MI.GOV Site Design Evaluation

October 2008

MI.GOV Usability Review

MSU Usability and Accessibility Center (UAC)

Reviewed rankings by studies like Brookings, Center for Digital Government

Prepared Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Survey

Led 2 Focus Groups

Prepared Heuristic Review

Diagnosis

Results of the study indicate that a redesign of the Michigan.gov site is necessary.

Strengths

Quantity of Information

Some users are highly satisfied with the site

Drop down lists for easy access to some online services

Location of Search Box

Weaknesses

Site is difficult for infrequent users

Overlapping content areas: Spotlight, What’s New, News…

Left and right image links look too much like advertising

Multiple navigation methods

Top most is overlooked due to dull coloration

Change of order in left navigation for selected item

Left nav items are arranged randomly resulting in difficulty scanning

Search: 33% report unsuccessful searches

Opportunities

Abbreviate, group and eliminate content on the home page

Eliminate and control clutter

Rename sections for better description of content

Remove duplicate links on pages

Eliminate animation

Use tabs for navigation

Order left nav alphabetically

Abbreviate, group and eliminate content on the home page

Too many sections contain similar type content

Quick Links and Featured Links are a mish mash of links

Too many text links in those 2 groups

The SoM Home page has 4 references to News or Newswire

Remove redundant content links

The SoM Home page has 3 references for Jobs and 2 references for Lottery

2 references to the Governor

Remove redundant content links

Services should be renamed to Online services or eServices

Departments and Directories should be clustered together

Directories should be renamed to Contacts

Quick Links is a collection of unrelated items

Same for Featured Links

Rename Sections

Animation is distracting to the user

Image banners may be animated but should only run for a certain time span then quit animating

Eliminate animation

Users liked the tabs on other sites

Make tabbed navigation more noticable using color

Make use of drop down menus to improve use of space

Use tabs for navigation

Improved scanning

Is a best practice

Eliminate active item moving to the top

Order Left Navigation Alphabetically

Create tabbed content targeted to various audiences

Less clutter/more whitespace

Use descriptive Page Titles

Improved metadata= improved search results

Use widgets to display multiple content items in less space

More Recommendations

Next Steps

Create wire frame layouts devoid of detailed graphics

Wire frame should indicate groups, navigation, content

Examine “widgets” as content holders

Review taxonomy and look for economy in categories and navigation groups

What is Heuristic?

Heuristic evaluation is a usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process.

Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognized usability principles.

Two Focus Groups

Viewed and discussed other State home pages

Viewed Michigan.gov

Michigan.gov - What They Liked

Liked the pull down lists in the middle of the page

Lots of great information

Link to the Lottery site

Different colors of text to help separate content

News articles

Lottery news and link on home page

Michigan.gov - What They Disliked

Site is too text heavy

Unbalanced (“compressed to the left”)

Name: Official State of Michigan Portal seemed too tech-y

Unutilized space to the right

Insufficient space for the pull down lists

Hard to find things

Search problems

No picture in banner

Goals for MI.GOV 2009

Consistent layout and design

Adequate and appropriate white space

Clean layout

Color-coded design

Content separated in visible containers

Impactful, professional quality images

Clearly identified banner images

Clear and consistent navigational hierarchy

Goals for MI.GOV 2009

User group segmentation of navigation

Uses tabs for main or secondary navigation (where appropriate)

Breadcrumbs

Pages to inform users of redirects outside of the government site

Clear page identifiers

Clearer access to the Online Services section

Accessibility compliance with the Priority Level One standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Web 2.0 Social networking implementation

Goals for MI.GOV Agencies 2009

Strongly consider using an evaluation like this if you plan to redesign your site

MSU Usability and Accessibility Center is available to conduct unbiased site evaluations for you on contract

Make your site customer-centric

Heed the rules and laws of good Web design

Use sorting and grouping techniques to set up information

Accessibility compliance is still important

Request assistance from eMichigan

eMichigan keeps up on all of the latest usability and accessibility standards

MI.GOV Site Design Evaluation

Questions?