University of MichiganDearbornWebsite Usability Report
Prepared For: University of MichiganDearborn Dean and Web Developers
Prepared By:Katelyn Gorecki, Maria Rodriguez, Erika Southworth, Swara Shelat, Chris Sieradzki
Date Presented: 18 April 2013
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Memo of Transmittal
TO: University of MichiganDearborn Dean and Web DevelopersFROM: Committee for Website RedesignDATE: April 16th, 2013SUBJECT: Problems with the UMD website and how to fix them.
Here is the complete report you have requested. It includes research (both primary andsecondary), analysis, and probable solutions.
The scope of this report begins at the University of Michigan Dearborn website where weconducted in depth analysis to locate the major issues. Next, we found secondary sourcesto support our claims, educate ourselves on proper web design, and to make accuraterevisions. In order to obtain a viewpoint other than our own, we conducted a standardusability test amongst 10 university students. The results proved to be an excellent primarysource.
The solutions we’ve found to enhance the website’s usability are:• Perform a total redesign of the site, move towards a simplistic layout.• The main page will consist of three sections
• Drop down menu• Featured• News & Announcements
• Eliminate any links that require the user to sign into Facebook.
Thank you for taking the time to read our report. Please contact our office with anyquestions or concerns at [email protected].
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary Page 5Introduction Page 6Methods Page 6Results Page 7Discussion Page 10
Problems Page 10Solutions Page 10
Drop Down Menu Page 11Feature Section Page 12News and Announcements Page 12
Overview Page 13Closing Thoughts Page 14Works Cited Page 15Appendix Page 16
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List of Illustrations
Average Time Graph Page 2,7,20Study Abroad Graph Page 8,17Application to Apply Graph Page 9,19Greek Life Graph Page 10,17Figure 1 Page 11Figure 2 Page 12Figure 3 Page 13Tuition Cost Graph Page 16Housing Price Graph Page 16College of Business Graph Page 18College of Education Graph Page 18Majors Graph Page 19
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Executive Summary
This report analyzes and provides solutions to the most common problems users encounteron the University of MichiganDearborn’s main website.
The Need for Change
A University’s website is in many cases, the first impression people have of the school. TheUniversity of Michigan Dearborn’s website is simply not up to par and needs a redesign.
Methods
Extensive research has been done on the subject of web design as well as to identify themain problems with the UMD site. A usability test has been conducted with 10 studentsfrom different backgrounds. The results simply speak for themselves.
Problems Necessary information was difficult to locate. The homepage is cluttered with nonessential information, thus forcing the user to
leave the main page to find anything useful. The need to sign into facebook in order to access some information is frustrating
and irrelevant. Many of the important links are disguised as buttons. They appear to the user as
aesthetics rather than functional links (Example: “Dining Services” button in theUniversity Center section).
SolutionsThe best way to solve these problems is to perform a full redesign of the website. This will:
Drastically improve usability. Strengthen University of MichiganDearborn’s image. Increase productivity among students due easy information access.
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Introduction:
Current and soontobe college students tend to be very impatient. Thus, when a website’slayout proves difficult to use and links are hidden, students will probably avoid that page asmuch as possible. Do these negative aspects seem like good qualities for a universityhomepage to have? We think not.
Students want their college website to make their lives easier, not complicate them.Especially when attracting incoming students, the homepage is the student’s firstimpression of the school they will be attending. This is a problem that our group sees asvery relevant to the University of MichiganDearborn (UMD). We believe that a collegewebsite should be informative and usable; two characteristics that UMD’s website lacks.The usability of the website as a whole must be improved. For example, certain informationthat is currently hidden deep within the website should be uncovered and featured more onthe homepage.
The purpose of this report is to identify the university’s website’s usability. If tweaked, theUMD’s website will not only attract potential students, but it will also open up all sorts ofopportunities for current students to access the information necessary to get the most outof their college experience.
In this report we will present the findings of the usability testing that we conducted. Wetested students by sending them on a search to find out certain information via the websiteand timing how long it takes for them to accomplish this goal. They did these tasks onUMD’s homepage and competitor’s homepages too in order to provide a base forcomparison. Our preliminary research will also be a useful foundation for assessment aswell. As you read this report, you will find sections addressing research methods, researchresults, an explanation of the problem at hand, and proactive actions that we plan on taking.
