Web Publishing

Shelby Mustain
October 22nd, 2015

Usability Testing for UnionStation.org

Test Preparation
To prepare for the test I was to give my users, I walked through the test myself. I began
by typing in unionstation.com first into my address bar and immediately hit my first problem.
Unionstation.com and unionstation.org are two completely different sites, because I ignored
the .org I was taken to website that sold bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen tuxes. After I fixed
my mistake and types in unionstation.org I was taken to the correct site. This problem that I
encountered made me wander if my testers would have the same problem, and if users
everywhere often confuse the two sites.
The next step I took was to look through the homepage like instructed in the directions
for the tester. I first noticed that the site is a responsive design because when I maximized my
page the navigation bar expanded across the page instead of being the hamburger icon. The next
think I noticed was huge window for the feature. The whole thing is above the fold and is really
the only thing you see when you open the page because it is so much bigger than anything else.
There was nothing in the upper left corner of the page, but the logo was centered at the top of the
page above the navigation. The next thing I noticed was the information bar at the bottom of the
page that was constantly at the bottom of the screen no matter where you scrolled (using my
track pad for all scrolling). This information bar informed visitors that the science city would be

closing on October 24th at 3pm and that the KC Rail Experience would be closed for October 2224 due to spookfest.
Next I attempted task one. I scrolled to the bottom of the page and read through
categories provided in the footer. The read through the About Us section and then clicked
(pressed down on my track pad) once I found the link named Guest Amenities. From there is
took me to a page with a list of amenities, the last one being wheelchairs. This told me that I
could acquire a wheelchair at the Grand Hall at no charge, but at a first come first serve basis and
they would hold my valid drivers license for a deposit.
To complete task two I scrolled up to the top of the page and looked trough the
navigation. I then clicked on the tab Plan Your Visit, because I figured this would lead me to a
page with the options of what to do at Union Station. I was wrong. This tab gave me
information on different admission prices, hours of the Union Station, maps and directions to
Union Station, parking information and prices, discounts, and amenities and transportation.
After I realized this wasnt what I was looking for I moved back up the page to the navigation
and clicked on the first tab called Events Calendar. I did this because I figured there would be
a list of things to do on certain days of the upcoming months. This is were I found the calendar
and clicked the over arrow to move the month to November then clicked the day labeled 25.
Once I did the things to the left of the calendar changed, showing me the list of events happening
that day, the first two being and extreme movie. The movies were labeled at the top as Regnier
Extreme Movie Theater so I knew that was one of the movies the task was asking me to find.
Next I clicked More Information under the Jerusalem movie option to start task three.
This took me to a page giving me more information about the movie and its showings. I then
clicked Buy Tickets then Add to Basket. This took me to a page to specify what date I

wanted my tickets for so I clicked the drop down menu and selected November 25th. Next I
clicked Add to Basket again. This took me to a page to specify how many tickets I wanted. I
clicked the up arrow twice and then clicked Add to Basket again. This took me to a screen that
reviewed what I was about to buy and allowed me to remove an item if I wanted and also had the
option to Select Seats. But when I clicked on Select Seats it took me to a page that showed
the tickets I had chosen again but no way to choose the seats. Then I read the banner under the
navigation that read Members must be logged in to see discounts shown in shopping cart and
then had links next to it to Create New Account, My Account, or My Basket. This didnt
make sense to me, because I didnt want to view I discount, I wanted to select seats so I went
back to my basket and tried again, but got the same result. This is very confusing. If they are
saying that only members get to choose their seats they need to be clearer.
Next I started on task four, but I ran into a problem. When buying the tickets the site
took me to pages with different navigation than the home page. I tried to click the button they
offered called Back but it would only take me as far as a list of the movies then I couldnt find
a button to access the actual home page. I tried to hit the logo, because most sites link the
homepage to the logo but that didnt work. So I had to use my back button on my browser to get
back to the homepage (this took me 9 clicks of the back button). Once I finally got to the
homepage I had to reread my task because all that clicking distracted me from what I was doing.
Once I reread the task I looked through the navigation and clicked on Contact Us. This took
me to a page with a list of different departments and scrolled through until I read Visitor
Relations which was second to the bottom. I then clicked on the email link provided to the right
of the department name and this opened up my email icon to send an email.

Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Ashley Guenther
Ashley is my neighbor. She and I know each other, but are not great friends. She is 20 years old
and a psychology major here at Northwest. Before conducting the test she had never visited the
site or knew anything about the site. Ashley often uses her laptop to do school work, browse on
Pinterest, and uses the search engine Google the most. She says she does most of her browsing
for pleasure on her smart phone, but still spends around 15 hours a week using the internet. She
considers herself a high-experienced user of the Internet. I thought Ashley would be a good
tester, because I knew she would follow the directions of talking to me constantly through the
test because she is not shy. She also takes her schoolwork seriously so I know she would respect
the fact that this was something that I was taking seriously.
Environment for Tester 1

Location of test: When I asked Ashley to be one of my testers she said she would come
over and do the test, but I told her that the test should be conducted where she feels most
comfortable using her laptop and where she finds herself using the Internet the most. So
she decided that her apartment was the best location. She says she does all of her
homework at home rather than the library, because all the people at the library distract

her.
Physical environment: We conducted the test in her living room. She sat in a chair that
was behind a table up against the wall facing out a window. The living room is
connected to the kitchen and her roommate was making diner during the test and we
could hear everything she did, but Ashley didnt seem distracted. The lighting was bright
in the kitchen and duller in the actual living room but the kitchen light helped brighten up
the living room. Her phone was on the table charging and I told her that she could get up

at any time she needed and interrupt the test at any time, no problem. Along with the
roommate cooking and cleaning in the kitchen, it sounded like the downstairs neighbors

were watching the Royals game, because there was a lot of shouting.
Technical environment: Ashley used the school issued computer HP Elite Book-that
was connected to the charger. She used her personal Wi-Fi . I am unsure about the
screen resolution, but the screen was maximized to full capacity, taking up the whole
computer screen. She opened her usual browser to start the test and Google appeared, but
she didnt type union station into the Google search bar, she typed unionstaion.org into
the address bar directly and hit enter on her keyboard. She did not having any other tabs
open, but she did have her favorites saved to the tool bar at the top.

Tester 2: Michael Smith

Michael Smith is my basketball coach. He is a 38-year-old Division II womens basketball
coach who spends his days watching basketball film, recruiting players, and scheduling/leading
basketball practices. He says he spends 20 hours during the workweek using the Internet, but
hardly at all on the weekends. The majority of his time is spent on browsing, not social media.
He considers himself a low-experience user of the Internet. He spends most of his time on a
film-editing site that requires Internet called Huddle. He also browses sites that offer stats for
future and current college athletes. I asked Michael to be a tester, because I had a hunch that he
would be a low-experience user and I knew he would take it seriously and do what I asked
because he wants me to make good grades.
Environment for tester 2:

Location of test: The test was conducted in Michaels work office in Lamkin on campus.
This is the place where he does the majority of his Internet browsing and work. We

picked this location because it is where he said he is most comfortable and he wanted to

use his computer because he is very familiar with it.

Physical Environment: The lights in the room were not on, but the office has a ton of
natural light that lit up the room. The door to the office was open, but it was in the
morning when we conducted the test so not many people walked by and no one popped
their head in to say anything. Michael had his phone on the desk in front of him, but
when it vibrated notifying him he had a text he didnt even look down, he ignored it

completely. The office was quiet with no real background noise.

Technical environment: Michael used a HP desktop computer with two screens, but
only used the left screen when conducting the test. He used a mouse to click and used the
scroll wheel on top of the mouse to scroll through the page. The computer was connected
to the Internet by a cable, not Wi-fi. When I told him to open his browser to its typical
page he opened it and the home page was Google. He did not use Google to find Union
Station though, he just typed in unionstiaon.org into the address bar and hit enter on his
keyboard. Michael didnt have any other tabs open and there were no other add-ons on
his homepage or toolbar.

Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts:

Tester 1 Report: Ashleys initial thoughts on the site were that the site had good visuals
and when I asked her what she meant she clarified by saying the pictures were good sizes
and clear. She said the homepage gave visitors information about everything the Union
Station offers, the exhibits offered, and said there was a lot of information of Science
City. She thought that Union Station was really trying to advertise for Science City,
because of all the information presented on the home page about it.

