During the test we asked the users to allow us to record their screens, but enabled them to turn off their microphones while completing the test. Upon test completion we analyzed the data by taking the length of time to complete tasks, percentage of participants who were able to complete the tasks, and pages needed to click through to complete the task and compared them to the 10 questions we asked users at the end of task completion. Through this analysis we were able to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the website, while pinpointing the design principles that needed to be improved or were already satisfactory.
All users were able to complete this task, and the average time spent surfing the site was 2 minutes and 50 seconds. There was one outlier that surfed the site for 6 minutes total, but that was due to their lack of understanding of the testing process, and where to click on their screen once they completed the task.
This task was simple and allowed users to get a sense of the website before completing the rest of the test and there was no difficulty involved in clicking through the site.
Principles of Credibility applied to this portion of the taks. This task was meant to set the tone of the website for the users, and through their surfing they were able to evaluate information architecture, the design look and the tone of the content.
This task was the foundation of the rest of the test and allowed the users to become familiar with the content on the website before starting on other tasks.
Only a little over half of the participants were able to complete this task with almost a 40% failure rate. It took users clicking between 5 and 6 pages before properly completing this task. Those who were able to find the executive director took at least a minute to do so, and those who did not only spent around 30 seconds searching.
Navigation during this task lacked efficiency, and only those who spent longer on the task, and clicked through multiple pages, were the ones who effectively completed this task.
This task was not completed efficiently but was effective when users spent some extra time searching the site. It was not efficient due to cognitive, layout and credibility principles somewhat lacking in the design. More specifically the sites guessability became a problem, requiring users to click through multiple pages, and the site has a somewhat complex information architecture. The layout of the site might not have been as organized as some users would have liked, but was not impossible to navigate.
This task was successfully completed by almost 70% of the users, with the average time spent on this task around 30 seconds. Those who successfully completed this task only needed 2-3 page clicks, meaning it was found efficiently and effectively.
The users that did not complete this task abandoned the task early on, only going to one page, most likely meaning they did not fully understand the task they had to complete
This task completion is effective and efficient because it employs the cognitive and layout principles. The information is accessible because it uses proximity and alignment to make the timeline easy for the user to find. It’s also guessable because the information is under one of the main tabs that is consistently displayed on the top toolbar as you navigate through the site.
Only two of the users we tested were able to successfully find the location of the BFI library. Between the two users that were successful they each needed at least 5+ page clicks and over a minute of searching to complete the task.
Those that failed spent time looking at the “About” pages, but failed to realize they had to continue to click through it in order to find the address of the library.
The completion of this task was not efficient. The only time it was effective was when the users spent an extended amount of time trying to locate the information by clicking across multiple pages.
There was excessive amounts of white space on the ‘About BFI' page that would have better been served by listing the address, instead of asking the users to click through more pages to find it. This aspect of the site is lacking the proper layout principles because information is not grouped together in a way that makes sense to the user.
This task was successfully completed by 100% of the users we tested.
Previously, during Task #4, the users searched for the location of the BFI library, and many went to this page to find that information. Therefore when this task was carried out every user was able to remember where the BFI number was located.
This might have taken a bit longer had this task been asked of the users prior to Task #4, but nonetheless it was still easy for them to complete.
The task’s completion had the opposite effect on the users that Task #4 had, even though it was asking for similar information. This could be due to a better layout (it made more sense to the user where this information could be found), but the majority of its efficiency and effectiveness is because of the cognitive principles used by the user, specifically learnability.
As the users are completing tasks, they are learning how to work the site and remembering where they saw specific information. In this case many of the users had previously been to this webpage, and knew exactly where to find it when asked to complete this task.
Only two users were able to complete this task successfully and both had extremely varying levels of efficiency. The first participant took almost a full minute to complete the task, clicking through 8 different pages. The second participant was able to find the information in only 18 seconds and 2 page clicks.
The rest of the users we tested were unsuccessful and almost all of them spent over 45+ seconds searching. One of our participants even spent 2 minutes searching, clicked through 9 different pages, and was still unsuccessful.
The most common pages users looked to for this information was the donation and resource pages, assuming they would find information on supporters in these areas of the website.
As a whole this task was only done efficiently and effectively by one user, and the overwhelming majority found it very difficult or impossible to complete.
This task lacked efficiency and effectiveness because due to the poor layout of the necessary information. The users expected proximity to the other pages they searched such as donation, and the resource pages, and the BFI supporters being separate from those pages did not intellectual make sense to them. Therefore, this was a very inefficient search for the majority of users, requiring them to click around multiple pages to find the information, or abandon the task completely
All but one of the users we tested was able to successfully complete this task.
The majority of users were able to locate the information in 25 seconds or less, only requiring 2-3 page clicks to do so. The user who was unable to complete this task was able to find the “get involved” page, but missed the final step in clicking on the volunteer options, possibly because it is under the “work with us” tab and they equated that with paid opportunities only.
Overall this task can be completed efficiently and effectively, maybe only requiring an extra step in critical thinking to find exactly what one is looking for.
This task was easily completed by majority of the users, and is quite explicit on the website. The “Get Involved” tab employs the cognitive principles of design, meaning that many users know the tab’s meaning and that within it they will find information on volunteer opportunities. The layout also makes sense intellectually, physically and visually because all of the information under this tab connects with one another in some shape or form.
All but one user was able to quickly and efficiently locate the members of the Board of Directors.
The user who did not find the correct page did get to the “Who We Are” page that does have a link for the board, so ultimately they were able to find what they were looking for but did not take the extra step to get to the exact webpage.
Overall this was completed efficiently and effectively by all of the users.
This task was completed efficiently and effectively because this aspect of the site uses the layout, credibility and contrast principles of design. The differing grey color makes it easy for the user to locate the Board of Directors, and the image (right) utilizes a large amount of white space making the design appear more credible to the user.
All but one user was able to effectively find this page. Each successful user located it in 15 second or less, and required only 2 page clicks to do so.
The user that was the outlier seemed to not understand the instructions of the task because they only spent 20 seconds searching for the page, and then landed on an unrelated page with differing information before clicking to the next task.
Overall this was one of the most efficiently and effectively completed tasks when you account for page clicks and timing.
This task allowed users to employ cognitive principles through repetition. Now that the user has completed a number of tasks, locating this information has become easier, as they have already clicked through every tab once. The navigation is also explicit because the tab users must click says “Become a Member”, so the task mentions the name of the key word they are looking for, “member”. This task also ties in with layout principles because the location of the information just makes sense to the user intellectually and physically.
No users were successful at this task. 100% of participants failed to locate the winners of the Fuller Challenge. The average time that participants spent on this task was 33 seconds with an average “Lostness” of 0.68 on all users’ accounts. The most time spent on this task was 42 seconds by a participant, and the shortest was 16 seconds, but both still failed to complete the task.
The task was abandoned by all users as they had to click through numerous pages to get to the correct page with the winners. Users were most likely discouraged to continue searching as the information was buried deep and hard to navigate to.
This task was failed by all participants. This is due to a website with very poor information structure and layout. The winners of the challenges are buried under the archives of the Challenge page. There are no proper labels and users have no direction for navigation. Users have no direction to go to Challenge> Archive> Status> Winner to find the winners. Information is buried to deep and must be done with many clicks which affected the response rate.
Only half of the participant were able to complete the task successfully. 33% failed to complete and 16% abandoned the task. The task was successfully completed within an average amount of time of 25 seconds, less than a minute. The fastest rate was 16 seconds.
Successfully completed tasks were accomplished in 2 page clicks. A user that failed to complete the task ended up utilising the search bar located at the top right of the window and searched for “Social Impacts”.
The task was easy to navigate to the “Social Impact” section using the drop down menu.
This task was a success due to the fact that the information for the social impacts were easy to navigate to, under the Dymaxion Forum tab. This was a good layout and only one click from the homepage, which allows the page to have a good information design. Secondly, the information architecture is pretty simple and easy to understand with good prioritization of information as the social impacts are a separate tab under the Dymaxion Forum category.
This task has been completed with a 33% success rate. Successful users were able to navigate to the price of the Dymaxion Map in 2 or 3 clicks. 2 clicks would have been suffice to get the cost, and the 3rd click was usually just to open the item. It took successful participants under a minute to find the item and complete the task, with an average of 42 seconds.
There was a pretty high fail rate of 50%. Participants who failed the task used the search bar for Dymaxion Map and others navigated to the “About” page where they just talk about and find info on the Dymaxion and not the map as a product to purchase.
On the website, there is a tab called the “Dymaxion Forum” which gives cues to users that there is something to do with the functionality being about Dymaxion on the website and most users most likely assumed this was where you can purchase a map and find the cost.
More so, there is a shop tab where you will find the product. However, participants who failed the task did not understand or see the Dymaxion Map as a product for purchase as it is described and more information is available in a previous tab and not explicitly explained as a product.
100% of the participants were able to successfully navigate to the mailing address of BFI. Participants were able to successfully complete the task in an average of 12 seconds, which is pretty remarkable.
Users were able to navigate to the mailing address in 2 clicks, being the quickest and most efficient path to finding the mailing address.
Users were able to find the contact information of BFI through the About tab on the homepage.
The success of this task has to pay homage to the website’s great explicitness of the the “About BFI” tab. Under this tab, there are other subcategories, with Contact BFI being one of them. This was easy to navigate to and is clearly marked with the appropriate title. Participants were able to receive the information appropriately and efficiently as they were able to find contact for BFI. More so, the information is very useful and even gives other methods of contact such as email and telephone number.
Those who were able to complete this task was able to do so in 21 seconds. The task had a high success rate of 80% and very low fail rate of 20%. The task was successfully completed in three clicks and was efficiently completed in a very short time.
The user who failed to complete the task was almost successful and made it to the second of the three steps. However the user possibly was unwilling to read through the page because of the amount of information that was available about the challenge itself.
The task was pretty efficiently executed with such a high success rate and short time, however, with so much information, users can become frustrated and unwilling to read through to find more information.
The information for the task was pretty easy to navigate to. The information was located in an appropriate tab, “About”, where users will find information all about the challenge, as well as the selection process. However, the placement of content is an issue. On the page is very abundant, very close together, of the same font, size and color with not much variation, giving poor ease of readability and difficult to navigate.
This can cause readers to be frustrated or confused since it is hard to read through so much information that looks so similar with little color or sizing and spacing differentiation. This could have contributed to the one user that failed to complete the task but was almost there.
This task had a great success rate of 100%. All participants were able to complete the task in a very short time span, averaging at 14 seconds for successful completion. Participants were able to navigate to the information with one click away from the homepage.
The information was easily accessible under the “About Fuller” tab where users can access his full biography from the homepage.
This task was overall completed efficiently and effectively by all users.
The information was easily accessible, having a tab dedicated to to the user is very useful and helpful to all users who may be wanting to find out more about the founder, his life, initiatives and who he was.
More so, the navigation design to find the information was very helpful and simple the utilise. Having a main category about Fuller and then having subcategories about Fuller and different events pertaining to him, such as his ideas and biography helped the task be completed efficiently.
There was a 100% success rate on this task. Users were able to navigate to the cost of the membership easily. Participants were able to complete the task successfully in an average of 18 seconds. The information was only 1 click away from the homepage.
The task was completed efficiently overall.
Participant had a very easy time to navigate to the appropriate information. This was due to the explicitness of the information. The information is located in the support page, which is a found when you click on the button which says “Become a Member”. This would only make sense as information on memberships will be readily available when trying to become a member. More so, the “Become a Member” buttons are usually differently colored from the page they are on, sometimes orange or green which is eye-catching and will help users easily remember where to go when they want to become a member.
This task had a success rate of 40% where successful users were able to complete the task in an average of 32 seconds. Successful participants were able to find the information through utilising the search tab in the upper right hand carner of the page. They were not able to navigate through the website’s tabs to find the information and had to independently search for the information they were needing to complete the tasks.
The task also had a fail rate of 40%. The most common fail path was to go into the support tab of the BFI website. Participants looked into the donate tab as well to try to find the information but could not find the appropriate information.
Users that abandoned the task looked in the “Links: subcategory of the “About” tab for Fuller, which is more about the founder and not the organization.
This information was pretty hard to navigate to and was not effectively or appropriately placed when building the website for fast navigation. Users more readily utilised the search bar to find the information rather than clicking through the website, meaning that it was hard to find any information without independently searching.
