Design recommendations for the Technical Memo Sharepoint Site were based in user research to provide a more efficient way for users to find Technical Memo instructions, documentation, and processing procedures relating to the collection and processing of data by the Statistics Function.
Project:
Unit Sharepoint Site
Year:
2022
Role:
Lead User Researcher
Tools:
WAVE Tool
OVERVIEW
Project Goal
Design recommendations for the Technical Memo Sharepoint Site to provide a more efficient way for users to find Technical Memo instructions, documentation, and processing procedures relating to the collection and processing of data by the Statistics Function.
Key Takeaways
Most users are satisfied with the Technical Memo SharePoint site - Users did not experience major difficulty locating key information
Most users only visit 4 specific sections of the site - Users typically visit draft memos, final memos, board contact, and series contact pages
Top task focus - Top tasks are not given visual priority in the system
Images used are recreations not reflective of the actual site to ensure privacy.
NITTY GRITTY
Process
Heuristic Evaluation + Best Practices Review
Accessibility Evaluation
Contextual interviews + Usability Test
Finding + Recommendations
Heuristic Evaluation (NN/group) + Best Practices Review
The search tool rarely returns relevant search results.
Visual
No hierarchy of text - font, sizing
Central visual focus of the homepage is unclear
Navigation options can be condensed/reordered
Functionality
Inefficient search
Discussion board usage
Links should remain blue for consistency, regular text should remain black, and these two should exhibit consistent behaviors throughout the site
Accessibility Considerations
ANDI was used to evaluate accessibility and 508 compliance.
3 elements found with no accessible name Rowheader elements with no accessible name
2 Keyboard access alerts Focusable elements not in keyboard tab order
Interviews + Usability Test
Semi-structured interviews
Interviewed 12 users across varying locations in the country
Users were asked to walk us through how they typically use the sharepoint site.
Users asked about frequency of use, informatons needs, current workflow, and potential areas for improvement
Major Findings
Most users came to the site via an emailed link directly to a document
Most users found the left nav bar easy to use but the most important tabs were not at the top of the list
Users typically didn’t use the search (and didn’t trust it)
Most users didn’t engage with the landing page, or if they did they bypassed some of the largest sections
Most users understand why documents are organized by series and district, but some found it inefficient to scroll down and “hunt” for the correct one
Date that the last tech memo has last been updated would be useful information but it’s not currently displayed (also relevant for contacts)
User noted that they want a clear sense of purpose on the page
Recommendations
Reorder the navigation bar by placing most used tabs at the top of the list
Use search strategically or remove it completely
Use search strategically or remove it completely
Include date tech memos and contacts were last updated
Reduce the visual importance of sections users don’t engage with
Consider organizing documents by type of report
Add short descriptions at the beginning of each page
