The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We will be conducting the third round of iterative usability tests on the new American FactFinder (AFF) Web site to identify issues that are problematic and frustrating to the user. (The first round of testing was submitted for OMB approval on November 9, 2011; the second request was submitted for OMB approval on November 23, 2011.) AFF is a free online tool that allows users to find, customize and download Census information.
The developers of the AFF recently released a new version of the application and it has a number of usability issues that they are committed to address. Over a period of a year (end of 2011 to end of 2012) the AFF development team will be working with the usability team to take the findings of the usability study and implement a better design for their users. This nature of this project is iterative and ongoing, such that each round of testing will build on the prior round and new components of the interface-design will be created and tested.
The third round of testing will be conducted in March and April of 2012 on the html wireframes, and again in July when the design goes live. A total of 18 interviews will be conducted: 9 on the wireframes and 9 on the live site. The participants we recruit will be a mix of novice and expert users of Census data. All participants will have a minimum of one year Internet experience and use the Internet at least three times a week to search for information. Participants will be recruited from the Usability Lab database, which is composed of people from the metropolitan DC area who volunteered to participate after responding to a Craigslist posting or an ad in a local newspaper. Participants will also be recruited by word of mouth, and Census Partner organizations. Participants will come to the Usability Lab at the Census Bureau for the study and will be compensated $40.00 for their participation.
Participants will complete an electronic initial questionnaire about their computer use, Internet experience and some demographic characteristics. Then each participant will be given a set of tasks for the Web site. Participants will be asked to think-aloud while they are working on the tasks, and will be prompted to think aloud when they fall silent. Participants will also provide feedback about the Web site after each task when they answer a three-question post-task questionnaire. At the conclusion of the session, participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire designed to measure their satisfaction with the new version of the AFF site. Subjective satisfaction ratings will be collected for such design elements as the layout of page, ease of finding information, and use of Census jargon. Following the satisfaction questionnaire, the test administrator will ask final debriefing questions about the user interface. A copy of the screen shots of the electronic version of the initial questionnaire, the demographic questionnaire, three question post-task questionnaire, the satisfaction questionnaire, participant tasks and debriefing questions are all enclosed.
We estimate that users will spend one hour on average taking the study, including time spent working on the demographic and satisfaction questions, the tasks and the debriefing. Thus, the total estimated respondent burden for this portion of the ongoing yearlong study is 18 hours.
The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:
Erica Olmsted-Hawala
Center for Survey Methods Research
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington, D.C. 20233
(301) 763-4893
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our plans to conduct research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pre |
| Author | Bureau Of The Census |
| Last Modified By | demai001 |
| File Modified | 2012-03-05 |
| File Created | 2012-03-05 |