Usability Test For Bournemouth University IT Services

Participants

A usability test is a kind of test done to see whether an interface serves the specific need for which it had been created and whether the use of the same interface is making it easier for the user and is actually helping a user to access and use all the information that has been advertised by the design and the home page contents. In this study, there has been an attempt to create anwebsite for Bournemouth University IT services (https://itservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/) and to find out the general way in which the information has been delivered to the different users and whether there have been any problems in accessing such information (Vo, 2015). There are certain usability problems exist in the form of consistency, design and documentation.

1. Website Overview

The website of the university is the most important communication tool between the stakeholders such as present student, student prospective, alumni, staffs, etc. The university website (https://itservices.bournemouth.ac.uk) is ranked among the top rated website and comprise of approx 63.3% of UK traffic.

The university website is the most important means of identity of the university portal to the outside world as far as communication is concerned. The website needs to well maintained and regularly updated according to the increasing needs of the users.

The participants have been chosen in a manner that should make it capable of connecting them to the IT sectors, with the help of certain permutation, and the choice in a manner that will help in bringing together groups from the IT conference with the help of the university site visiting, https://itservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/. Hence, it is through this method that the different kinds of audience have been selected so as to concentrate the object of the study to be related to interested parties (Ismailova, 2017). Hence undergraduate and postgraduates who are studying the social interaction and awareness programs related to ITsectors were selected. Specific parents were selected by lottery and IT teachers were selected. Certain established IT workers who come in contact with corporate environment were also selected and finally 3 network analysts and website experts were considered (Ogata, Goto and Okano, 2016). The session took 15 minutes out of each of the participant and for each of them, there was a need to go through an objective and subjective questionnaire which would help to establish the connection between the study and the participants and the conclusion derived from it (Venkatesh, Hoehle and Aljafari 2017).

Participants

There has been a selective method that has been used to choose the different kinds of participants in this area and so, according to the selective process, the different kinds of participants chosen are:

• Undergraduates: These are individuals who have been chosen to due their area of study which is information Technology.
• Post Graduates:They have been chosen with the consideration of their working field which included research field of IT and securityresponse, and Web design.
• Parents:Parents who had attended the IT conference with their children and were willing to participate in the program were chosen.
• Teachers:Teachers who taught information technology and web design in high schools and colleges were chosen for the program ((Rodríguez, et al., 2017).
• Established IT workers:Established IT workers were chosen was the recommendations that they could provide regarding the object of the study.
• Network analysts and website experts:Certain network analysts and website expertshave also been considered who can be identified and who can be used for recommendation and addition of information if required.

The table below provides a general overview of the number of people and the audience type chosen for the study:

Audience Type	Number
Undergraduates	2
Post Graduates	3
Parents	2
Teachers	2
Established IT workers	4
Network analysts and website experts	3

Task Scenario

The task was divided into certain different portions and while all the members were allowed to take part in it, there was more monitoring focus on certain individuals so that they could provide the required amount of information input in this area:

• Find a news item about IT courses: This was more focused on all individuals and was necessary to understand the ease of access provided by the website and how the website was working in general (HuangandBenyoucef 2014).
• Find cloud system for organizations: This was focused mostly on the field of graduate students and IT professional who have a more in-depth knowledge about this matter, and with their interaction of the established IT workers who are actually part of the system (Cox, et al.,2015).
• Find IT information and prospects: This was focused on theestablished IT workers who are the sole information distributor of such information and how the website is capable of dispensing important information.
• Find research tools of design: This is important for teacher and students and so awareness part of the website was tested in this case.
• Find proper university and technology enhanced learning: In this area, there was a major part of the IT providers and monitoring of them of students who would provide valuable information and online learning regarding the Bournemouth University information provided in the website.

Task Completion Rate

From the different task results, the task completion rate was understood and it stood in the following manner:

Participant	Task 1	Task 2	Task 3	Task 4	Task 5	Task 6
1	√	–	√	–	√	–
2	√	–	√	√	√	–
3	√	√	√	√	√	–
4	√	√	√	√	√	–
5	√	–	–	–	√	–
6	√	–	–	√	√	–
Success	7	2	5	4	6	0
Completion Rates	100%	29%	71%	57%	86%	0%

*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

From the table it could be seen that Task 1 and 5 had the highest completion rate, while it went down, making Task 2 having a 29% completion rate and Task 6 turning out to be a 0%. So, there is a problem regarding the ease of access in the following areas.

