Evaluation of Zot!Portal https://portal.uci.edu

Zot!Portal - Mission StatementTo provide UCI students, faculty, staff, and the community a single campus resource for efficient, unified, and customized access to the information and tools they need.

Project Requirements

● Understand the main reasons behind the low adoption rate of Zot!Portal among students.

● Collect feedback regarding the existing portal features using various methodologies.

● Suggest required changes and enhancements to the portal based on the user requirements.

● Gain user feedback regarding the newly implemented and enhanced feature mockups for the portal.

User Groups

Users

Staff

Undergraduates Graduates

Students

Project Methodology ● Interviews

To gather information on what users like and don’t like about the portal and new features they would like to find in it.

● Survey Reach a larger audience to collect feedback on existing features and comments on planned new features.

● Card Sorting Capture user rationales and priorities to determine hierarchy of portlets and organization of tabs.

● Usability Test Session Capture ease of portal usage and reveal usability problems.

Interviews

Methodology:

● Identified user groups for students.

● Interviewed 3-4 users from each group with varied background.

● Interviewed staff from different departments.

● Open ended questions were asked to get a holistic view.

● Encouraged users to access the portal and provide their feedback on the go.

● Carried over questions and observations from previous interviews to find overlapping likes and

dislikes.

Student interviews

Demographics:

● Interviewed 17 students ( Grads and Undergrads )

● 5 - heard of ZotPortal, 12 - not heard of ZotPortal

Comments and Observations:

● Low familiarity of layout - Students frequently use search box.

● Navigation not intuitive.

● Announcement tab is good, need notification functionality.

● Home page is cluttered with lot of information.

Student interviews (contd.) List of new portlets planned based on the Interviews:

● Zotlink for career/jobs related information.

● ZotAccount for billing/account information.

● Centralized appointment scheduling for counseling, health center and international center.

● Centralized booking facility for study rooms.

● Housing information.

● Notifications that can be imported into personal calendar easily.

● Sortable and Easily categorizable announcements.

● Degree/graduation requirement and progress.

Staff interviewsDemographics:

● Total of 7 interviews from distinct departments in UCI.

Like:

● Ease of customization offered by the portlets.● Bookmark portlet.

Wishlist:

● Directory lookup from within ZotPortal.● Automated site tutorial whenever necessary.● Categorized search results.● More graphical, less textual information.● More multimedia content.● More visual adjustments in layout (background color for portlets).

SurveysMethodology:

● After the interviews,

○ The problem scope was relatively clear.

○ Interview results were available for brainstorming questions.

● Hence, Surveys were conducted in order to get statistical data.

● We focused on:

○ Gauging usefulness of existing and proposed new features by user rating.

○ Navigation and Search features.

● We conducted two surveys based on user groups:

○ One for students

○ One for Staff

● Surveys consisted a mix of open and close-ended questions.

Student Survey Results

● 144 responses

● Most important features○ Notifications○ ZotLink Integration○ Degree requirements○ Appointments

● Less important features○ Social Media○ Housing Information

Survey Results

Students Choices

Staff Survey Results

● 59 responses

● Most important features○ Improve Search Feature○ Website Tutorial○ Reorganize Menu Tabs

● Less important features○ Social Media○ Different Colors for each portlet

● Survey Results

Staff Choices

Usability Test Session

● Aimed at capturing usability problems within the existing Zot!Portal.● Used Morae software tool to capture sessions.

● 15 participants belonging to different user groups.● Duration: 20-30 mins

The test included 5 tasks which captured various aspects like,

● Presentation of Information● Navigation● Usability● Organization of tabs● Search capability

Usability Test Session - Comments

Overall● Great job bringing useful information together.

Presentation● Overwhelming information in a congested 3-column layout.● Would like to have personalized information.

Organization of Tabs● More tabs can be added and regrouped to improve navigation.

Search Capability● Lacks provision for finding portlets and ability to filter results.

Card Sorting

● Participants sorted the portlets into groups to be organized as tabs.

● Selected portlets to be added to home as default.

● Prioritized the new portlets to be added to portal.

● 8 participants

● Duration: ~10 mins

Mockups

● Survey and Card Sorting results are considered to build the initial mockups.

● Mockups of new features, improved features and default layout designs are developed using balsamiq.

● Previous participants were asked to compare above mockups against the existing ZotPortal design & features.

Mockups for StudentsNew Features: Notifications, Appointments, ZotLink info, Degree Requirements ...

Improved Features: Search Results, My Courses, ZotAccount Summary, Study Space Locator ...

View

Mockups for StaffNew Features: Onboarding tutorial, Notifications, Suggested Bookmarks

Improved Features: Search with Autocomplete & Filters, Reorganized Menu

View

Task Name Timeline Persons responsible Status

Initial discussion and ramping up on project details

Week 2 SG 1, SG 2, SG 3 ✅

Student interviews (Phase 1) Week 3 - Week 4 SG 1, SG 2 ✅

Staff interviews (Phase 1) Week 4 SG 3 ✅

Usability test sessions Week 4 SG 1, SG 2(Students) SG 3 (Staff) ✅

Survey Week 5 SG 1, SG 2(Students) SG 3 (Staff) ✅

Mockups/ Wireframes Week 6 SG 1, SG 2, SG 3 ✅

Student/ Staff interviews (Phase 2) Week 7 SG 1, SG 2(Students) SG 3 (Staff)

Final Mockups/ Wireframes Week 8 SG 1, SG 2, SG 3

Presentation and Report Week 9 SG 1, SG 2, SG 3

Project Timeline SG 1 (Jwala Mohith, Vijaykumar), SG 2 (Yugandhar, Rajani, Anjana), SG 3 (Prateek, Swanand, Rathan)

Revised Project Timeline

Task Name Deadline Persons responsible

Staff interviews (Phase 2) Finals Week (Dec. 7) SG 3 (Staff)

Final Mockups Finals Week (Dec. 7) SG 1, SG 2, SG 3

Final Report Finals Week (Dec. 10) SG 1, SG 2, SG 3

Questions?