Methods:
We tested one transfer student, two community college students, two freshmen, twosophomores, two juniors, and one senior to find different things on three universitieswebsites and will be timed while doing so. The goal is to show how much faster and easierit is to find things on other universities websites compared to the University ofMichiganDearborn’s website.
The websites we are using for this usability test are the University of Michigan Dearborn’swebsite, Boston University’s (BU) website, and Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC)website. We chose these two because they are known to be some of the best universitysites when it comes to usability. Users were asked to, without using the search bar, find:
tuition cost for 2013/2014 school year on the UMD and CMC’s website. price of housing on campus on the UMD and BU’s website. information about greek life on campus on the UMD website.
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the College of Business website and School of Education website on the UMDwebsite.
information on study abroad programs on UMD and BU’s website. an application to apply to the school on the UMD and CMC website. a complete list of majors offered at the school using the UMD and CMC website.
Results:
When we tested ten different students who are either planning on attending the University ofMichiganDearborn, transferred to UMD, or currently attend UMD, we found that most had ahard time finding the information that was asked of them without using the Google searchbar. In fact, we received many complaints that they were not allowed to use the search bar.While all of the data can be found in the Appendix section of the report, the following graphshows an overview of all the data. Following this, we outline some of the questions ourusers had the most trouble with.
When asked to find information on study abroad at UMD, four participants gave upbecause they weren’t able to find the information and had no further ideas on where tolook. The rest of the participants took an average of about a minute and a half to findthe correct information. This is an issue because study abroad information is verybeneficial to not only current students interested in this global experience, but also futurestudents who incorporate this option in their college decision making process. Incomparison to Boston University’s website, the average time took was a little over 20seconds. The study abroad information was clearly evident and accessible under the“Global” tab. When it comes to UMD’s website, the information was not as easily found. Itrequired a significant amount of digging and knowledge of the site. You can find this
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information in the graph below.
When asked to find an application to apply at UMD’s site, it took longer than expected dueto the unnecessary amount of links our users had to go through to get to the actual loginpage, not even the application. It took an average of 25 seconds to get to the login pagewhen in reality the application should be clearly advertised and accessible on the homepage. If this was done, it would encourage more people to apply to our school versusstudents getting discouraged because they can’t even find the application and have to gothrough unnecessary steps to get to the actual application instead of a login screen. Eventhough it took the participants longer to find an application on Claremont McKenna’s site,they still thought that it was easier and more evident once they knew the general location ofwhere to look. The data for this question can be found below.
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Greek Life is a very important aspect to many college students. They want the experienceof being in a sorority or fraternity and meeting new people as well as getting involved oncampus. So, this information should be easily accessible on UMD’s site so future andcurrent students are aware of the opportunities Greek life offers to get involved. During thistask, we had our first encounter with UMD’s tendency to use Facebook links as ameans of information. Housing prices can also only be found by a Facebook link as well.This is an issue because not all people have a Facebook account or have the time to log inand find the correct page if they do have an account. All of our test subjects werereluctant to sign in with Facebook, claiming that it was a barrier to the information andthat it discouraged them from continuing to search. Instead of Facebook links, UMDshould provide the information directly on the site so they avoid the issues correlated withsocial media. The data for greek life can be found in the graph below.
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*Note: Transfer student gave up after 250 seconds
Discussion:
Problems
After conducting an in depth analysis on the data collected, we discovered the keyproblems to be:
• Necessary information was difficult to locate.
• The need to sign in to Facebook in order to access certain sections is irrelevant.
• The homepage is cluttered with nonessential information, thus forcing the user to leavethe main page to find anything useful.
• Many of the important links are disguised as buttons. They appear to the user asaesthetics rather than functional links (Example: “Dining Services” button in the UniversityCenter section).
Solutions
The best way to solve these problems is to overhaul the website. Using Boston University’ssite as a guide (www.bu.edu), the UMD site can become a truly functional and easy to usetool for students, teachers, and those thinking about attending the school.
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Drop Down Menu
The main focus of the redesigned site will be a horizontal drop down menu placed near thetop of the page (see figure 1). This menu will contain several fields such as admissions,academics, current students, campus life etc. Each field will contain correspondingsubfields which take the user to frequently accessed places such as the calendar, library,Ctools, Blackboard, student email, cashiers/student accounts, etc (see figure 2). This barwill stay affixed to the page no matter where the use goes in the sight, thus eliminating theneed to return to the main screen.
