The Census Bureau plans to conduct a study of the Census Regional Website to identify usability and accessibility issues with the Website. The primary objective of this research is to identify usability issues with the Census Regional Website and provide feedback to the developer. Accessibility testing will be conducted to check for Section 508 compliance.
The primary goal of the study is to evaluate the usability and accessibility of the Census Regional Website by asking participants to complete tasks that users may try to accomplish online. A secondary goal is to collect information from participants about their use of social networking and expected organization of information to facilitate future Census Regional Website design.
In October of 2010, staff from the Usability Lab will conduct a maximum of 18 usability interviews in the Usability Lab at the Census Headquarters in Suitland, MD. We plan to conduct interviews with the general public to assess usability and with blind participants to assess accessibility. All participants will have used a computer and the Internet for at least one year.
Ten usability participants will be recruited from the general public using the Usability Lab's recruiting database. We plan to recruit 8 participants to assess accessibility, which will test the Website for Section 508 compliance. Six of these will be recruited through the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. In addition, two participants will be recruited from Census Bureau Headquarters. Participants recruited from the general public will be reimbursed $40 for their participation. Census Bureau employees will not be receive any reimbursement. We request permission to pay $46 to participants recruited by the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. The additional fee represents cost for a Metro Access escort who will accompany the participant to the interview.
During each session, participants will be asked to complete a series of tasks on the Website. Attachment A contains images of each screen of the Census Regional Website. The test protocol, tasks, and debriefing questions can be found in Attachment B.
Participants’ eye movements will be tracked using a Tobii eye tracker to obtain empirical evidence about which areas of the Website they look at as well as about important elements that they overlook. We will also evaluate how they use the mouse to interact with the interface. We expect that the eye-tracker will not be able to calibrate some participants’ eyes or be available for use on blind participants. We will continue without eye tracking for those participants whose eyes do not calibrate. We plan to measure user efficiency, accuracy, and user satisfaction with this interface. The test protocol can be found in Attachment B.
All participants will be asked to provide commentary on their experience during a retrospective debriefing. The Debriefing Questionnaire is included as part of the protocol in Attachment B. Participants will also be asked to complete a computerized background survey about their demographics and computer experience (Attachment C). Additionally, they will be asked to complete a computerized questionnaire designed to measure their satisfaction with the Website (Attachment D).
These sessions will be video-recorded, with the participants' permission, to facilitate summary of the results. All participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential.
The estimated time for completion of each of the usability sessions is an hour. Thus, the estimated burden for this research is 18 hours.
The contact person for questions regarding data collection and study design is:
Victor Quach
Center for Survey Methods Research
U.S. Census Bureau
Room 5K024D
Washington, D.C. 20233
(301) 763-0323
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | quach001 |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-02 |