Attachment A - Emails

ATTACHMENT A

Invitation to Potential Pathways Clearinghouse Website User Tester

From: [email protected]

Subject: Request for Help Testing Website on Evidence-Based Employment Approaches

CC: [email protected]

Dear [Mr/Ms. X]

I direct the new Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse (The What Works Clearinghouse of Proven and Promising Approaches to Move Welfare Recipients to Work) funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, within the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This Clearinghouse will provide a systematic review and synthesis of research on employment and training programs for low-income individuals age 16 and older. I’m attaching a brief overview of the project to this message.

In developing the Clearinghouse, we are seeking [Type of website user] who might be willing to help us test the website we will use to share our results with the public. We asked staff at OFA, within ACF, to recommend [type of website user] who might be willing to participate in this testing, and they recommended that we consider contacting you because they believed you or someone on your staff would give thoughtful consideration to a website on this topic and how it could be arranged to best meet your needs.

The website testing involves a one-hour call to test an early version of our new website, so that your input on it can inform our decisions for the new product. This would require no preparation, and would simply be a time for us to ask you some questions about your reactions to the site and how you would navigate it. You would share your screen with us (we will coordinate a WebEx for this) as you work through the answers. This call would happen within the next few weeks, at a time convenient for your schedule.

Might you be willing to help us in this way? We certainly hope so. Please let us know if you are willing and our test facilitator will contact you to identify a good time for the first activity. Also, if there are colleagues within your agency or in other states that you think might be interested in helping us to shape this site to be as useful as possible for [Type of website user], please do help us connect with those people as well.

Thank you for your consideration of this opportunity.

Sincerely,

Emily Sama-Miller

Email for Usability Test Webex meeting

From: [Test Facilitator]

Subject: Arrangements for Pathways Clearinghouse Website Test

Hello [Name],

Thank you for agreeing to participate in a usability test of the [website name] website. In preparation for our meeting today, scheduled for [time], I wanted to share a few additional materials.

• Testing website: URL

• Test tasks (we will attach to the email a PDF listing the test tasks with one task per page)

Please refrain from opening these materials until the start of the usability test.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

[Test Facilitator]

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