Week 4 of testing ended very well. Most of our test-takers showed up and we recorded a lot of interesting events (the no-show is an industry hazard). Nathaniel and I have been able to keep to our original plan of finding people from the desired demographics and getting as many members as non-members involved.
The demographics were based on the personas that were developed in part by the Information Architecture team. We created about 9 personas based on the types of people we consider our primary audience and the people we intend to appeal to most in the future. They include chemists, of course, but also product engineers, biochemists, professors, high school teachers, policy makers, journalists, librarians, graduate students and researchers.
We also included high school students involved in AP chemistry to get the younger generation's perspective. My impression is that it is this group that gets through the tasks the fastest. The several students that we have tested have had no problem finding the optimal path for each task in the best time, whether it be the quick find menu on the home page, the tabs at the top of chemistry.org or the search function, they know the key tools to look for (advanced Google search), the typical names for things (online store), and the logic behind Web design.
This week we are back in Leesburg, VA at the Noldus lab. We will be starting the analysis of the times for each task soon. This will involve reviewing all the video from each session (each test is video taped) and making sure the times are accurate. What a process!
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