The College of Fine Arts is developing a school devoted to design and technology. In its early stages, the school launched a temporary website to get information out about the school. Now in full development, it needed to build its own identity. Our team was tasked to produce a new site to promote the new school.
SDCT
SDCT
Role Researcher/UX Designer
Tools Surveys, User testing, contextual observation, Empathy mapping
The case study really starts before this little artifact. I Developed a research plan shortly after the kick-off meeting. Help bring all our knowledge into focus. Synthesizing the surveys, user tests, and informal informational chats allowed us to and align our efforts and define success criteria.
Our research began with a stakeholder survey. The purpose was to clarify objectives, define success outcomes, and reveal common ideology. Rich qualitative data helped identify our top users and also showed us insights into prevailing ideologies and visual direction
In the survey, stakeholders were asked to identify the primary users of the school website.
To learn more directly from our users, We conducted a user survey. We wanted to learn more about the relationship between the users and the current website. Would the Stakeholder's assumptions stand true?
75% of the participants were current students
The results of the user survey validated other research collected, but we were surprised to learn that the majority of the participants were current students, which was different from who the stakeholders had identified as our primary audience. Also interesting was that the current students advocated for prospective students. We had more to address for this user group than had previously been identified. We learned a lot about what the students needed.
The survey results indicated that users wanted to know more about career outcomes, corporate or industry partnerships, student work, and how to get involved or support the school.
During the kick-off meeting, we conducted a modified empathy exercise and a task/story activity. The purpose was to help the stakeholders step out of their realm of expertise and learn about the user. This exercise was a catalyst for a meaningful conversation that helped drive shared knowledge and revealed assumed outcomes and goals.
We planned a persona/ empathy workshop later in the build to use data to create informed personas and build empathy. I designed and facilitated the workshop. As we progressed through the activities, we began to see connections between our users and how one might influence the content and features for the other. It was fascinating to see how our users intersected in need of similar information but for different reasons.
We recorded our user tests using Silverback 3. A script was used to moderate our sessions and assure uniformity in our test. Our users were given several tasks to complete on our site and a competitor's site.
Once completed, we held observation sessions for the stakeholders to review the recorded user test. After the sessions, the observers - a combination of stakeholders and representatives - talked about what they learned, what still needed to be learned, and what we could do now to make changes.
I met with the content owner, after the observation session to discuss implementing changes to address the problems that had come to light from the user testing. We worked together to knock out almost the entire list of "we're going to" (see picture) list, increasing user flow through the site by about 20% in a month.
We were ready to focus on our structure. We wanted to learn where and how we could simplify the taxonomy and add new programs to that existing framework. We conducted an open card sort, as we were also looking for vocabulary that might serve the user better.
We had over 50 cards in our card sort; this was just way too many cards. It created confusion and wore out the test subject. Some of our test subjects struggled with unfamiliar terminology and would throw out cards regarding them as unnecessary information. After the card sort, out of curiosity, I asked what they thought the terms meant. Most actually had the right idea; however, uncertainty and fatigue led them to expedite the test by removing the card in question.
Successes
-
My first experience with extensive research
-
User tests
-
Using insights learned from user testing increase traffic By 20% in a month to the old.
Surprises
-
How far apart the Users and the stakeholders were on who the user was.
-
We were so focused on the new site we overlooked the value of the data for our old site.
-
Interruptions by observers in user testing.
Take-Aways
-
People often confuse qualitative and quantitative.
-
Teams that work together and support each other are invaluable!
-
50 cards really are too many in a card sort