CLIENT REPORT

Digital Communications Consulting Center Usability Evaluation

Teresa Cummings
May 2018
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Digital Communications Consulting Center Usability Evaluation

Introduction
The purpose of this usability test was to evaluate the James Madison University Digital Communications
Consulting Center (JMU DigiComm) website for usability and understandability of the website. This short
report consists of an explanation of how the test was formed followed by a summary of the participants’
experience as well as a brief discussion on two areas of the site which could be strengthened. I include
recommendations on how those areas could be strengthened exactly.

This test strictly evaluated the website for usability of the site (such as finding items on the navigation) and
understandability (for example: is all the information on the site understandable by the participants). A further
test must be conducted to strictly understand the users’ motivations for traveling on the site. This test focuses
on the JMU.EDU/DIGICOMM and APPOINTY.COM, the booking system.

Recommendations for the Website

Below is a summary table of my recommendations for the website based off the reactions to scenarios in the
usability test.

Table 1. Table of Recommendations for the Website

Webpage Recommendation
Our Services/ Resources Add a Services/Platforms list or guide/quiz
Portfolio Gallery/Our Services Add a difference in Wix/Weebly/WordPress section
to help explain
Services or Meet the Team Add list of specialties of tutors for students

Appointy.com Add Schedule preference or platform preference for

Appointy.com
Appointy.com Clarify how to use booking system by adding pop up
box guides

Preparing for the Test

For this test, I researched DigiComm in three areas: Google Analytics, Primary Audience, and User Goals.
From Google Analytics, I understand that the top five visited pages are below:

1. Portfolio Gallery
2. Meet the Team
3. Headshots
4. About DigiComm
5. Book a Consultation

This allowed me to narrow my focus on functions to test. With these pages, I observed the primary audience
who is classified as an undergraduate student in their third or fourth year seeking to resources on building a
professional online portfolio. I combined the top visited pages with the information I knew about the
primary audience and developed the following user goals with their corresponding tasks. These tasks, I then
used to test the website for usability and understandability (see Table 2.

Table 2. User Goal with corresponding tasks

Gaining Information Find the Location
Find Social media/ resources
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See project examples

Booking a Consultation Make an account
Transition from JMU site to Appointy.com

The tasks in the test appeared as below.

Table 2. Assigned User Tasks

Assigned User Tasks
Book a Consultation
Locate a YouTube Tutorial/DigiComm’s
Channel
Find out how to become a tutor
Understand Student services
Locate a portfolio/project example

My task list reflected the following areas my client would like me to focus on, which include

• Ease of website transition from DigiComm to Appointy.com

• Understanding Location of Resource Material outside of website portfolios
• Location of New Resources via Social Media, such as YouTube

Test Report
All the tests were completed successfully by the participants so I can conclude that DigiComm’s website does
achieve its goals on its website. There were however a few wish-list items that the participants vocalized to
make the experience on the website easier for the user. Additionally, in the area of Appointy, the participants
encounters some frustration in booking appointment in similar areas. So while the website functions properly,
I think it can be improved to be leaner, faster, and easier for the user to experience.

Discussion of Results
Overall, the usability of DigiComm’s website was good. All the Participants could easily navigate the website
and complete each task. While completing each task was accomplished, there are a few areas where
DigiComm may improve to make the user experience that much easier and “not make the user think.”

The end goals of the website: to obtain resources, information, and a consultation on a digital platform, were
achieved. Yet in the areas of Appointy.com and in providing user context, DigiComm can sharpen
information organization so that the users can customize their experience to their needs. Below is a summary
table of my ranked concerns from this usability test:

Table 9. Table of Ranked Concerns

High Concern Medium Concern Low Concern
Information: Understanding the Appointy.com Customizability Readability: Appointy.com small text and
context around all of highlight color
DigiComm’s Platforms/List of
services

Appointy.com
Common problems or “wish-list” items I found during this usability test for Appointy.com all center around
customization and information. The Participants felt confused when they first saw Appointy.com.
Appointy.com only provides one help hover box, yet the participants did not always see this help hover box
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nor use it. With that not in eyesight, the participants, and future users as well, begin to just click randomly to
book an appointment.

Participants thought that they had to click on someone’s face first before they could click anything else.
Participants also thought that there was no other option for customization. For example, the participants had
expected to have time or date drop down where they could schedule a consultation for their best time.
Instead, the user must click “Consultations,” “1x1,” then they could click a person or “next.” After
completing those steps, the user may access the available times. Every time a user clicks on something in the
Appointy.com home screen, the text color and font changes (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Appointy.com clicked sections

Source: https://digicomm.appointy.com/default.aspx

Participants in this test found that difficult to read. The Participant’s acknowledged that there was important
content in those spaces but could not read it at all or with without ease. The greenish color appeared on all
the clicked boxes and, when paired with the font color and size choices, make the information unreadable.
Those clicked sections do carry over into the scheduling part of Appointy.com.

Lastly, it wasn’t until much later that the participants entered the “about” section of Appointy (see Figure 5).
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Figure 5. Appointy.com About Section

Source: https://digicomm.appointy.com/default.aspx

This section was unknown to the participants. I think that DigiComm should better utilize this section or
create a similar section on the JMU website. This was where the participants during the test said, “oh it was
right here all along.” This section of Appointy.com doesn’t have the green hover color either, so there is
better readability. If DigiComm’ tightened up Appointy.com to allow the scheduling options to be
customized to the user’s needs, then the users would find the experience easier.

Informational Context
Frequently throughout the test, the participants were a bit awe-struck by the services offered by DigiComm.
All of them did not know DigiComm existed. From this test, by exploring the website, the participant gains
some surface knowledge of DigiComm but still had confusion on what services they actually provide.

For this reason, I recommend two deliverables: 1. Adding a list of platforms or informational page about the
services, 2. Adding a customized option on Appointy.com via platform or topic. Already, DigiComm has a
“page with bare information on what services are offered and what are not under “One-on-One
Consultations” under “Our Services” (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. “Our Services” a list of DigiComm Service limitations

Source: https://www.jmu.edu/digicomm/book-consultation.shtml
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Yet, in this test, I have found that these terms used, such as Digital Storytelling, are not intuitive enough.
These terms listed, like “Digital portfolio” and “personal branding” do not equate the platforms students are
searching for help on like “Canva” and “Weebly.” Also, the digital storytelling concept and tools are
completely absent from the page, which are services offered under DigiComm. The right column “What we
can’t help you with” I found helpful citing this usability test.

Additionally, when asked to find a tutor who specializes in a tool (for the scenario, the tool was Weebly), the
participants could not initially. The participants assigned tutor specialty to the tutor portfolio examples on the
Portfolio Gallery page. Later, on Appointy.com, the participants assigned specialty based on the information
under the names of tutors when clicked on.

With that, I had a participant who said that had “the scenario not contain the word ‘digital storytelling’” that
participant would not have known how to find the Timeline Resource on JMU’s website. That participant
wanted to Google it instead. The participants did not know what tools qualified under which area of
DigiComm resources and services.

I propose that this need for clarification on services can be fixed with one additional webpage or section on a
webpage. By adding a section or page on DigiComm’s services including a list of platforms available, the
users may navigate the resources better as well as better customize their appointment. This page could be set
up as the above with a brief paragraph explaining DigiComm’s approach to consultations and their two
options (One-on-One and Headshots) followed by three columns each with a list of the platforms under it.
Visually, think of a sub header, perhaps named “Digital Storytelling” with the list of platforms under it like
“Timeline JS” and “Atavist.” This webpage could also include a short list of “specialty tutors” for each
platform or that specialty could be added to the tutors’ bios on “Meet the Team.”

Another way this could be remedied is as a FAQ webpage. Here the page could include questions like “What
is digital storytelling?” or “What is personal branding?” or even “Does DigiComm work with the Adobe
Suite?”

Lastly, if DigiComm were to add a guide or quiz of some sort to their services page or consultation page
(before the user enters Appointy.com), on what platform to use, then the users can best utilize their
experiences in consultations and online. This quiz or guide could prompt the user with questions that,
depending on the answer, will lead them to the platform they want or need for their project.

Conclusion
In conclusion, DigiComm’s website does achieve its goal of providing the user with information on how to
book a consultation and resources on digital platforms, it could be strengthened by being more specific in
informational context for services. Overall, it is a good, usable website that achieves its goal, but could be
strengthened so that the user has an even better experience.

An in-depth report of this test is available on request.