index for the
  site? YES NO
• 4. Can you find Contact information on the
  site? YES NO
• 5. Is there a Search feature on the
  site? YES NO
• 6. Is there information on Student Activities on
  the site? YES NO
• 7. How many clicks to find the 2003-2004 Academic
  Calendar? 1-2 3
• 8. How many clicks to find information on
  Admissions? 1-2 3
• 9. How many clicks to find information on
  Academics? 1-2 3
• Count the total number of responses from the left
  or Yes column for 2-9.
• Divide the total number of these responses by 2.
  
• The result should be a final grade between 0.0
  and 4.0
• Record the final grade and be prepared to discuss
  with the larger group.

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Educational Website Evaluations

• Bunker Hill Community College www.bhcc.mass.edu
• Middlesex Community College www.middlesex.cc.ma.u
  s
• Roxbury Community College www.rcc.mass.edu
• Quinsigamond Community College www.qcc.mass.edu
• University of Massachusetts Boston www.umb.edu
• TechBoston of the Boston Public Schools
  www.techboston.org
• Rindge School of the Technical Arts
  www.rindgetech.com
• Chelsea Public Schools www.chelsea.mec.edu
• Malden Public Schools www.malden.mec.edu
• Northeast Metropolitan Vocational
  www.northeasmetrotech.com
• Revere Public Schools www.revereps.mec.edu
• Somerville Public Schools www.somerville.k12.ma.u
  s
• Watertown Public Schools www.watertown.k12.ma.us

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Architecture and IA1

• It is easier (and more fun) to evaluate a
  building rather than evaluate a buildings
  blueprint
• Evaluating IA is difficult in that IAs for
  websites are abstract models, like blueprints for
  physical structures
• IA evaluations can be both Quantitative and
  Qualitative
• Quantitative methodologies work better for
  testing a single component, such as a label, or
  for a discrete behavior, such as looking for the
  site map
• Qualitative methodologies are more appropriate
  for evaluating multiple components at once, such
  as a shopping cart or registration process and
  working with users in usability testing
• Heuristics are methods or processes of evaluation
  that have been used within the context of the
  Internet to critique websites and IA
• 1 Adapted from Evaluating Information
  Architecture by Steve Toub, Argus Associates

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IA Best Practices

• Identify the goals of the site and its intended
  audience(s)
• Design for the needs of the end user by
  soliciting their input
• Conduct competitive and market analysis
• Understand information organization and how to
  use it
• Practice principles of good web design

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Identify the goals of the site and its intended
audience . . .

• Define your purpose
• What do you want the site to accomplish?
• Will the site be for be a sales and marketing
  tool for prospects?
• Will the site be transactional to meet the needs
  of existing customers (students, faculty,
  administrators)
• Create a brief statement of purpose for the site
  to refer to as your plans develop - it may
  change, but it is an important first step
• Define your target audience
• Who will be interested in your site?
• Which individuals and segments are you able to
  serve?
• Create user profiles containing user
  characteristics and scenarios of use to better
  understand who will use the site and for what
  purpose

10
Design for the needs of the end user by
soliciting their input . . .

• Regularly seek in input from those who will use
  your website
• Provide surveys and forms for users to send
  feedback and ideas
• Interview several site users to ask how they
  would use the website
• Perform a task analysis with users to understand
  which tasks are performed most frequently, which
  are most essential
• Conduct Focus Groups with assistance from
  research professionals to recruit representative
  users and ask their interest
• Perform usability testing in early and late
  stages of the project
• Speak to users early on to ensure their input
  will be captured and incorporated in the planning
  process
• Follow-up with users prior to launch to gauge
  their feedback on the finished project in order
  to make tweaks as necessary

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Conduct competitive and market analysis . . .

• Find out who your competitors are in order to
  recognize your own strengths and weaknesses
• Search for competitors sites on the internet
  using keywords
• Ask users who they consider to be competitors
• Rate or Rank your Competition
• Assign scores for competitors sites based on IA
• Examine how competitors use other media to
  present themselves and compare/contrast this
  against their sites
• Check competitors sites frequently to see their
  changes

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Understand information organization and how to
use it . . .

