April4,2016

CollegeofLiberalArtsandSciencesOfficeofAcademicTechnology
Barnard237
UniversityofNorthCarolinaatCharlotte
9201UniversityCityBlvd
Charlotte,NC282230001
Re:UsabilityTestsofUNCCharlottePages:Profiles,Projects,Research,Blogshelpwebpage
IwouldfirstliketoexpressmygratitudetotheCollegeofLiberalArtsandScience
OfficeofAcademicTechnologyforallowingmetousetheirWordPresssystemtocompletemy
tests.ThisassignmentwasgiventomebyAssociateEnglishProfessorDr.GregoryWickliffin
myENGL4181,WritingUserDocumentsclass.Themaingoalofthisassignmentwasto
performusabilitytestsontheWordPressuserinterfacewiththehelpwebpage,sothatImay
analyzetheresults(successesanddifficulties)andpresentmyfindingstotheCLASteam.
Myanalysisproducedseveralkeyfindings.Forthemostpart,myparticipantswereable
tofollowthehelppageseffectivelyandsuccessfully.Ibelievethatmytestingandanalysishas
givenmesomevaluableinsightintosomeofthedeficienciesoftheinterface.Duetothis,Ifeel
thatIcanprovidethelibraryteamwithafewrecommendationsthatwillfurtherimprovethe
interface.Myfindingsinclude:

Usersthatwereusedtootherdesignprogramsstruggledatfirstwithtasks.
Asthesefirsttimeuserscompletedeachtask,theamountofproblemsquicklybecameless
frequent.
Userswantedgraphicstobetterexplainwheretheyshouldbelookingfordifferentoptions.
Usersfelttheywouldbenefitmorethroughonlinevideotutorialswithbettervisuals.
Asthesefindingsindicate,therearesomeopportunitiesforimprovementthatwouldhelp
streamlinetheuserexperienceandlessentheamountoffrustrationtheyexperiencewhen
utilizingthehelppageforWordPress.
Sincerely,
StephanieLee
Author

cc:
AlexChapin,ExecutiveDirector,CLASOfficeofAcademicTechnologies
CeilyHamilton,CLASDirectorofInformationTechnology
LaurieParker,HumanitiesConsultant,CLASOfficeofAcademicTechnologies
GregoryWickliff,Assoc.ProfessorofEnglish

UNC Charlotte Pages: Profiles, Projects,

Research, Blogs Help Web Page:
Usability Testing Report

ENGL 4181
April 6, 2016

By: Stephanie Lee

Submitted to:
-

Gregory Wickliff, Assoc. Professor of English

Executive Summary

Thepurposeofthisstudywastotest
users ability to edit their webpages
with the UNC Charlotte Pages:
Profiles, Projects, Research, Blogs
help web page as their guide. I
learned a lot from this report and
hopefully my findings will help to
improve the usability of the page
itself.
I asked multiple faculty members
with varying levels of experience
with WordPress to complete three
tasks for my usability test. These
tasks included adding an image to
their webpage, editing or adding a
widget to their webpage, and
attempting to add a user to their
webpage.Aftereachtestwasover,I
asked the participants a series of
questionstogetthem todiscussthe
problemstheywerehavingduringthe
actual test. I also monitored their
actionsduringthetestsoIcouldsee
the exact parts they were struggling
with.
Some of the test participants
struggled more than others with
certain tasks, but they were all
ultimately able to complete them.
SomeofthemainissuesIdiscovered
werethatuserspreferredmorevisual
aids to help them with the tasks
becausetherewasalotgoingonin
WordPress. This caused some
uncertaintyaboutwheretolookto

find what they were looking for.

Anotherfindingwasthatusersturned
to searching the web for other
tutorialswithbettervisualaidstohelp
themcompletetheirtasks.
After some discussion with each of
the participants, they all seemed to
agreethat,whiletheywereultimately
able to find what they needed, they
thinkitcouldhavebeenmucheasier
todosowithbettervisualaids.There
were a lot of vague steps in the
process and at times they became
frustrated.Justabouteveryparticipant
regularlyusedGoogletofurthertheir
searches for better tutorials.
Specifically,theyweresearchingfor
morescreenshots.
Itisclearthatthehelppagehasthe
rightideaastowhatusersneedhelp
with. However, it does not quite
describethewholepictureneededto
fullyunderstandthestepsittakesto
complete a task. The biggest
suggestion I would make after
completing this report would be to
add an image with every step
provided and possibly a video that
showstheexactprocess.Ibelievethis
wouldbenefituserssotheyarefully
provided with the information
necessary to make changes to their
webpages.

