Conduct a usability analysis of the website of Texas A&M University-Texarkana at http://www.tamut.edu.  Inform participants that they are to find all requested information as quickly as possible.

1. Conduct the usability study on four people, none of them being present or former students or employees at Texas A&M University-Texarkana:
   • Start each session by briefing the participant:

     "I will be asking you to look at the website of Texas A&M University-Texarkana.  They want to be sure that it works in the way that prospective students or their parents would expect. 

     "I will be asking you to find six pieces of information on the website.  While you are doing this, I will be taking notes regarding how you found each piece of information, any troubles that you might have encountered in finding that information, and how long it took you to complete each task. 

     "I am not recording any identifying information about you on these notes.  They will be submitted to my professor with my project report as evidence that I conducted this session, but they will be returned back to me when my report is returned.  The professor is not keeping any data and is merely interested in seeing evidence that I have conducted this study.  My conclusions will be presented in summary form to the client organization, but information associated with you as an individual will not be reported. We should be done within about ten minutes. 

     "If you would want to quit at any time, just let me know and you may take my written notes with you."

   • DO NOT start each session with a web browser open to the home page at the link above and do not start the session on any other page.  Open only the browser (perhaps opened to a search engine, the school website, or some other "neutral" website) and ask the participant to find the client organization's website as quickly as possible. 

   • At the end of each session, debrief the participant with regard to confidentiality, anonymity, and how you will be reporting the data.

2. In conducting the usability study, use the following as your topic guide (to include issues above). 
   • Do not allow the participant to use any website or external search functions except as a last resort - use of a search function is proof that the website has a usability problem. 

   • Create a paper form to use in recording your observations of each participant:
     • Observe and record the steps (e.g., menu items used, pages accessed) that each participant takes to complete each task.

     • Record the participant's outcome or answer to each question.

     • Record any affective comments that the participant makes.

     • Record the approximate amount of time that was taken to complete each task. 

   • Ask the participant to complete each of the following tasks as quickly as possible:

     1. Find the website for Texas A&M University-Texarkana. 

     2. Find the phone number for the dean of graduate studies.  Print this page.

     3. Find the application form for general admission.  Print the first page of this form.

     4. Find the street address of the new campus.  Print this page.

     5. Find the tuition for someone in Little Rock, AR wanting to take a 3-hour online MBA course.  Print this page.

     6. Find a list of courses required for someone who wants to be an undergrad marketing major. Print this page.

     7. Find the office hours, office number, and phone number for a marketing professor named Robert Owen.

     8. Repeat the Task C above.

     9. In addition to tracking the steps and the time to complete each task, note that you must also report measures of likability in your report (below).  This necessarily requires that you take likability measures during the session.

3. Your written report must contain the following elements:
   1. research objectives
   2. methodology
   3. findings:
      1. utility (does the site do what it is apparently supposed to do?)
      2. usability (can the user easily figure out how to use the site?)
         1. ease of learning (how easily can the user learn to move around the site?)
         2. efficiency of use (e.g., how much time to complete tasks?)
         3. memorability (can the user repeat a task?)
         4. error frequency and severity (how often and how serious are navigation errors?)
      3. likability (user satisfaction)
   4. conclusions
   5. recommendations

4. In a separate folder, include the forms with your handwritten notes of your observations of each study participant.  These notes would include comments on the menu items that were selected in attempting to complete the task, the amount of time (in seconds) that the participant required to get through various parts of the task, causes of these times (download times, errors working through links, etc.), the types of errors that a person made while trying to find information, the number of attempts that were made before success or abandonment of the assigned task, the ultimate outcome of each task, comments made by the participant regarding usability, likability, frustration, and etc.  Do NOT put the participant's name on your observation notes.

5. This is an individual assignment that requires you to make your own observations and to write your own report.

References with which you are expected to be familiar for Quiz 2:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980503.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/991212.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010121.html