Tester 2 Report: Michael said that the site looked simple with not too many buttons to
click. He thought the main picture (the feature), as he called it, was too big and took up
the whole site. He said he doesnt like how he had to scroll up and down. He would
rather have the whole page in front of him rather than scroll.

Task 1: Scenario: You are bringing your grandmother to Union Station for a Sunday afternoon
outing. She cant walk more than about 50 steps at a time. Determine whether or not there will
be a wheelchair available for her to use during the visit.
Tester 1:
Ashley begins this task by scrolling with her track pad on the homepage. She stops when
she reaches the section entitled Visitor Info which is located just above the footer. She
explains that she is stopping here because she thinks wheelchair accessibility is
something that visitors would want to know. She doesnt find anything here so scrolls to
the top of the page and reads through the navigation. She then decided that the tab Visit
Science City might have this information. She clicks (using the buttons under her track
pad) on the tab in the navigation then quickly decides that was a mistake and clicks the
back button on her tool bar. Once she is back on the home page she scrolls down slowly
reading through different headers until she reaches the section Visitor Info again. She
then decides to click the button more info under the section called Hours. Ashley
says she is doing this, because more information sounds promising. Once she clicks
the button, this takes her to a screen that gives her prices of tickets and hours of the
Union Station. She scrolls to the bottom of the page and reads the header Amenities and
Transportation then says, This has to be it. She then proceeds to tell me that yes there

are wheelchairs available. This is where she stops. She doesnt click the link below that
says Guest Amenities that would lead her to more information about the wheelchairs.
o Answer: Yes, there are wheelchairs available
o Completed: Yes
Tester 2:

Michael begins the task by reading all of the navigation buttons out loud then says, It
might be under Plan your visit, but Im going to look more. Michael scrolls with his
scroll wheel throughout the whole page, then stops when he reaches the Visitor Info
area of the page. He reads each header and decides to click on More Info located under
the header Parking. He explains that this might give information about handicap
parking which might include information about wheelchairs. He clicks on the More
Info button and this takes him to a page entitled Visit Union Station. He scrolls down
the page reading the different headers as he goes. He then reads through the section
called Parking, but doesnt find any wheelchair information. He keeps scrolling until
he stops and says aloud, Ah, amenities, this might have something. He reads the
amenities section and tells me, Yes, there are wheelchairs accessible. Michael doesnt
stop here. He then proceeded to click on the bolded words under the short paragraph
labeled Guest Amenities. I asked him why he did this and he replied, I think this
might give us even more information on the wheelchairs. This took Michael to a page
that indeed gave him more information on the accessibility of wheelchairs. He scrolled
down the page until he reached the header Wheelchairs and read to me the short
sentence below.
o Answer: Yes, on a first come first serve basis, in the Grand Hall.
o Completed: Yes

Recommendations to Improve UX for Task 1:

Having the wheelchair accessibility and other guest amenities in the Visitor Info section
is a good idea, but it being hidden behind the More Info button makes it harder for users to
find. The label More Info doesnt really describe to readers that guest amenities can be found
if they click More Info. Ashley initially went to the spot where she could find the information,
but left the area when she didnt see an area or tab that correlated with guest amenities. If the
Visitors Info section on the homepage had a button labeled Guest Amenities I think users
would be able to find the information they are looking for much faster.
The Nielsen usability heuristic that lines up with this problem is consistency and
standards, keeping words, situations, or actions meaning the same thing. Although More Info
is known by users as something to click when they want to learn more, it is not specific enough
for this site and for the information that they are giving on the More Info page. I would
recommend having a button within the Visitors Info area called Guest Amenities that link
you to the page with guest amenities on it.
Another problem I saw was the consistency of the information. There are multiple places
on the website to find out about the wheelchairs but the different pages offer different
information. Ashley was able to find out that wheelchairs were available, but where she looked
did not give the specifics. Michael found the same area Ashley did but clicked further to find
more information and the specifics of accessing wheelchairs. To keep consistency and standards
the same information should be kept consistent throughout the site.

