April4,2016

CollegeofLiberalArtsandSciencesOfficeofAcademicTechnology
Barnard237
UniversityofNorthCarolinaatCharlotte
9201UniversityCityBlvd
Charlotte,NC282230001
Re:UsabilityTestsofUNCCharlottePages:Profiles,Projects,Research,Blogshelpwebpage
IwouldfirstliketoexpressmygratitudetotheCollegeofLiberalArtsandScience
OfficeofAcademicTechnologyforallowingmetousetheirWordPresssystemtocompletemy
tests.ThisassignmentwasgiventomebyAssociateEnglishProfessorDr.GregoryWickliffin
myENGL4181,WritingUserDocumentsclass.Themaingoalofthisassignmentwasto
performusabilitytestsontheWordPressuserinterfacewiththehelpwebpage,sothatImay
analyzetheresults(successesanddifficulties)andpresentmyfindingstotheCLASteam.
Myanalysisproducedseveralkeyfindings.Forthemostpart,myparticipantswereable
tofollowthehelppageseffectivelyandsuccessfully.Ibelievethatmytestingandanalysishas
givenmesomevaluableinsightintosomeofthedeficienciesoftheinterface.Duetothis,Ifeel
thatIcanprovidethelibraryteamwithafewrecommendationsthatwillfurtherimprovethe
interface.Myfindingsinclude:

Usersthatwereusedtootherdesignprogramsstruggledatfirstwithtasks.
Asthesefirsttimeuserscompleteeachtask,theamountofproblemsquicklybecameless
frequent.
Userswantedpicturestobetterexplainwheretheyshouldbelookingfordifferentoptions.
Usersfelttheywouldhavebetterhelpbyfindingvideotutorialsonlinethathadbettervisuals.
Asthesefindingsindicate,therearesomeopportunitiesforimprovementthatwouldhelp
streamlinetheuserexperienceandlessentheamountoffrustrationtheyexperiencewhen
utilizingthehelppageforWordPress.
Sincerely,
StephanieLee
Author

cc:
AlexChapin,ExecutiveDirector,CLASOfficeofAcademicTechnologies
CeilyHamilton,CLASDirectorofInformationTechnology
LaurieParker,HumanitiesConsultant,CLASOfficeofAcademicTechnologies
GregoryWickliff,Assoc.ProfessorofEnglish

UNC Charlotte Pages: Profiles, Projects,

Research, Blogs Help Web Page:
Usability Testing Report

ENGL 4181
April 6, 2016

By: Stephanie Lee

Submitted to:
-

Gregory Wickliff, Assoc. Professor of English

Executive Summary

Thepurposeofthisstudywastotesta
users ability to edit their webpages
with the UNC Charlotte Pages:
Profiles, Projects, Research, Blogs
help web page as their guide. I
learned a lot from this report and
hopefully my findings will help to
improve the usability of the page
itself.
Iaskedmultiplefacultywithdifferent
levelsofexperiencewithWordPress
tocomplete3tasksformyusability
test.Thesetasksincludedaddingan
image to their webpage, editing or
addingawidgettotheirwebpage,and
attempt to add myself as a user to
theirwebpage:allusingthehelppage
provided by the CLAS. After each
test was over, I asked the faculty a
series of questions to get them to
discuss the problems they were
having during the actual test. I also
monitoredtheiractionsduringthetest
soIcouldseetheexactpartsthatthey
werestrugglingwith.
Some of the test subjects struggled
more than others with certain tasks,
but they were all able to ultimately
complete them. Some of the main
issues I discovered were that users
preferred a more visual aid to help
themwiththetasksbecausetherewas
alotgoingoninWordPressthatthey
werentsurewheretolooktofind

whattheywerelookingfor.Another
findingofminewasthatusersturned
to searching the web for other
tutorialstogivethemabettervisual
aidtohelpthemcompletetheirtasks.
After some discussion with each of
the participants, they all seemed to
agreethatwhiletheywereultimately
able to find what they needed, they
thinkitcouldhavebeenmucheasier
todosowithbettervisualaids.There
were a lot of vague steps in the
processandattimesitgotfrustrating.
Just about everyone regularly used
Google to further their searches for
better directions. More screenshots
were specifically what they were
lookingfor.
Itisclearthatthehelppagehasthe
rightideaastowhatusersneedhelp
with,butitdoesntquitedescriptthe
wholepicturethatusersmayneedto
fullyunderstandthestepsittakesto
complete a task. The biggest
suggestion I would make after
completing this report would be to
add an image with every step
provided and possibly a video that
shows the exact process. I believe
thesechangeswouldbenefittheusers
sotheycanbefullyprovidedwiththe
information they need to make
changestotheirwebpages.

