Planning, conducting, and analyzing a website for usability is the first part of a usability audit. The next step is to write an argument for which elements you will redesign or encode from a visual prototype to HTML and CSS. The report is very similar to an argumentative paper. Typically, you have an argument you want to make and you use analytical methods to produce your claims and evaluations of other arguments. The purpose of writing a technical usability report is to provide recommendations for the redesign or encoding process. You can use any form of submission for this assignment.

How to write your usability report (our starting point is http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/reporting-usability-test-results.html)

Part 1: Planning a Usability Test

Using the information in the link above, write an initial summary about what you’ve found. This step is meant to allow you time to reflect on your report. These items are useful to consider when writing an initial summary/reflection: Do you notice any emerging themes (ex: Guiding users interaction; Presenting a credible personality or character; Using typography as an interface;)? What major revisions and/or recommendations would you make based on the usability audit?

Consider the what, why, and who of your usability report to determine the rhetorical situation of writing your usability report (See Chapter 5 in Technical Writing).

Part 2: Analyze Results

Analyze the results by marking the severity levels of problems or noting what the site does well. Examine the website to see what they do well and what does not work well for the usability of the site. Note that against our understanding of good usability.

Part 3: Brainstorm recommendations

After analyzing the results, you should develop a set of recommendations that are based on the general guidelines developed from http://guidelines.usability.gov and the visual usability guidelines based on consistency and personality.

Part 4: Write Your Document

Your usability report should include a background summary, your methodology, test results, findings, and recommendations. There are a number of report templates that you may adapt to assist you in reporting your findings.

Background Summary: Include a brief summary including what you tested (website), where and when the test was held, equipment information, what you did during the test and a brief description of the problems encountered as well as what worked well.

Methodology: Include the test methodology so that others can recreate the test. Explain how you conducted the test by describing the test sessions, the type of interface tested, metrics collected, and an overview of task scenarios. Describe the participants and provide a summary of the background/demographic questionnaire responses (e.g., age, professions, internet usage, site visited, etc.). Provide brief summaries of the demographic data, but do not include the full names of the participants.

Test Results: Include an analysis of what the facilitator and data loggers recorded. Show the data in a way that is understandable to the reader. Include participant comments if they are illustrative.

Findings and Recommendations: List your findings and recommendations using all your data (quantitative and qualitative, notes and spreadsheets). Each finding should have a basis in data—in what you actually saw and heard. You may want to have just one overall list of findings and recommendations or you may want to have findings and recommendations scenario by scenario, or you may want to have both a list of major findings and recommendations that cut across scenarios as well as a scenario-by-scenario report.

Keep in mind:

• Although most usability test reports focus on problems, it is also useful to report positive findings. What is working well must be maintained through further development.
• An entirely negative report can be disheartening; it helps the team to know when there is a lot about the Web site that is going well.
• Each finding should include as specific a statement of the situation as possible.
• Each finding (or group of related findings) should include recommendations on what to do.

Incorporating Visuals to Illustrate Specific Points

You can make the report both more informative and more interesting by including visual content. You may consider including:

Screenshots to readers visualize what you were testing. Include parts of screens to illustrate specific areas that are working particularly well or that are causing problems for users.

Short video clips to illustrate specific points, if you are presenting the report electronically and the readers of the report have the technology available to see video clips. People who did not observe the actual test sessions are often most convinced of problems and the need to fix them by watching and listening to relevant video clips.

Implement and Retest

For a usability test to have any value, you must use what you learn to improve the site. You may not be able to implement all the recommendations. Developing any product is a series of trade-offs in which you balance schedule, budget, people’s availability, and the changes that are needed. If you cannot implement all the recommendations, develop priorities based on fixing the most global and serious problems. As you prioritize, push to get the changes that users need.

Remember that the cost of supporting users of a poorly-designed site is much greater than the cost of fixing the site while it is still being developed.