Task 2: You want to plan to see an Extreme Screen movie during your visit, so you want to
secure tickets in advance. Determine what is playing on Wednesday, November 25th.
Tester 1:

Ashley began this task by scrolling to the top of the page from where she was at and
began to read the buttons on the navigation. After she read the first header (Events
Calendar) she stopped and proceeded to click on that tab. She said she did this because
she assumed that it would have a list of the events on the day she needed to find. After
she clicked on the tab, it took her to a page with a calendar on the right side of the page.
She then used the over arrows at the top of the calendar to change the month, because it
was on October, and she wanted to see the month of November. Ashley then clicked on
the box within the calendar marked at 25. After she did this, to the left side of the
calendar, a list of events happening that day appeared. Ashley read the first event in the
list and immediately recognized that it was an extreme movie, because the header above
the picture is labeled Regnier Extreme Movie Theater, she explained. Ashley then told
me that the two movies playing on that date were Jerusalem and Robots 3D.
o Answer: Jerusalem and Robots 3D
o Completion: Yes

Tester 2:
Michael began this task by scrolling back up with his wheel on his mouse to the top of
the page. He then read through the headers stopping with Plan Your Visit. He told me
he was going to click on this, because it probably had a list of things to do including
movies. Michael clicked on Plan Your Visit and it took him to a page that offered rates
and a lot of other important information. He started reading and moving his mouse over
the options listed under Admission Information and stopped once he got to Regnier
Extreme Movie Theater. Michael then moved his mouse over to the right until he
hovered over an arrow that was in the buy tickets area. He then told me that if this were
the place to buy tickets then they must have when the movies are showing so he clicked

the arrow that took him to a list of all the movies showing. He read through the first
listing to see if there was any information on when the movie played and he did not come
across this information until he reached the lower right hand corner of the listing. Here
he found a date range, which wasnt labeled, but he assumed was the dates it was playing.
Michael then went through the list of movies and decided that only two of the six movies
shown were playing on November 25th and those movies were Jerusalem and Robots 3D.
o Answer: Jerusalem and Robots 3D
o Completion: Yes
Recommendations to Improve UX for Task 2:
A recommendation I would make for task 2 is to keep the navigation consistent
(Consistency and standards) throughout the site. Ashleys journey through task two kept her on
pages that had consistent navigation, but the way Michael approached the task left him on a page
without the same navigation. Luckily for the next task it was not required to go to the home
page, but we will have issues with that in later tasks. If the web site keeps the navigation
consistent this will help the user navigate quicker and not become confused.
Another recommendation I have for task 2 is a recommendation from the class blog,
reduce the change you visitor makes an error. The recommendation I would make for this
instance is listing the dates of movies in a more efficient way. Michael took a different approach
when finding the dates of movies and the only way he was able to figure out dates was because
of a small range of dates listed underneath the description of the movie. He almost missed this.
I would recommend using the calendar that is provided on the Events Calendar page on this
page as well instead of the confusing date range.

Task 3: Go through the steps of buying two tickets for an Extreme Screen movie on that day.
Determine whether or not you can choose the actual seats so that you and your grandmother will
have wheelchair-compatible seating. (Take this step all the way through the process, and only
stop when asked to enter credit card information.)

Tester 1:

To begin this task Ashley stayed on the page that she was on from task 2. After she
realized that the first event was a movie, she clicked on the picture provided for the
movie Jerusalem, not the button labeled More Info. I asked her why she chose this
method and she explained that the button More Info told her that it would be offering a
description of the movie rather than a chance to buy tickets. After Ashley clicked on the
picture, this took her to a page where the feature was a slideshow of pictures of Jerusalem
that took up the whole above the fold. Ashley ignored the picture slideshow (didnt use
arrows to browse trough the photos) and scrolled down to where the text began. She then
found the button labeled Buy Tickets. I asked how she found that button so fast and
she said, Because it stands out. It is a different color than the rest of the words. Ashley
immediately clicked Buy Tickets, ignoring any text surrounding the button. This action
took her to a screen with a description of the movie and the options to either go Back or
to Add to Basket. Ashley did not have to scroll on this page, because all the
information given was fit to one screen. Ashley proceeded to click the Add to Basket
button that matched the style from the button Buy Tickets. This took her to a very
similar screen, but with a drop down menu for her to select the date she wanted to see the
movie. Ashley realized that the date shown was not the date she needed so she clicked on
the drop down menu and moved her track pad mouse down until it highlighted the date
10/25/2015. Once it highlighted the date, she clicked down on that date. After this was
accomplished she clicked the button Add to Basket again. This took her to a similar
page, but with the option of how many tickets she wanted to purchase. She recognized
this and clicked the up arrows next to the amount of tickets twice so the number read 2.

After this she clicked Add to Basket again. This action took her to the screen that
reviewed her order. She started to look for a button to select specific seats and succeeded
when she found a button labeled Select Seats in between two other buttons. Ashley
clicked this button and it took her to a screen that looked familiar. She said I think Ive
seen this before, but I dont seen any options to select specific seats. Ashley proceeded
to go back, using her back button, and try clicking the Select Seats again. This took her
to the same page, but this time she read the message under the navigation (not the same
as the home page navigation) that read, Members must be logged in to see discounts
shown in shopping cart. Ashley then commented, I guess I have to be a member to
select my actual seats and then pressed the Add to Basket button to return to the
checkout review page. Ashley then scrolled to the bottom of the page immediately after
the page loaded and hovered over the Proceed to Check Out button. I asked her why
she scrolled so quickly without looking through the page and she responded with I am
used to seeing the Checkout button at the bottom of pages when I buy stuff. By
clicking this button, this takes Ashley to the page where you enter all your personal
information. Ashley went through and filled out all the mandatory blanks (things with
red stars by them) she ignored the non-mandatory blanks. The next screen offered the
option to print your tickets at home or pick them up at the will call. Ashley used her track
pad to click the fill in bubble next to the Print at Home option. She then pressed the
Next button, which took her to the credit card info page where she stopped.
o Answer: Can only choose seats when you are a member
o Completion: Yes
Tester 2:

After Michael figured out that the two movies that were showing on November 25th were
Robots 3D and Jerusalem, he clicked on the button Add to Basket under the description
box of Robots 3D. By clicking this button, it took Michael to a description page that also
gave him the option to pick what day he wanted to see the movie. Michael used his
mouse to go over to the drop down menu that allowed him to change the date he wanted
to see the movie then clicked on the menu, making the menu drop down and show the
different date options. Michael then moved his mouse down to the date he wanted to see
the movie and clicked, selecting the movie date and closing the drop down menu. Then
Michael pressed the button Add to Basket again. This took him to page where he was
able to select how many tickets he wanted by pushing up or down arrows. Michael
moved his mouse over to the up arrow and clicked twice to show the number 2. After
this was completed he moved his mouse down and to the right, over the Add to Basket
button and clicked. This action took him to a summary of his reservations. At this point
Michael was looking for a way to select specific seats, but voiced, I dont see anything
about choosing your seats. It just says I have general admission, but no way to change
that. After Michael came to this conclusion he scrolled down the page and pressed the
Proceed to Checkout button. I asked him if that button was easy to find and understand
and he said, Yes, proceed to checkout is something I recognize. This action took him
to the area where he was to fill out personal information. Once we got to this spot he
concluded his task saying, I got the tickets in advance, but there isnt a way to select
your seats.
o Answer: Cannot choose specific seats
o Completion: No

Recommendations to improve UX for task 3

For this task I refer to the class blogs recommendation of reduce the amount of clicks.
Both Ashley and Michael had to click Add to Basket three different times just to get to the
checkout page. If the website could get all the information they needed on one page instead of
each different piece of information needing its own page, things would run smoother and be
quicker.

Another recommendation I have for this task is to be clearer about the rules on selecting
seats. Both my testers were very confused after they clicked a button that they recognized as a
button to choose their seats and then they were brought to a page that didnt let them actually
pick seats. The message on the page was also confusing and didnt make much sense.
According to the 5 Copywriting Tips That Can Dramatically Improve You UX, writers should be
communicating benefits, not features. So instead of the message reading Members must be
logged in to see discounts shown in shopping cart, the message should read Become and

member and receive discounts or something along those lines.

