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PROJECT TALLY HO UNIFORMSBENTLEY COLLEGE

February 2008

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AGENDA

BACKGROUND

OBSERVATIONS: COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

MACRO CONCERNS: TALLY HO UNIFORM WEBSITE

HEURISTIC EVALUATION: GLOBAL ISSUES

POST IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENT

PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

NEXT STEPS

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BACKGROUND

Enhanced scopePrimary Role – Heuristic Evaluation of Tally Ho Uniform's

WebsiteSecondary Role – Consultants

Project Team Project Lead Ria Roy

Usability Lead Tara Halwes

Usability Specialist Kyle Bedell

Usability Specialist Justin Onorato

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BACKGROUND

Tally Ho Uniforms Established since 1948 Ready-to-wear and customized uniforms and accessories to the

airline industry

Identified Business Problem No incremental sales through the web since 2004 Very little traffic

Other concerns Who are the other players? What is their website telling about them? What are they doing and we are not? What are the trends in the marketplace?

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INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

Revenue

Mar

ket S

hare

ARAMARK

CINTAS

ALSCO INC.

G&K SERVICES

Uniform and Linen Industry (NAICS 81233)Concentrated IndustryDemand is driven by employment trends2,500 companies compete within this space

What are these companies doing? Growth through acquisitions Providers of business solutions Service and customizations Collaborators to reduce operational

overheads

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONSOF THE PLAYERS WITHIN THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Macro Perspective Corporate Mission Professional look and feel Leadership Awards won Wide range of products and/or services

Other Perspectives Structured content layout Trust and credibility Aesthetic appeal Minimum and/or appropriate use of graphics and/or text

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CONCERNSTALLY HO UNIFORM’S WEBSITE

Use of certain graphics and/or text may be considered inappropriate within this industry

Issues around trust and credibility

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION: GLOBAL ISSUESAESTHETICS AND MINIMALISTIC DESIGN

SEVERITY FINDING RECOMMENDATION

1-Major Attention-getting devices are overused to the point of distraction.

Remove unnecessary graphics and decorative text treatments.

1-Major Half of the monitor’s vertical space is consumed by the company name, logo and descriptive text.

Ensure prime real estate is given to important items and controls.

1-Major Layout of products within grey tables.

Provide clear borders or other separation between products.

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION: GLOBAL ISSUESAESTHETICS AND MINIMALISTIC DESIGN

SEVERITY FINDING RECOMMENDATION

2-Moderate Images of items are often poor quality and obscured by a watermark .

Provide clearer images of individual items for sale and remove the watermark from the image.

2-Moderate Product layout is unattractive and takes up more space than necessary.

Use a more compact and cleanly organized layout for each product.

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION: GLOBAL ISSUESREADABILITY

SEVERITY FINDING RECOMMENDATION

2-Moderate Category links at the bottom of the page are unreadable on the cloudy sky background.

Use solid background color behind text that contrasts with the text color.

2-Moderate Colored text is used to indicate which colors an item is available in.

Keep text labels for “available colors” in the same color as other informational text. Instead, use color swatches to represent choices.

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION: GLOBAL ISSUESCONSISTENCY AND STANDARDS

SEVERITY FINDING RECOMMENDATION

1-Major Inconsistency in product names across product pages.

Use consistent placement, naming and font treatment for all products.

2-Moderate Layout of product information is inconsistent within and between pages making it difficult to predict what is associated information.

Do not change the layout of associated pieces of product information significantly between products or pages.

3-Minor Availability of items labeled “discontinued” is unclear.

Label discontinued items consistently with an indication that they are available and instructions on how to get them.

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HEURISTIC EVALUATION: GLOBAL ISSUES

CATEGORY SEVERITY

FINDING RECOMMENDATION

Trust and Credibility

1-Major Trustworthiness and security of the transaction hosting site (justaddcommerce.net) are extremely suspect.

Consider using a well-known online payment system like PayPal. Stop using the justaddcommerce.net host until users can see that trust is verified.

Help and documentation

2-Moderate

No help is available on the Cart page.

Provide links to help about important or potentially difficult interactions with the site.

Error prevention

3-Minor Options for each item have no descriptions on the cart page so the values are out of context and meaningless.

List descriptions of each option on this page rather than “Option #”.

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NEXT STEPSDESIGN

Wireframes

Usability Study

Redesign of the website

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POST IMPLEMENTATION ASSESSMENTGROUP ONE

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CONTENTS

PEAT ANALYSIS

PROJECT PROFITABILITY

LESSONS LEARNED

GROUP OBSERVATIONS

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PEAT ANALYSISAVERAGE OF PEAT SCORES

-0.2

0.2

0.6

1

Scores ranged from -0.4– 0.6

Scores ranged from -0.1 – 0.3

Scores ranged from 0.9 – 1.0

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PEAT ANALYSISVARIANCE ANALYSIS

00.40.81.21.6

Middle Ground

Agreement

Way-off!

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PROJECT PROFITABILITY

THIS IS HOW WE WORKED … ESTIMATIONS VS. ACTUAL

EST. ACT.

HOURS 80 59

TOTAL COST

USD 10,000

USD 7,375

PROFIT = $2,625

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LESSONS LEARNED

Immediate planning is key Allow for project buffers Emulate current structure and templates for

future projects Better PMIS

Lack of folder structure in Google groups Dangerous to take on a project lead with no

experience in the project lifecycle especially with time constraints

Instant communication is key! Immediate addressal of concerns is criticalNEXT STEP …

DEBRIEF TEAM ON ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES OF A PROJECT LEAD

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GROUP OBSERVATIONS

AREA CONCERNS

Project Peaks and Troughs

Until the final hours of the project, morale was high. The time pressure during the endgame wore us down as we struggled to balance our remaining work with a limited timeframe.

PMIS Google Groups lacks important organizational features (like folders!) that would have made information management easier.

Project Manager Role

Personally, I am still unsure as to the exact roles of a project manager.

Dangerous to take on a new project with the lead having little to no experience, and with time constraints, the pressure is on the lead during the peak.

Risk Management

While we planned for contingency situations, we neglected to adequately plan for the greatest risk: running out of time.

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GROUP OBSERVATIONS

AREA POSITIVE COMMENTS

Team Dynamics

The consensus on the global/macro problems of the site were unanimous.

Communication between members was rapid and efficient, allowing for project activities to be supported effectively.

Risk Management

There were delays, but they were handled smoothly without affecting the final output.

Project Management

There was a lot of good, detailed exchange of work estimates for scoping.

Project Planning

Always had clear touch-points for the future and deliverables were always ready.

Project Quality

We didn't really have to go back and redo tasks.

Scope Enhancements

The role of the team was enhanced to play the role of management consultants, so we are not playing a Human Factors role only.

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PROJECT DOCUMENTATION

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CONTENTS

PROJECT PLAN

PMIS

PROJECT TRACKING

CONTINGENCY PLANNING

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PROJECT PLAN

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PMIS

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PROJECT TRACKING

PROJECT LEAD’S CALENDAR

Note: The Project Plan served as a primary Project Tracking sheet for the group

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PROJECT TRACKING

EVENT REMINDERS SENT TO THE GROUP

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CONTINGENCY PLANNING

Note: One of the uncontrollable risks anticipated by the group is related to Tally Ho Uniform’s website. In the event that Tally Ho Uniform’s website were to change, we had screen-shots to serve as our back-up for the duration of this project