The UCLA Optimists Website

User Research Report

Project Team Brent Ferreira Lindsey Sommer Annie Tang Xiaopeng Xu Tel: +1-310-622-5679 Email: is279-optimists[at]googlegroups.com March 17th, 2013

UCLA Optimists Website User Research Report UCLA Marketing & Special Events 10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1000 Los Angeles CA 90024

Executive Summary Our user research for the Optimists website focused on the sites bounce-back rate which currently hovers at around 75% for most pages. Our methodology employed focus groups to gauge user expectations, reactions and suggestions in regards to the content and architecture of the website. After consultation with Mr. Takahashi, we determined that the Optimists site would benefit most from direct user input rather than a pop-up or card sorting methodology. Focus groups were comprised of users from three potential user audiences: prospective students, current students and alumni. Each group was made up of three to five potential users, who were asked to navigate the website freely and participate in a series of specific exercises. This included navigation to the UCLA homepage, as well as locating specific alumni or donors within the Optimists website. During these studies, we asked for participant feedback about their experience using the page, as well as ways they think it could be improved. From our research, our group recommends four improvements to enhance users overall engagement with the site: (1) Improve relatability; (2) Including mixed media; (3) Creating more relative links within the UCLA ecosystem and without; and (4) Adding minor improvement to the sites overall design. First, unique content will entice users to engage with the site more than they are currently. As suggested by the sites bounce rate, the Optimists website is unable to keep users engaged with the sites current content. Together with new content, implementing other forms of media: video, audio, etc. would also peek users interests, enticing them to investigate and perhaps participate within the community.

On a more technical note, many users took issue with the hyperlink from the Optimists profiles pages to the UCLA homepage. If the primary goal of the site is to convince users to donate UCLA, its imperative users are able to find the pertinent donation details more easily. Many focus group participants echoed this sentiment. Users also expressed concern with some aspect of the sites design. While most like the sites overall aesthetic, some suggested certain tweaks to enhance user experience. With these changes, we believe the sites bounce rate will reduce drastically as well as enticing users to participate within the UCLA community more than they were previously.

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Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 6 2. Methodology ................................................................................................................... 8 2.1. Analytic Analysis ........................................................................................................ 8 2.2. Persona ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.3. Focus Group ................................................................................................................ 9 2.4. Participants .................................................................................................................. 9 3. Analytic Analysis ........................................................................................................ 10 3.1. Visit Analysis ........................................................................................................... 10 3.2. Traffic Analysis ........................................................................................................ 11 3.3. Search Engine Result Analysis ............................................................................... 12 4. Focus Group Results ................................................................................................... 13 4.1. Prospective Students ................................................................................................ 13 4.2. Current Students ....................................................................................................... 15 4.3. Alumni ....................................................................................................................... 17 5. Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 19 5.1. Improve Relatability ................................................................................................ 19 5.2. More relevant links to UCLA ecosystem and outside it ..................................... 19 5.3. Website Structure ..................................................................................................... 20 5.4. More mixed media ................................................................................................... 21 Appendix I: Optimists Focus group agenda and questions .................................................. 22

1.

