Re: Worksessions & nav categories [was: Usability Testing first of April [was: Fwd: v2 -- Re: Tasks - Resource mapping]]

On 6 Apr 2017, at 14:22, Keen, Laura wrote:

> Are we re-skinning the existing site or re-designing the site to make 
> our content more useable and findable?

We do both. This is not exclusive. We will re-skin pages that a) are 
good enough or b) are not a priority for updating the content. That 
includes older and research material (which would not be in the main 
navigation and is outside of the IA just as reference material anyway).

And we would make content changes to material that has high priority and 
where it is urgent.

> If we basically re-skin the site  and leave the navigation and content 
> basically the same we will frustrate our users.

This was not the proposal. I don’t think we are at a stage where we 
can decide on that as we don’t know what content falls into which 
bucket.

The proposal was to

A) Develop a reasonable IA that allows us to apply the new design to the 
site.
B) Develop an optimal IA that identifies the gaps and overlaps in the 
content.
C) Develop a roadmap to get from A to B.
D) Release with A and work towards B by the means of C.

The only counter proposal that I heard is “Do nothing until we have B 
ready”, which might take us multiple months (or maybe years).

> In my opinion, when users experience an upgrade they are expecting 
> more than a visual upgrade. Alicia’s design was created based on the 
> updated IA.  I don’t think we should do this in 2 steps even if it 
> takes longer than expected.

Alicias Design was created in parallel with the IA, but even the IA 
group has said that the identified IA proposal is not the optimal IA 
possible (through user testing).

I think we have a better chance of doing user testing when we have a 
site to test on, instead of testing headings and possible navigation 
structures.

This has to be an iterative thing in any case.

Eric

>
> Thanks,
> Laura
>
>
> From: Sharron Rush [mailto:srush@knowbility.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2017 6:17 PM
> To: Shawn Henry
> Cc: Wise, Charlotte; WSTF; Green, James
> Subject: Re: Worksessions & nav categories [was: Usability Testing 
> first of April [was: Fwd: v2 -- Re: Tasks - Resource mapping]]
>
> One caution in line below:
>
> On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 5:02 PM, Shawn Henry 
> <shawn@w3.org<mailto:shawn@w3.org>> wrote:
> ...
> My goal is to get an interim IA (with minimal content changes) ASAP, 
> and an ideal/target IA (which will include significant re-doing of 
> content) after that. Do y'all want to suggest next steps and 
> worksession agenda for that, or do you want me to?
>
> I am pretty sure that we had decided by a large majority at the last 
> face to face that in order for the IA to be meaningful - even in 
> "interim"  - there must be significant content changes. Can we make 
> that a matter of record?
>
> There was strong majority opinion not to move legacy content into the 
> new IA without grooming it for the new site. So among the steps must 
> be content review and approval to move. Some of the assets are in fine 
> shape but others will stay in the archival site until fixed. Maybe 
> that is why we are at such a standstill, do we have a remaining 
> fundamental misunderstanding about this?
> My suggestion for a work session that may or may not involve the VISA 
> team is to see which resources can be moved as is and which need 
> rewriting before moving. I was excited by Charlotte's shared history 
> as a tech writer. So maybe that is where we have to start.
> Charlotte, what are your thoughts about this?
> Thanks,
> Sharron
>
>
>
>
> On 3/21/2017 11:19 AM, Shawn Henry wrote:
> Thank you, Charlotte, for this information. I agree with your
> perspectives on optimizing user input and usability testing.
>
> Originally I think y'all said you had time the last week of March.
> How about we do some virtual f2f work -- that is, set aside a
> couple-few hours to do remote worksession(s) together. We can use
> WebEx video or other if that would be helpful.
>
> Best, ~Shawn
>
> On 3/17/2017 3:05 PM, Wise, Charlotte wrote:
> Hi Shawn,
>
> I agree that user testing is essential and am glad that everyone
> supports it. I recommend that we start first with another
> Treejack test when we have a third draft of the IA, followed up
> by a short task-based test of that IA situated within the context
> of Alicia's mockups similar to what you describe below (I would
> recommend using a remote testing service like 
> usertesting.com<http://usertesting.com> for
> this), and finishing with an in-lab based summative test of the
> final draft IA and design along with several pages of the
> revamped content.
> ...
> I like some of the ideas you suggested in the IA you sent earlier
> this week and will incorporate some of them as I work on
> finishing a third draft. I don't think that a primary navigation
> structure with just four categories adequately addresses the
> complexity of the content we have, though I like simplicity too,
> and that’s definitely my primary goal.
> ...
> Just so we are all on the same page--we are presently considering
> 6 primary navigation categories: About WAI, Understand, Promote,
> Evaluate, Implement, Participate.
>
> I like that Alicia's mock-up had About WAI and Participate separate 
> from the main nav. They are important to be easy to find, but *very 
> infrequent* for most users.
>
> Right now I'm thinking this is the best order for the main 4: 
> Understand, Implement, Evaluate, Promote.
>
> Best,
> ~Shawn
> ...
> I think our next step is for me to take a third pass through the
> IA using the content that you and Sharon mapped, review it
> together, and then Treejack test it. If it passes a Treejack
> test, we can consider timing for user testing. We can then look
> at what effort would be required to build out a somewhat or
> mostly-functional prototype site usable for testing based on the
> third draft IA.
> ...
>
> ###
>
>
>
> --
> Sharron Rush | Executive Director | Knowbility.org | @knowbility
> Equal access to technology for people with disabilities





--

Eric Eggert
Web Accessibility Specialist
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Received on Thursday, 6 April 2017 12:39:27 UTC