Planning for Web Portals
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Web Portals : Corporate Portal Usability Testing

 



No successful corporate portal deployment is complete without getting your end-users involved. End-user involvement can take place very early in the planning process. Most intranet redesigns I have led involved conducting usability sessions on the existing version of the intranet before new architectures were even created. This helps the intranet manager or corporate portal deployment team to better understand the strong and weak points of navigation, user interface and content relevance, as well as user perspectives.

8 things to do for Usability Testing:

  1. Create task scenarios that challenge end-users ability to navigate to various areas of the intranet or existing internet website. Keep them moving around the web pages. Don't give them just common everyday tasks, mix it up and have them test the navigation, link appearance, user interface and dynamic page elements. General rule of thumb for the number of usability scenarios ranges from 7-10.

  2. Identify a diverse group of individuals to hold the sessions with. Have users participate from all across the company. The technical skill level of your participants is also important. Keeping a broad skill-set will help you to test the scenarios with the web-savvy, intermediate and beginner end-users. Ages, gender and work functions are also important. Do not think you are discriminating when choosing your group. Diversity will allow you to collect feedback and usability results with more meaning to the people who will be using your website. Remember, the end result is to create an enterprise portal, or new intranet, that is usable by all employees. Aim for about 5-10 people, or if your company is large and there are multiple website's to cover, recruit more, maybe 10-20 people.

  3. Schedule each user separately for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Even if you do not use the full 1 hour the participant will not feel rushed and may offer better feedback and take their time. In the meeting request be sure to explain what you are asking the person to do. Some people are very hesitant about being "tested". The word "test" should clearly be presented as "testing the existing enterprise portal design or website". Be sure to express that there is no right or wrong answer and that you are simply observing the usability of the enterprise portal or intranet. Be sure to schedule the sessions about 1/2 part or over a few days to allow you to have time setting up the sessions and capturing the results.
  4. Prepare for the sessions. Software that allows you to capture user voice and on-screen activity is available for those interested. But be careful, you may need permission from your users or company legal department if capturing user voice electronically. Create a standard script that you can go through with your participants.

  5. Location is very important. Find a room or area away from others to allow you and your participant to focus on the tasks at hand, without interruption. Find an area that is quite and welcoming. Don't make the person feel like you are breathing down their neck while the session is underway. Sit off to the side, or slightly behind the person to allow them to focus on carrying out the tasks.

  6. Holding the session. Start on time and allow the user to get comfortable. Re-iterate the fact this is not a "test" of the person, but of the enterprise portal design or intranet. Ask the person to speak out-loud and offer honest feedback as they carry out tasks. Have they explain what they "meant" to find or what they "expected" to see. Take good notes, this is what you'll need to analyze later. At times, it's nice to have a third person observing and taking notes so you can hold the sessions 1x1 with the person carrying out the tasks. If the person cannot carry out the tasks, allow them to move on, don't let them get frustrated and feel that they need to complete everything.

  7. Session wrap-up. Once your usability session is about over and the user has attempted all tasks. Allow them to speak freely about the existing enterprise portal, website or intranet. Be prepared to get some tough criticism. Allow participants to end with some blue-sky type thoughts, for example "if there was anything you can add or change on the enterprise portal, intranet or website, what would it be"?

  8. Analysis is key. Look for common trends in task completion. Find out if there are common themes in there spoken words while they navigated. If there were tasks that were not completed, identify why. Document everything you can into a summary document; this will come in handy later while design the new enterprise portal, intranet or website interface. It will also show you any changes that need made to link naming, content positioning and navigation.