Introduction

The Optimists campaign and subsequent website was established in 2011 with the hope of inspiring alumni and donors to take active roles in UCLAs diverse community. By highlighting other well-known, successful alumni and faculty, the campaigns ultimate goal, along with enticing prospective students to enroll, is to encourage users to donate to UCLA. Although well designed, the Optimists website does not make this intention clear. As part of our user research, we conducted three focus groups--each comprised of a particular nuclear representative of the Optimists campaigns target audiences: alumni (who also represent prospective donors), prospective students, and current UCLA undergraduate and graduate students. During each session, every group was asked a series of questions, starting with their general web habits (websites they like; why they like them; what tasks they try to accomplish on the web, etc.) and later covering specific aspects of the Optimists website. When testing the website, users were allowed to first browse the site freely and later, taken through guided exercises to test the sites overall architecture. The goal of this research was to solve the websites bounce-back issue. As Mr. Takahashi explained to our group in his initial client pitch, the Optimists site currently suffers from a bounce rate around 75%, with users accessing the website then immediately leaving within a span of 2-3 seconds. Per this goal, our groups deliverables hinged on recommendations for quick improvements to the site. By quick improvements, our intention for the project--rather than creating wireframes for a substantial redesign--was to focus on the feedback gleaned from user groups to deliver practical solutions that might solve the Optimists sites immediate concerns. Additionally, most users agreed that the structure and design of the site was well done, giving us no inclination a substantial redesign of the website was necessary. Our group believes the Optimists campaign can improve drastically from our research and recommendations. We feel strongly that through these improvements not only can the website reduce the percentage of users bouncing off the homepage but also improve the campaign, itself, by clarifying the sites intention and evolving its content per users concerns. Please refer to Figure 1 and Table 1 for the details of project timeline.


Figure 1 Project Timeline for Optimists Website User Research

Table 1 Event Outlines for Optimists Website User Research Event Project Pitch Kick-off Meeting Analytics Analysis Persona Focus Group I Focus Group II Focus Group III Presentation
th st

Time Jan 11 , 2013 Feb 21 , 2013 Feb 17 - 22 , 2013 Feb 15 - 18 , 2013 Mar 2 , 2013 Mar 8 , 2013 Mar 9 , 2013 Mar 18 , 2013
th th th nd th th th nd

Place GSEIS Building Wilshire Center

Participants Mike, IS 279 students Mike, User Research Team User Research Team User Research Team

GSEIS Building GSEIS Building GSEIS Building Wilshire Center

User Research Team, prospective students User Research Team, current students User Research Team, alumni Mike team, User Research Team

2. Methodology 2.1. Analytic Analysis Data of a website can tell stories based on the rise and fall of visits. We used data automatically collected by Google Analytics on the Optimists website for further analysis. Our research may focus on the analysis of long-range trends related to the website. By analyzing the trends for visits, bounce rate, traffic sources as well as keywords, we can find out the actual user behaviors when exploring the website, and make recommendations based on that. 2.2. Persona To synthesize the various opinions of the focus group members we have created three personas: The Prospective Student, The Current Student, and The Alumnus. Each are emblematic of the viewpoints of their associated group and are based off the profiles of actual participants. Identifying information has been changed and stock photographs are used for anonymity. These personas summarize the scenario of each focus group, but in no way should be substitute for the more detailed research findings found later in this report. Each persona is broken down into biographical information, Positive Takeaways, and Content Needs. Biographical data includes Name, Occupation, Age, and Relation to UCLAthe minimum information needed, we believe, to put a face on the average user from each target audience. Another component, Positive Takeaways, lists what that particular focus group enjoyed about the website or features they wanted to stay same. As for Content Needs, this portion of the persona broadly addresses the issues or problems users had with the Optimists site after using it. As noted in the included images (Figures 2), the content needs are relevant to all focus groups. These issues will be elaborated further in Key Questions and Responses and Recommendations.


Figure 2 Sample script for Focus Group

2.3. Focus Group In order to conduct user-experience research on the different target audiences, we conducted three focus groups: prospective students, current students, and alumni. Each interviewee was informed of the research purpose at the start of each focus group. To ensure the accuracy of research results, the participants were notified that all their responses would be confidential and that all reactions, positive or negative, were encouraged. As shown in Appendix I, we prepared 19 questions for each focus group. We began by investigating the browsing behavior of our users. Then we showed them videos and hard-copy examples from the Optimists campaign such as magazine ads. Most importantly the team led them to the Optimists website. Our moderators asked for their impressions of the website and navigation functions. At the end, every interviewee had the chance to talk freely on their ideas related to the website. 2.4. Participants There were a total of eleven focus group participants. They were pooled from friends and acquaintances of the user-research team. To make the process as unbiased as possible, the participants were not briefed about the Optimists website or the teams relationship to UCLA Marketing & Special Events until the start of the focus group interviews.

