In one of our UX classes, we spent the semester employing various research methods — heuristic evaluations, persona development, user tests — to evaluate the usability of the Quinnipiac University website. By the end of the class, we submitted a full redesign proposal outlining the methods used, findings, and suggestions for optimizing the user experience. Below is a sample persona and cognitive walkthrough exercise pulled from my proposal.
Executive Summary
QU.edu is the external website for Quinnipiac University, a private college located in Connecticut. The website shares many features with other higher education sites in that it has main sections for admissions, academics, athletics, student life, and news; an event calendar; an internal portal for current students ("MyQ"); and large imagery and videos. The site does have a cohesive look, a pleasant design aesthetic and overall, offers a well-organized browsing experience for its users.
However, the website does have its fair share of issues that need to be addressed so it can offer the best possible experience for its target audience: prospective students.
Audience
The audience for Quinnipiac's website includes prospective students, current students, parents and alumni. However, the main audience is prospective students -- undergraduate, graduate, law, medicine and online. While it's important that the site have sections to address the needs of parents, current students and alumni, the needs of prospective students is paramount.
A persona of an undergraduate perspective student who might access the QU website:
Cognitive Walkthrough
Jake Christiansen is a tech-savvy prospective college student interested in Quinnipiac's School of Communication. Despite being somewhat local, Jake has never set foot on Quinnipiac's campus and would love to visit sometime to get a feel for the atmosphere, classrooms and student life while school is in session.
Task 1: Learn about QU's communications programs
Go to the homepage. The user might not even go to the homepage to find information about a program. He might just Google, "Quinnipiac communications" and go straight to the School of Communications page. But for the sake of this evaluation of the website, the starting point will be the qu.edu homepage.
Click on Academics in the main navigation. The user is coming to the website to find out about programs in the School of Communications. "Academics" is one of the first links in the main navigation. It's safe to assume the user will think to click on "Academics" over any of the other options.
Click on School of Communications. The School of Communications link is in larger font, just like the other schools. While it's conceivable the user might click on "Undergraduate Studies," "Majors, Minors and Certificates," or "Colleges, Schools and Departments," it's believable that he would instead click on "School of Communications" instead of any other option. He has heard QU has a good communications school and he is looking to obtain information about a program within that school.
Click on Programs of Study. This is the first option in the top navigation once the user gets to the School of Communications page. He has been working from this navigation since the homepage. Again, he might scroll down the page and read more about the School of Communications in general, but it's believable that he would come back to this navigation and click on the link to get to communications programs. The breadcrumb on the page shows the user that he is making progress in his journey.
Click on Journalism. The user may choose this option as he currently loves to write and he might consider a career as a journalist.
Read about the journalism program on the journalism page. Success
Task 1 Conclusion
Every separate step related to the task seems like a believable journey this user might take. It's a very linear progression, and it all makes sense. The user might want to skip all of these steps by just typing "communications" or a specific program name like "journalism" in the search bar. In the former case, the School of Communications page is the first result, and in the latter the Department of Journalism page is the first result. The user ultimately completes his task without all of the steps mentioned above.
Task 2: Find campus tour information
Go to the homepage. As stated above in the first task, the user will start his journey on the QU.edu homepage.
Hover over About in the main navigation. There is a small Visit link on the homepage, but it is tucked just under the search bar. Our user might see it and click on the link, but he will more likely gravitate to the top left of the screen in the main navigation and go to the first option, the About link. Campus tour information seems like a pretty general topic that would be included under such a category and the About link is the first link the user sees in the main navigation.
Click on Visit Quinnipiac link in the dropdown menu. The user might not find the link right away since it's the second-to-last link in the main list under About, but it would make sense that the prospective student would think campus tour info is likely on a page entitled Visit Quinnipiac.
Click on Directions and Travel Information in the left navigation. Here is where the user journey hits a speed bump. The Visit Quinnipiac page contains a handful of paragraphs with embedded links right in the body copy. No 17-year-old is going to sift through paragraphs of information just to find a Campus Tours page. The user is most likely going to scan the page for links containing the words "campus tour" or "tour information" or something to that effect. Directions and Travel Information is the first link in the left navigation on this Visit Quinnipiac page, and the user might think he'll have better luck there.
Click on the back button to navigation to the Visit Quinnipiac page again. There is no campus tour information on the Directions and Travel Information page. The user will go back to the previous page to see if he missed something.
Click on "Learn more about ways to visit the campus and schedule a convenient time for you!" link. The user will have to read through the paragraphs on the Visit Quinnipiac page and eventually stumble on this link embedded in the body copy. It's safe to assume that campus tour information would be on the page that involves learning more about ways to visit the campus.
Click on Day Visit Program in the left navigation. After the user lands on the Visit With Us page, he will most likely once again scan all of the links to see which one will most likely have campus tour information on it. Day Visit Program is a prominent link in the left navigation and it sounds like it might have campus tour information.
Click on the back button to navigate to the Visit With us page again. After reading the first sentence on the Day Visit Program page, the user will know that the program is only for accepted students; this is obviously not where he wants to be and will go back to the Visit With Us page to try again.
Click on Campus Tours in the bulleted list on the Visit With Us page. The user will see the bulleted list of links under the second paragraph of copy on the Visit With Us page. A link saying Campus Tours must have the information the user wants to see.
Read the campus tour information and/or schedule an appointment to take a tour. After clicking the Campus Tours link, the user sees the dates and times campus tours are held throughout the year in a section on the same Visit With Us page. If he would like to schedule an appointment to take a tour, he has the option to do so by clicking a link within the paragraph.
Task 2 Conclusion
This process has too many steps. Starting from the homepage, it take the user nine different clicks just to navigate to a page and section that contains campus tour information. If the user isn't going to use the search function, I doubt he'll have the patience to see this journey all of the way through. He also had to click on the back button not once, but twice. This process needs to be streamlined and simplified. Campus tours are a huge part of the prospective student experience and customer journey.