I'm a big fan of Jared Spool and was excited to see that he has written a column using a college site as an example. That happens so seldom (although sometimes higher education sites are used as examples of how to mess something up.)
The Right Information looks at a the Web site for the Department of Nutrition at Penn State's College of Health & Human Development. Spool asks important questions about how to encourage your audience to view/read the information they need, how to present it in a way that's comprehensible to an outsider, writing links that users are confidant in selecting, and simply communicating well.
Unfortunately the article doesn't address the issues of working with people who insist on using internal language, how to communicate clearly on the Web something no one can communicate clearly to you about in person, or how to obtain the money for testing. But I would never ask someone outside of higher education to take on a task like that. That's what our little salon is for.
Which leads me to an issue I struggle with. Spool states, "Users like getting their first click right. Our studies consistently show that users don't like bouncing back and forth between different links on a page." I need to help students choose between clicking on a link for an M.A. in a program area or a link for one of two M.Ed. options in the same program area. I try but I'm not at all confidant that I succeed. If someone would like to take a look at http://education.umn.edu/CI/Art/default.html and give me some ideas, I'd love to hear them. I give users a little bit of information about targeted audiences for the three degrees, but nothing about other major differences such as tuition, the ability to get into a Ph.D. program, or the likelyhood of receiving an assistantship.
Unwritten Internet Rules
clickz.com, June 24, 2005
This is more of a pet peeve list, but good reading.
I think I neglected to post about Christine Perfetti's article, "5-Second
Tests: Measuring Your Site's Content Pages".
The latest issue of UIEtips has more from her. I hesitate to post her comments here, but since they aren't available on the UIE site, I'm going to do so and in their entirety.
Valerie Quinn of Webmethods.com asks:Enjoyed the article on 5-second tests, but I can't figure out the
following sentences:One of the 5-Second Test's biggest advantages is how quick it is.
When evaluating the Donation page, each user took only 10 minutes!How did we go from 5 seconds to 10 minutes?
Christine responds:
We call the technique a "5-Second Test" because users only have 5
seconds to view each content page. However, each user spends a
total of approximately 10 minutes with us -- we include several
pre- and post-test activities as part of the testing protocol.Before we give users a task and ask them to view the content
page, we conduct a pre-test briefing, giving them a set of
instructions for completing the test. We tell them we'll only
display the page for 5 seconds and instruct them to try to
remember everything they see in this short period.Following the test, we also conduct a debriefing with each user.
We ask them to jot down everything they remember about the page.
Then we spend some time asking them questions about the page they
viewed, In our testing of the Red Cross Donation page, we asked
them, "What is the most important information on this page?" and
"How would you go about donating to the Red Cross?" In all, the
entire test including pre-test briefing and post-test debriefing
takes 10 minutes.We also heard from Ted Penberthy who questions whether a 5-second test would work for a page with over 40 items of content:
On the Red Cross page, you were testing seven items. I'm working
on an application that has about 40. Too many for a person to scan
in five seconds. Any suggestions?Christine answers:
You should think about conducting a 5-second test when a page has
a single purpose, such as a product description page or a
change-of-address page. The goal will be to identify if the design
of the page clearly communicates why it's useful.In the case of the Red Cross Donation page, it wasn't essential
that users recall all seven donation methods. Rather, the primary
goal of the test was to uncover whether users understood there
were several different ways to donate to the organization. When
you evaluate your page with 40 items, you'll want to assess
whether the design clearly communicates the page's purpose -- not
whether users recall every item.The 5-second test is just one technique for evaluating a design
and will not be appropriate for all types of pages. Before using
this technique with your application, you should determine the
main purpose of the page. If your 40 items serve one main
function, the 5-second test should work well. But, if the page
serves many different functions, the test results will not be very
meaningful. If the page you're working on is multi-purpose, it
will make sense to use a different usability technique, such as a
traditional usability test or an inherent value test. (You can
see more information on how to conduct an inherent value test at
http://www.uie.com/articles/inherent_value_testing/. )
Sorry, gang but I'm swamped and never got arrange for a different room. Most of you offered laptops or responded to my request. You guys are so great.
Neither Alan or I will be able to be at the meeting. I hope you can get the wireless to work and try out the 5-second testing. And that someone will post here about how it went.
OK, I'm copping out here, I know. I'm going to post a link to an article I haven't yet read. But I don't want to lose it and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. So here 'tis.
What Is Content Strategy and Why Should You Care? (Series Intro)
It's written by Amy Gahran which might be reason enough to read it.
It will eventually have the following sections: