Case Studies
Government On-line Service Transformation
Web Site User Interaction Testing
The Background
This government department had developed an income tax resource website for the general public. As a back up and in addition to the site, they have a call centre which handles requests for information but has seasonal peaks in activity which are becoming increasingly difficult to handle in terms of the call volumes.
They needed to provide timely and accurate information and tax return status to taxpayers with very different needs - ranging from first time filers, to small business owners to tax professionals who complete refunds for others.
The Challenge
Maskery’s challenges was to assess whether different user groups who would go to the website for a variety of tax-related purposes can find the information that they are looking for quickly and easily. Part of this issue was to clearly understand how taxpayers conceptualize the process and expect to find tax-related information
The Project
The first task was to find and recruit participating users to form key user groups – students, seniors, employees, small business and tax professionals. With these test group, Maskery then conducted formal user interaction testing using typical tasks identified for each user group. To aid in the process, pre- and post-test questionnaires collected additional data to aid in analysis of the test data. Each test was facilitated by a Maskery specialist and recorded, in its entirety, on DVD.
The results of the test were captured and presented in a detailed written report with video highlights of key user interaction issues provided on CD-ROM. The work was completed within extremely tight timelines.
The Result
An initial benchmark study of the live site reported baseline user interaction levels for each user group. Common user interaction issues across groups were identified along with severity ratings and design recommendations.
These recommendations were used by the client to guide a e-design of the site navigation. A follow-up user interaction test for alternate designs was completed several months later with one user group to determine which design was most effective for users entering the site at different points from various government portals.
A re-test of the live site one year later showed where performance improvements had occurred and where additional user interaction work needs to be done. Re-design of the site by the client for improved user interaction is ongoing with strategic future testing planned as they progress.