Usability Testing for NTEN: Behind the Scenes

This is the second in our NTEN series. Check out Part 1: Card Sorting for NTEN – Behind the Scenes.

After completing card sorting exercises and drafting a new information architecture with NTEN, we moved on to the next step: usability testing with wireframe prototypes!

Testing with Wireframes

We most often use usability testing in two ways:

1. To evaluate an existing site and identify areas of improvement
2. To evaluate a new enhancement, redesign, or information architecture — something that doesn’t actually exist yet

Our project with NTEN falls into the second category. So, how do you test something that doesn’t yet exist? We used wireframes:

By quickly sketching out the new navigation and some key content pages, we were able to produce an interactive prototype. One of the first things you’ll notice about our wireframes is that they aren’t exactly pretty. They’re nearly entirely in black and white, with no styling elements.

There are a few reasons for this:

• It allows us (and the participants) to focus exclusively on the navigation and content.
• It allows us to test early in a project, if the visual design hasn’t been determined yet.
• It’s quick! And easy to edit on the fly, thanks to the lack of images and css.

It’s also helpful to do usability testing with high fidelity prototypes later on, once the visual design has been developed. The use of color and styling can have a huge effect on the weight of different elements on a page, such as navigation, which is why usability testing can be even more valuable as an iterative process.

The Recap

We conducted 12 usability testing sessions at the Bridge Conference last month. Using the wireframe prototypes, participants were asked to complete a series of tasks, some specific (“Renew your membership”), and others more open-ended (“Think of a nonprofit tech topic you’d like to know more about and find information on it”). We quickly began to identify areas of the new navigation that work extremely well and ones that still need some adjusting. Participants also gave feedback on content and we learned about how they use the NTEN website as it exists today.

What We Learned

Some examples of our takeaways from usability testing:

• Members of NTEN want the community (such as discussion forums and networking opportunities) brought to the surface and featured more prominently
• As we learned in the card sorting, about half consider webinars to be events and half don’t — everyone seems to have an opinion on this, one way or the other!
• The current account management section has room for improvement and can help visitors by giving time-sensitive information (such as upcoming events that you’ve registered for) priority on the page.
• The “Get Involved” navigation item should be replaced with “Community” — this is the terminology that visitors use and are looking for. Plus, “Get Involved” could mean a variety of things.
• Visit NTEN’s blog entry below for more.

NTEN’s Perspective

Check out NTEN’s blog entry on the testing process, complete with video!

Wireframe Testing: Failing Informatively