Figure 1
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Figure 2
Featured Section
Below the menu bar will be a large box. This can contain whatever the school wishes topromote. For example “Difference Makers” section of the current UMD site would go greathere (see figures 1 & 2).
News & Announcements
Just under the “featured section”, four boxes will be placed. These should contain importantannouncements such as open house dates, school closings, registration dates, etc. (seefigure 3)
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Figure 3
Overview
• By incorporating this simplistic design, the UMD site will be much easier to navigate aswell as visually pleasing.
• The addition of the drop down menu solves the majority of the problems on its own.
• Making the drop down menu stay with the user as he navigates the site will save time andfrustration.
• Placing only the most important information on the home page keeps users from huntingaround the site to find answers.
• By eliminating all “sign into Facebook to continue” sections, it removes any roadblocks.
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Closing Thoughts:
This report is a notification of the usability issues that current and future students at UMDare facing. As we have proven through preliminary and primary research, the lack ofsimplicity and accessibility acts as a barrier for students retrieving information from oursite. This is of great importance because the homepage is our university’s forefront and themain gateway to a flourishing student life. After taking suggestions and recommendationsfrom the tested students into consideration, we have come up with some beneficial ways tochange the layout of the website and resolve the issue at hand. For example, a dropdownmenu would be a great way to provide all important links on the homepage whilemaintaining a simplistic layout. Also, the need for Facebook login in order to findinformation on Greek life and housing is something that needs to be thrown awaycompletely.
We would like to thank you for setting aside the time to review our research. We hope youfind this issue to be as urgent as we do and that our solutions help you improve the usabilityof the University of MichiganDearborn homepage.
For any further information, please feel free to contact us via email at [email protected].
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Works Cited
"Boston University." Boston University. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.<http://www.bu.edu/>.
"Home | Claremont McKenna College."Home | Claremont McKenna College. N.p., n.d.Web. 22 Mar. 2013. <http://www.cmc.edu/discovercmc/index.p
Lawrence, Dave, and Soheyla Tavakol. Balanced Website Design :OptimisingAesthetics, Usability and Purpose. London: SpringerVerlag London Limited,2007. eBook. <http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9781846287954/page/1>.
Margolin, Jonathan, Shazia Rafiullah Miller, et al. "The Community College Website asVirtual Advisor: A Usability Study." Community College Review. Volume 41. 4462.Web. 21 Mar. 2013. <http://crw.sagepub.com/content/41/1/44>.
Snider, Jean, and Florence Martin. "Evaluating Web Usability." PerformanceImprovement. Volume 51. Issue 3 (2012): 3040. Web. 21 Mar. 2013.<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pfi.21252/abstract>.
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Appendix
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Site Usability TestingA. Questions Asked
1. Find the most recent tuition cost (compare to CMC site).2. Find the price of housing (compare to BU site).3. Find information on Greek Life.4. Find information on study abroad (compare to BU site).5. Find the College of Business homepage.6. Find the College of Education homepage.7. Find an application to apply (compare to CMC site).8. Find a list of all majors (compare to CMC site).
B. Students Tested∙ 1 Senior∙ 2 Juniors∙ 2 Sophomores∙ 2 Freshman∙ 2 Community College Students∙ 1 Transfer Student
C. Data Results∙ Transfer Student
1) 41.6s (UMD) and 2:27m (other) 2) 53s to link (UMD) and gave up at 3:13m (other) 3) gave up at 4:16m (UMD)
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4) 2:08m (UMD) and 9.1s (other) 5) 13.9s (UMD) 6) 10.2s (UMD) 7) 16.2s (UMD) and 53.8s (other) 8) 7.1s (UMD) and 14.8s (other)
Didn’t like that 2 of UMD’s links required you to log into Facebook. “BU’s housing price isn’t where it should be.”
