Professional Documents
Culture Documents
US A BIL I TY IN S PE CTI O N
R E PO RT
INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
WWW.IPS.K12.IN.US
INSPECTED BY TEAM 2:
STEVEN ENTEZARI
HAI DAN HUANG
JAY WHEELER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents 2
Table of Figures 4
Executive Summary 5
Presentation of Application 6
Inspection Methods Used 8
General Process of Inspection 8
Scenarios 8
Severity Rating System 9
Inspection Results 9
1. Content 9
1.1 Missing and Inconsistent Information 9
1.2 Target User Misidentified 10
1.3 Consistency of information and representation 11
1.4 When was the News New 12
2. Information Architecture 13
2.1 Visualizations of School Proximity 13
2.2 Too Much Information accomidating too many people 14
2.3 No way back 16
2.4 Where am I 16
2.5 Unrelated Navigation 17
2.6 Homepage without Main Content (Homeless Homepage) 18
2.7 Archiving 19
3. Navigation 20
3.1 Undistinguishable Links 20
3.2 Too Much Navigation 21
3.3 No indication leaving the website 22
3.4 Provide choices without decision information 23
4. Presentation 24
4.1 Users don’t know where they are 25
4.2 Inconsistent Font Sizes, Weights & Decoration: Hyperlinks 25
4.3 Mixed representation of information and linked files 26
4.4 Inconsistent Design Of Sub Domains 28
4.5 Deemphasizing position of important menus 29
5. Semiotics 29
5.1 Error Recovery 29
5.2 Mislabeled pages 30
5.3 Insufficient information 32
Appendix 35
A. Sitemap 35
B. Interview of School Corporation Website 36
C. Scenario Based Inspection 39
D. Scenarios 43
website about the Indianapolis Public School Corporation. The purpose of the site is to
communicate news, events and educational related information to primary stakeholders who
An evaluation was conducted on the IPS Corporation website using two primary methods;
scenario evaluation and heuristic inspection. Scenario-based evaluation looks at domain specific
items from the viewpoint of a stakeholder. Heuristic inspection looks at the broader scope of
issues that can come from the viewpoint of the stakeholder, but also looks at independent factors
of overall usability. Reference the appendix for a complete list of stakeholders, scenarios and
The IPS Corporation‟s website presents stakeholders with information relevant to their
needs, however, through systematic evaluation, our group has identified several key areas that
point to gaps in the design attributing to degraded usability of the website. The following are a
list of areas which, if improved, can yield substantial gains for the user and their experience using
the website.
Content & Information Architecture: The IPS website provides a very rich set of content
to its stakeholders in a semi-useful way. Our primary concern is around the consistency in which
the content is presented to the users. The structure and depth of the information presented in
many areas was loosely coupled to the topics and on several occasions was used out of context
excluding key stakeholders in the message. A formal review process introduced before the
information is published can mitigate many of the issues identified. It should be noted, however,
that the content contained on the IPS Corporation‟s site is very rich and resourceful as it is now,
however the structure, layout, and headings of this information does not valorize the accurate
richness of the content. The revamp we are suggesting would integrate with the already rich
issues, which may point towards a specific problem for reference, but could represent a wider
Navigation: The website, with all of its content is very deep. One of the primary concerns
is the lack of backward navigation. Additionally, how links are grouped among pages can be
confusing for the user. We identified, in several locations, groups of links that had no relevance
to the content displayed. Finally, several pages have links that reference off-site locations. Ideal,
users should be informed of outside navigation and open those sites in separate windows.
Changes like this can prevent a user from experiencing frustration when navigating the IPS
Corporation‟s site and thus maintaining visitor‟s loyalty. You will find four representative cases of
Presentation & Semiotics: The IPS Corporation website contains several sub-sites used by
teachers and students, which do not provide a consistent design at the presentation layer (i.e.
graphics & layout). This makes the site feel greatly segmented and does not promote a consistent
brand. This can also be felt in the current usage of links and labels within a given sub-site as well.
Improving the cohesiveness is key in driving higher utilization of the IPS website as a
communication mechanism for the school corporation. The eight problems emphasized in our
analysis may point to specific issues we‟ve found, but should be generalized to the entire site,
PRESENTATION OF APPLICATION
The IPS Corporation website is an information-rich website communicating news, events
and educational related information to faculty, staff, parents, students and community. The
website contains many sub-sites which attributes to a deep navigational structure and multiple
page schemas. The guiding vision of the website is to make IPS a flagship in innovative urban
grouped by relevancy for parents, staff and the community. Within these areas stakeholders can
expect to find information such as calendars, topics of concern, items need by students for
Other sub-sites like IPS Tube, IPS online and school specific sites cater to parents, students
and teachers to access homework, grades, rich-media and other various types of data. These
sites, while important to our evaluation, are behind a level of security, which prevented the team
interviews were conducted on a subset of the stakeholders who included Parents, Teachers and
Community Members. From those interviews we created both profiles of the key stakeholder
and scenarios that appeared most relevant to the overall evaluation (See Appendix - Scenarios).
After evaluating the scenarios from the perspective of our key stakeholders, we documented any
usability issues that were encountered. Additionally, we utilized heuristic inspection techniques,
which we used to conduct further exploration to exploit any additional usability problems not
found by the scenario-based evaluation. The heuristic inspection utilized the well-known,
SCENARIOS
There were a total of 13 scenarios done for this analysis. The items below represent the
goals each scenario tried to accomplish. There are multiple tasks per goal, which is why nine
We accomplished the scenarios using personas created for each of the primary
stakeholders. A sample of the personas we used for our scenario-based inspection can be found
Stakeholder Tasks
Staff View the proper procedure for reporting her absence to work
due to her child‟s illness
Find notes of school board meeting which she missed
Casual User Find when and where local sporting events are taking place
Find donation opportunity in IPS
INSPECTION RESULTS
1. CONTENT
1.1 MISSING AND INCONSISTENT INFORMATION
Problem Description/Characterization:
When accessing individual schools, the user has an expectation as to what s/he will find
on the page. On many of the school pages, the information available is very limited or simply
non-existent. This could give the impression that the website is under construction and
unreliable. However, ultimately, the user is left with no clues as to what is going on, when
they should check back, or if the problem is one with their computer or the website itself.
Examples:
While one school may have a very detailed overview and content rich specification of the
school (right), another school may have very basic information of little to no relevance to the
user whatsoever.
Website 1: http://www.schools.ips.k12.in.us/schooldetail.php?num=501
Website on the left has extremely little content when compared to website on the right.
Severity: Major
The process for obtaining the sites content should be clearly defined and a review board
should be established to monitor both the breadth and depth of the information presented.
If information is unavailable the user should be presented with a notification stating why it is
unavailable and provide a timeline for when it will be updated.
Throughout the site, there are areas where the target user is not able to discern whether
the location identified by the page title is the appropriate content for the user.
Examples:
Severity: Major
Providers of content should recognize all potential users and the context of the
information they are providing. Formal reviews should be conducted for any content that is
to be published. There should also be a checklist that the reviewers use to help guide them
through the review process.
Throughout the website similar information is segmented out into individual topics.
Within those individual topics the information display is inconsistent in depth and breadth of
the content provided. Also within those individual topics, there is no structure to the means
of sorting the data. It seems very inconsistent across the pages.
Examples:
Each of the three resource pages provides information to the user in different formats.
Information is not alphabetized on the local resources page, information across pages can
sometimes be vague and information about universities is completely missing.
Is the data in Local Resources (left) sorted by importance? Is the data in State Resources
(middle) and State Colleges and Universities (right) sorted alphabetically?
Severity: Minor
Formal reviews should be conducted for any content that is to be published. There
should also be a checklist that the reviewers use to help guide them through the review
process to help detect missing or inconsistent representation of information.
When the user accesses the news from the homepage, they are shown a screen that does
not have dates of the postings. This is important for the user to allow the user to have a
basic trust with the site.
Examples:
When the user views the news on the IPS site, they are presented with the headline and a
quick description about the content of that article. There is no information as to when the
articles were posted. The dates you see in the example above are all related to the article itself
and are not the actual dates they were published. http://www.ips.k12.in.us/headlines.php
I know the date of the event, but when was the news posted?
Severity: Minor
2. INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
When the user attempts to find a school close to their home, they have no visual cues as
to the physical location of the school compared to where they are. The user needs a means as
to visually locate a school in relation to distance from other schools, the user, and other
landmarks.
Examples:
This is the extent of the results returned to the user when they perform a search for all
schools. They can specify it based on the type of school, however, they would benefit being
able to see a visual representation of the schools location in respect to another location (i.e.
map).
http://www.schools.ips.k12.in.us/
Severity: Major
The user should have some medium of visualization that conveys and can assist the user
in their search. One possibility is for a map to be present, showing the user the school on a
familiar interface (map of the city). Another possibility, maybe even in combination with the
first mentioned, is to allow the user to enter their address or zip code in order to receive a list
of schools ordered by distance from their location. This is a common feature offered in
many location/map-based searches for the simple fact of simplicity. It is easy to incorporate
and the frameworks are basically already built and waiting to be used.
When the user accesses the calendars page they are presented with a list of calendars that
mix school calendars, holiday calendars, important dates, staff calendars and pay calendars.
The information presented here is not separated by type of user who may find it confusing
and overwhelming to find information relevant to their needs. The contents of the calendars
are not explicitly stated nor are their functions.
Examples:
The page is full of information. Calendars that link to pdf documents are located at the
top, followed by internal anchor links to other areas of the page. At the end, the user is
finally presented with the content of the pages that span 6 screenshots shown above. The
target words are not clearly identified throughout the page and the pdf links cannot be
differentiated from the internal anchor links. This could confuse the user when anticipating
what information will show up from their selection.
What page am I on? Will the user be able to find the correct calendar in a timely
manner?
Severity: Minor
Information should be clear segmented between the types of users. Only information
relevant to the target user should be presented. Because information spans many pages, the
design should consider using separate pages for each of the targeted user groups with a
landing page that ties all calendars together.
The information architecture of the IPS website is structured mainly according to the
Hierarchy Paradigm. There is no problem when the user selects a topic and accesses to the
more detailed informational pages under it. However, she cannot go back from the detailed
to the upper level. The only way to do so is by clicking the back button of the browser. The
Backward feature linearly records every click of the user, so that the user needs to click many
times to go back to the upper level and select another topic, which will be very annoying and
will surely interrupt user‟s work flow.
Examples:
When the user wants to go back from the school‟s detail information (B) to the webpage
(A), s/he has no access or hint about how to go back. User may don‟t know what to do and
stuck there. The only way to go back is by clicking the back button of the browser. If the
user clicked several pages in (B), she may need to click many times backward to access (A),
which is very annoying and can ruin the work flow.
http://www.schools.ips.k12.in.us/schooldetail.php?num=14
If the user ends up on (B), they may not know how to get back to (A).
Severity: Major
Keep track of the users browsing. Provide links back to each previous page the user
navigates through the hierarchical site structure.
Reference Scenario: 2
2.4 WHERE AM I
Problem Description/Characterization:
Throughout the site, there are areas where the target user is not able to discern at what
level they are at within the website
Examples:
Severity: Major
Design should include visual cues in the navigation that highlights their currently
location. Items such as breadcrumbs are good solutions to provide the track and navigate
within the hierarchy. Another idea is to change text color or background color of links for
the current location and/or breadcrumbs could be used to help users quickly identify their
level within the website and also help navigate back to a high level location.
The content of the page and links within the navigation bar are unrelated. As the
navigation bar provides important clues for users about where they are, and navigates them
within the same topic or to other topics, the unrelated navigation will make user get lost
Moreover, it will annoy the users by providing no entrance to where they want to go and
force them to choose the ones they may not be interested in; or leave.
Examples:
Severity: Major
Make sure the links matches the content, and remove the unrelated ones. Examine the
arrangement of the navigation to make sure they clearly represent the structure of the
website.
On the home page, within the content area, the user is confronted with four segmented
areas. While segmentation in a website is necessary, this segmentation style leaves no room
for utilization of a main content area; confusing the user. The user will not be able to do a
quick scan of the page to retrieve the information they need. The user will also be unable to
attain necessary information to achieve high confidence in their selection of this website for
their specific needs.
Examples:
The user is unable to quickly identify any information without the need to delve further
into subtopics. There is no “Main” content on the homepage. The user doesn‟t have an
http://www.ips.k12.in.us
Does the user feel welcome when they access this page or do they feel like it is simply
pushing them off to another section?
Severity: Minor
Develop an area for main content to be displayed to the user. This should summarize
the site and what the site represents.
2.7 ARCHIVING
Problem Description/Characterization:
The information within this page contains events specific to IPS. The events are
arranged according to the date posted, however, the posted date is missing. The posted date
is an important hint for user, which indicates how the events are arranged and organized.
Instead, the date of the event is on the news title. It may give the users an impression that
the news is arranged randomly, so that the user will have difficulty in finding the necessary
news.
Examples:
http://www.ips.k12.in.us/headlines.php
Severity: Minor
Giving the user more of a choice would allow them to feel more comfortable by giving
more control over what they view. If they had an option to view most recent, 2009, 2008,
2007, etc. news, they can have more control over navigation and, ultimately, gain more
comfort.
3. NAVIGATION
3.1 UNDISTINGUISHABLE LINKS
Problem Description/Characterization:
Throughout the site, there are areas where the user is not able to differentiate a link from
text unless s/he hovers over the text. While the color blue does identify many links, it is
important to remain consistent. Menus should be clearly defined as areas that only contain
links and are not part of the content of the page. The problem will make the user cannot
Example 1:
Within the menu of the School Details, there are links and non-links. For example
School Website is a link, while Enrollment is non-link. The items that are links cannot be
differentiated from regular text. This will confuse the user and prohibit them from locating
what they intend to find on the site.
http://www.schools.ips.k12.in.us/schooldetail.php?num=39
Severity: Major
The links need to be distinguished as different from normal text. This can be done using
the average blue text with underlining (preferred), or another style that better matches the
design of the site. Whatever the case, the style should be easily distinguishable from normal
text on the page and must remain consistent throughout the pages.
Examples:
There are two separate “Global Navigation” bars as well as two separate “Page/Topic
Specific Navigation” areas. This is too much information for the user to keep in memory and
offers too many choices, which will eventually lead to an increased confusion of the user.
http://www.parents.ips.k12.in.us/
Severity: Major
The user should be presented with one, or at the very most two, navigation areas. These
should not only be placed within close proximity to one-another, but they should be easily
identified and defined by the user.
There are some links that connect to the websites outside of IPS. The new website
opens in the same window without alerts notifying the user that they are leaving IPS. The
user may be confused as to where they actually are.
Examples:
http://www.schools.ips.k12.in.us/schooldetail.php?num=15
http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARCH/snapshot.cfm?schl=5515
Will the user be surprised when they are navigated from IPS (top) to a mutually exclusive
Indiana Government site (bottom)?
Severity: Major
The user must feel as though s/he is always within the structure of the site. Confidence
of the user, in this case, is based greatly on trust that when navigating within the site, they are
being directed to areas within the structure of the site itself. On possibility for redesign
would be to present the user with a pop-up browser when the user clicks an external link.
The user, in this case, would still need some type of signification that they are leaving the
„trusted‟ IPS site. Along these same lines, instead of a pop up, the user could be directed to a
new tab.
Examples:
The site provides all schools within the area to the user. If the user is finding a school to
fit her specific requirement, she can only judge whether the school fits with the information
of Schools‟ Number, Name and Phone, as provided. Obviously, this is insufficient for a
judgment call. Thus the user has to click in each school website which, could take a long
time.
On the other hand, if the user wants to find a school called William Penn, she can only
scan the long list to find it and it‟s easy to miss the school.
How do I know the school is the one I want to find with only the school name, number
and phone?
Severity: Major
Provide more strategies for school searching, such as filtering or arranging the schools
according to specific school attribute. Provide more information or attributes to the choices
(i.e. address, email, fax. website, etc.).
4. PRESENTATION
The status of the current page is not visible. There are not enough clues about what
topic the current page belongs to. It could lead the user to confusion about where they are,
and have no access to browse more webpage‟s in the same topic.
Examples:
The user selects the Washington Irving School from the list of Elementary School. But
in school‟s pages, there is no clue indicating which category does the Washington Irving
School belongs to. The user may get confused about which kind of school they selected, and
there is no way for her to brows more schools in the same category. Moreover, the text
“School 14” is meaningless in the title while it is an indication of the school‟s range.
Severity: Major
Add indications to let users know where they are currently with regards to the schools
category. For example highlight the category the user chooses.
Reference Scenario: 3
Examples:
This is a representation IPS websites main homepage. Above the IPS logo one will
notice that the top links are bolded and larger than any other links on the page. One may
also observer there is no text action or cue that those are links (i.e. no dynamic underlining,
text highlighting, etc.). Further, sub navigation does contain background highlighting.
Navigation of topics in the body are bolded which is inconsistent of the secondary
navigation and do not provide any dynamic cues for users.
How does the user know the hierarchical and hyper textual meanings of the headers?
Severity: Major
There needs to be a consistent format for navigation on the website controlled through
cascading style sheets. First, second, third level links should contain either dynamic or non-
dynamic cues such as color, text decoration or highlighting and should remain consistent
across pages. The designer should make it easy for the user to discern that a hyperlink exists
and not be formatted like other text on a page.
When the user accesses the calendars page they are presented with a list of calendars
some of which are presented in documents such as PDF files and some that are displayed on
directly on the screen. The style of presentation creates unnecessary churn for the user who
expects to see everything in one place.
Examples:
The page is full of information. Calendars that link to pdf documents are located at the
top, followed by internal anchor links to other areas of the page. At the end, the user is
finally presented with the content of the pages that span 6 screenshots shown above. The
target words are not clearly identified throughout the page and the pdf links cannot be
differentiated from the internal anchor links. This could confuse the user when anticipating
what information will show up from their selection.
http://www.about.ips.k12.in.us/index.php?id=3323
Severity: Major
Linked files (i.e. PDFs) should support the information presented on the screen and
NOT be a substitute for it. Users should be able to see the information in one place without
having to open multiple windows or documents. This saves them both time and reduces the
When the user clicks through various sub domains within the IPS website (i.e.
http://www.ips.k12.in.us/; https://portal.ips.k12.in.us/; http://www.ipstube.ips.k12.in.us/;
https://employment.ips.k12.in.us/ips_online_application/(qwq5b0202f3aly55e5izjm45)/def
ault.aspx) there is no consistent identity which can confuse the user about their true location
within the website.
Examples:
This is a representation when a user navigates to one of the various sub domains within
the IPS website. The visual identity is not consistent causing the user additional effort to
identify that the webpage is within the IPS website.
Severity: Minor
The user should have the ability to quickly identify that they are still on the IPS website
without having to review the URL in the browser address bar. By keeping a consistent look
to each page (i.e. consistent header, logo, high-level navigation, footer) it will be easier for
the user to recognize the site and provide the user with a sense of confidence knowing they
are not being take to another site outside of IPS.
According to user‟s layout contention, they scan from top left to right down. Thus the
important information should be located on the left. Location can be hint of the content.
Now the navigation bar is put on the right, giving the user an impression that such
information is less important. Users may not notice it or may not recognize it as a navigation
bar, so that the user may miss the information inside.
Examples:
The menu of School Details contains school‟s statistics, and links to more
information to the schools. However, it is located on the right, where is usually for the
advertisement or supplementary information. Thus, the user may customarily ignore the
School Detail, so that she can never access the information or links inside.
Severity: Minor
Relocate the navigation bar to where users tend to pay more attention to, such as the left
side or upper side.
5. SEMIOTICS
5.1 ERROR RECOVERY
Problem Description/Characterization:
Examples:
Below shows two different error pages, neither of which allow the user to easily recover
from the error they received.
What's wrong with this page? How can I go back? Is it me or the website?
Severity: Major
Every section of the website should have a generic error page that at a minimum
identifies the error, states it‟s not the users fault and provide them at minimum an option to
navigate either 1.) Back to the page they were just previously at or 2.) Return to the IPS
homepage.
Reading the page heading does not intuitively allow the user know they are on the page
they navigate to. Because of this, users may don‟t know where they are. Moreover, the title is
important for users to judge whether the information they are finding is within this page.
Because of the mismatch between content and title, the user may miss the information
within the page.
Example 1:
The page labeled with the phrase “About Us” when in fact the user clicked on the
“Contact Us” link.
“About Us” mislabeled should state “Contact Us” as the link identifies
Example 2:
The webpage is not given the right title. This is a webpage of school report. However
the No Child Left Behind with no relation to the content webpage is given as the main title
this page.
Where can I get No Child left Behind information? None of these links take me there.
Severity: Major
Update headings and labels to match the navigational text users click elsewhere in the site.
The information provided within specific topic is too rough and incomprehensive to
support it. The user may fail to finish his/her task with lack of information.
Examples:
This is a page proving general information about the IPS. However, this page lacks both
a fax number and email address as alternate forms of contact that users may prefer.
Severity: Major
This page along with the phone directory should be combined so all information can be
retrieved from a single location. Additionally, the information should contain the physical
address, email address, phone and fax number. Ideal if a user does not have email a web-
based form solution should be include that would allow users to send a message and have
instructions on how to be contacted in return.
As you have read, our team has discovered many specific usability issues of the IPS site. In
each of the analyses, our team has presented problem, examples, severity, improvements,
category of design, heuristic, and scenario of reference. These all are usually with respect to a
specific scenario or situation in which we investigated. There are many times, however, in which
many of these specific situational findings show patterns that introduce a wider-ranged problem
that the IPS website contains and publishes a breadth of information, we have identified many
points, throughout our investigation, that present similar information in an inconsistent manner.
There are specific examples listed in the analyses above, however, this fix is more of a thought-
process fix during the design phase. As the user attempts to find information quickly, they tend
to reflect on what has worked before. If they found information about a specific item in a
category in a certain distinct location, they would expect to find that same type of item in the
Any site should push the user away from confusion as much as possible. A big piece of this
happens with the navigation. Within the IPS site, navigation is one of our primary areas of
concern. More specifically, backwards navigation is of dire need in this site. The user needs a way
of consistently and accurately going back to the page they originally came from. While this is
extremely important for internal sites, it must also be incorporated for links to external sites as
well. Anytime the user is navigated away from the familiarity of the site they have been at and
chosen to be at, confusion will arise. One reason for this is because of their mental map. As the
user was progressing through the IPS site, they were developing a mental map, which allowed
them to feel a sense of comfort in the confines of the site itself. When navigated to a completely
different server which looks and feels nothing like the IPS site itself, the users will attain some
confusion as to their map not fitting the territory they are currently at.
the user to know where they are at any given time in the site. As discussed earlier, the user‟s
mental map is what gives them a sense of comfort with a familiar site. One reason for this is
because the user knows where they are in relation to other landmarks of the website. When
dealing with a small site consisting of a few pages, it is completely fine to rely on this mental map.
However, due to the depth and breadth of the IPS site, the user needs some cues that can assist
with this. Without these cognitive cues presented by the website, the user may get confused when
trying to get back to a place they came from or once were. The user should know where they are
Navigation, as mentioned before, was one of our primary areas of concern when
investigating the IPS site. A consistent issue we found was with the confusion elicited from an
overload of navigation. There were times when navigation was presented for items that really
didn‟t need navigation. This can lead the user down a dangerous trail of assumption. The user
may assume that the links in the page/topic navigation section are related to the current page.
The user may also get confused when too much navigation is presented in an inconsistent
format. For example, four different areas of navigation within a site, presented all at once, are
simply too much for a user to understand while still trying to enjoy the site. Navigation that
structures the users visit by not only guiding the user, but also facilitating in the users mental-
Characteristics
Characteristics
Characteristics
Course Curriculums
Security
o Cost associated with schooling (additional special programs)
o Extra-Curricular Activities
o Sports
o Music
o Other Programs
Statistical information
o Test Scores
o Teacher 2 Student Ratios
o Graduation Rate
o Students attending college
Facility Characteristics of Schools
o Computers
o Library
o Cafeteria
o Medical Facilities
Parent #1
Parent #2
Forms
Schedules
Parent # 3
Calendar
o With specification to select specific types from a group
Sports
Pay for Lunch for different grades of students
Directions
Superintendent notes
Lunch Schedules
N/A
Goal #1: Do research to decide the middle school for her child
Look at the detail of each school: Schools > Middle Schools > click school name >
School website > backward for many time of the explorer to go back to the school‟s
description page > All school, go back to school list.
a. No way to go back to the list of schools if she wants to see other schools.
b. Some items under School Details are hyperlinks and some are not, but all of them
look the same that they are just static text.
c. Items under Schools Details are put on the right side that seems unimportant and
difficult to notice, while they are the most valuable information of this page.]
d. No way to go back from the Schools Website to Schools Details
e. Leads confusion that it jumps to the school‟s website because of the different visual
style, the label name of School website, and the unobvious IPS logo.
f. The user may easily forget which schools she has read and which school she hasn‟t,
as the appearance of the hyperlinks tabbed before are not varied from the un-tabbed
ones.
What‟s the official evaluation of that school: Schools > Schools Detail Report > click
school name for report
a. The page title is No Child Left Behind, which doesn‟t match the content of the page
and confusing.
b. The school‟s report page is on another website, however, there is no tips telling the
users they are leaving the IPS website.
c. No ways go back from the school‟s report.
Find the schools calendar: Schools > Middle Schools > click the school name > School
website > General Information > Calendar
a. Not enough clue indicating that the calendar is buried under the School website.
b. Though the School website of each school has the same information
architecture, the interface layout varies from each other (e.g. The Calendar is
placed in different position in different schools.). The user needs to find it every
time when they click different schools.
c. The list of school is long with no search feature or filter feature. The user needs
a. The Home link is on the right with no emphasis, which is not obvious enough.
Display All Headlines > click the title of the announcements > Home, go back
a. Lack of the date of the announcement.
b. The Home link is on the right with no emphasis, which is not obvious enough
to the user.
Get general introduction of the community: About IPS > Culture Imperatives;
About IPS > General Information; About IPS > Partnership
a. The navigation bar in Partnership is empty and cannot get to other parallel
topics.
What are the resources in this community: Community > Local Resources; Schools >
Local Resources
What are the schools in IPS: Schools > High Schools > click the school name > School
website > back to the list to see another school
a. (Same problems as Scenario #1 Task #1)
How is the neighborhood around the potential school: Schools > High Schools > click
the school name > Boundary map
a. Not enough information introducing the neighborhood around the school.
--User Profile: A member of the IT staff who works within the district for different
schools. The staff member is a female in her mid-thirties with one child who
attends school in another school district. She has been employed by the district
for 3 years and focuses mainly on the network infrastructure of the district’s 7
schools (4 Elementary, 2 Middle, and 1 High).
Goal #1: The user wants to access the employee handbook, or any other method,
from her home to view the proper procedure for reporting her absence to work
due to her child’s illness.
Find the Employee Handbook: Home > Staff > Human Resources
a. Does not exist
Find a Phone Number to Report her Absence: Home > Staff > Human Resources >
Staff
g. The user may not know who to call for her specific inquiry.
h. The inner tabs to get to this point are not consistent
a. If the user was on another page and desired to access the staff directory for
human resources, they would not be able to find this page
i. There is not access to other phone numbers. The user may feel the need to find
another number (perhaps of a fellow teacher) who could assist her as a peer.
Goal #2: The user was not able to make it to the last school board meeting due to
her daughter’s illness, and needs to know what topics were discussed to see if any
affect her work. There have been some recent decisions made by the school board
that could affect day-to-day operations of the user.
Find Recent News from the School: Home > Display All Headlines
a. Although the headlines are listed on the first page, they seem like they are static
links that don‟t change. This could confuse the user or make them to look past
this area.
b. There are a wide range of categories that could be organized better to allow the
user to skim through and find what they are looking for.
c. There should be a news section for each intended user (i.e. parents, staff,
students, etc…).
Read Superintendent Notes: Home > Superintendents Blog
a. The blog does not say when it was updated which would help the user find her
information quickly and also ensure the user that they have the most valid
information
b. It is not clear whom the superintendent is addressing.
Goal #1: The user wants to find when and where local sporting events are taking
place.
Locate Sports Events: Home > Events > Sports
a. Does not exist, user must go to each specific schools website (Home > Schools
> High Schools > School Website > Events or Sports)
Goal #2: The user would like to know what opportunities IPS has for making
donations or what self-development opportunities might exist for continued adult
education
Locate resources for self-development: Home > Community
a. Community section at first glance appears to be focused towards the business
community.
b. User must access the “Local Resources / State Resources / State Universities”
in a sub-navigation menu before they are presented with a list of potential
programs and/or resources.
c. Local and State resources provide a brief explanation of each item listed along
with a link to the location. State Universities just list the university with link and
no description of existing opportunities for self-development.
Locate /Learn how to donate to IPS: Home > Community > Giving Back
a. Does not exist currently. Through performing a search some documentation
does mention donations, however, no formal instructions or documentation is
provided.
10, 11
12, 13 Stakeholder: Staff (Non-Faculty)
Goal: The user wants to access the employee handbook, or any other method,
from her home to view the proper procedure for reporting her absence to work
due to her child‟s illness.
Task 10: Find the Employee Handbook
The children of the IPS district vary in age, ranging from five (Kindergarten) to nineteen
(Twelfth Grade). IPS educates both male and female students, with and without disabilities, from
a wide array of backgrounds. The ethnic makeup of IPS students is consisted of Black (55%),
White (23%), Hispanic (16%), Multicultural (5%), Asian and Native American (totaling 1%).
Students in IPS may also be enrolled in Gifted (6%) and Special Education (18%) programs.
Because of the wide array of backgrounds some students may have a limited English proficiency
(12%) in their classrooms. To emphasize the movement of students transferring in and out of the
IPS district, we note the mobility rate at 70% for a year. Children in IPS classrooms generally
utilize computers about once to twice a week, at a minimum. This interaction can be influenced,
however, with the mobility rate at such a high level. The students may have transferred from a
school corporation that did not utilize computers as much or utilized computers more often than
IPS.
Most of the IPS children live with their parents or grandparents. Caretaker‟s ages can
range from twenty-two to over fifty-five. Some students live in a two parent household while
others may live with a single parent or grandparent. In single parent households, the number of
students living with only their mother (63%) greatly outweighs the number of students living only
with their fathers (9%) or with a grandparent (3%). As the parents and grandparents get older,
limitations may occur incurring some forms of sight and hearing limitations; though we
emphasize that this is not always the case but more probabilistic for older parents/grandparents.
The parents usually share the demographic background of their children and have usually
attained either a high school and/or college degree. The comfort of use of computers and
technology can vary greatly with parents of IPS students.
The staff and faculty of IPS include teachers, maintenance workers, administrative
personnel, substitute teachers, coaches, librarians, teacher‟s assistants, school police, and others
on the schools payroll. The ages of faculty and staff at IPS can range from 23 to over 60. IPS has
both male and female faculty and staff with high school and college degree backgrounds.
Internally, IPS uses computers and the web for many personnel tasks. There are over two
thousand, four hundred teachers and over four thousand staff members employed by the IPS
Corporation.
Environmental Considerations
Many parents have computers with Internet access at home. This is a comfortable, safe,
and relaxing atmosphere for them to browse the IPS website. The parents who do not have
access to a computer or Internet at home, and do wish to access the IPS website, may do so by
accessing it through a public computer (such as a coffee shop, library, school, etc…) or from
their places of work. There are some forms on the site with critical and personal information that
parents may not want stored on a public computer. Also, with the increase in use of public
computers, there is an increase in likelihood of shoulder surfing to occur. While the parents will
not generally browse the site with others, parents should be on the lookout for people around
them, watching what they type. This rains true not only for parents, but the community as a
whole. If members of the Indianapolis community wish to browse the web, they may do so from
a multitude of different mediums such as home computers, public computes, and mobile devices.
Faculty and staff may access the page from home, like the parents, but will also have
access to the IPS page from their designated schools. They also may use public computes, but
not as much as the parents of the students may. As opposed to parents, it is more likely that
faculty and staff will browse the website socially, with other coworkers. Access to the site for
faculty and staff from school should not hinder on their obligations to the school, running the
risk of putting students and others at risk.
Student‟s access to the site and use of their computers should usually be under adult
supervision. The parent and the student can browse the pages together in a comfortable setting.
Usually, this will occur at home but depends heavily on where the parent accesses the site. Older
students may access the site from school, home, or a public place by themselves.
F. USER CHARACTERISTICS
Parents
o Age
Content When was the Minor 1.) Ensure dates are captured and
News New identified on items that have
relevance around a date/time.
Information Architecture No Way Back Major 1.) Keep track of the users browsing.
Provide links back to each previous
page the user navigates through the
hierarchical site structure.
Information Architecture Unrelated Major 1.) Ensure links match the content
Navigation and remove any unrelated ones.
Examine the arrangement of the
navigation to make sure they clearly
represent the structure of the
website.
Information Architecture Homepage Minor 1.) Develop an area for main content
Without Main to be displayed to the user. This
Content should summarize the site and what
(Homeless the site represents.
Homepage)
Semiotics Mislabeled Pages Major 1.) Ensure labels are consistent with
the content identified by the heading
Archiving
Time of the Information
Technical Date Identification
http://tusdstats.tusd.k12.az.us/planning/profiles/mobility/mob_route.asp
Student‟s information
http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARCH/snapcorp.cfm?corp=5385
http://www.about.ips.k12.in.us/index.php?id=3058
Community
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/18/1836003.html