Challenge

The Transamerica website was to be released in just a few months. The team wanted to ensure that the site was easy for its customers to use, and the team wanted to know if there were any unforseen problems before the site was put in front of users. The website is aimed at three very different user groups, and is essentially three different applications with the same look and feel. The usability analysis needed to offer solutions so that the three user groups would find the site useful and usable.

Solution

Since there was little time, we were only able to schedule one usability iteration. We utilized a group of users from each of the three customer segments. Within each segment, we recruited users who represented the actual demographic of those who would use the site. Computer experience levels ranged from basic to expert level. Each user was evaluated one-on-one and viewed via a one-way mirror with a picture-within-a-picture setup. We utilized the Think Aloud method, where we were able to observe how the users interacted with the website via a set of representative tasks. By observing their experience and having the users think aloud, we were able to determine what problems the users were having, and why. This led to quantitative and qualitative analyses of the usability issues, their consequences on the users (e.g., sometimes the consequence was so severe, users would stop using the site), and solutions for resolving the issues. During user testing, we found that the navigation nomenclature, as well as the navigational structure, were quite problematic. To solve this, we performed a focus group Card Sort analysis. This led to our determining a navigational structure that fit the users’ mental model, thus creating a better user experience.