More so, users looked into the Donate tab, but this was still the wrong location. There is not much information given to help find out about the sponsorship of the organization and not readily available or explicit.
From looking at the responses from participants, 80% of the users agreed that the site was a pleasant experience. However, 20% of participants did not agree or disagree that the site was a pleasant experience.
Through our analysis, it is safe to say that the information was a little hard to navigate through initially but most times they were easy to navigate once users had a better understanding of how to use the categories of the banner. Participants had gotten accustomed or grasped the idea of utilizing the categories placed on the banner to navigate to the different sections and points of information they needed.
There are many principles that can be altered to help better the experience of users when they visit the website. First, we would reconsider the design look of the pages. There can be an information overload with very little white space, differentiation in colors of the font as well as sizing and spacing. If there were more colors incorporated and white space between lines where there is a lot of information, it can be less frustrating for the reader to follow and can keep them wanting to read as it is easy on the eyes.
More so, there should be more feedback when clicking on different sections and categories, there is no symbolism that the website has registered any input, and there is just a sudden change of information viewed on the page. Having a spinning circle or a message appear such as “One Moment Please” can gravely help users to wait as they know their request has been acknowledged by the website and will not have to continuously keep clicking.
Based on the findings, we see that five users out of the completed seven testees believe that the navigation throughout the site is easy. They responded with an ‘agree’ while one user ‘strongly agreed’ and another ‘neither agreed, nor disagreed’.
According to the analysis we’ve done on the tasks, it is apparent that users had a fair bit of trouble navigating through the site successfully. Several failed to find the correct page for the information that they were looking for. Though there were many successful task completions, navigation can still certainly be improved.
Seamless and effective navigation is critical for any site - it could perhaps be the most important aspect of a website. While the Buckminster Fuller Institute provides lots of resources and information to its users, layed out effectively, it can still use an improved navigation system.
Principles of Cognition, Credibility, as well as Layout can be used to improve BFI’s navigation. Information architecture is a huge aspect to seamless navigation through any website. Laying out the important bits of information first and prioritizing based on what the visitors of the site need is a crucial step.
The BFI site has prioritized its information effectively, however, the information laid out can be made more guessable for its new users (since it is a site for new designers and innovators around the world). The functionality and information has been made easily accessible to its users - this falls under principles of cognition as well as credibility.
Though explicitness of the site’s content can be made more apparent by including cues for its function and method of operation, perhaps by including more effective click or location feedback. In other words, by letting users know where exactly they are on the site and what options they have available to navigate through. This could also be done using the principles of layout through content proximity and alignment.
Everyone except one user ‘agreed’ with this statement. There was, however, one ‘disagree’ which should not be overlooked. The website has a lot of important and useful content on each page of the site. Users have access to a lot of information and resources no matter what page they are on. According to our research, majority find the content to be just enough. So it shouldn’t be an issue.
Nonetheless, to see that one user ‘disagreed’ to this statement makes us focus on the solutions to this problem. If perhaps there is a bit too much information on each page, how can this be solved? We know how crucial it is to present large bits of information effectively without overwhelming users who visit a website. BFI has done a remarkable job of presenting its resources and information satisfactorily.
The BFI website has a lot of information and resources for its users. All of this data has been effectively and satisfactorily laid out. Though most users found that the information was just enough per page, there can be improvements made. Using the Principles of Layout, the content can be organized more effectively through proper use of alignment and proximity, as well as contrast.
To make one piece of information on a page more apparent than another, the BFI site has used these principles (like contrast) to separate its content, making it easier for users to understand. By keeping its font, colors, and layout consistent and by effectively organizing their data, the site does a good job of making it understandable for its visitors.
Five users agreed to this statement. There were two other ‘neither agree nor disagree’. BFI has used simple language to convey meaning to its visitors. The language is easy to understand and is definitely useful information.
The text on the BFI site is easily readable and understandable. The information has been effectively and satisfactorily laid out for its users. Using the Principles of Layout, the content has been organized effectively. Proper use of alignment, proximity, as well as contrast have definitely helped.
By keeping its font, colors, and layout consistent and by effectively organizing their data through successful prioritization of content, which falls under Principles of Cognition, the site does a good job of making it understandable for its visitors.