Table of Contents
ExecutiveSummary.i
IntroductionandProcedure...1
KeyFindings1
1.

Usersstruggledtofindwhattheywere

2.

Needs

lookingfor.................1

.............................................2

more

visual

aids.

ConclusionsandRecommendations..3
Appendices...4
1.

A:UsabilityTests

.4
2.

B: Follow up Questions

...5
References6

List of Tables and Figures

Figure1:AddingImagesHelpPage..2

Table1:TaskTimesandAverages2
Figure2:SuggestedReferenceGuide......3
Figure3:EditingWidgets...3

..

UNC Charlotte Pages: Profiles, Projects,

Research, Blogs Help Web Page:
Usability Testing Report

Introduction

Procedure

UNCCharlottePagesisaninstanceofWord
Press available to faculty and staff in a
number of colleges at UNC Charlotte
including the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences(CLAS),theCollegeofHealthand
Human Services (CHHS) and the Belk
CollegeofBusiness.

Ireachedouttocolleaguesandprofessors
tofindparticipantsformystudy.

Thesehelppageswereoriginallycreatedfor
CLASfacultyandstaff,butcouldbehelpful
tofacultyandstaffinothercolleges. Most
of these instructions are accurate, but the
current version of WordPress has more
efficientwaysofdoingcommontasks.
Myassignmentwastotesthowmuchhelp
thewebhelppageactuallywastousers.We
were also asked to provide some sort of
guideorreferencethatwethinkwouldbea
helpfuladditiontothewebpage.
Two Computer Science professors, one
professionalwebdeveloperoncampus,and
one permanent staff of SUAR IT all
participated in this study. Only two were
familiar with WordPress so the results
varied.
Myfindingsspecifiedinthefollowingreport
showdetailsofeachuniqueuserexperience
includingwhentheystruggledandsucceeded
with using the help page. The evidence I
provide will help CLAS to provide more
usefulinformationforthefacultyandstaffof
theUniversityofNorthCarolinaatCharlotte.

TheusabilitytestsIcreatedallowedmeto
observefacultyperformingspecificactions
usingthewebhelppageasareference. I
created specific tasks that I tested before
handtoensurethattheusercouldhavea
decentchancetocompletethem.
Iplannedforeachtestsessiontotakeno
morethanthirtyminutestoallowmetime
tocommunicateanddiscussthetaskswith
theusersbefore,during,andafterthetests.
Thesessionswererecordedoncameraand
Irecordedthescreenandaudio,whichwas
mymainuseofmaterialtogatherdata.
After the tasks were completed, I asked
eachuserfollowupquestionstogagehow
their experience went. I reviewed the
recordings of each session to collect and
evaluate data to then write this report,
whichwaswrittenanddesignedinGoogle
Documents.

Key Findings
1.
Usersstruggledtofind
whattheywerelookingfor
WhenIaskedtheuserstoaddanimageto
theirpagewithhowthehelppagedirects
them, many were confused about the
differencebetweenthestepsinthevideo

andthewrittenstepsbelowit.Theyseemed
tocontradicteachotheroronewasmissing
stepsthattheotherdidnthaveorviceversa.

Threeoutofthefourusersendeduptrying
touseGoogletogetabetterunderstanding
ofhowtocompletethetasksbecausethey
wantedsomethingmorethoroughasifthey
weredummies.
They mentioned that the help page was
hardtofollow andnotvisuallyappealing
andthattheyhadaneasiertimecompleting
the tasks by looking at other videos or
referenceguides.

2.
Vague, if not absent,
visualaid

Figure 1: Adding Images Help Page

For adding widgets, users mentioned they

wouldhavelikedanimageforeachstepthat
wasprovidedinthewrittenportionsothey
could know exactly what it meant by the
titleoftheirsite.
Users also thought the video was more
helpfulthanthewrittenstepsprovidedasthe
writtenstepsandimagesdidntseemtogo
together.
Oneuserstated,Idontunderstandwhat
exactlytheymeanbychosefromthe
availablewidgets.Whydidnttheyfirsttell
mewheretofindthewidgetsthatare
available?Thatseemssilly.

When asking the users if they were

uncomfortablewithanyofthetasks,they
all agreed that each task made them
uncomfortable only because they didnt
liketheguidesthatwasprovidedforthem
onthewebhelppage.
The most common response I got from
participantswhiletheywereattemptingthe
taskswasthattheywishtherewereimages
forthemtolookattounderstandexactly
wheretheyweresupposedtoclick.
Because of the lack of images, which
caused most users to use Google as an
alternative, it took quite a few of the
participants more time to complete the
tasks. The table below shows the data I
collected on the times each task took to
completeperparticipant.

