LiveMore ScreenLess Case Study
Usability Evaluation
Summary
LiveMore ScreenLess is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit working with educators, parents, and young people to promote digital wellbeing and balance for students through consulting, providing educational resources, and acting as a community hub. They approached Prime Digital Academy’s user experience researchers to help them identify their website’s pain points and provide recommendations to improve usability and make it more intuitive.
Role
Researcher
Team
Colleen Borgendale
Haley Nguyen
Kevin Peterson
Sara Laufers
DELIVERABLES
TOOLS
Pen and Paper
Figma
iPad, Apple Pencil and GoodNotes
Keynote
Zoom
Canva
iPhone Camera
Otter.ai
METHODS
Heuristic Analysis
Evaluation Plan
Think-aloud Protocol
Usability Testing
Affinity Diagramming
The Problem
LiveMore ScreenLess has lofty organizational and website goals. They are unsure if users are able to find certain information or complete tasks, such as learning basic information about the organization or finding content that is relevant to them.
Test planning
Website Goals
Communicate the organization’s mission, purpose, and goals.
Communicate the resources and services offered by the organization.
Make users aware of tech misuse and overuse
Establish the credibility of the organization
Usability Review
A usability review kicked off my research to identify usability issues on the LiveMore ScreenLess website and help determine the focus areas for the usability testing. Using seven evaluation criteria from Susan Weinschenk and Dean Barker’s heuristics, a heuristic analysis was conducted for five website tasks. Moderate or severe violations inhibited my ability to complete the five tasks, demonstrating serious usability issues. This information helped inform and shape the usability test script along with providing some initial website recommendations for the organization.
Research Goals
Gain insight into users’ understanding of the organization
Gain insight into the factors that users consider when determining an organization’s credibility
Discover how a user navigates the website and finds information that may be relevant to them
Gain insight into the intuitiveness of the website
Determine what the website can or should do
Usability Testing
Methodology
The usability studies were conducted with 12 participants and each researcher interviewing three of them. The Think-Aloud usability testing methodology was used, where participants were asked to think out loud and describe their thoughts and feelings as they completed tasks. These interviews were conducted by one of the members of the team over Zoom and lasted around 30 minutes. The users were asked to use their own computers to view and use the website. One user conducted the study on her iPhone. Users were asked the same questions and to complete similar tasks, though slight adjustments to the study were made based on the user’s flow and the user group they fell into.
Participants
Twelve users were chosen for the study based on how they fit into the organization’s four defined user groups: youth, educators, educational leaders and parents. All users expressed concern about screen time, especially with regard to young people, and all users own at least one personal device, such as a smartphone
Breakdown of the participants based on user groups
YOUTH: 15 year-old male, 17 year-old male, 24 year-old female
EDUCATORS: One teacher and one non-school educator
EDUCATIONAL LEADERS: One principal
PARENTS: Six moms, ranging from 28-52 years-old
Interviewing test participants
The usability testing team taking notes and observing an interview.
Data Synthesis
Affinity Diagramming
After the completing the usability studies, the research team compiled our data using Figma, recording findings, anecdotes, expressions and quotes from the study participants. We then started categorizing our findings using affinity diagramming, synthesizing our data into only a few categories.
The research team’s raw data
The research’s team affinity diagram
Usability Study Findings and Recommendations
Findings
“Part of me is curious [about this organization] because this is about wanting to have less screen time, but I don’t know if [this website] is going to require more screen time.”
-User 2, Mom of 2
Key takeaways
Based on our testing, our team found that most users consider the organization credible, but struggled to determine the purpose of the organization and what they offer.
Determining the organization’s credibility
“I’m kind of drawn to [the page footer]. I just know some of the nitty gritty details are gonna be down there, more of those credentials or that type of basic information.”
-User 1, Principal and Mom of 2
Overall, users found the organization credible based on the website. Every user had different criteria for determining credibility.
Identifying the organization’s purpose
The majority of users struggled to communicate what the organization does, after looking at the homepage and clicking around the website.
I don’t know what I’m going to run into. I don’t know what they’re offering. They want to offer more digital well being and balance, but I have no idea how they’re going to do that or what that means.
-User 2, Mom of 2
Difficulty Finding relevant content on the website
If I'm going to an educators section of a website, I am looking for tools that I can take use of for myself, like activities or lesson plans.
-User 3, Non-school educator and Mom of 1
All the users, no matter which user group they belonged to, struggled with finding relevant content, understanding what content was offered by the organization or knowing what next to do with the content.
Recommendations
Build on the organization’s credibility
To make it easier for users to find the relevant information to determine the organization’s credibility, improve the organization of media coverage, build out staff bios and create a financials page.Centralize the organization’s basic information
Create an About page and an About dropdown menu to centralize all the basic information about the organization along with a short organizational summery on the homepage, and indicate to users that there is more information on the homepage if they scroll down.Improve the content organization and hierarchy, and add context and visuals to the content
Improve the flow and organization of the content by conducting a content audit. Make the text more scannable and easy to understand through its hierarchy, adding context to the content, visuals and actionable items.
Conclusion
After a heuristic analysis, usability testing, and affinity diagramming, the Prime Digital Academy usability research team found that the LiveMore ScreenLess website helped establish organizational credibility, but users struggled to determine their purpose and find relevant content. The usability and intuitiveness of the website could be improved by rounding out the areas users look to establish credibility and centralizing basic organizational information. Improvements could be made to the organization and hierarchy of the website’s content, along with making the text scannable and adding context to the content. These recommended changes will help ensure less required screen time for the website’s users.