Prospective Students (3 respondents) Some prospective undergraduates, junior college students One prospective graduate student, working professional Participant age ranges from early-to-late twenties Completely unfamiliar with the Optimist campaign

Current Students (5 respondents) Current UCLA graduate and undergraduate students Domestic and international students interviewed Potential future donors Participant age ranges from early-to-mid twenties Some familiar with the Optimist campaign, others not

Alumni (3 respondents) Some matriculated from undergraduate program within last few years One older working professional, matriculated from graduate program decades ago One recent graduate 2 matriculated from undergraduate program within last few years 1 older working professional, matriculated from graduate program decades ago Participant age ranges from early twenties to early fifties 1 recent alumnus is familiar with the Optimist campaign

3. Analytic Analysis 3.1. Visit Analysis The total number of visits is 82,358 till Mar. 16th, 2013. Among them 79.80% are new visitors. Figure 3 shows the trends of visits since the beginning of the website. Although the number of visits is comparatively small from July 2012 to December 2012, there has been a significant increase since December 2012. Now the website enjoy an average visit of above 1000 visit/day, it has been attracting the attention of more and more people. However, as shown in Figure 3, the bounce rate has long been a problem with the website. Average bounce rate is as high as 83.65%. However, we have seen an inconspicuous reduction in bounce rate since October 7th, 2012. Updates on contents and website design may contribute to the slight go-down of bounce rate.

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Figure 3 Visit & Bounce Rate Analysis of Optimists Website

3.2. Traffic Analysis Traffic analysis focused on the comparison of user visits from different traffic sources. For the Optimists website, traffic mainly comes in three forms: Direct traffic: directly entering the URL into the address bar Referral traffic: clicking on the websites link through ads or social networks Organic traffic: opening the website through query results provided by search engines

Figure 4 Traffic Analysis of different sources

Figure 4 shows the trends of visits per traffic source. Most visitors come to the website by directly entering the address. Ads on online websites such as reference.com and andkon.com contribute to a large number of visits for the website. Likewise some visitors come to the website by clicking results provided by a search engine. Social networks, such as Facebook, contribute only a very small amount of visits to the website. Among those traffic sources, ad referral sources vary according to the time period the ads are offered. Also, visits on social networks vary. Aside from some special cases in which a popular link is posted to social networks, visits from social networks are consistently low.
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3.3. Search Engine Result Analysis Using data from keywords such as, PageVisits, indicates the relationship of certain visits and the keywords used to retrieve them. Table 2 shows the relationship between keywords and visits | bounce rate related to those keywords. The highest bounce rate is encurred from users lead to the Optimist site from a search engine, intending to learn more about UCLA rather than the Optimists campaign. Those who mistakenly or randomly stumble on the website tend to do nothing and leave the site at once.
Table 2 Keywords-Visit relationship analysis provided by Google

Keyword

Visits Pages / Visit Bounce Rate 1.28 2.10 1.55 1.20 1.61 1.39 1.46 1.49 1.46 90.01% 74.29% 69.76% 93.92% 59.87% 76.60% 86.02% 90.00% 77.78%

ucla 4373 ucla optimists 525 ucla optimist 205 university of california los angeles 181 anna lee fisher 157 ucla.edu/optimists 94 ucla.edu 93 ucla university 70 ucla the optimists 63

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4. Focus Group Results 4.1. Prospective Students

Focus)Group)I).)Persona)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))The)Prospec4ve)Student
Name:"Yasmin Occupa4on Community"college" student,"Advocacy" non7prot"sta member PosiEve"Takeaways: easy7to7use Youth7oriented Some"racial"diversity Good"ad"campaign"for"bus" kiosks Content"need: More"informaEon"about" UCLA Careers/departments"of" opEmists Age:"20 Rela4onship)to)UCLA ProspecEve" undergrad,"thinking" of"applying

