Running head: USABILITY REPORT 1

Needs Assessment Report Case Study–Master Elementary School

Assignment 3 Multimedia Project-Usability Report

Orthwin Simmons

University of the West Indies – Open Campus (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

EDID6508: Developing Instructional Materials

Course Coordinator: Dr. L. Hill

December 4th 2018

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Executive Summary

Usability refers to the ease of access and/or use of a product or website. The official ISO

9241-11 definition of usability is: “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users

to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of

use.”

A usable interface has three main outcomes:

1. It should be easy for the user to become familiar with and competent in using the user

interface during the first contact with the website.

2. It should be easy for users to achieve their objective through using the website.

3. It should be easy to recall the user interface and how to use it on subsequent visits.

A usability report of a website establishes how functional a website is in relation to its

purpose; that is it fulfilling its intended purpose for its intended d audience with efficiency. This

usability report seeks to improve the skills of the evaluator as part of a series of activities geared

towards developing skills in technology manipulation and application to educational activities.

This report is part of assignment 3 group work where groups were to design and evaluate

instructional media.

Background

The website under evaluation was created and is owned by Shenelle Mohammed, an

instructional design student of the UWI in the course EDID6508: Developing Instructional

Materials. The site is hosted on Weebly, a popular and user friendly website in its free domain.
USABILITY REPORT 3

Several activities are hosted on the website including a web page, demonstration of the use of

collaborative tools and practical activities.

Site details:

Author: Shenelle Mohammed

Website: https://edid6508mohammed.weebly.com/

Evaluation Date: December 4th 2018

Objectives

The evaluation aims to:

1. Determine the functionality of the website

2. Weigh the appropriate use of web design features, content, graphic use and layout

3. Assess the extent to which a user can access and navigate the website.

Method

A rubric supplied by Hill (2018) in the course EDID6508. The criterion was grouped into twos

as follow: content and layout and navigation, font and background color and choices; links and

copyright; graphics and images and spelling and grammar. Each grouping had 1 visit. Each

criterion in each grouping was focused on independently of the other. The website was also

compared to that of two other peers in the same group for assignment 3. Then a final general user

experience was conducted to identify the overall unity, cohesion of all parts of the site towards

making the user experience appealing and convincing.

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Results

Table 1: Usability report Shanelle Mohammed’s webpage

Criteria Maximum Allotted

Content & Layout 4 3
Navigation 4 3
Links (content) 4 2
Background and Color Choices 4 2
Fonts 4 2
Graphics and Images 4 2
Spelling and Grammar 4 3
Copyright 4 2
Total 32 19

Recommendations/Findings

Shenelle Mohammed’s site is simple and organized. It meets the standards of usability

and compares to others satisfactorily. The use of graphics and a variety of font is limited. Links

are all positioned in one place. There is a very limited use of background images and colors.

Content is relevant and contributes to the course.

Recommendations:

1. Improve font choices and background images and graphics.

2. Organize links better so words are visible and content is separated to prevented crowded

page.

3. Use of more graphics and images to enhance appearance and demonstrate skills.

4. Include a declaration statement for information used without references or where you are

unsure of the owner.

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References

The Interaction Design Foundation. (2018). Usability. Retrieved from:https://www.interaction-

design.org/literature/topics/usability

Hill, L. (2018). EDID 6508: Developing Instruction Materials.

Retrieved from http://2018.tle.courses.open.uwi.edu/mod/folder/view.php?id=73501