Streamlining Navigation

Background

Reading Horizons® is a foundational literacy company that markets curricula and supplementary resources to primary and secondary schools nationwide. Their website houses information on the product, research findings, and free online training courses for teachers and administrators.

Project Overview

The Problems

Empathy-Driven Research

Working as a literacy coach and training facilitator allowed me to meet and speak with users all over the country. I became aware of their pain points with the website and developed an empathy that drove me to research. After collecting anecdotal data, I decided to:

• identify key pain points by conducting a heuristic evaluation

• conduct usability testing to confirm issues

• collect and analyze the data

• create medium-fidelity prototypes that offer design solutions

Original Help Center

Heuristic Evaluation

I wanted to start by weighing the website against the 10 heuristics of Jakob Nielsen to quickly identify problem areas. The heuristics evaluation provided surface-level data that helped me strategize how to direct my usability testing to target the most egregious infractions.

Top Violated Heuristics:

• User Control and Freedom

• Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

• Help and Documentation

  See full report here

Identifying the User

I already knew the general target demographic of users for the Reading Horizons website. The insights I gained by working directly with users helped me pinpoint three personas. I wanted to show decision-makers who their users were. Users tended to be:

• involved in teaching, whether as a school administrator, specialist, or general education teacher

• have varying degrees of experience with reading programs

• have special-interest students, such as ESL and SPED

• women, by majority

• between the ages of 25 and 65

User Stories

Creating user stories allowed me to combine all of my previous findings and prioritize testing the biggest issues. One common user goal found in initial research, which I confirmed as I listened to teachers in the field, was finding open enrollment training sessions on the website.

Usability Testing

I wanted to find out:

• How will users try to find the online training?

• Will users find the blog posts in the menu bar or down in the links listed at the bottom of the site?

• Where will users click to find the research behind Reading Horizons?

• Can users navigate the Help Center to find answers to questions?

• Is it easy for users to request a demo of the program?

I tested the website with:

• six participants

• three scenarios

• three tasks, each with three subtasks

I tracked and recorded:

• success rate for each of the nine subtasks

• time taken for each task

• participant quotations from think-aloud

• positive, neutral, and negative remarks

Usability Testing Tasks

Participant Info

I was looking to see which issues had the highest impact, and if any caused the user to give up.

Data Analysis

Usability testing garnered some amazing data and uncovered some blocker issues (that cause users to quit). It was clear which issues merited the most attention and should be addressed quickly.

View full test results here

Biggest Issues Uncovered

Findings

Recommendations and Prototypes

Because some of the findings were blocking usage from the website, I recommended the following changes:

1. Redesign the Open Enrollment Training Page with thumbnails

2. Simplify the Help Center

3. Create a search bar on the main navigation toolbar

4. Rename the menu items in the main navigation

5. Put all resources in Resources and include submenus

Summary

The Problems and Solutions

Results

It’s always a win when usability testing identifies major usability issues. In this case, I identified 19 usability issues, some of which caused users to quit the site. Two reports were created to showcase the data: one written report that included the entire process, along with visuals and full copies of each document created, and one Google Slideshow portraying the entire process in presentation form.

The primary motivation behind these adjustments is to enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness for the company, particularly over the long term.

View final report here

View presentation here

Process

This thorough evaluation successfully targeted pain points on the website for users and suggested solutions. Each step in the process informed the next and each step achieved the goal. The initial heuristics evaluation gave a quick glimpse at potential problem areas and helped focus the scenarios and tasks. The following methods were used: heuristic evaluation, user research, personas, user stories, task scenarios, usability testing, data analysis, and mid-fidelity prototypes.