Sisters of IHM Website
The design for The Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Sisters of IHM) took about 11 months from start to finish.
Because we reorganized the entire navigation structure of their 800+ page website, we performed user-testing at different phases of the project to ensure that it was easy to navigate.
“The site looks fantastic! I strongly believe there will be lots of great enthusiasm, energy and passion for IHM because of these seeds of new life. I am deeply grateful for all of your hard work, guidance and wisdom for the project.”
User-Testing Process
During the introduction session, participants signed release forms. A pre-test survey included questions about the test participants‟ age, computer skill level, ability to perform basic internet tasks, and their familiarity with the current IHM website. The test participants were also given a verbal introduction which explained the process and expectations of the testing.
Tasks
Each task required the participant to navigate through the prototype to find the answer to a question. The participant supplied an answer for each task, having the option skipping a question if they didn‟t feel comfortable answering. Each task was watched by the test moderator on a computer screen recording from a room down the hall. Participants were able to communicate with the test moderator through a speaker-phone connection, if needed.
User Rating Scale
After a test participant completed a task, they were asked to rate the difficulty of the task on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being easy to answer and 5 being most difficult to answer. For each task, the following data was collected:
- How long it took the test participant to answer the question (time).
- A test participant-provided rating of the ease/difficulty of each task (scale of 1-5).
- The accuracy of the participant’s answer.
- The navigational path the test participant followed to get the answer.
Post-test survey
Participants responded to 9 statements about their testing experience using a scale of 1-5 to determine how strongly they agreed or disagreed with each statement. Statements were generalized assumptions about the overall website cohesiveness, navigation, ability to find information, and ability to recover from error.
Summary
Based on the results of the user-testing, we were able to determine that Homepage Version A had a more successful navigation structure. On average, users responded better to this navigation and were able to find information more quickly and easily. The participant-ranked difficulty of each question was extremely useful in determining where improvements need to be made on the website. Several problem areas were detected while performing the user testing sessions. We saw no problems that can’t be improved or remedied by small adjustments to website prototype.
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