Table of Contents
ExecutiveSummary.i
IntroductionandProcedure...1
KeyFindings1
1.

Usersstruggledtofindwhattheywere

2.

Needs

lookingfor.................1

.............................................2

more

visual

aids.

ConclusionsandRecommendations..3
Appendices...4
1.

A:UsabilityTests

.4
2.

B: Follow up Questions

...5
References6

List of Tables and Figures

Figure1:AddingImagesHelpPage..2

Table1:TaskTimesandAverages2
Figure2:SuggestedReferenceGuide......3
Figure3:EditingWidgets...3

..

UNC Charlotte Pages: Profiles, Projects,

Research, Blogs Help Web Page:
Usability Testing Report

Introduction

Procedure

UNCCharlottePagesisaninstanceofWord
Press available to faculty and staff in a
number of colleges at UNC Charlotte
including the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences(CLAS),theCollegeofHealthand
Human Services (CHHS) and the Belk
CollegeofBusiness.

Ireachedouttocolleaguesandprofessors
tofindparticipantsformystudy.

Thesehelppageswereoriginallycreatedfor
CLAS faculty and staff, but could also be
helpfultofacultyandstaffinothercolleges.
Mostoftheseinstructionsareaccurate,but
thecurrentversionofWordPress hasmore
efficientwaysofdoingcommontasks.
Myassignmentwastotesthowmuchhelp
thewebhelppageactuallywastousers.We
were also asked to provide some sort of
guideorreferencethatwethinkwouldbea
helpfuladditiontothewebpage.
Two Computer Science professors, one
professionalwebdeveloperoncampus,and
one permanent staff of SUAR IT all
participated in this study. Only two
participantswerefamiliarwithWordPressso
theresultsvaried.
Thefindingsspecifiedinthefollowingreport
detaileachuniqueuserexperienceincluding
when they struggled and succeeded with
usingthehelppage.TheevidenceIprovide
will help CLAS to offer more useful
informationforthefacultyandstaffofthe
UniversityofNorthCarolinaatCharlotte.

TheusabilitytestsIcreatedallowedmeto
observefacultyperformingspecificactions
usingthewebhelppageasareference. I
createdspecifictasksthatItestedbefore
handtoensurethattheuserwouldhavea
decentchanceofcompletingthem.
Iplannedforeachtestsessiontotakeno
morethanthirtyminutestoallowmetime
tocommunicateanddiscussthetaskswith
theusersbefore,during,andafterthetests.
Thesessionswererecordedoncameraand
I recorded the screen and audio using
QuickTime,whichwasmymainsourceof
materialtogatherdata.
After the tasks were completed, I asked
each user followup questions to guage
howtheirexperienceswent.Ireviewedthe
recordings of each session in order to
collect and evaluate data to write this
report,whichwaswrittenanddesignedin
GoogleDocuments.

Key Findings
1.
Usersstruggledtofind
whattheywerelookingfor
WhenIaskedtheuserstoaddanimageto
theirpageusingthehelppage,manywere
confusedaboutthedifferencebetweenthe
stepsinthevideo

andthewrittenstepsbelowit.Theyseemed
tocontradicteachotheroronewasmissing
stepsthattheotherdidnthave.

Threeofthefourusersendeduptryingto
useGoogletogetabetterunderstandingof
how to complete the tasks because they
wantedsomethingmorethorough.
Theyalsomentionedthatthehelppagewas
hardtofollow,notvisuallyappealing,and
thattheyhadaneasiertimecompletingthe
tasks by looking at other videos or
referenceguides.

2.
Vague, if not absent,
visualaid

Figure 1: Adding Images Help Page

Whenaddingwidgets,usersmentionedthey
would have liked an image for each step
providedinthewrittenportionsotheycould
knowexactlywhatitmeantbythetitleof
theirsite.
Users also thought the video was more
helpfulthanthewrittensteps,asthewritten
stepsandimagesdidntseemtogotogether.
Oneuserstated,Idontunderstandwhat
exactlytheymeanbychosefromthe
availablewidgets.Whydidnttheyfirsttell
mewheretofindthewidgetsthatare
available?

When asking the users if they were

uncomfortablewithanyofthetasks,they
all agreed that each task made them
uncomfortable only because they didnt
liketheguidesthatwereprovidedforthem
onthewebhelppage.
The most common response I got from
participantswhiletheywereattemptingthe
tasks was that they wished there were
images forthemtolook atto understand
exactlywheretheyweresupposedtoclick.
Because of the lack of images, which
caused most users to use Google as an
alternative, it took quite a few of the
participants more time to complete the
tasks. The table below shows the data I
collected on the times each task took to
completeperparticipant.

