Karen Taylor [HREF1], Web Designer, Information Technology Services [HREF2] , Building 3A, Monash University [HREF3], Victoria, 3800. Karen.Taylor@its.monash.edu.au
Within the Information Technology Services Division of Monash University a small user-centred redesign project was undertaken to improve the ITS departmental intranet, know as ITS Only. The redesign project aimed to improve usability and increase functionality.
The original Intranet was developed approximately 5 years ago without consultation with the end users. At the time, Information architectural issues were not well understood and as time has indicated the structure of the site have not been conducive to growth. As a result a redesign and restructure were necessary to improve both the scalability of the information architecture and the end user experience.
The specific aims of the redesign were to:
There are six core principles in the User Centred Design process (Vredenburg et al 2002). Each of these provide essential information to the process of developing a usable website.
The goals of the website and the business are often overlooked when designing a website. But they are a solid foundation for the project and a necessary step to ensure that the website will address the business strategy.
Management discussions were held in which our business goals were determined:
Business Goals
Site Goals
The whole concept of UCD is to provide an instinctive, easy to use site for your customers. To this end, without being armed with the knowledge of; how your customers use it, why they use it and the problems they experience with it, make the process of designing a site tailored to their needs is virtually impossible.
To gain better understanding of our customers, ITS conducted a customer requirements analysis by way of a survey. The online survey was conducted over a one week period, and the results were as anticipated.
The survey results indicated the ITS Only website was used extensively by ITS staff and the information was not logically placed or was difficult to navigate to.
The results pointed out a number of features that users wanted in the new design:
Upon completion of the survey a review was conducted of the Intranet server statistics. This process allowed us to identify how the current site was being used and address any anomalies should be addressed in the design phase of this project.
The statistical analysis indicated:
A design requirements document was developed after the customer requirements analysis was completed, the purpose of this document was to ensure all requirements were included in the new site design.
A brief content audit was undertaken on the ITS Only website. The audit concentrated on the top 2 layers of the website. With this audit we were able to determine the main navigation for the new design along with the main links that would be available from the index page.
After the content audit an initial design was created based on the requirements document produced in stage 2.
A paper-based test was used to determine the usability of the initial design. The test was conducted on 20 ITS Staff members and contained a screen shot of the proposed homepage. Users were given a series of scenarios and they were asked to mark the homepage indicating where they would click to find the requested information. This process successfully identified a number of areas where site design could be improved. These were:
After the paper based usability test the design improvements were implemented. At this point an email was sent to all ITS staff requesting their comment on the new website design. We received some very good suggestions, which resulted in a number of textural changes to topic headings and the main selection of links on the homepage.
One suggestion that was mentioned by a number of people was how the information is organised by the department, rather than by the content. This suggestion was a part of our initial plan and would make information easier to find for those users not familiar with the division. However it was agreed we lacked the resources to maintain responsibility for keeping the content easily accessible and linked from the correct areas of the site. It was therefore decided to keep the content located within the department responsible for it, thereby making each area responsible for their own content. To assist with the usability of the site an A-Z listing of content will be created in addition to the site map.
Our design process did not include a competitive or industry best practice analysis to compare our site to other Intranets. We did however have consider the competition from other forms of electronic media, such as email, and shared drives.
ITS must ensure that at the time of implementation that the ITS Only Intranet is communicated to ITS Staff as the best place to disseminate relevant ITS information. ITS Only must be able to be adapted for all types of information, including; policy documents, service and system documentation and staff notices.
After the launch of ITS Only and as defined in the User Centred Design methodology ITS will continue to track the satisfaction of the ITS staff. Feedback solicitation and additional user testing will be conducted to ensure the website continues to meet the expanding needs of ITS staff.
Vredenburg et al. (2002). User centered design – An Integrated Approach. Prentice Hall PTR, New Jersey.