∙ Community College Student 1 (CC 1) 1) 39.7s (UMD) and 21.6s (other) 2) 1:03m to link (UMD) and 2:06m (other) 3) 58.1s to link (UMD) 4) gave up at 3:01m (UMD) and 41.2s (other) 5) 30.2s (UMD) 6) 12.1s (UMD) 7) 22.4s (UMD) and 24.4s (other) 8) 36.8s (UMD) and 32.3s (other)
∙ Community College Student 2 (CC 2) 1) 1:07m (UMD) and 24.7s (other) 2) 28.8s to link (UMD) and 2:41m (other) 3) 55.9s (UMD) 4) gave up at 2:47m (UMD) and 1:04m (other) 5) 7.3s (UMD) 6) 10.1s (UMD) 7) 24.1s (UMD) and 15.8s (other) 8) 6.4s (UMD) and 8.7s (other)
Unfamiliar with UMD site. Doesn’t have a Facebook; “stupid that they make you sign in.”
∙ Senior 1) 58.2s (UMD) and 17.1s (other) 2) 48.6s to link (UMD) and 2:01m (other) 3) 1:20m to link (UMD) 4) 1:20m (UMD) and 12.1s (other) 5) 18.1s (UMD) 6) 12.2s (UMD) 7) 53.2s (UMD) and 38.1s (other) 8) 15.3s (UMD) and 15.6s (other)
∙ Junior 1 1) 14.3s (UMD) and 2:30m (other) 2) 44s to link (UMD) and gave up at 2:14m (other)
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3) 32s to link (UMD) 4) 1:05m found via College of Business site (UMD) and 7s (other) 5) 6.6s (UMD) 6) 7.2s (UMD) 7) 22.7s (UMD) and 25.1s (other) 8) 6.7s (UMD) and 37s (other)
Familiar with UMD’s site. “So used to our website.” Seemed so used to clicking around that she missed the obvious attimes.
∙ Junior 2 1) gave up at 1:20m (UMD) and 29.2s (other) 2) 1:30m to link (UMD) and gave up at 5:43mlink in unexpected spot (other) 3) 33.2s to link (UMD) 4) gave up at 3:46m (UMD) and 41.4s (other) 5) 39.3s (UMD) 6) 6.6s (UMD) 7) 20.3s (UMD) and 19.8s (other) 8) 17s (UMD) and 6.8s (other)
Not very familiar with site. Refused to sign in with Facebook for links.
∙ Sophomore 1 (Soph 1) 1) 23.1s (UMD) and 1:36m (other) 2) 36.5s to link (UMD) and gave up at 3:10m (other) 3) 40.8s to link (UMD) 4) 2:39m (UMD) and 5.9s (other) 5) 27.6s (UMD) 6) 14.9s (UMD) 7) 25.4s (UMD) and 1:18m (other) 8) 25.1s (UMD) and 8.2s (other)
∙ Sophomore 2 (Soph 2) 1) 15.9s (UMD) and 17.6 (other) 2) 2:13m to link (UMD) and 2:27m (other) 3) 14.3s (UMD) 4) 1:31m (UMD) and 4.2s (other) 5) 13.3s (UMD) 6) 6.8s (UMD) 7) 12s (UMD) and 38.7s (other) 8) 18.2s (UMD) and 7.1s (other)
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Confused when sent to Facebook link.∙ Freshman 1 (Fresh 1)
1) 24.7s (UMD) and 1:08m (other) 2) 1:13m to link (UMD) and 3:20m (other) 3) 2:02m to link (UMD) 4) 47.9s (UMD) and 35.4s (other) 5) 43.7s (UMD) 6) 5.9s (UMD) 7) 39s (UMD) and 41.1s (other) 8) 27.4s (UMD) and 38.7s (other)
Wouldn’t sign into Facebook.∙ Freshman 2 (Fresh 2)
1) 1:02m (UMD) and 1:22m (other) 2) 32.3s to link (UMD) and 4:28m (other) 3) 54s to link (UMD) 4) gave up at 4:02m (UMD) and 32.1s (other) 5) 16.8s (UMD) 6) 6.6s (UMD) 7) 17s (UMD) and 20.1s (other) 8) 6.4s (UMD) and 6.4s (other)
Frustrated because she had to sign into Facebook. Thought Boston University’s drop down screen was nice, but housingprices still in a bad spot. “Why do you have to do everything on Facebook?” Doesn’t like that our links don’t have drop downs.
Note: Probably shouldn’t have done both College of Business and College of Educationbecause they were in the same spot and easy to find after the previous one was found.Also, for the price of housing we should’ve picked to compare to CMC since BU’s pricewasn’t in a spot you’d expect it to be (not in housing costs in recent searches).
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