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Min. Time

01:00

00:45

01:44

Max. Time

02:15

01:50

03:15

Avg. Time

01:31

01:12

02:24

Table 1: Task Times and Averages

Conclusions and Recommendations

Inconclusion,thewebhelppagefortheCLASWordPresshastherightideaofincludingavideo
andwrittensteps. However,thereareadjustmentsthatshouldbemade.Themajorityofour
participantsagreedthateachstepprovidedshouldhaveavisualaidtobemorethorough.Below,
IhaveprovidedasnippetofanexampleofwhatIthinkwouldbeagoodlayoutforthereference
guideforaddingimages.

AddingImages
1. Chose+Newoption

2. Putyourcursorwhereyouwanttheimagetobeattached

3. ClickontheAddMediabutton

4. UploadanimageorchoseanimagefromyourMediaLibrary

5. Specifyhowtoaligntheimagetoyourtext(right,left,centerornone)

6. Typeinalttagtextthatdescribesyourimage(thisisimportantforaccessibility)

Figure 2: Suggested Reference Guide

Appendix A: Usability Tests

User Task
1

Time

Success Summary/Issues

Addanimage 01:00

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsfirst,then
watchedthevideobeforecompletingthetask.
Referredbacktothevideomanytimes.

AddorEdita 00:59
Widget

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsfirst,then
watchedthevideobeforecompletingthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

02:01

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Referredbacktotheinstructionsmanytimes.

Addanimage 02:15

Yes

Participantwatchedthevideothenreadthrough
instructionsbeforecompletingthetask.Googledother
instructionstogetthroughthetask.

AddorEdita 00:45
Widget

Yes

Participantwatchedthevideothenreadthrough
instructionsbeforecompletingthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

01:44

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Googledotherinstructionstogetthroughthe
task.

Addanimage 01:35

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsanddidntwatch
thevideobeforecompletingthetask.

AddorEdita 01:50
Widget

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsanddidntwatch
thevideobeforecompletingthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

02:36

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Googledotherinstructionstogetthroughthe
task.

Addanimage 01:15

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsfirst,then
watchedthevideobeforecompletingthetask.
Referredbacktothevideomanytimes.

AddorEdita 01:12
Widget

Yes

Participantwatchedthevideothenreadthrough
instructionsbeforecompletingthetask.Googledother
instructionstogetthroughthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Googledotherinstructionstogetthroughthe
task.

03:15

Appendix B: Follow Up Questions

User1 Thethirdtaskwasthehardestforthem.Hadtoswitchbackandforthbetweenthe
instructionsandWordPressmanytimes.
Thesecondtaskwastheeasiestforthem.Onlyhadtoreadtheinstructionsonce.
Feltmoderatelycomfortablewiththetasks.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks.
Theysuggestaddingimagesandrewordingwrittenportion.
User2 Thefirsttaskwasthehardestforthem.WenttoGoogletofinddifferentinstructions.
Thesecondtaskwastheeasiestforthem.Onlyhadtolookatinstructionsonce
TheyfeltitnecessarytouseGoogletofinddifferentinstructionsontwooutofthree
tasks.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks
Theysuggestthatmorethoroughvideosbemadethatincludeseverystepnecessary.
User3 Thethirdtaskwashardestforthem.WenttoGoogletofinddifferentinstructions.
Thefirsttaskwastheeasiestforthem.Onlyhadtoreadtheinstructionsonce.
OnlywenttoGoogleonce.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks.
Theysuggestedmorepictures.
User4

Thethirdtaskwasthehardestforthem.WenttoGoogletofinddifferentinstructions.
ThesecondtaskwastheeasiestforthemeventhoughtheystillusedGoogleforit.
TheyusedGooglefortwooutofthreetasks.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks.
Theirsuggestionistoaddmorepicturestothestepsandchangetheformatofthehelp
pagetobemoreappealing.

References
UsabilityTestParticipants:
CollegeofComputingandInformaticsProfessor,UNCCharlotte,3/25/2016

 CollegeofComputingandInformaticsProfessor,UNCCharlotte,3/26/2016
SUARITPermanentStaffMember,UNCCharlotte,3/30/2016
SUARWebDeveloper,UNCCharlotte,3/31/2016

SupportingWebsite:
https://pages.uncc.edu/help/addingimages/