Task Rating

The task rating has been done in a manner so that the task that has been undertaken can be considered along with certain standard which will help to form a way to understand and create a proper method to derive certain results (Nathan, Musah, and Dhillon, 2017). Hence, from the task rating standard, two specific objects have been attempted to be derived and understood and they are:

• Ease of Access: This has been made to find out how there can be or is an ease of access in terms of the entry into a certain website and an attempt to get information into that website regarding different aspects of it.
• Tracking of information:There is a certain amount of tracking that a website should have wherein certain amount of information of the user is stored and used for enhance the surfing ability of the users, make recommendation and on top of it, help to improve the general aspect of the website (Danielson et al. 2016).
• Prediction:By the use of predictive analysis, it is necessary for a website to see and

• Be able to predict certain objects, like chief funds, specified quotations, eligibility decisions for online learning etc., asked by the user and this kind of predictive analysis helps the individual to become a participant into the activities of the website.

The task rating has been conducted on a 5-point system wherein the two extremes are strongly disagree and strongly agree respectively and it has been made in a proper scale form to get a better view of the likes and dislikes of the users (Wolpin, et al., 2015).

Task	Ease – Finding Info	Location in Site	Predict Section	Overall
1 – Find News Item	3.6 (57%)	4.0 (86%)	3.0 (29%)	3.5
2 – Cloud system Information	2.9 (43%)	3.9 (72%)	2.6 (44%)	2.9
3 – Find IT Info	4.7 (100%)	4.7 (100%)	4.7 (100%)	4.7
4 – Find FAQ (HIPAA)	3.6 (57%)	3.3 (83%)	3.3 (57%)	3.6
5 – Find Testing Day	4.3 (86%)	4.7 (100%)	4.6 (86%)	4.5
6 – Find Online course and eligibility of the same	2.4 (29%)	2.9 (67%)	2.3 (29%)	2.7

• Ease of Access: It was clear from the general layout of the analysis and the conclusions drawn that most participants found some of the general aspects of the analysis easy, but there were certain aspects, such as cloud system integration and online course which they found difficult to get to and therefore difficult to understand (Barbara et al. 2016).
• Tracking of information:There is a need to keep a track of location in the site and in general, the conclusion in this area is that the locational aspects of the different links and information in the site is quite stable except the brochures section which is difficult to locate or track (Sherman, 2016).
• Predicting of information:The prediction analysis that could be performed on the information that has been derived from the results have shown that the prediction section has a low attractiveness among the ones who engaged in the same. This is because the predictive analysis in this area has been found to be really cumbersome and difficult to use.
• Overall: On an overall basis, there has been the highest rating provided to finding of treatment information. Predictive analysis has obtained a lower rating but is still in a medium range, but the items such as obtaining of information about cloud system and the issue and finding of online course information for extensive learning is difficult to locate, access and avail to.

Lack of information on cloud storage

The software that has been used to understand the different aspects of the project and which has tried to find out the difficulties faced by the individuals who are using the website, has also recorded the time that each has taken to achieve the singular tasks (Parsons and Adams, 2017). This time does not only provide an overview of how the general participant has performed, or any kind of variable like age or competence or skill while using the website, but rather it shows the varying amount of difficulty that might have been faced by a user while the user was working on the different aspects of the website. Once the time is considered and it is paired with the rate of errors that has been committed by an individual in the entire process, it could be seen whether the problem could be isolated and tested and whether through the analysis process, the item can be judged as being either a system problem or an individualistic problem (Lee and Snajdr, 2015). As could be seen, there has been a maximum time taken in Task 6 which is to find the brochure and Task 2 which is to find the cloud systemintegrating portion and therefore the process checks out with the previous analysis which showed that there is a problem in those two sectors.

	P1	P2	P3	P4	P5	P6	P7	Avg. TOT*
Task 1	65	95	61	310	210	71	50	123.1
Task 2	130	370	50	200	110	55	390	186.4
Task 3	20	215	15	80	120	30	35	73.6
Task 4	150	65	55	150	180	67	240	129.6
Task 5	43	127	29	60	79	30	115	69.0
Task 6	146	110	120	465	130	175	325	210.1

Errors

There are certain kinds of errors that could have an impact on the website use and browsing speed as well as the satisfaction levels that can be gauged through the process. In accordance to this kind of error measurement, the software has also recoded the amount of error divided on a task-by-task basis (McClellan et al. 2016.). There are non-critical errors, which are errors that does not affect the completion process, and critical errors which are errors which can have an effect on the task completion process. Therefore, the table was made to identify and distinguish between the errors and the impact it had on satisfaction. Only critical errors have been considered here.

Task Rating

Summary of Completion, Errors, Time on Task, Mean Satisfaction

Task	Task Completion	Errors	Time on Task	Satisfaction*
1	7	4	123	3.52
2	2	10	186	2.90
3	5	2	74	4.70
4	4	9	130	3.57
5	6	3	69	4.52
6	0	14	210	2.67

* Satisfaction = Mean combined rating across three post-task measures: ease of finding the information, ability to keep track of location in site, and site information prediction accuracy.