• Taxonomy is the science, laws, or principles of
  classification
• Familiar taxonomies include Harold Blooms
  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and the
  Taxonomy of Life created by Carolus Linnaeus for
  naming species
• Within the context of the Internet, taxonomy is
  the effective structuring of content to provide
  easy and accurate access to it
• Information Architects employ principles of
  taxonomy in order to design logical, organized,
  and efficient websites
• Taxonomic structure categorizes information in a
  hierarchical structure representing multiple
  levels and relationships
• Taxonomy view is the visual aspect of taxonomy
  that groups information into topics so a site
  visitor can navigate easily

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Practice principles of good web design . . .

• A website should be designed to positively
  support users efforts
• The User Interface (UI) should be transparent to
  the task the user is trying to accomplish and be
  both efficient and enjoyable
• Employ the principles of visual design most
  applicable to websites
• Subtractive design Reduce clutter by removing
  elements that do no contribute to visual
  communication
• Visual hierarchy Relative position and contrast
  in color and size can be used to give important
  objects visual prominence
• Affordance Users should be able to determine an
  action that should be taken with and object
  through its design
• Visual Scheme Design to let users customize
  their interface. Do not eliminate white space to
  save space. Use white space constructively to
  provide breathing room"

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IBM Design Basics2

• Simplicity - Dont compromise usability for
  function
• Support - Place the user in control and provide
  proactive assistance
• Familiarity - Build on users prior knowledge
• Obviousness - Make objects and their controls
  visible and intuitive
• Encouragement - Make actions predictable and
  reversible
• Satisfaction - Create a feeling of progress and
  achievement
• Availability - Make all objects available at all
  times
• Safety - Keep the user our of trouble
• Versatility - Support alternate interaction
  techniques
• Personalization - Support alternate interaction
  techniques
• Affinity - Bring object to life through good
  visual design
• 2 Adapted from Ease of Use Design Concepts by
  IBM

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Jakob Nielsens Top 10 Usability Heuristics3

• Visibility of system status - The system should
  always keep users informed about what is going
  on, through appropriate feedback within
  reasonable time.
• Match between system and the real world - The
  system should speak the users' language, with
  words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user,
  rather than system-oriented terms. Follow
  real-world conventions, making information appear
  in a natural and logical order.
• User control and freedom - Users often choose
  system functions by mistake and will need a
  clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the
  unwanted state without having to go through an
  extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
• Consistency and standards - Users should not have
  to wonder whether different words, situations, or
  actions mean the same thing. Follow platform
  conventions.
• Error prevention - Even better than good error
  messages is a careful design which prevents a
  problem from occurring in the first place.
• 3 Nielsen, J., and Molich, R. (1990) Heuristic
  Evalation of User Interfaces

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Jakob Nielsens Top 10 Usability Heuristics3
(continued)

• Recognition rather than recall - Make objects,
  actions, and options visible. The user should not
  have to remember information from one part of the
  dialogue to another
• Flexibility and efficiency of use - Accelerators
  -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed
  up the interaction for the expert user such that
  the system can cater to both inexperienced and
  experienced users.
• Aesthetic and minimalist design - Dialogues
  should not contain information which is
  irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of
  information in a dialogue competes with the
  relevant units of information and diminishes
  their relative visibility.
• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from
  errors - Error messages should be expressed in
  plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the
  problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
• Help and documentation - It may be necessary to
  provide help and documentation. Any such
  information should be easy to search, focused on
  the user's task, list concrete steps to be
  carried out, and not be too large.
• 3 Nielsen, J., and Molich, R. (1990) Heuristic
  Evalation of User Interfaces

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Seven Deadly Web Site Sins by Jesse Berst

• Inconsistent Navigation
• Broken Links
• Browser-specific sites
• No contact information
• Frames
• Sites that open new browsers
• Under Construction or Coming Soon pages

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Breakout Activity Competitive Site Analysis

• In small groups, conduct an IA of the existing
  BATEC website and two other partner websites
• Appoint a group spokesperson to record and report
  your findings (Exhibit II - A)
• Activity Time 30 minutes

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Sample Deliverables as Props

• Xerox/Nielsen Heuristic Evaluation (Exhibit II -
  B)
• Molecular User Experience Evaluation report (Show
  on-screen only)
• Competitive site analysis report samples (Show
  on-screen only)

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BATEC Redesign Project Competitive Site Analysis

• Output of Unit II to be included in Design
  Document folder