Usability Testing for Treasury.gov

Treasury.gov

Draft Usability Task List

September 15, 2011

DRAFT DISCUSSION GUIDE

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Moderator introduces self, encourages honesty, no right/wrong answers.

• General orientation: over the next 45 minutes, I will be observing you reviewing a website.

• I am going to ask you to talk freely as you review each page. Translation: please be as detailed as possible as we go through each area.

• Ask respondent to introduce self, generally what type of employer they have if any (large or small company, government entity, self-employed) and the type of work they do.

• Have you ever visited Treasury.gov?

• What kinds of information were you looking for? Or if you haven’t visited the site what types of information would you expect to be included on the Treasury Department’s website? (Buying bonds, seized property, etc.)

• What do you remember about visiting the website? (previous website visitors only)

• Please show me how you would access the Department of the Treasury website? (Note navigation path and keywords used)

Reveal Site (Homepage)

• What is your initial reaction to this homepage? What are your thoughts on the overall design?

Exercises

Tasks – Ask the participant to complete some combination of at least 5 of the following tasks.

1. Find a list of countries for which the U.S. enforces financial sanctions.

2. Find a listing of the daily interest rates based on the day’s financial market activity

3. Find where you could check whether a deceased family member owned a U.S. Savings Bond.

4. Find the mailing address of where to send your estimated tax payment

5. Where to find information if you are struggling to make your mortgage payments and trying to prevent foreclosure of your home.

6. Find a list of specially designated people, organizations, and companies around the world which the U.S. Treasury blocks transactions with due to terrorist or other illicit financing activities.

7. You want to know if your savings bond is still earning interest.

8. Look for houses seized by the U.S. government and up for auction in your state.

9. Where would you look for economic data tables?

10. Where would you look if you wanted to see a monthly Treasury statement of financial receipts and outlays of the U.S. Government?

11. If you are with a lending institution, where would you look to find out about programs to stimulate lending to small businesses?

12. If you were a small business and you heard that Treasury has programs to stimulate lending to small business, where would you look on this site and what would you expect to find there?

13. Where would you look to find a particular form you needed?

14. How to replace a damaged $20 bill you have.

15. Find a contact at the Office of Tax Policy.

16. A service group wants to travel to Cuba on a humanitarian mission. Find guidance on travel restrictions.

17. Report an email you received which claims to be from the Treasury but you are not sure it is really from the Treasury.

18. Find what rules govern executive compensation for firms participating in Treasury programs to promote financial stability during the financial crisis.

19. Where would you go on the site to find Treasury news?

20. How would you go about looking for a particular report you

21. Find jobs available at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

22. Try to resolve an issue with or a question about a check you received from the U.S. Treasury

23. Find a teaching curriculum or aids you could use in the classroom.

24. Find information about the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

25. Find a U.S. Department of the Treasury Organization chart.

26. History of the Treasury Department

27. Buying special sets of collectable coins.

Where would you expect to find it? Please walk me through the steps you would take.

Once user completes task ask if it was intuitive? Did it provide the desired content of interest?

Looking at the home page:

• Where does your eye gravitate first?

• How inclined are you to investigate further? Do you feel the site contains useful information?

• Which areas are of particular interest and why?

• Note to Moderator: Inquire about nomenclature. Do navigation labels make sense? How would you improve nomenclature? Is there simpler terminology that can be used?

• What type of information would you expect to find under…?

Global Navigation

Treasury For… — once the moderator captures the type of expected content, probe deeper. Review list of topics available. Gauge response.

Home

About

Resource Center

Services

Initiatives

Careers

Connect with Us

Links to Initiatives

MakingHomeAffordable.gov

FinancialStability

Financial Sanctions

Wall Street Reform

Other

Common questions

I want to…probe sub-target content and Commonly Asked Questions

Treasury Auctions

Social Hub=Treasury Notes Blog—do you notice ways to share the information with others?

Data and Chart Center

FAQs (probe placement)

Press Center

Advanced Search

About Second Level/Tertiary Content Page

Repeat process where we ask respondents to review the layout, navigation and corresponding content for each section.

Conclusion (5 minutes)

• Is there a better way to improve navigation? Nomenclature? Content? Layout? Database fields?

• How would you describe this website to others?

• At the end of the day, I have to go back to the creative team and the technical development team to let them know if this idea is headed in the right direction or the wrong direction. What should I tell them?

• Is there a more effective way to present the information to you?

• Please provide two or three suggestions to improve the overall user experience.

• Thank respondent and end call.

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