Website for Development in Social Context

Informatics 231 Discussion Group 2

Review of User Needs

● Design a website that allows parents and child development researchers to obtain information about the UCI Development in Social Context Lab.

● Must have sections geared towards teenagers who are considering participating in one of the lab’s studies.

● The information architecture and usability of the website should be tested with the three main user groups: teenagers, parents, and researchers.

● The website will be revised based on the study results.

● Primary customer: Stephanie Reich

Methods

User Needs Interview● Subject: Dr. Stephanie Reich● Needs:

○ User groups and respective needs■ Teenages and parents target at projects■ Researchers pay more attention to publication and projects

○ Layout : No animations, minimize scrolling○ Color : Colorful ○ Navigation : provide landing pages for projects and people

■ Provide multiple methods of navigation■ Build up links from project detail page to people’s bio page■ Provide PDF links to project detail page

■ Provide project abstraction and give project detail in secondlayer link

○ Mobile device friendly

User Needs Interview

Projects Page: three groups ordered by age group

People Page: five groups ordered by position

Finalized Website

http://sites.uci.edu/disc/

Pilot User Test

● Interviewed two graduate students○ One of them was a friend who gave good honest feedback○ The other belonged to one of our user groups (Researchers)

● Comments about the user test:○ Tasks were too easy

● Suggestions for improving the user test:○ Should order the tasks in order of difficulty○ Should give the user time to browse the website before the survey and interview

○ Should combine the two questions that depended on the hardware being used, since users would only use one of them

○ Should specify by email when asking how to contact the lab○ Should write a welcome script for the participants

User Test

● Each user test involved three parts:○ Experiment○ Survey○ Interview

● Had three user groups:○ Teenagers○ Parents○ Researchers

● Performed the user test on 6 users in each user group● Each user followed the same written script

Experiment

● Had 5 tasks for the users to complete○ How would you contact the lab by email?○ Find all the researchers in the project named “Learning While Multi-Tasking”.○ Stephanie M. Reich is a faculty member of the lab. Where did she get her doctorate from?○ Find out how many publications from this lab were published in 2015.○ Find out how many of the news articles concerning the lab have social media in the title.

● We recorded their screens and their voices● Users were asked to speak aloud their thought processes

Survey

● Two Informative Questions with Selective Options○ Which of the following user groups do you belong to?

■ Teenager■ Parent■ Researcher

○ Did you use a computer or cell phone to complete this experiment?■ Computer■ Cell phone

Survey

● Six Qualitative Questions with Ratings○ How likely are you to recommend this website to a friend interested in the lab?○ How easy or difficult was it to find information on this website?○ How fast or slow was the website?○ How organized or unorganized was the website?○ How easy or difficult was it to navigate the website on a computer / cell phone?○ How aesthetically pleasing or displeasing did you find this site?

● Used the Likert Scale from 1 to 6○ Chose to not have a midpoint in order to require users to choose a side○ Used verbal anchors for the first and last values only

Interview

● We had a set of open-ended questions that we asked the users● Questions fell into three categories:

○ General Interview Questions○ User Group Specific Questions○ Questions Based off the Survey Results

● General Interview Questions○ Was it easy or difficult for you to finish the tasks?

■ Which parts of the tasks did you have difficulty with?■ What made the tasks easy to complete?

○ What parts of the website did you find the most frustrating to use?○ What other information did you expect to see on the website?

Interview

● User Group Specific Questions○ For Researchers and Parents: Do the project profiles look appealing to you or not?

○ For Parents: After viewing the website, how comfortable are you with allowing your children to participate in one of their studies?

○ For Teenagers: After viewing the website, how likely are you to participate in one of these studies?

● Questions Based off the Survey Results○ What information was easy or difficult for you to find?○ What problems did you face while navigating the website on a computer/cell phone?○ What did you find aesthetically pleasing or displeasing about the website?

Results

Results

● Task Completeness

● Survey

● Interview

● Teens were the quickest group for all tasks except task 2 where they performed the slowest

● Task 2 was the hardest task for all groups by a large margin

Task Completion Times

Video Analysis

● Teens were the quickest group for all tasks except task 2 where they performed the slowest

● Task 2 was the hardest task for all groups by a large margin

Survey

Most users found the website to be:1. A good recommendation to a

friend2. Easy to find information3. Fast4. Organized5. Easy to navigate6. Aesthetically pleasing

● How likely are you to recommend this website to a friend interested in the lab?

Survey

● How easy or difficult was it to find information on this website?

Survey

Survey

● How fast or slow was the website?

Survey

● How organized or unorganized was the website?

Survey

● How easy or difficult was it to navigate the website on a computer / cell phone?

● How aesthetically pleasing or displeasing did you find this site?

Survey

Problems andSuggestions

Home Page

Common problems faced by interviewees:

● Can’t identify that it is a UCI lab since the UCI name isn’t on the webpage● Wanted more content about the lab on home page

Our Suggestions:

● Include the UCI name in title

About Us Page

Common problems faced by interviewees:

● Need more information about the lab

Our Suggestions:

● Increase the content of the About Us Page

Projects Page

Common problems faced by interviewees:

● Problem navigating the Projects Page● Need a list of all the projects on the Projects Page● The word ‘for’ is confusing. Ex: ‘Projects for researchers’.

○ Does this mean, if I am a researcher, I should view this page?● Too much navigation to find a specific project

○ User said, "It’s asking me to go through multiple pages to find a specific thing"● Difficulty in finding a project due to vague category names (had to look at each category of projects)● Wanted to see grant info for projects

Projects Page

Our Suggestions:

● Have a full project list page or categorize them with respect to research areas● Replace author's tag with researchers● Replace 'for' children with 'involving' children● All project profiles need pictures as projects without pictures seem less appealing● Grant info tag on project profiles

Our Suggestions

Our Suggestions

News Page

Common problems faced by interviewees:

● People were going through all of the articles to search for relevant articles

Our Suggestions:

● Provide tags about what the news article is about○ Ex: 'social media'

Our Suggestions

People Page

Common problems faced by interviewees:

● Wanted to see the research interests in the person’s bio

Our Suggestions:

● Provide tags for the research interests in the person’s bio

Our Suggestions

Contact Us Page

Common problems faced by interviewees:

● How do researchers get involved?● The address of the lab

Our Suggestions:

● Re-word the Contact Us Page● Have a ‘drop a message’ box

Our Suggestions

Miscellaneous

Some problems faced by interviewees:

● (Task 2 : “Find all the researchers in the project named “Learning While Multi-Tasking”)Users went to people’s page for task 2. Could be a problem with the task itself or a problem with the

navigation. ● One parent didn’t feel motivated enough to let child participate. She wanted more details about the

project.

Our Suggestions:

● Due to wordpress constraints we were unable to add a search bar. A search bar would be useful.

Timeline / Work

Distribution

Projected TimelineWeek 10: Give the final presentation

Work on the final project report (Xi, Ashley, Sagar)Further data analysis (Nate)Collect all data onto a flash drive (Ke)Update the website with suggestions (Thomas)

Week 11: Put final touches on the project report (Saumya)Turn in the final project report (Samuya)Turn in the flash drive with data (Ke)Hand off website (Thomas)