Usability Critique and Test Plan



WRIT 350Usability Critique and Test PlanRecommendations for CNNKatie Sevin11-8-2015Executive Summary:This Usability Critique targets the website of the news source CNN and recommends modifications to its site structure that will allow the CNN individual pages to become more user friendly by effectively using their heuristics. This report recommends wireframes that improve CNN’s linkage issues as well as restructuring the website pages to better accommodate ads and introduce additional features. The creation of these wireframes will improve CNN’s printability, advertisement presence, and overall flow. The paper concludes by proposing a usability test that will assess the overall effectiveness of the recommended alterations.Introduction: Research has shown that the usability of a website is often defined by its appeal and the inability to effectively use it is a detractor to even the most legitimate of sites. CNN is a legitimate news reference that is weighed down by a variety of usability issues; finding a way to rectify these issues will provide a better experience for users. This report proposes a Usability Test Plan that will test this report’s analysis of the site’s heuristics and recommended courses of action for improving CNN’s website capabilities. Through this report’s recommendations and the usability test, I hope to show how minor changes to CNN’s website layout and article structure will enhance its overall experience and appeal to users.Inspection: I chose CNN’s website for a variety of factors. I had used it multiple times for class assignments and consider a relatively reliable source for news, but noticed that it has many usability issues that impede its performance and aesthetic. Some of these issues include advertisements, auto-play videos, and articles that are incompatible for printing. The advertisements line the articles, are inserted within the articles, and occasionally pop-up while I am reading the text. Auto-play videos are inconvenient and an annoyance; often times, I am simply there to read the article and do not bother to watch the accompanying video. And if I decide to print out an article, I have to copy and paste the text into a separate Word document because printing the article directly adds needless pages due to the presence of ads and the comments section. The primary goal of this usability critique is to determine specific methods that CNN administrators can modify the website in order to maximize utility. There is also a secondary goal of improving the overall aesthetic of the site by eliminating unnecessary advertisements and streamlining the site. In order to attain these goals, I chose to evaluate CNN using a variety of heuristics, which include user control and freedom, the printability of articles, flexibility and efficiency of use, the ability to scan articles, the misuse of links, and aesthetic appeal. These heuristics evaluate the user’s ability to backtrack, the article’s ability to be altered to a printer-friendly format, the website’s ability to operate efficiently, the reader’s ability to scan the articles, the user’s ability to follow linked material, and the visual performance of the site.Findings: In beginning my usability critique, I identified a list of heuristics that are integral in improving CNN’s utility. These heuristics include:User Control and Freedom: A recurring issue with this website (articles and home pages alike) is that there is a plethora of advertisements that clog up the feed and generally make operating the site more difficult. These advertisements are displayed as both pop-ups and text inserts and it is very easy to accidentally click them, which then takes the user to the ad’s website in an alternate tab. In order to exit out of the pop-up advertisements, you have to click a very small corner of the ad; often times, the “X” is difficult to locate so it takes away from the user’s ability to freely move around the site. Likewise, the auto-play videos take away the user’s ability to control their experience. It should be up to the user if they want to watch the video or not.The Printability of Articles: One of the biggest grievances with CNN’s website is the fact that its current format is not conducive to printing. Many people sometimes have to print off articles in order to fully understand them; however, the current layout of the website articles is not adaptable for printing. As an example, an article with about 2.5 pages worth of actual content is stretched out over a 12 page printed version due to ads and the comments section. The fact that there is not an alternate article template for printing is a major usability issue for the site.Flexibility and Efficiency of Use: There are aspects of the website that would make it difficult for the visually impaired, particularly when it comes to exiting videos and pop-up ads (see: User Control and Freedom). As exiting these features is often difficult for those with perfect vision, it is made exceedingly more difficult for those with visual impairments. Ability to Scan Articles: This particular heuristic is mostly relevant to viewing CNN on a mobile device. As the app takes up storage space, many people utilize Safari on their phones in order to read articles but reading these articles is made extremely difficult by the presence of advertisements (see: User Control and Freedom). While the website is formatted to be read on a mobile device, it isn’t structured in a way that will allow users to easily read the articles.Misuse of Links: As one can see from the supporting data, CNN’s website suffers from many different cases of malfunctioning links (links that lead nowhere). While that is an issue in itself, CNN is also missing an opportunity to further the continuity and flow of its site. When a user attempts to find an author’s homepage, a few different situations may occur. (1) The author’s name in the article is not linked so the user has nothing to follow, or (2) the author’s homepage is not navigable enough. A user might want to find an article from a particular author that discusses a specific topic; however, there is not an easy way for this to occur.Aesthetics: As stated above, there are many different advertisements present on both the homepage and in individual articles, which messes up with the flow of the site and makes it feel clunky at times. The overall color scheme of CNN is consistent and aesthetically appealing but the heavy presence of ads takes away from the site’s overall appeal by making it less minimalist.Recommendations: There are a few recommendations regarding website wireframes that would greatly improve the overall quality of the CNN site. It is recommended that CNN add printing options for their articles as well as remove the auto-play feature from videos imbedded in text-emphasized articles. It also recommended that advertisements attached to articles are not displayed in the mobile version of the same article. Even though CNN gets revenue from having ads in articles, having them on the mobile versions takes up too much space and interferes with users being able to efficiently read the article. For the ads on the website, pop-up versions should be removed and the ability to minimize others must be clearly marked and the ads should be placed in positions that don’t interfere with the user’s ability to read. Other recommendations are to provide a link from the main article to the author’s CNN page as well as insert links in those personal pages that can take the user to articles pertaining to the author’s various specialties. Four proposed wireframes based off of these advisements include inserting a printer icon into articles, modifying the structure of the author’s webpages, better integrating needed advertisements, and removing the auto-play feature from videos. Usability Test Plan: This usability test plan’s target audience is rather broad since CNN has a variety of readers from different backgrounds and education levels; however, the focus of the test will be those residing in the United States. The background of the user will be a factor in determining the website’s overall usability since a politically active student will most likely be able to operate the website with a greater ease than a senior citizen with varied internet experience. So while this test is not being geared towards a particular demographic, their backgrounds will be useful in analyzing the results of the study.The usability test for CNN’s website would involve a series of steps that would take users through many aspects of the site and will assess many of the different heuristics I have highlighted in this report. This usability test will begin with the CNN homepage, where users will:Select an article of their choice from the homepageClick the hyperlink that will take them to that article Users will then find the author of that article and click the link that will take them to the author’s homepage on CNN. They will then find the reporter’s area of emphasis that is different than the topic of the original article and select an article in that category. Open the second article Users will use the new “print” feature to print out that articleThat would conclude the first part of the usability test. The second part of the test will involve using a smart phone or other form of mobile device that can pull up the CNN website.Users will pull up the first article they read on the homepage on a mobile device (the web page, not the app). After pulling up that article, users will attempt to scroll quickly through the article and skim read the content. After about ten seconds, the user will have to put down the phone and write down the article title and the main points of the piece. They will then fill out a questionnaire where they will be asked to rate their experience as well as describe any issues they might have had throughout the process.Conclusion: Even though CNN is a credible source of information, its website has many issues that can be rectified with simple modifications. This report recommends that links are added and restructured in order to allow users to access similarly categorized articles, icons are added in order to allow users to effectively print out sources, and removing auto-play videos and pop-up advertisements in order to make the user’s experience as painless as possible. By incorporating these modifications and conducting the advised usability test, CNN website administrators will likely see positive feedback from their audiences.Appendix A: Screenshots from CNN WebpagesAppendix B: Wireframe Examples ................
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