Usability Testing done for Teaching Resource Site – A few Lessons learned!

I’m proud to say that yesterday concluded the initial usability testing of my resource website.  After some major changes in the way I would build out the site, the navigation was completed in Weebly.  Here’s what the Home Page looked like: To be honest, I wish I had taken more time investing in the content than I did re-learning HTML/CSS.  The consensus from among the higher-ed is that the design is attractive and inviting.  After that, each of the six higher-ed instructors that participated in the usability testing all had quite different experiences with the site.

Humbled but informed

Many of the instructors were not expecting to be able to click on any pictures to get to content.  They just avoided clicking on images.  That was a problem. Another issue is the picture in the lower right-hand corner.  Two instructors mentioned that the girl looked more like a student or helper, and avoided reading the content/caption next to her picture. The last common issue I have to share at this point is that the 1-2-3 style of displaying the main topics made the instructors expect the entire site to be in steps.  Meant as more of a way to divide up the main topics, instructors were confused when there weren’t more ordered lists once they got inside.

More to come

I have around five (5) hours of screencast/audio to go through, looking for patterns in the navigation issues with the site as well as anecdotal data.  I did jot down notes on the side if an instructor was adamant about something they liked or disliked.  I’m lucky to have been able to work with such a great group of instructors. I’ll be writing up my results into a conference paper as a final project for TCC Worldwide Conference in April.

After the data has been picked apart, I’m sure there will be lots more seemingly-obvious things to correct, making the site more usable.

Stay tuned.