Figure 5 Persona for the Prospective Student

Summarized Responses I. Do you like the website? Is there something that stands out about it? Though users of this group praised the ease of navigation, they thought the site navigation was below their maturity level. They speculated that this was geared toward teenagers because of the simplicity of the content. In addition, they were ambivalent on their feelings regarding the compilation of famous people on the website. They felt unclear about what the message of Optimists was and therefore felt a bit confused during their exploration of the site. II. What do you think the goal of this website is? Participants were unsure if website creators were looking for prospective students or potential donors. Again, they cited that the message was ambiguous. The group members then critiqued that the goal of the website was less task-oriented and more for bragging-rights. They stated they would be more satisfied with less of this ostentatious content. III. Would the website entice you more to come to UCLA?
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The group members unanimously replied, no. From their impression of the site, UCLA makes it seem impossible to become someone like an Optimist. Likewise, though the users were aware this URL is an offshoot of the larger university website, they felt the connection to UCLA was unclear. This is due to their opinion that the profile summaries of each Optimist focused too much on the their careers outside of UCLA. IV. Was the information interesting? This was ambivalently answered as the participants only thought the Optimists with UCLA-related content on their profiles were of interest. They thought the summaries were too wordy and preferred bullet points because they only wanted highlights. There was also no desire to share this content on social media. V. Would you want more info? Less? Same? Focus group members wanted the same information, but presented differently than is currently portrayed. They did think the bus stop ad campaign was intuitive because people in this scenario have the time to wait, read, and inquire about the Optimists. But the users also reiterated that the message was still confusing, so why would they want to research it? VI. What do you think of this method [clicking on the question link that is within each profile] used to direct you to the main UCLA site? Participants believed the link should take a user somewhere with content more relevant to the Optimist, perhaps the department website of that person's major. They expected a direct answer to the question asked on the link, but instead were disappointed to be taken the general UCLA homepage. (Figure/screenshot of the question link in a profile) VII. What do you think of these particular Optimists? Can you relate to them? All users felt they could not connect with the profiled people, because they were or are at the top of their field. The focus group felt they could not be as brilliant as the highlighted Optimists. As prospective students it was off-putting for them to see people at the peak of their careers, while the students themselves are just starting out. They preferred to see people more like them. VIII. Does this fit with your definition of an interactive website? The participants strongly felt this was not an interactive experience. Some even critiqued it was too antiquated for their sensibilities. They wished for customization where a user can drag and drop the Optimist thumbnails. Additionally, the prospective
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students wanted a responsive carousel that slides on-command when a cursor hovers over the revolving panel, and pauses when the cursor moves away from it. Likewise they advised that when mousing over a thumbnail, a pop-up balloon should appear with a preview of the images and text within the profile (much like how Netflix allows for informative pop-up balloons to occur when a user hovers over a movie poster). 4.2. Current Students

Focus)Group)II).)Persona))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))The)Current)Student
Name:"Mackenzie Occupa9on Grad"student,"UCLA" Library"assistant Age:"24 Rela9onship)to)UCLA First"year"master,"sCll" geJng"to"know"the" school,"not"emoConally" invested"yet

PosiCve"Takeaways: Looks"professionally"made Jackie"Robinson"video"would" make"her"curious"to" invesCgate"site Color"paleEe"impressive

