mi.gov site design evaluation
DESCRIPTION
MI.GOV Site Design Evaluation. October 2008. MI.GOV Usability Review. MSU Usability and Accessibility Center (UAC) Reviewed rankings by studies like Brookings, Center for Digital Government Prepared Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Survey Led 2 Focus Groups Prepared Heuristic Review. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
MI.GOV Site Design Evaluation
October 2008
MI.GOV Usability Review
MSU Usability and Accessibility Center (UAC) Reviewed rankings by studies like Brookings, Center
for Digital Government Prepared Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Survey Led 2 Focus Groups Prepared Heuristic Review
Diagnosis
Results of the study indicate that a redesign of the Michigan.gov site is necessary.
Strengths
Quantity of Information Some users are highly satisfied with the site Drop down lists for easy access to some online services Location of Search Box
Weaknesses
Site is difficult for infrequent users Overlapping content areas: Spotlight, What’s New,
News… Left and right image links look too much like advertising Multiple navigation methods
Top most is overlooked due to dull coloration Change of order in left navigation for selected item Left nav items are arranged randomly resulting in
difficulty scanning Search: 33% report unsuccessful searches
Opportunities
Abbreviate, group and eliminate content on the home page
Eliminate and control clutter Rename sections for better description of content Remove duplicate links on pages Eliminate animation Use tabs for navigation Order left nav alphabetically
Abbreviate, group and eliminate content on the home page
Too many sections contain similar type content
Quick Links and Featured Links are a mish mash of links
Too many text links in those 2 groups
The SoM Home page has 4 references to News or Newswire
Remove redundant content links
The SoM Home page has 3 references for Jobs and 2 references for Lottery
2 references to the Governor
Remove redundant content links
Services should be renamed to Online services or eServices
Departments and Directories should be clustered together
Directories should be renamed to Contacts
Quick Links is a collection of unrelated items
Same for Featured Links
Rename Sections
Animation is distracting to the user
Image banners may be animated but should only run for a certain time span then quit animating
Eliminate animation
Users liked the tabs on other sites
Make tabbed navigation more noticable using color
Make use of drop down menus to improve use of space
Use tabs for navigation
Improved scanning
Is a best practice Eliminate active
item moving to the top
Order Left Navigation Alphabetically
Create tabbed content targeted to various audiences
Less clutter/more whitespace
Use descriptive Page Titles
Improved metadata= improved search results
Use widgets to display multiple content items in less space
More Recommendations
Next Steps
Create wire frame layouts devoid of detailed graphics
Wire frame should indicate groups, navigation, content
Examine “widgets” as content holders Review taxonomy and look for economy in
categories and navigation groups
What is Heuristic?
Heuristic evaluation is a usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process.
Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles.
Two Focus Groups
Viewed and discussed other State home pages Viewed Michigan.gov
Michigan.gov - What They Liked
Liked the pull down lists in the middle of the page Lots of great information Link to the Lottery site Different colors of text to help separate content News articles Lottery news and link on home page
Michigan.gov - What They Disliked
Site is too text heavy Unbalanced (“compressed to the left”) Name: Official State of Michigan Portal seemed too tech-
y Unutilized space to the right Insufficient space for the pull down lists Hard to find things Search problems No picture in banner
Goals for MI.GOV 2009
Consistent layout and design Adequate and appropriate white space Clean layout Color-coded design Content separated in visible containers Impactful, professional quality images Clearly identified banner images Clear and consistent navigational hierarchy
Goals for MI.GOV 2009
User group segmentation of navigation Uses tabs for main or secondary navigation (where appropriate) Breadcrumbs Pages to inform users of redirects outside of the government site Clear page identifiers Clearer access to the Online Services section Accessibility compliance with the Priority Level One standards
recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web 2.0 Social networking implementation
Goals for MI.GOV Agencies 2009
Strongly consider using an evaluation like this if you plan to redesign your site
MSU Usability and Accessibility Center is available to conduct unbiased site evaluations for you on contract
Make your site customer-centric Heed the rules and laws of good Web design Use sorting and grouping techniques to set up
information Accessibility compliance is still important Request assistance from eMichigan eMichigan keeps up on all of the latest usability and
accessibility standards
MI.GOV Site Design Evaluation
Questions?