Usability Testing

The following case study displays a moderated usability test of the Small Business Search. The Small Business Search (SBS) is a website created by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to be used by small business owners (external users) and SBA employees (internal users). External users create a profile of their business with the applicable certifications and entity information making themselves capable of receiving federal contracts awarded by internal users. The Small Business Search is a new, modernized version of the current website the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) which currently is used by both groups of users to fulfill these purposes at the time of this study. SBS has been developed with the intention of replacing the current DSBS.

Objectives

  • Learn how users currently navigate DSBS

  • Observe how users would navigate SBS

  • Discover features users need/want to complete certifications and market research

  • Gage ease of transition from DSBS to SBS

  • Test SBS usability & UI

Conducting the Usability Test

The usability test took place over Microsoft Teams. Users included both internal and external users, who have experience using the old application DSBS, 4-5 times a day. At the beginning of each meeting, the participant was prompted to share their screen of the beta website and offer initial thoughts on the lay-out of the homepage. After a brief introduction, the lead UX designer instructed the participant to complete a series of predetermined tasks. As the participant moved through each task the team was able to identify problems within the design, uncover opportunities to improve, and learn about our user's behaviors and needs. Once all of the predetermined tasks were complete, we offered the participant time to offer any final remarks about SBS, significant features, where the website succeeded or fell short, and any other thoughts they wanted the development and research teams to know.

After I completed grouping the sticky notes into common themes, I created 19 insight statements. These statements were derived from the groups of issues expressed in the affinity diagram. Each statement provided critical discovery of our users and a jumping off point to propose solutions for how our team could make SBS the best application possible. From there, I generated 19 corresponding "How Might We" questions. This tool provided concise questions that allowed the development team to solve issues uncovered during user research. The collaboration between the research team and the development team created solutions which were implemented in the next phase of the project. Once these changes were implemented, SBS was released to the public and the research team continued to collect user feedback for the launched website.

Synthesizing Usability Data

After the meetings, I was instructed by the UX lead to rewatch the usability tests which had been screen-recorded to allow for later analysis. While doing this I created an affinity diagram as my first method to synthesize the data gathered. I assigned each participant their own sticky note color and took note of which tasks perplexed users, which tasks were completed with ease, comments and quotes that stood out, and any other significant behaviors. Once I completed my sticky notes, I grouped them based on common themes for further analysis.