Content"need: More"audio/visual"media

Figure 6 Persona for the Current Student

Summarized Responses Although not necessarily donors, current students are future alumni and thus integral to our research concerning users engagement with the Optimists website. Current students, perhaps more than any other group, seem hyper-aware of advertising media, especially that which is affiliated with UCLA. Simply, if one can impress UCLA undergraduate and graduate students with advertisement related to UCLA, they are doing an excellent job! I. Do you like the website? Is there something that stands out about it? Users seemed to agree that the site was well designed and looked professional. Most liked how minimal it was, making use of UCLAs distinct color palette without
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overwhelming them with information or content. However, one user remarked that once they scrolled to the bottom of the site, one profile comprised a space suitable for three, making the site appear unfinished or a work in progress. Users also agreed that the manner in which the tiles organized was not instantly apparent. II. What do you think the goal of the website is? Like most users we tested, current students believed the main motive behind the site was to entice prospective students to come to UCLA. One user even commented that the website was trying to show off. For him, the personas and the content came off as braggadocious and not inspiring. When prodded as to whether they thought the goal of the site might be to motivate people to donate to UCLA, most participants did not agree. Some stated that if the goal of the site was to inspire donations, this intention should be clear from the beginning. III. Would the website entice you to donate to UCLA? When asked whether the Optimists site would inspire them to donate, most speculated that it would not. Some pointed out that the inclusion of certain Optimists was not only as a source of confusion, but also an aspect of the site that turned them away. To this particular user, icons like James Dean or James Franco, no matter how famous, could not convince him that UCLA deserves his donation. As in other focus groups, the current students did not necessarily believe that such figures were great because they went to UCLA. Rather, it appeared to them that the Optimists campaign was trying to say that UCLA was great because these people attended the university. A slight difference but an important one. IV. Was the information interesting? Participants of this focus group echoed the sentiment that seemed to permeate each study: the notion that each notable persons content could be something they might find from Wikipedia. If the so-called Optimists had a strong connection to UCLA, users were interested in seeing some other kinds of content: personal quotes, archival material, etc. Anything that might substantially show that their time at UCLA made the Optimists who they are. V. What do you think of these particular Optimists? Can you relate to them? Surprisingly, most current students did not know who many of the current Optimists were. However, in terms of their relatability most participants agreed that other, less wealthier, or less famous people would be more relatable than the current group. On a technical note, participants liked how from hovering a cursor over a persons tile on the homepage, they could learned about what field the Optimist excelled in.
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4.3. Alumni

Focus)Group)III).)Persona))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))The)Alumni
Name:"ScoJ Occupa8on Paleontologist," community"college" professor PosiGve"Takeaways: Simple,"clean"design Would"share"on"social"media Happy"with"current"amount" of"text"or"even"less David"Geen's"prole"best" example"of"available"content" on"OpGmist"site Inspired"to"donate Age:"50 Rela8onship)to)UCLA Alumnus"who" matriculated"from" master's"program," proud"of"being"Bruin

Content"need: Want"a"way"to"donate

Figure 7 Persona for the Alumni

Summarized Response I. Do you like the website? Is there something that stands out about it? Overall, the alumni participants thought the website was simple and clean looking. They did however, have several critiques to offer. They expressed concerns regarding the brightness of the yellow background in combination with blue font. Several participants pointed out that it was slightly hard on the eyes, and suggested perhaps a slightly less bright yellow. They were also confused by the Radio button found in the top right corner. Finally, in the current iteration of the Optimists site, the alumni pointed out that the bottom of the main page appears to be missing two extra tiles. II. What do you think the goal of this website is? The alumni assumed the main goal of the site was to direct attention to famous alumni, and to indicate that UCLA is a place where anything is possible. If the main focus of the page was to inspire alumni to donate, they indicated this was NOT clear and a wasted opportunity. They suggested that a solution to this ambiguity might be to subtly integrate the ability to donate on the page by having the profiles link to the UCLA donation page (How will you inspire others?). Additionally, they would like
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to see a Give option (as opposed to Donate) on the main Optimists page in the form of: VIDEO| RADIO|GIVE. III. Would the website entice you more to donate to UCLA? Participants felt that yes, this site would inspire them to donate. They also expressed an interest in sharing the page with others interested in joining the UCLA as well as through social media. IV. Was the information interesting? After being asked their opinion of the information presented in the Optimist profiles, the alumni indicated that they hadnt really read them carefully enough to fully answer. The reason for this was because the color/text combination was hard to read, and the font too small. Additionally, some alumni felt that the paragraph format is too long and text heavy to invite easy reading. V. Would you want more info? Less? Same? As mentioned above, some alumni indicated that the long paragraph format presented too much information during casual browsing. Others indicated that they were fine with the amount of information. Suggested alternatives included two to three sentences with a read more option (which might then open a dropdown section). VI. What do you think of this method [clicking on the question link that is within each profile] used to direct you to the main UCLA site? When asked to explore the link found within each optimist profile, all alumni participants were surprised to be taken to the UCLA homepage. Instead, they were hoping for more information about the featured individual. One participant expressed particular interest in the David Geffen profile, indicating that more information about him would be good. Additionally several participants desired the window to open on a new browser tab, instead of the same one. VII. What do you think of these particular Optimists? Can you relate to them? Overall, the alumni did not feel that the Optimists featured on the site were relatable, other than having gone to UCLA and thus were not relevant to their lives. Even for the alumni or faculty that they were not familiar with, they assumed that being famous was a common thread throughout all featured individuals. When asked if they would be interested in less famous alumni, all participants said yes. VIII. Does this fit with your definition of an interactive website?

