Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch...

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Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University

Transcript of Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch...

Page 1: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

Improving Web Usability with a Content

Management SystemFred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch

Illinois Wesleyan University

Page 2: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

The Problem

• How to best use a web content management system

• In an environment with distributed site responsibility

• While ensuring the usability of the site

Page 3: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

Our Challenge

• About Illinois Wesleyan University– 2100 students, 700 faculty and staff– Over 60 department & office web sites

• Went live with CMS in fall of 2005– Sungard Higher Ed Luminis CMS

• > 90% of departments offices using CMS– Departments have responsibility for their

sites– Only one new position created

Page 4: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

What’s In It For You?

• Our tactics• Lessons learned• Review of low cost usability

techniques• Demonstration of low cost usability

techniques• More low cost web usability tools

Page 5: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

Tactics: Distributed Responsibility

• Public Relations– Template and graphic design– Main navigation and template approval– Content for University pages

• IT Staff– Maintain CMS systems, build templates– Train department CMS users– Assist with usability testing, department navigation

• Department CMS users– Work with IT to develop pages & site navigation– Create & update content

Page 6: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

Lessons Learned (part 1 of 3)

• Administration support– Budget– Buy-in & ownership– Content, usability, and infrastructure

• Avoid being overly ambitious• Offer some site differentiation

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Site Differentiation

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Lessons Learned (Part 2 of 3)

• Pick a primary audience– Who are you building the site for?

• Rewards that work– Usability testing– Content managers

• Look for opportunities to test usability– Department site redesign– Change requests

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Opportunity for Usability Testing• IT controls navigation & template

changes– Encourage usability testing with changes

Site-Wide Navigation

“Bread Crumb” Trail

Department Navigation

Page 10: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

Lessons Learned (part 3 of 3)

• The importance of training and support– Prepare a “maintenance plan”– Some departments use students– A few positions adjusted to reflect new

roles– Keep positive momentum

• Sustaining Interest– The template refresh– Ongoing usability testing

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Low Cost Usability Techniques

• A few fast, informal tests fix big problems

• Observation methods• Card sorting• Prototyping• The external expert review (reality

check)

Page 12: Improving Web Usability with a Content Management System Fred Miller, Rick Lindquist, & Curtis Kelch Illinois Wesleyan University.

Observation Methods• Select target audience for testing

– 5 quick tests can find most site problems– Even one test is better than none

• Prepare a few simple tasks to perform• Tell user we’re testing the site, not them

– “The user is always right”

• Ask to talk out loud• Observe only, don’t lead to answers

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Before and After

•10-minute tests•2-minute fix•No cost

•Deleted old info•Combined hours

•Clear benefits

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The Application Button

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Card Sorting• Helpful when designing CMS site architecture• One index card for each page in the site• Users sort the cards into 6-8 similar piles

– Ask to “think out loud”– Name the categories

• Analyze the results– Common themes?– What are top levels?

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Prototypes

• Paper Prototypes– Sketch out a solution on paper– No preconceived notions– No web skills needed

• Using the CMS to create a test site– CMS changes are fast– Iterative process– No need to publish

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Usability with a CMS

• CMS means fast changes• Dynamic features

– Template or style changes– Linked pages: share the same content– Components: change many pages at

once– Test your site before publishing

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The External Expert Review

• Academic usability expert– Dr. Michael Twidale from University of

Illinois• Two on site visits and demonstrations• Very low cost

• Commercial– Lawlor Group’s “Identity” study

• Not so low cost

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If it is that easy…

• Low Cost Usability testing in action– The Challenge

• “What can we learn from a single, short user test with little advance preparation and rapid analysis of results?”

– Looking for a parent of a prospective college student…

– Select 5 tasks a parent would perform– Let’s do it…

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Low Cost Usability Tools

• Google Analytics• Visual Heatmap• Confetti• ClickTale

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Using Existing Web Visitors

For low cost usability

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Show visually

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Show visually

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Google Overlay

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Google Overlay

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Home Page Design

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Visual Heatmap

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Dr. Jakob NielsenFamous User Interface & Usability Expert

F

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Confetti

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Confetti

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Why are users clicking here?

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CrazyEgg.com

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Just add this code to your pages

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ClickTale

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Additional Resources

• Jakob Nielson’s UseIt.com & Alertbox– http://www.useit.com/

• SURL at Wichita State– http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl

• Steve Krug, “Don’t Make Me Think”– http://www.sensible.com/index.html

• Crazy Egg– http://www.crazyegg.com

• Google Analytics– http://www.google.com/analytics/

• Clicktale– http://www.clicktale.com/

• Usability.gov– http://www.usability.gov/