EDPS 6440: Human-Computer Interaction

Dr. Kirsten Butcher

Expanded Executive Summary

1. Design Challenge
Currently, Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) has no job task training for new incoming
academic administrative assistants. When a new administrative assistant is hired, they are not
provided with any formal training of essential job functions. They often have to scour websites,
contact veteran personnel, as well as fragmented resources to find relevant information to
complete their job. This current system is time consuming, ineffective, and often leads to
incorrect completion of tasks and frustration. Effective training on centralized processes (e.g.,
scheduling courses, budget management) is needed for new admins as well as to serve as a
reference for existing admins.
2. Design Goal
The goal of this project is to design a centralized and effective training for new incoming
academic administrative assistants at Salt Lake Community College on essential job tasks in
order to be in alignment with the overall mission and goals of SLCC. This training will be
available to all admins asynchronously.
3. Prototype Design
Technology - Our prototype is currently housed on a website since this will be utilized at
work by administrative assistants and all of them will already be using a computer and.
internet for completing the tasks for which they need the tutorials.
Major Features - The website contains full trainings, quick start guides (reference
sheets) and a directory of relevant people on campus.
Our prototype meets the design challenge because it gives them a quick way to look up
how to complete certain tasks which they are already doing on their computers which will
allow them to more independently complete their assigned tasks.
4. Usability Testing
a. Testing occurred on April 22 during our HCI class.
b. 6 participants tested our site. All were IDET students/professor not from our target
population.
c. General Procedure
i. Each session was less than 5 minutes
ii. Participants completed 2 tasks using our high-fidelity prototype and then
completed a usability questionnaire.
iii. The prototype was a live website presented on a computer with a mouse.
d. Tested Tasks
i. Task 1 - Locate the Budget Availability Report guide
ii. Task 2 - Locate the contact information for the IT helpdesk

5. Results
Overall, our prototype was functional and the tasks were successfully completed by
participants in a fairly short amount of time. There were some terminology issues, which
we feel will not occur with our target population. See data below:
1. Task completion rates
Task

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

Completion Rate

100%

100%

Both task 1 and task 2 were able to be completed by all testers so the functionality is
successful.
2. Time on task (by participant)
P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

(sec)

(sec)

(sec)

(sec)

(sec)

(sec)

Avg.
TOT*
(sec)

Task 1

93

132

139

85

100

N/A*

109.8

Task 2

19

17

24

101

N/A*

33.4

*User 6 video was unusable

Task 1 took longer than we expected. The confusion between trainings and quick start guides
played into that but we dont expect that will be an issue with our actual user population.
3. Major Usability Issues
Number of Times Issue Observed (by Category)
Navigation

Content

Didnt understand
Vocabulary

Unsure what was in

Help tab

Interaction

Severity

Critical

Moderate

Unsure of the
difference between
Training & Guide
Totals

Organization

Critical

--

Overall, the main issue was in the names of the tabs provided in the menu.
4. Satisfaction Ratings
Strongly
Disagree

Disagre
e

Slightly
Disagree

Slightly
Agree

Agree

Strongly
Agree

Mean
Rating

Percent
Agree1

Site is easy
to use

83%

Visual
Design is
appealing

5.67

100%

Easy to
Navigate

5.17

83%

Efficient to
use

5.17

83%

Information
was clear

83%

Tasks were
completed in
a timely
manner

5.5

100%

Percent agreement is percent of all participants selecting agree or strongly agree

Overall, testers were satisfied with the ease and functionality of the site. There were a few
comments at the end of the survey about unfamiliar terminology which we believe would not be
an issue with our target market.

6. Recommendations & Conclusion

Change(s)

Justification

Make names on menu

tabs more accessible

Navigation was the biggest issue during both sets of

testing (14 and 7 observed issues respectively). This
was primarily due to labeling confusion.

Include a brief
explanation of the
difference between
training and quick
start guides.

Most users were confused about which tab had the

information they were looking for since budget was
under both categories. This wasted time as almost
everyone took a minute to explore through both
options.

Severity
High

High

Overall, participants were able to complete the assigned tasks in a timely manner and found the
site visually appealing. We did find that participants were unsure about the nomenclature on the
menu tabs and had to look through them to decide what would best fit their needs. They were
also unsure about the difference between training and quick start guides since both contained
the same topics. Implementing our recommendations would help to alleviate the confusion on
the part of users and save them time overall which would satisfy our goal of giving a busy
administrative assistant a place to quickly look up how to complete job tasks.