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Min. Time

01:00

00:45

01:44

Max. Time

02:15

01:50

03:15

Avg. Time

01:31

01:12

02:24

Table 1: Task Times and Averages

Conclusions and Recommendations

Inconclusion,thewebhelppagefortheCLASWordPresshastherightideaofincludingavideo
andwrittensteps.Yet,thereareadjustmentsthatshouldbemade.Majorityofourparticipants
agreedthateachstepprovidedshouldhaveavisualaidtobemorethorough.Ihaveprovided
belowasnippetofanexampleofwhatIthinkwouldbeagoodlayoutforthereferenceguidefor
addingimages.

AddingImages
1. Chose+Newoption

2. Putyourcursorwhereyouwanttheimagetobeattached

3. ClickontheAddMediabutton

4. UploadanimageorchoseanimagefromyourMediaLibrary

5. Specifyhowtoaligntheimagetoyourtext(right,left,centerornone)

6. Typeinalttagtextthatdescribesyourimage(thisisimportantforaccessibility)

Figure 2: Suggested Reference Guide

Appendix A: Usability Tests

User Task
1

Time

Success Summary/Issues

Addanimage 01:00

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsfirst,then
watchedthevideobeforecompletingthetask.
Referredbacktothevideomanytimes.

AddorEdita 00:59
Widget

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsfirst,then
watchedthevideobeforecompletingthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

02:01

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Referredbacktotheinstructionsmanytimes.

Addanimage 02:15

Yes

Participantwatchedthevideothenreadthrough
instructionsbeforecompletingthetask.Googledother
instructionstogetthroughthetask.

AddorEdita 00:45
Widget

Yes

Participantwatchedthevideothenreadthrough
instructionsbeforecompletingthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

01:44

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Googledotherinstructionstogetthroughthe
task.

Addanimage 01:35

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsanddidntwatch
thevideobeforecompletingthetask.

AddorEdita 01:50
Widget

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsanddidntwatch
thevideobeforecompletingthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

02:36

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Googledotherinstructionstogetthroughthe
task.

Addanimage 01:15

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsfirst,then
watchedthevideobeforecompletingthetask.
Referredbacktothevideomanytimes.

AddorEdita 01:12
Widget

Yes

Participantwatchedthevideothenreadthrough
instructionsbeforecompletingthetask.Googledother
instructionstogetthroughthetask.

AddMyself
asaUseron
TheirWeb
Page

Yes

Participantreadthroughinstructionsbeforecompleting
thetask.Googledotherinstructionstogetthroughthe
task.

03:15

Appendix B: Follow Up Questions

User1 Thethirdtaskwasthehardestforthem.Hadtoswitchbackandforthbetweenthe
instructionsandWordPressmanytimes.
Thesecondtaskwastheeasiestforthem.Onlyhadtoreadtheinstructionsonce.
Feltmoderatelycomfortablewiththetasks.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks.
Theysuggestaddingimagesandrewordingwrittenportion.
User2 Thefirsttaskwasthehardestforthem.WenttoGoogletofinddifferentinstructions.
Thesecondtaskwastheeasiestforthem.Onlyhadtolookatinstructionsonce
TheyfeltitnecessarytouseGoogletofinddifferentinstructionsontwooutofthree
tasks.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks
Theysuggestthatmorethoroughvideosbemadethatincludeseverystepnecessary.
User3 Thethirdtaskwashardestforthem.WenttoGoogletofinddifferentinstructions.
Thefirsttaskwastheeasiestforthem.Onlyhadtoreadtheinstructionsonce.
OnlywenttoGoogleonce.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks.
Theysuggestedmorepictures.
User4

Thethirdtaskwasthehardestforthem.WenttoGoogletofinddifferentinstructions.
ThesecondtaskwastheeasiestforthemeventhoughtheystillusedGoogleforit.
TheyusedGooglefortwooutofthreetasks.
Theyfinishedallofthetasks.
Theirsuggestionistoaddmorepicturestothestepsandchangetheformatofthehelp
pagetobemoreappealing.

References
UsabilityTestParticipants:
CollegeofComputingandInformaticsProfessor,UNCCharlotte,3/25/2016

 CollegeofComputingandInformaticsProfessor,UNCCharlotte,3/26/2016
SUARITPermanentStaffMember,UNCCharlotte,3/30/2016
SUARWebDeveloper,UNCCharlotte,3/31/2016

SupportingWebsite:
https://pages.uncc.edu/help/addingimages/