The last recommendation I have for this task is to improve on user control and freedom.
When both my testers were done with this task and wanted to go back to the home page they
couldnt find a way out. They both tried multiple options either settled for clicking the back
button multiple times or re-entering the URL for the site.

Task 4: Youd like to spend time walking around Union Station during your visit, but you want
to be sure enough areas of the station will be wheelchair-friendly. Go through the steps to send
an e-mail to the appropriate person/department to inquire about wheelchair access throughout all
areas of Union Station.
Tester 1:
After Ashley completed task 3, I read her task for and she began looking for a way back
to the home page from the checkout page. First she voiced that she was looking for a
back button offered from the site, but couldnt find one. She then proceeded to click on
the logo at the top of the page in hopes to return to the main page. Instead this took her
back to a list of movies. She voiced that she was once again looking for any sort of back
button, but couldnt find one. After a few seconds of clicking on to other pages in search
of a back button, Ashley just went up to address bar and typed in Unionstation.org and
pressed enter, taking her back to the home page. After she retuned to the home page, she
ran through the navigation until she got to Contact. She then clicked contact and told
me she was doing this because she assumed that a list of people would be provided and
those people could help her out. After she clicked Contact this action took her to a
page with a list of departments and then to the right of the departments were email
addresses to contact them at. Ashley then went through each department until she read
the title Visitor Relations. She then moved her mouse to the right and clicked on the email of the visitor relations department. When I asked her why she picked this one
rather than the rest she replied with The visitor relations departments jobs is to help
visitors and Im a potential visitor who needs help.
o Answer: Yes
o Completion: Yes

Tester 2:
Once Michael finished task 3 and I read him the next task he began to look for a way
back to the home page. He read through the navigation but found nothing so he decided
to use his back button on his tool bar. It took him five clicks of the back button to return
to a page with the original navigation. Once he was back on a page with the original
navigation, he read through the navigation and stopped and clicked on Contact. This
took him to a page with a list of all the departments and their email addresses. He used
his mouse to roll over every department until he came to Visitor Relations. He then
moved his mouse to the right and clicked on the email and this opened up his personal
email on his desktop. After he finished the asked him why he choose visitor relations and
he replied by saying, Seemed like my best bet to get help.
o Answer: Yes
o Completion: Yes
Recommendations to improve UX for this task
I dont have any huge improvement recommendations for this task. The navigation
clearly shows that to contact us, this is where you need to go, and the listings of the departments
are clear and easy to use. The email link is also fast and efficient. There is also multiple ways to
get to this page so that is also a good thing. One small recommendation I would make for this
area of the web site would be to maybe include another way to contact these departments. While
some people prefer email, there could be someone who needs answers now and phone numbers
would be best for this. Otherwise the page is good.
Testing Conclusions

Completion Rate: My first tester, Ashley had a completion rate of 100%. This by passes
the average completion rate of 78%. My second tester had a completion rate of 75%

completing 3 of the 4 tasks given. The reason he did not complete task 3 was because he
did not take it all the way through, he stopped prematurely. His completion rate was less
than the average by 3% but I think if we had more tasks to factor into that percentage that

he would exceed the average.

Similarities and Differences: My testers were very different when it came to
approaching each task. A majority of the time they came to the same conclusion, but
rarely ever took the same path. Ashley seemed to try and find the quickest route while
Michael seemed to use logic to help him through tasks. This makes sense, because
Ashley is a 20 year old girl who was brought up understanding that things should be fast
and easy to find while Michael is much older and doesnt expect speed the same as

Ashley, he is more focused on accuracy.

Some similarities of my testers were their knowledge of common phrases and practices
on a web site. For example they both thought that clicking the logo at the top of the page
would bring them back to the home page and they both new what phrases such as More
Info and Proceed to check out meant and what they would do when clicked on. I

think this is true because for the most part, websites try to keep web jargon consistent.
Heuristic done well: I think this site did a good job at matching between system and the
real world. My testers were not confused and often knew exactly what the site meant

when it said something. The language was easy for visitors to comprehend.
Another Heuristic done well was error prevention. My testers never ran into a error page
or found themselves helpless. I think the site had spots were it could have been more
efficient, but errors were never a problem.