Usability of Web Content Management Systems

Mrudula TallojuMasters Defense

Major Professor: Dr. William Hankley

Overview Introduction Objectives Web Content Management Systems Jahia Usability Usability Testing Limitations of Testing The Actual Test Results and Conclusion

Introduction Web CMS Usability

Usability Definition How is it measured?

Usability Testing is done to determine whether or not a web application developed in Jahia is more usable than a similar application developed using traditional web designing tools.

Objectives Study Usability Testing Design an effective test to check the

usability of a website developed using Jahia.

Conduct the test with right selection of participants.

Determine whether or not applications developed in Jahia are more usable.

Web CMS

How web CMS works?

Web CMS

Different web CMS Drupal Jahia Alfresco and many more.

Web CMS ease the task of developing and maintaining websites.

Jahia – Technologies and Features

Enterprise Content Management Server Complete web based interface Multilanguage support WYSIWYG editing Staging Dynamic URL checking Time based publishing Versioning

Jahia – Technologies and Features

Document Management Server Index and search for files Drag and drop the files

Search and Indexation Server Automatic indexation of all content Saved searches

Portal Server Collaborative Suite Cache Proxy Server

Jahia Architecture

Usability

Usability Attributes Learn ability Efficiency Memorability Errors Satisfaction

Usability Testing Usability testing is a means of

measuring the quality of users’ experience when interacting with a website or any user-operated device.

Types of Usability Tests Exploratory Test Assessment Test Validation Test Comparison Test

Usability test types

Limitations of Testing

Testing does not guarantee or prove that a product is usable. Testing is always an artificial situation Participants are rarely fully

representative of the target population

The Actual Test

University of Lausanne website developed in Jahia

Colorado State University website

Test Plan Develop usability test questionnaire for

both websites Conduct test with right selection of

users Compare results

Number of difficult tasks Time taken to finish the tasks Users’ responses Satisfaction level of users

Test Documents

User Details Document

Test Documents Usability Test (Task Based) Document

Test Documents Exit Test

Selection of Participants

End users will be Students Parents General Visitors

“The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.” – Jakob Nielsen.

Five Users User 1: College Student User 2: Graduate Student User 3: Parent with browsing experience User 4: Parent with very little browsing

experience User 5: General visitor with good

browsing experience

Tasks Given Task 1: Go to Economics Department

website. Task 2: Course information Task 3: Admission requirements Task 4: Scholarship information Task 5: Student Activities in the

university Task 6: Housing options

Difficulty Level of Tasks Difficulty 0: User follows correct path

and finishes task Difficulty 1: User follows a different path

and finishes task with little effort Difficulty 2: User finishes task with

difficulty and feels frustrated Difficulty 3: User does not finish the

task or an error occurs.

Results

University of Lausanne (Jahia)

Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6

User 1

0 1 0 2 2 0

User 2

0 0 0 0 1 0

User 3

0 1 0 1 2 0

User 4

0 1 1 1 2 0

User 5

0 1 0 0 2 0

Problems Faced by Users

Spelling and grammatical errors in content

Content of few pages not available in English

Same template for university and department websites

Results

Colorado State University

Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6

User 1

0 3 1 0 0 0

User 2

0 3 0 0 0 0

User 3

0 2 2 0 1 0

User 4

0 2 2 0 1 0

User 5

0 1 1 0 0 0

Problems Faced by Users

Few clicks resulted in errors. List of courses is unorganized. Links to navigate back and forth

the pages are missing in some pages.

Users Response

Univ. of Lausanne Colorado St. Univ.

Look and feel Good Good

Organized content Yes No

Navigation Easy Easy

Finished all tasks successfully

Yes No

Errors No Yes

Language Not clear Good

Conclusion

Users are more satisfied with Jahia website when compared to other website.

Rectifying the grammatical errors and using different templates (or colors) increases usability. No task will be of difficulty level 2.

Acknowledgements

Dr. William Hankley Dr. Mitchell Neilsen Dr. Torben Amtoft

Questions