Five users agreed while the rest neither agreed nor disagreed to this statement. The BFI website has done a good job with laying out its information effectively and clearly. There were, however, many users who struggled to find the correct information on their site. They were unable to navigate through, which is another issue.
Laying out content effectively yet seamlessly is a huge issue for BFI. There is a great amount of information to include in each page. Laying this out satisfactorily for users is a difficult task. Nonetheless, it can be improved.
The BFI site uses principles of layout and credibility to make its information easily accessible and understandable for its users. Using proper alignment with text and images throughout its pages, as well as proximity of information such as the captions under images to describe the image or articles on the side panels to specify those sections - all this allows users to understand the content better and know what they are looking at. Prioritizing its content properly - using efficient information hierarchy and content strategy - has also helped.
Almost all users agreed with this statement. The BFI website has a lot of useful information that is easy to understand. The site uses easy language to make its visitors feel welcome and comfortable with the variety of resources it provides.
Using images throughout the text is also helpful for users to read through. There were no users that felt that the language on the website wasn’t understandable.
Principles of Affect have been used for the content of the BFI site such as ideo-pleasure, deriving their ideas and terms based on people’s values. The website uses. Relating information to how people feel and what they need is a crucial part of website design.
The tone of content has also been used properly. There are easy to understand terms. Relatability and understandability thus play a huge role. Principles of cognition have been used as well by providing feedback and prioritization of information.
There were three users who agreed with this statement and one of them strongly agreed. However, two others disagreed, while the rest neither agreed nor disagreed. There is a variety of responses to this statement, for good reason.
Users who felt that they were able to navigate through and complete their tasks efficiently may have felt that the images and aesthetics were helpful. Whereas the others, not so much. If there is such a divide in the responses to this statement, an improvement can certainly be made.
Aesthetics is a large part of any website. Typography, colors, images, or graphics can either make a site memorable or entirely discourage users from returning to the site. Since this aspect is important to satisfy its visitors, the site can definitely improve on its aesthetics.
Principles of Layout including proximity, alignment, and contrast have been used throughout the BFI site, though there can be more. The use of images and alignment with its content has definitely helped create a better experience for its visitors. Users may have disagreed due to the lack of these principles applied, however. These principles could be used more effectively.
Five users agreed with this statement with two of them strongly agreeing. The rest however simply disagreed. The tasks were not the easiest to complete as they required the users to look for specific details throughout the website. While some found it easier to do so, other users had a frustrating experience. Some users were able to complete the tasks fairly quickly, using ~2 minutes 50 seconds per task, while others took much longer.
This could be due to poor navigation or layout of information. There are many factors that could have hindered their experience. Nonetheless, it is still very important to improve upon the site to make it less frustrating for users to look for pieces of information.
Seamless navigation and information architecture play a huge role in website design. Both of those aspects can use improvement on the BFI website. These aspects lie under Principles of Cognition and Credibility. Navigation seems to be one of the main issues of the site - this can be solved using better organization of content or information hierarchy.
Principles of Layout such as better proximity of related information or alignment could also be improved to improve user’s experience.
Almost all agreed to this statement, while the rest either agreed or disagreed. Most users felt that the information on the site was trustworthy due the site’s credibility - the BFI site has used effective strategies and methods to improve their credibility, thus making its visitors feel comfortable and welcome to their goals.
Trustworthiness on a site can be built by using principles of credibility. The more plausible and reliable resources that are used, the more users would be trusting of the site. BFI does a great job of this. Most users found the information on the site to be trustworthy.
Principles of credibility uses strong visual design, information architecture, tone of content, and usefulness of information in a product. BFI website has used all of these to provide a reliable and fairly easy to use site.
There were a variety of different adjectives that users used to describe their experience. “Informative” was used the most, while “confusing” and “busy” were also used by more than two users. There were two sides to how users described the website - some testees used positive words while others used negative.
Adjectives such as “distracting”, “confusing”, “wordy”, “clunky” were used as much as words such as “simple”, “clear”, “organized”, “concise”. While some users seemed to have had a negative experience, others seemed to have had the complete opposite effect. Regardless, these adjectives can be used to improve the layout and experience of the BFI website. The negatives can always be eliminated. Making the site less “confusing” while keeping it “informative” should be the goal.
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