rin and Services SI 622: Evaluation of Systems he at ,C ANN ARBOR.

COM rg Ga FINALima PRESENTATION ar Team Newsies: ,G u F Caroline Moran, Catherine Le nlu Danlu Fu, Garima Garg Da
April 2010

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Sandra Miller

50 years old ,C Le Married, 2 kids ine er MBA th a Has lived in Ann Arbor for , C rg 30 years Ga Computer Skills: ima Intermediate Gar u, Throughout Internet Usage: F the day lu n

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at METHODS ,C u, F rim Ga rg Ga a

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 User-generated Data
Interviews (used to create Personas and ro Scenarios) Ca e, Survey L ine Usability Testing r Comparative Analysis Heuristic Evaluations

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Group-generated Data

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One of the personas we created Right: A screenshot of the survey we administered before usability testing.

KEY FINDINGS Cat AND EVIDENCE

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I would prefer more official articles, not like blogscould have editorials from someone prominent in the community. (U02, Interview)

Its like a blog and its like a news website. [Im] not sure what it is. (U02, Usability Testing)

Many AnnArbor.com users are unclear about the websites at , Cit has taken the place of The role or dissatisfied with how rg Ann Arbor News Ga
Part of the role of AnnArbor.com should be to prioritize stories by importanceand the blog post-like layout doesnt do that for me. (Survey Respondent)

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Theres no About Us page on AnnArbor.com (Comparative Analysis)

Basic information pages about at the website are either absent or ,C difficult to find. rg a
Heuristics Violated: Help & Documentation Recognition vs. Recall Consistency & Standards

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Fixed after feedback

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The Deuce label within the Entertainment section is confusing. (U02 and U03, Usability Testing)

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rin Labels for he t sections and events can be Caconfusing to users. rg, Ga a
When I was looking for music, there wasnt a clear bar for it in Entertainment, which seems intuitive. (U01, Usability Testing)

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The Events Calendar is hard to find and awkward to use. (U02 and U03, Usability Testing)

Labels for sections and events at ,C can be confusing to users. rg

It would be nice if there was a really good online resource, divided by appropriate categories for events happening. (U04, Interview)

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M AnnArbor.com wants to encourage user participation, but ine users do not have full control over their userl accounts or ro content contribution Ca
Online Survey Respondents: at

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, rg 61 participatedcontribute content Ga 83.6% of them a 31.1% of them rated commenting im poorly at 1 out of 5 stars ar

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M ine but users AnnArbor.com wants to encourage user participation, ol ar do not have full control over their user accounts or content ,C contribution Le ine er th Ca I closed my [AnnArbor.com] g, account because my comments ar were retained in the system and aG searchable by GoogleI dont think im that is appropriate. ar (Survey Respondent) ,G Fu nlu Da

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I dont use the sidebar. I didnt know about it and thought it looked like ads. (U02, Interview)

Survey Results:

14.8% arent aware of it 42.6% dont use it 73.8% use the top menu bar

The right sidebar navigation is underutilized. at

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Quality Rating: 1 out of 5 27.9% Ease of Use: 1 out of 5 23%

at RECOMMENDATIONS ,C u, F rim Ga rg Ga a

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M Create a more concrete image of what AnnArbor.comeis in order lin to enforce the legitimacy of what they are producing. ro
Manage user expectations about AnnArbor.coms function and ,C Le role ine community Mix of old journalistic standards + new media er building th Ca , Articles and features shouldgbe:

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r astaff Clearly labeled as writtenG by a Thoroughly fact-checked, proofread and held to journalistic standards m riin: Stronger staff role Ga with community members Increasing dialogue u, F Evaluating the most important events and news nlu Da

M Include basic information pages about the website itself, group ine them, and make them easy to find. ol ar Such pages would include (and are not limited C , to): Le About Us/Staff page Site Map ine er FAQs th Ca Help documentation rg, Acceptable Use Policy a Gon the site Legend/Key to icons used a Group these pagesiand link to them in an easy-to-find location rm Ga relevant (e.g. link to the Acceptable Use Link to them where , uaccount creation section) Policy inu F the nl Da

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M More intuitive and effective use of verbal and visual labeling. e

Wording
Section names can be unclear or very broade, L Word order: only the Deals & More subcategories are ine alphabetized in the drop-down menu r he

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M More intuitive and effective use of verbal and visual labeling. e

Icons (and/or Tags)
Look into how much theyre used and how useful they are e, L Images should be more descriptive andne obvious

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ri Some encompass many subcategories e th Some are not obvious at first glance Ca rg, Ga a rim a GCommunity, Business, Arts & Entertainment, Food & Drink, and Music Event icons for: Recreation, u, F nlu Da

M More intuitive and effective use of verbal and visual labeling. e

Color Usage
Use colors to differentiate between staff members and user e, L contributors on their author pages ine tell apart Use very different colors so theyre easy to er h

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Increase User Account Control

ro Provide users with greater control over account functions and Ca e, content contribution L e Allow users to manage their newslettern i subscriptions er Allow users to edit/delete comments th Ca of only replacing them Allow users to delete userpics instead rg, Ga a rim Ga u, F nlu Da From Facebook
Edit Delete

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Locations of Navigational Tools

Why is it the right rail? Why not a left rail? C e, L F Reading Pattern:

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Screenshot from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

Locations of Navigational Tools

Visibility of the Events Calendar

Have the actual calendar on the home page Include a link in the Entertainment section of the drop-down menu

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at CONCLUSION ,C u, F rim Ga rg Ga a

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rin Thankatyou! he C ,& A Q rg Ga a rim a

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