The University of Minnesota Press is a branch of the UofM.
Goal
Problem
The UofM website was struggling with low sales and a high bounce rate with their website.
User
UofM staff, college students and regional writers and readers.
To increase sales and conversations about the books as well as engaging the community with the books as well.
Tools
-Pen/pencil -Paper -keynote
Background
In 1925 the University of Minnesota Press was established as a branch for the University of Minnesota. To ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge, the University of Minnesota Press became one of the founding members of the Association of University Presses (AUP). Only 3% of what gets submitted to editors for attention is published. They have a wide range of topics that focus on academic studies. The UMN Press has expanded to having an actively updated blog, as well as host author events, along with sharing news. Their website is central to advertise, sell, and generate conversations about their published books.
Work Dynamic
For this case study, I worked with four other individuals. We worked together creating the evaluation plan and synthesizing our findings. I was responsible for documentation, notetaking, as well as being a moderator for one of the user tests.
Where to start?
The first step was to conduct a usability review on the website. To further understand why certain elements were not as effective as they should be. The first, layout what heuristics are and are not being violated, to understand and clarify why the community was not engaging with what the University of Minnesota Press has to offer.
Usability Review
Theses are clips of my usability review.
I was thinking about what the client said, and what their goals were. How will I get to the bottom of this?
I came up with some hypotheses on what changes I thought needed to be changed before the user testing was conducted.
The Evaluation Plan
My team and I got together and came up with an evaluation plan. We each found our participants to test. The participants' criteria were that they needed to have been a university student, and they liked reading books. We conducted our testing with zoom and had permission to record the test. After we collected all the raw data, we put it together on a spreadsheet.
a peak of the evaluation plan
Then the team and I talked about our findings and noticed patterns and themes with the participants that we tested. We concluded that having the participants sign up for the e-newsletter was rated the most difficult. The other pain points that we uncovered were minor, and participants performed the tasks with ease.
Findings and Recommendations report
Participant during the test-scenario: You are a teacher that has a class “Into to anthropology” How would you go about finding books for your class?
All of the participants gave us a lot of feedback. We started to compile a findings and recommendations report that was given to the client.
a page from the findings and recommendations report
Here are some of the findings that were found
The e-news letter was the most difficult task out of all of the other tasks.
There was a lot that was said from the participants here is a sneak peek. If you download the PDF you can see more of what was said by the participants.
quotes from participants during the testing for finding the e-news letter.
The testing proved that despite the visual business of the website that the only major issue is the e-newsletter. The participants did take the time to find the e-newsletter, but only a few were successful. I remember a quote that one of the participants stated something to the effect that they would have given up after two clicks. During the scenario-led test, all of the participants searched harder than I think they would have in the real world. The fact that they put in a focused effort to still not be able to find it is saying a lot right there.
By quickly drafting up some revisions for the logo (which I did not find out it was a clickable logo until we were user testing), and I also put together a redesign for their e-newsletter.
I quickly drafted some revision ideas in keynote to give a better visual understanding.
Below are pictures of my notes from the University of Minnesota Press website when I first looked at it. Also, a quick sketch of a new design for the layout on the main page.
While I work.
Conclusion
Overall the findings proved that the site is navigate-able. All the main tasks can be performed depending on the determination of the user. So that tells us that most of the pain points are cosmetic. This project reached me in the sense that I can understand the frustration from the participants, and it drives me to make it right, not only for the community the website serves but also for the University of Minnesota Press.