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Alumni liked the ability to share pages on social media, but overall found the page minimally interactive. 5. Recommendations 5.1. Improve Relatability A lot of users had issues with the sites content. When we asked if the highlighted Optimists were relatable, at least one user in every group responded no. Some even suggested that new Optimists might be less well-known people. Perhaps if highlighted alums were less recognizable, users might have more incentive to interact with the site. One user liked the David Geffen page because it had a link to current news related to him. Many users alluded to the notion that a lot of the info about the current Optimists could be found on Wikipedia, and that they would be more likely to go Wikipedia to find such info. In two of the groups, users uttered the phrase famous people pejoratively. There was a sense that UCLA was highlighting certain people for their fame, not necessarily for what they did or learned at UCLA. Simply, that they were famous and coincidentally happened to be UCLA Alumni. Some suggested that Optimists might not be at the top of their field. We understood this to mean that perhaps Optimists might be graduates whove gone on to do something meaningful/impactful aside from being the head of their department or a famous actor. Or perhaps we could highlight current students that are doing interesting things on or off campus. Recommendation: Unique Content. The user research seems to echo the idea one user specified: same amount of content but differently presented. In our view, the aesthetics of the site work well, and most users seemed to agree. Our recommendation would call for another group of Optimists who are more ordinarily extraordinary. People who work in the community, students with compelling backgrounds, alumni working in their fields, etc., together with the more famous, well recognized Optimists the site currently exhibits. This dichotomy between the two groups might entice users to engage with the site more with content that would be unique to the site. Additionally, potential donor might be more inspired by these less recognizable Optimists, especially if their current students or alumni with compelling backgrounds and/or exploits.

5.2. More relevant links to UCLA ecosystem and outside it Participants in general felt that there were missed opportunities in the available external links. They were dissatisfied with such a limited number of links to the UCLA ecosystem and outside it.
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Users stumbling upon the site may not have any association to UCLA, and may come from outside the sphere of being a potential student, faculty or staff member. They can merely be interested in the life or professional career of an Optimist. Recommendation: Increase the number of links to other related websites, that speak to the biographical and professional aspect of the Optimists lives. To exemplify, the site can link to the Wikipedia, IMDb, LinkedIn, an Optimists official company or institutional page, or even official website. For a professor, the Optimist profile page can link the user to their faculty page.

To gear the website toward prospective and current students, the content needs to be more nuanced for their needs, as students are still exploring their academic aspirations. Users were surprised that most of the external links took them to the UCLA homepage. Participants would have been more satisfied if the links took them to a specific UCLA page or intranet, rather than the homepage. They felt stranded when they were led to such a general part of the school website. They were frustrated that the external link within each Optimist profile did not directly answer the question posited. Recommendation: Make available external links to specific websites of departments which Optimists studied or worked under. For example, Francis Ford Coppola received his MFA from the School of Theater, Film, and Television (TFT). His How will you change peoples views? button should directly link the user to the TFT domain.

