Progress Report: Project 4Web Solutions

Email Interviews (Jennifer)

Usability Testing (Andrea Kayne)

FinalReport

due

Accessibility Analysis (Andrea Alburtus)

Draft Due

Genre analysis (similar sites) (Jill)

Presentation

Outlining Report (Work as a Group)

Prepare Presentation

March24-26, March 31-April 2, April 7-9, April 14-16, April 21-23

Research Question Question Data Source Methods Who/When

Organization/ Work Flow Analysis

How often is the site updated? Website Developers Email Interview

What kind of audience have you appealed to in the past/would you like to appeal to in the future?

Website Developers Email Interview

Is this one of your main mediums of communication? What other mediums are you using?

Website Developers Email Interview

What sort of features would you like to have on the site?

Website Developers Email Interview

Genre Analysis: How does the site compare to other clubs/groups on Campus?

Other websites Genre Analysis

User Testing What problems do users have with the current interface?

Usability Participants Usability Test

Accessibility Analysis How does the site function across browsers/platforms?

Is this site in compliance with Automated Tools (Markup

W3 Standards Validation Site)

Genre Analysis Findings

• To compare the Outdoor’s Club website, we looked at three other websites in this genre. They were: http://www.msu.edu/~skiclub/ http://www.msu.edu/~badmint/ and http://www.msu.edu/~bbclub/

• The main findings that were found to help change our website for the better were:

• 1) Bring a message forum to our website, for better communication.

• 2) Having a side navigation bar, or just more then one navigation bar in general to help navigate the user.

• 3) Home page link at the bottom of the page, or a top of page link.

• 4) Having contact information on every page staying in the same consistent spot throughout the whole website.

• 5) Having the home page be a lot more informative then it is.

Usability Findings

• Comments and Suggestions from users tested– Drop down menus– Links on homepage- smaller defined sub pages– Compatibility for other browsers– Up to date calendar– Better legibility

• First Impression– Simple, boring, messy– Overlap content on page– Annoying– Interesting

• Website Use (1 Difficult- 5 Easy)– 50% rated as a 2

• Informative (1 unhelpful- 5 informative)– 33% rated as a 5– 33% rated as a 3

• User Task Confidence (1 unsure- 5 confident)– 33% rated as a 5– 33% rated as a 4– 33% rated as a 1

• Interest in Joining– 83% interested in joining after viewing the site

Accessibility Findings

• Accessibility across browsers– Function the best in Internet Explorer– Firefox and Safari- create overlapping text and cutoffs- problems with the

design elements• Accessibility for those with disabilities

– Hearing impaired- none because there are not any audio or video– Visually impaired- because the site is so text based fairly easy for a text reader

or magnifier.• Excessive scrolling can cause problems • Calendar is also a concern

• Contrast– Okay– Colors can cause some problems with simulated colorblindness.

• Use of CSS Sheet– Good start at being compliant– Need to better utilize some of the elements

• Example the header and footer• Use of white space- especially in the right column

Sustainability Findings

• Sustainability is important for the OC website because the main purpose of the OC website is the attract and recruit new members.

– New members need to find information quickly and easily. – The site needs to appear up to date and sustained- lest prospective members may get

the impression that it is dated and therefore not reliable. – The use of the “Outing Club” and the “Outdoors Club” can prove to be confusing for

new members to understand which names is the correct one that the group identifies with.

• OC website Function– Inform people about event times

• Needs to be recent- next events need to show up first- not old events– Executive Board basic information

• Needs to also be up to date- easy to find- Prospective members need information about the people that run the group, need to feel welcomed

– Inform about the benefits of Membership• Prospective members need to be informed about benefits of membership in order to be

encouraged to join.• Information about activities and sponsor discounts need to be clear and easy to see on the

website.

• We believe that if these guideline were followed and the website functioned as described it would have a stronger sustainability.

Overall Design

• Design Strengths– Use of the menu bar and submenu bar for easy accessibility and

reduce the clutter– Contrast with black text on a white background– Sans serif font is legible and web friendly

• Design Weaknesses– Lacking uniform subheadings and headings that would promote

consistency and better readability– Lack of balanced space. Everything is left aligned and there is

excessive white space to the right– Not enough images incorporated into the site– Color scheme- should better represent the group as a whole. The

green layout of the site does not match well with the black and white logo.

Recommendations

• Importance– Updated regularly- dates need to be current- increase the likelihood

of new members joining ect. – Fix the accessibility issues with firefox and Safari because

increasingly more people on campus are using firefox and Mac- they won’t be able to view the site properly

– Photos- add photos of the club participating in activities and such to show the “personality” of the club

– Color scheme- choose colors that reflect the clubs purpose (outdoors colors, active colors, rather than just simple green).

– Recommend adding a message forum or a FAQ page for prospective member to reference quickly.

– Easier navigation “top Page’ “ Home Page” “next” “back”– Specific page for Prospective Members- where they can easily find

contact information, current meeting times, upcoming events, basic information about the club (dues etc)