Census Web Site Usability Testing Research

US Census Usability Research

- Draft 1 Discussion Guide -

1. Introduction (5 Minutes)

• Introduce self

  • Suzanne Stinson, M&ES, Independent, No right/wrong, Audio/video

• Introduce topic – working prototype

• Ask respondent to introduce themselves

  • Name, occupation, familiarity with US Census

2. Homepage Exploration (15 Minutes)

• The US Census is in the process of developing a new website. Do you have any thoughts as to what you might find/be able to achieve at the US Census site?

• Now I would like you to take a look at a possible homepage for this site.

PULL UP HOMEPAGE – ALTERNATE STARTING HOMEPAGE FOR EACH INTERVIEW

• Where are your eyes drawn to first on the page?

• Now take a few seconds to review the page.

• Describe to me what you see here. What appears to be the purpose of this site? Why do you say that?

• Are you surprised by any of the content that you see here? What? Why do you say that?

• If you happened to come across this site, do you think you would explore this site or not? Specifically, why is that the case?

• Overall, what do you think of this page/what initial impressions do you have? Why do you say that? What else?

• What adjectives/descriptive phrases come to mind to describe the home page? Why do you say that?

• Is there anything ambiguous, confusing or unclear on this page? Why do you say that? Anything else?

• What are your impressions of the design/aesthetics of the site? Why do you say that?

• Does this page look as if it has just the right amount of information, too little information, or too much information? Specifically, why do you say that?

• Does the page look well organized to you, or not? Why/why not? Is there a focal point on the page? IF SO, What and why?

• In general, can you quickly identify for me the links on this page?

• What, if anything, would you change about this page? Why do you say that? What else?

FOR KEY HOMEPAGE LINKS, ASK: (PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EXERCISE WILL COVER ALL ESSENTIAL LINKS ON THE PAGE)

• What would you expect to find if you clicked on this link?

• Why do you say that?

Here is another homepage. (SHOW ALTERNATIVE HOMEPAGE)

• What, if anything, is different about this homepage?

• Which do you prefer? Why is that? Why else?

FOR LINKS WITH ALTERNATE LABELS:

• I’d like you to take a moment to review this list of content. (ALLOW TIME TO REVIEW CONTENT)

• Now I’d like you to look at this list of potential labels. Which label best describes the content that you just viewed? Why is that?

MULTIMEDIA MODULE

• Did you notice this area of the page? What is it?

• Is this something you are interested in interacting with? Why or why not?

• What do you think would happen if you engaged with this?

• Is it clear how to navigate this feature?

• What do you think of the content in this module?

• How would you find other multimedia content? Let’s do that (SHOW DESTINATION PAGE)

  • What are your first impressions of this page? Is it clear what this page contains? Do you think you would find this page useful?

  • How is this page organized? Do you like this organization, or would you prefer a different means of organization?

  • What, if anything, would you click on to view?

  • Is there any content that seems to be missing that you would like to see?
    
    

LANGUAGE SELECTOR (PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR THE SPANISH LANGUAGE INTERVIEWS, WHEN GREETED BY AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HOMEPAGE, THIS IS THE FIRST FUNCTIONALITY A SPANISH SPEAKING RESPONDENT WILL PROBABLY ENGAGE WITH)

• Did you notice this area of the page? What is this? What does it do?

• Is this something you would interact with? Why or why not?

• What do you think will happen if you engaged with this?

Here is another. (SHOW ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE SELECTOR)

• What, if anything, is different about this?

• Which do you prefer? Why is that?

LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE GUIDE PAGE (FOR SPANISH INTERVIEWS ONLY)

• Here is a page you will view after selecting a language. What does this appear to be?

• Does this look like something you would use? Why or why not?

• Does this contain information that would be useful for you? Is there anything missing from this page that you would like to see?

• Did you notice the PDF file? What did you understand it to be about? Did you understand what a PDF? Would you download that file?

SEARCH

• On this page, how would you go about locating a very specific piece of information such as _____? How else?

• IF NECESSARY, Did you notice the search function? I’d like you to try it out.

• Do these search results look helpful? Why or why not?

• What do you expect to see if you click on the results links?

CONTACT US

• If you were having issues filling out your Census form, what would you do? What else might you do?

• IF NECESSARY, Did you notice this Contact Us link? IF NECESSARY, Would you consider using this if you were having issues, or not?

• What would you expect to find if you clicked that link?

3. Questionnaire, Marquee (5 Minutes)

• I am now going to show you some content and tools that may be available to you on the website.

NAVIGATE TO QUESTIONAIRRE PAGE

• Describe to me what you see here. What appears to be the purpose of this page? Why do you say that?

• Please take a moment to explore this page.

  • Are you surprised by any of the content that you see here? What? Why do you say that?

  • Is there any information that appears to missing from this page?

  • Is this something you would find useful?

• Did you notice this icon? (INDICATE “Marquee”)

  • What do you think would happen if you were to click on this link? Let’s do that.

  • What do you think this is?

  • Is it clear how you would interact with it?

  • How would you close this feature when you were finished with it?

  • Have you seen this feature anywhere else on the site so far?

  • Is this a feature you would find useful? Why or why not?

3. Advocacy Tools and Widgets (10 Minutes)

• FOR EACH AREA/WIDGET, ASK:

  • What is this?

  • Do you think this is valuable to the site? Why or why not?

  • Would you engage with it? Why or why not?

• Fun Fact (static)

• Fun Fact (Data/map)

• Fun Fact (Poll)

• Blog

• [Video]

• Downloads

5. Close (10 Minutes)

• Now that you have had the opportunity to review this site, what, if anything, have you learned about the Census?

• Can you fill out your Census form online or not?

  • Is there anything that comes to mind that would make it clearer that one cannot fill out the Census online?

• Do you have any concerns about the Census after looking at this website? Anything else?

• Do you have any questions or concerns regarding data privacy, or not?

  • Is it clear to you how Census data will be used?

• Has reviewing this site made you any more or less likely to fill out the Census form or not affected this in any way? Why is that?

• Has reviewing this site made you feel any more or less prepared to fill out the census form? Why is that?

• Is there any additional information that you would like to this website to provide? What else would be helpful for you to see?

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