Since the site is primarily aimed at donors, Optimists should link directly to UCLAs donate page. When we asked if users would mind a donate button on the site, they said no. When we asked if users preferred the term donate or give, most said they preferred give. Users also preferred having a link directly to the donate page rather than the UCLA homepage. Alumni were particularly vocal as to the lack of a donate button. Recommendation: Continue using unique copy for every person but make the sites intent to gather donors more apparent. A phrase such as, What will you give? seems fairly intuitive for a link label.

5.3. Website Structure The layout of the Optimists webpage should be improved.
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Improve the layout of Optimists on the home page. Participants mentioned there is too much negative space at the bottom of the Optimists site homepage. They suggest that users might have the impression that site is still under construction or the site has not been completely loaded into the browser. Recommendation: Some of the interviewees suggested that multi-layered navigation system should be used to make multiple classification on those optimists. The Optimists profile pages should be classified and be organized by their department, field, or status as student, alumnus, donor. It is necessary to have a classification system as the number of Optimists gets larger.

Make the links clearer and the cursors more responsive Some interviewers are confused with the UCLA and Optimists logos in the middle top of the page. Users might misunderstand the two logos as an integrated one. The UCLA logo should be more obviously separated from the Optimists logo, and should stand out as a link to the UCLA homepage.

Make use of the negative space at the sides of the page The negative space is very obvious and much larger when running on bigger screens such as on iMac computers. The content in the middle of the screen should be widened, or the website should be more responsive to different screen sizes.

5.4. More mixed media Users expressed interest in more mixed media, rather than just information in paragraph format. They also thought that the media being used is sometimes confusing. Users were confused by the Radio option at the top of the page, and most thought the link would take them to some sort of UCLA radio station. Instead of having long paragraphs about the Optimists, could include individual videos, such as interviews, or even a combination of these formats. This might include very specific Optimists videos in the same form as the Optimist tv spot. Recommendation: Add mixed media in the form of audio and video, this would make the Optimists page more engaging and interactive.

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Appendix I: Optimists Focus group agenda and questions March 2013 Browsing behavior: -Do you have a favorite website? Or what websites do you visit the most? If so, what do you like about them? -Do you remember a specific college or educational website that you liked? What did you like or dislike about it? Show Optimist Video (from webpage carousel panel - Jackie Robinson image) and other media (Pass around magazine and poster ads. Give them few moments to think and commence questions.) -Would you be likely to want to look at this website after seeing the video you just saw? -What about after seeing marketing from print media?

Impressions of the website: -Do you like the website? Is there something that stands out about it? -Whats your impression of the carousel, the revolving panel of images and text? This is good, added it. -What do you think the goal of this website is? -Would the website entice you more to come to UCLA? (for prospectives!) -Would this entice you to donate financially? (for alums) -Or support UCLA in other ways? (for current students + alums)

Navigation to UCLA main site:. From the Optimists homepage try and find your way to UCLAs main website.
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-Was it easy to get there? -How long did it take? -What ways would you improve the path to get from the Optimists site to the UCLA one?

Navigation around the tiles: (Direct users to click on a tile...) -Of the tiles, which person did you click on? Why? -Was the information interesting? -Would you want more info? Less? Same? (Navigating within a persons profile, try to find your way back to the UCLA home page. Do NOT click on the UCLA logo at the top, create a new browser, or Google UCLA.) -Was it easy? How long did it take? -What do you think of this method used to direct you to the main UCLA site?

Free navigation between tiles to look at different Optimists: (Direct users to free play for a few minutes with the tiles, then back on the main page.) -Other than being Optimists and former UCLA students, what else do these people have in common with each other? -What do you think about these particular optimists, can you relate to them? -Does this fit with your definition of an interactive website?

Anymore suggestions for website not included on here?

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