As can be seen from the table, most the errors have been committed in Task 2 which is related to Online learning Course and Task 6 which is related to Cloud integration and related servicesearch, and hence, these errors compile to form a lack of satisfaction and the increase of time consumption that has been shown in the previous table (Shitkovaet al. 2015). Therefore, considering the two effects, it can be seen that the Online learning Course item and cloud system necessity items as some faults in the process which has not been taken well by the users who have searched for it as present in the website (https://itservices.bournemouth.ac.uk/). They have found it difficult to access the information and to activate any kind of process to get through to it. There has also been a problem regarding the predictive analysis procedures that may have been used in these areas and which have affected the process itself (Devine, et al., 2016).

Overall Metrics

The overall metrics can be identified from the different survey questions that has been delivered to the individuals after the study. It has shown that most of the individuals thought the website was easy to use but it was difficult to go to certain contents which the home page advertises, and there is a difficulty in the general organization of the website. However, the website of Bournemouth University IT services has attracted them enough to make them come back.

	Strongly  Disagree	Disagree	Neutral	Agree	Strongly Agree	Mean Rating	Percent Agree
Thought Website was easy to use			1	12		3.9	92%
Would use website frequently			2	6	5	4.2	85%
Found it difficult to keep track of where they were in website	3	6	3	1		2.1	8%
Thought most people would learn to use website quickly			5	8		3.6	62%
Can get information quickly		1	2	8	2	3.9	77%
Homepage’s content makes me want to explore site		1	5	2	5	3.9	54%
Site’s content would keep me coming back			2	6	5	4.2	85%
Website is well organized			5	6	2	3.8	62%

From the entire questionnaire, there had been certain aspects that have been understood which could be undertaken by the organization and they are:

• Liking: The individuals present with the organization had liked the general interface of the system and found it to be fast. The graphic and the information are comprehensive, written in a sympathetic and comprehensive which is preferred.
• Dislike:There is a dislike that the individuals had regarding the way the website worked. The complaint was that there was no ease of access and in general, there was complex mechanism that worked and helped individuals take part into the website. There was a lack of ease of access (Cuypers, et al., 2017).
• Recommendations:There are certain recommendations that were made by the individuals which included a way to improve the ease of access of the website and to engage in a proper guidance to help older members to be a part of this learning effort initiated by the website.Separate ‘About Us’ section which is joined with the Home Page.

In general, from the different aspects of the entire study undertaken by the organization, there are certain aspects which need to be seen and which had been recommended by individuals and they are:

Change	Justification	Severity
·  Presentation of relevant information with connecting links to the specific findings	There is a lack of proper links and data location in the website use	High
· Input of proper guidance for elderly people for adult education to help in the general browsing of website	The home content of the website is not as interactive for all kinds of people and requires a better design	Moderate
· To create easy access to Online learning and Cloud security companies which could be contacted through the website	This will help in creating a better access for the individuals to make use of the information received from the website immediately	Low

Lack of proper research information provided in the following screenshot: 

Lack of proper FAQ and information regarding extensive learning programs:

1. Improvement

1) Homepage

There is a need to improve the homepage so that there is a proper way in which whatever has been advertised in the brochure is provided on the home page but it should be made into a hyperlink that can be connected to the main links and in that manner, there could be a proper way in which the links could actually deliver and connect with the actual organization which provides the option or the other information that has been advertised (Hussain, et al., 2015). Hence, for this purpose, there should be proper links that will have a small about section that defines them. Along with that, there should be a proper way in which there will be different kinds of generalised links like ‘News’ or ‘Announcements’ which would help to update the latest information and news about the Bournemouth University, developments about the IT sectors and research field changes and releases and other such generalized information. This information can be made to appear in a succinct manner on the home page for convenience and the links could be used to input the actual news in a detailed manner.  

2) Content and organization

The contents of the website should be divided into two kinds of content: direct contents and reference contents. The direct content placed as links on this website should be such that it will lead to different kinds of content material present on the website itself. Hence, the direct material will be shown and will be guided to by the direct content links that would help by placing the individuals directly into link and the website content which the same link has promised to provide to the user. Similarly, there will be other content such as reference content. Reference links are those kinds of links which will provide the link to the other kinds of websites which will be collaborated and connected to the main website. This specific task should be organized in a specific manner so that there will be any kind of problem regarding the location of the content and the link (Stjernswärd and Hansson, 2017). This will help in the navigation process and should not create a major problem for the individual.A lack of organization in the website will result in system crashes or confusion and there will not be a proper display of the important contents that had been placed on the website for display and use of the user (Rosen, et al., 2018). Help Desk should have char service. As of now, the help desk has no proper chat service as shown here:

3) Navigation

The search engine should provide all the amounts of data that are present in the website. The search engine present in the website should be such that there can be enough amount of information that could be asked for with the help of the search engine. But before the introduction of the search engine there should be a proper layout provided that will also help in the navigation capabilities of the website (Rogers and Jeanty, 2017). Firstly, there should be a proper way in which the contents should be provided on the home page and which will be detailed in the form of sub links which should come down as pop-down menus in a manner that there will be a proper way to define and describe them and provide them with the proper hyperlinks and therefore, with the help of those hyperlinks, the user can use the same to visit the other sites. There should also be certain content links that should be provided at the bottom of the entire webpage, which should provide other kind of website and organization related information and along with that, there should be other information such as the expected results from the organization, previous testimonials, successes of the organization if any, and also, the important aspect being the relationship that the organization holds with the user and therefore there should also be the different agreements and the disclaimers of the site, and the ‘About Us’ section which will hold the important information about the website and its general vision (Kong, Zhang. and Stonebraker, 2015). The search bar should be provided and should connect with the webpage with the inner database of the webpage and that should help in creating a general connection with the information and different kinds of other referential contents that the website should host (Ismailova and Inal, 2017). The search bar should be easy to use and it should contain all the detailed references and direct contents provided by the organization. It may also be connected to a web cloud network. The screenshot shows no search and cloud connectivity.

4) User interface design

The site layout as it currently is should be changed completely so as to make some general proper layout that should be easy to use and could be better understood when the user enter the website or activates any part of it. Any kind of cluttered material would be impossible to present and should be eliminated from the general design of the website and hence this kind of decluttering process should be considered and implemented into the website for the benefit of the user. There should be the introduction of new kinds of accessibility tools that should be provided to the users once they visit the website. The website should be easy to browse and there should be a proper guidance for elderly individuals to create a complete form of involvement to be present in the website (Byczkowski, Munafo and Britto, 2014). For this guidance, there could be the introduction and implementation of either an automatic guiding system through automated chat or a proper manual guiding system by helpline centres which could be easily activated through the live chat feature. The search bar should be fluid to use and should be able to access and provide relevant information to the individual through the use of analysis of keywords and finding out the nearest possibility. Categories in the filter on the events site are changed

from department to a subject of event. And, the types of event are simplified. Generalized information should be provided in a succinct manner, on the basis of information and it should have links to lead the user on to the specific areas (Castilla, et al., 2016). There should be proper disclaimer and about us section provided on the website. It is also necessary that the website have a proper flexibility to increase navigation possibility which is limited to alphanumeric search-based order.

Site recommendation

Domain	Recommendation
Homepage	Search engine should provided and other links such as links related to Awareness programs, news, events, and jobs, and there should be links and pop down menus provided with detailed information links.
Event	Event calendars should be made for users to see more event schedules. · There should be proper date and times and meeting places of the events. · Categories in the filter should made intoa subject of event. · The types of event should be simplified. · “Event” icon should be activated to be able to move to the event site
Online learning Course	Online learning Course should be part of the site. · “Contact us” icon should be made into this site and brought into the brochure section and what is required · Each title should be changed to reflect characteristic of each services taught and environement
Jobs	All vacancies classified should be seen on the one site · each detailed description has to link to other sites
Staffs	· “Login” site should be changed so that it can provide various information as an aspect of general users
About us	· The title of contents such as should be linked to sub detailed site. . · There should be a video message welcome provided. · Faculty team and their functions should be mentioned · “Vision and Values” should be supplemented more. · Important awards should be emphasized to increase reputation of BU Proper testimonials should be mentioned.

1. Site map

The site  map shows the different kinds of services that is being provided by the site and in a proper manner, it makes an account of how the IT functions of the site working behind the site can be used and could be made to work in concurrent to the development of the website. For this purpose, these are the following ways one could undertake the processes:

• Home Page: The home page is completely a part of the website and should contain FAQ, response, News, Support for students, etc.
• Home page contents: There should be certain contents in the home page which should include search bar, the services to ne provides, the updates on news, recent awareness programs that are being hosted by the website, and certain tacking and opening for different kinds of jobs provided to the user to be part of the general company.
• Search for Jobs: The jobs offers will include different tweets and incidents, requests and login options available for the individual.
• Self-help: The self-help option will help the individual access different kinds of testimonials and reviews that could help the individual understand the legitimacy of the entire webpage and to go for other referential lists.
• Couse details: Course details should be integrated with the website and not shown as a separate pdf file.

Conclusion

It has been clearly seen from the different models and tests that has been conducted in this study, that while the website offers different kinds of information and serves its purpose, there are some problem regarding the ease of access and the cluttering of important information in the website that could be used for the purpose of advancement of users through the website easily. Hence, for this purpose, there is a need for the decluttering of the website and for the proper access of information which will help in the process of ease of access and delivering the required information. Hence, it is necessary to follow through the recommendations and implement it through data design and connectivity to other important links, wherever required. 

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