university of michigan - itrack career website presentation
DESCRIPTION
About the Client The University of Michigan is internationally renowned for its academic excellence. It has an annual student body size of 41,924 and an annual research budget of $1.14 billion. In order to effectively serve the career needs of the university’s student body, it needed to better understand how well its existing career website functioned. To this end, we set off to closely evaluate iTrack, a career service website of the university.TRANSCRIPT
Career Center website
IntroductionGTN 3 core tasks
Methods Findings / Recommendations
Agenda
Introduction
GTN: 3 core tasks Manage Documents Resume Books Job Search
MethodsMethod Description
GTN 3 benchmark tasks
Comparative Analysis
Monster.com IBM Flipdog.com
iMpact Job fair ALA website
HE Navigation 9, Content- Terminology/Labeling 5, Aesthetics 10, Functionality 12, User Feedback 10
Survey 15 questions, 69 of 297 SI students (23%),
half of respondents were HCI
Usability 5 users (3 HCI, 1 LIS, 1 Tailored, 3 tasks)
Analysis Vocabulary Analysis
Positive Findings
Job search is easy to use. Users find managing documents is intuitive. Information is grouped logically.
Opportunities for Improvement (Immediate)
1. Users find text hard to read.
2. Users prefer buttons to links.
3. Users have trouble with vocabulary.
4. Users are confused about job application options.
5. Users would like to have more explicit feedback after completing actions.
Finding 4/5 users found text hard to read.
Recommendation Increase font size.1
Finding 3/5 users prefer buttons to links.
Recommendation Change action links to buttons.2
Finding All 5 users had trouble with vocabulary
Recommendation Make vocabulary consistent3
Finding 4/5 users are confused about job application options.
4
Finding 4/5 users are confused about job application options.
Recommendation Include legend that clarifies job application method.
4
Finding 3/5 users found that lack of feedback slowed them down.
Recommendation Provide clear, visible feedback.5
Opportunities for Improvement(long-term)
Finding 5/5 users found the aesthetics unappealing.
Recommendation Hire a professional designer to improve iTrack’s visual experience.
Finding Search functions do not consistently generate accurate results.
Recommendation Undertake further research to identify and correct functional inconsistencies.
6
7
Conclusion
iTrack is easy to use. Many findings are short term fixes. Cost-benefit changes high payoff. Further research needed on user behavior
and system functionality (job search).
Questions