2 Usability Tasks

User Tasks_ Usability testing of Commodity Flow Survey

Please read each task aloud:

Task 1: Begin by selecting an option to affirm your company’s open locations listings.

Group A: Verify your shipping locations without uploading a file.

Group B: Upload your shipping locations.

Task 2: Your company has gone through some changes and you need to make some updates to the location listings. Please update a listing of your choice to reflect a closed status.

Task 3: You would like to arrange the street addresses column alphabetically, is there a way to do this?

Task 4: Answer the next set of questions as they pertain to your company.

Task 5: How would you go about uploading your shipment data to the commodity flow website?

[record response]

Group A: Please upload the shipment data file provided.

Group B: Report using the spreadsheet and do the following:

Part A: Download the template spreadsheet

Part B: Enter your shipment data into the spreadsheet

Part C: Upload the spreadsheet

Task 6: Are there any changes you need to make to the shipment data file before you upload? Make any necessary changes to the uploaded file.

Would you choose to re-upload the file, or make changes on the website? [record response]

Group A: Make the necessary changes within the website

Part A: Single issue error

Part B: Apply error fix to multiple rows

Group B: Make the necessary changes within excel, and re-upload the file

Task 7: Select the categories that best describe the product description data from the shipment file you uploaded.

Task 8: You are now done with the survey and ready to send your data. Please send your data for the Commodity Flow.

Cognitive Questions:

• Did the steps you took today to upload your data, match the steps you would normally take to upload your data?

  • If you were working by yourself, would you use the template provided?

  • Is any of the information we request not kept in your files?

• Was it clear to you that the column titles in your shipment data file needed to be renamed?

• Do you think your progress was being saved as you progressed?

• Do you have any feedback regarding the term “Facility ID”?

  • Is this how it is recorded in your records? Are there other terms that may be a better fit? (Plant Number, Store number, origin address)

  • Is this an ID that is meaningful to you as an indicator of a specific location, in lieu of a full address?

• If your uploaded data included additional columns that were not requested do you think the site would accept this additional data?

• Were any of these tasks particularly difficult?

• Are product descriptions unique to your company and not easily understood? Is commodity description data broken into separate columns in your records?

• Do you keep records related to mode of transportation such as carrier name, or a “ship via” field?

Thank you very much for your assistance today. Do you have any other comments or suggestions for us?