Date: 7/9/2019

To: USGS

From: Group E interns

Subject: Historical National Water-use data memo

Distribution List: USGS Web Development team

This report is a review of a set of instructions created by the USGS with the intent to
provide users with help in finding historical data on national water usage. After a short
usability test, it became obvious that some changes were needed to improve the
effectiveness of the article. After some deliberation, a select few changes were made in
an attempt to enhance the user experience.

Test Objectives

The aim of this usability test is to determine if this tutorial can help first-time users
become familiar with how to use historical NATIONAL water-use data page. The most
important part of this test is to ask users if they are satisfied with the layout of the page,
the font and size of the text, and the size, clarity and accuracy of the images. In addition
to the visual effects above, we also wanted to know which settings on the site were not in
line with the testers' habits and thus affected their smooth completion of the tutorial.

Results

Areas of Strength

The strengths that were throughout the website that USGS used for the usability test
was that the steps were simple and concise. They were straight and to the point of what
was being asked. During the test people stated the steps went in order of each other
which made it very helpful. The fact that each of the steps had pictures helped with the
flow of the process. Most of everyone that took the test were able to finish the test in less
than 3 minutes.
Areas of Improvement

Some areas of improvement that can be taken away from the usability test are taking
away certain steps that aren’t needed for example step 5. In step 5, users The user is told
that one of the three save options needs to be selected, and then the website determines
the format of the file based on different options. After that, the website used a picture to
illustrate the specific details, but the picture was taken from the entire website and
contained a lot of unwanted parts. Besides that, when clicking on a hyperlink it would
stay in the same in the same window, they ignored that making the link work properly is
the most basic requirement to ensure that users get a smooth experience. The submit
button for the step of picking the year should be on the far right instead of below
picture.

Questionnaire

Immediately following the completion of their assigned task, the user was asked to
answer a number of questions. These questions consisted of three close-ended and three
open-ended questions in order to draw appropriate feedback.

Close Ended Question:

1. Was the flow of information controlled and comprehensive?
● Most people responded that the information was indeed controlled and
comprehensive, showing that the issues were mostly superficial.
2. Did the pictures provide meaningful contribution?
● Every person answered that pictures were important to the instructions.
3. Would you feel comfortable doing this a second time without instructions?
● All but one of the users felt comfortable in their ability to do the task a
second time without the instructions, showing that the information is
comprehensive enough to stick after only one read.
Open Ended Question:
1. What was the best feature of these instructions?
● Users responded most positively about the pictures and how each step was
highlighted on them.
2. What should be changed in these instructions?
● The most common problems reported were about a difficulty
distinguishing between steps.
3. How would you rate these instructions and why?
● Average of the reports were 6.25/10.
Recommendations

To improve usability, we should crop the excess parts of the screenshot leaving only the
essential areas to avoid confusion in each step. Instead of having our visuals and texts
all clustered together, we should incorporate the use of white space in between each step
to have a clear indication of which step the user is on. We also should increase the font
size of each “Step” to make it more eye catching.
Appendices:
Appendix A: Original Instruction
Appendix B: Revised Instruction

Step 1: Click on the “Water Use” button on the bottom left of the browser screen.

Step 2: Click on the blue National Data button (left)

Step 3: Choose the year(s) for water-use data retrieval by clicking on a selection – once a
year(s) is chosen then water-use categories available for that year will appear under “Category“.

Step 4: Choose the water-use category for data retrieval by clicking on a selection – (multiple
categories also can be chosen). Once selection(s) has been made – click the “Submit” button.

Note: Multiple selections can be made by holding down the “Ctrl” and “Alt” keys and clicking
with the (left) mouse button.
Step 5: To show the data as a table, Select “Table of data” and click “Submit”. If you wish to
save the data as plain text, skip to step 6.

The browser data will show the table of data like this:
Step 6: To show the data as plain text, Select “Tab-separated data”. If you want to change the
display format, click on the selection box to the right of “Tab-separated data” and then select
your preferred form.

An example of the data as plain text: