Date: 07/09/2019

To: USGA
From: Private Corp E (Salad, Isak, Tim, Kareem)
Subject: Website Usability and Navigation

This handout looks at the original set of steps made for helping people navigate through your
website on accessing historical national water-use. While the original set of instructions is well
made and very easy to comprehend there were some improvements that could be made. We
constructed a usability test and determined what steps were properly displayed and what parts
needed revision. After testing multiple users that will remain anonymous we asked them a few
questions based on their experience with the steps and our consensus is below

Test Objectives
Our usability test was made to resolve any issues with the instructions that would have caused Formatted: Indent: First line: 0"
any frustration to the user and affirm the quality of the steps. During the testing we discovered
that most users were able to access the national water-use data even through some frustration.
Our intention for this test was to identify whether or not the visual aids wereas helpful or
hindering and , if the instructions were simple and clear, and finally if the format of the website
wais generally appealing to users.

Results
Areas of Strengths
This original set of instructions had many strengths to it. Most of these strengths have to
deal with organization and information. For example, the site uses a step by step numerical
organization which keeps the reader going in order. Skinny red circles highlight crucial sections
in the images and charts. This helps the reader pinpoint important details easily. With all this,
finding data is simple and quick. The different colors keep the reader interested and also add a
deeper level to organization. It was just the right amount of colors to separate different parts.

Areas for Improvement

While this website might not have many major issues, there are many minor issues. This
website does not have too many negatives but the ones it does are minor. The use of white space
could be improved slightly to help with the organization. There was also a suggestion of adding
more hyperlinks within the instructions for help. One of the other major points was to include the
instructions on the page that is being acted upon. This would be better than switching from page
to page, which decreases efficiency. Finally, some wording within the site is difficult for those
without previous knowledge to understand. The document then does not explain its words or
what it mentions making it even harder.

Questionnaire
Closed Ended Questions
1. Are the visual aids helpful?
2. Do you feel that you would be able to navigate the website without any more assistance?
3. Do you think there is a reasonable amount of white space

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  Yes the visuals were helpful in instructions
 Yes the reader is comfortable with following the website through its instructions
 Yes, white space is used well but could be improved in some spots

Open Ended Questions

1. How easy is it for you to understand the steps?
2. How easy is it for you to understand the article?
3. How would you improve this webpage? (Visually and organizationally)

 Most participants say it is easy to follow instructions

 Understanding the data and information is difficult due to unknown words
 Borders on images and charts would help visuals along with small white space changes

Recommendations
The Test user’s recommendations were insightful and gave us a clear path to go down to
make the final version of the instructions. The first user gave us the suggestion to make the
website interactive; however we found it made the website too “busy”. User two found wording
to be problematic and felt graphics needed to be updated, we took this feedback and changed
“choose” to “select” and we updated the screen captures to have a more unified look with
rectangles indicating where to click, instead of circles. Lastly we were suggested to reduce white
space, which we did.

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Appendix A – Original Instructions

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Appendix A - Original Instructions
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 1. Click on the blue Water Use button on the browser screen (on bottom
left)
2. Click on the blue National Data button (left)

3. Choose the year(s) for water-use data retrieval by clicking on a selection

- once a year(s) is chosen then water-use categories available for that year will
appear under “---Category---”.

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4. Choose the water-use category for data retrieval by clicking on a
selection - (multiple categories also can be chosen). Once selection(s) has been
made - click the “Submit” button.

5. Choose the output format for the water-use data retrieval. The options
are to get a table of data or tab-separated data that is: (1) saved to a file; (2)
displayed in the browser window; or (3) saved to a compressed file. For saving
data to a file, choose “tab-separated data” and “save to a file” and then click
“Submit”. Once “Submit” has been clicked - the data file can be opened in the
browser window or saved to a selected location.

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Appendix B - Revised Set of Instructions
1. Open up website in a brand new tab separate from the instructions
2. Click on the blue Water Use button on the browser screen (on bottom
left)

3. Select the year(s) for water-use data retrieval by clicking on a selection -

once a year(s) is chosen then water-use categories available for that year
will appear under “---Category---”.

4. Select the water-use category for data retrieval by clicking on a selection

- (multiple categories also can be chosen). Once selection(s) has been made - click
the “Submit” button.

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5. Select the output format for the water-use data retrieval. The options are
to get a table of data or tab-separated data that is: (1) saved to a file; (2) displayed
in the browser window; or (3) saved to a compressed file. For saving data to a
file, choose “tab-separated data” and “save to a file” and then click “Submit”. Once
“Submit” has been clicked - the data file can be opened in the browser window or
saved to a selected location.