Usability Analysis of a Client Knowlege Portal

Usability Analysis of a Client Knowledge Portal (1 of 7)

CONTENTS
Introduction
Expert review
Task analysis
Usability testing results
Survey results
Appendix A
Appendix B

Introduction
This report presents the summarized results of a usability analysis conducted on the Client Knowledge Portal site. The evaluation was executed on a live version of the site.

The Knowledge Portal allows Client employees to share information, engage in discussions, read about company news, and access other types of company information such as employee contact information. The site’s users are Client employees who are expected to have varying levels of technical skill but who are all are expected to be computer and Internet savvy. The site’s users are expected to range from people perusing stock information to knowledge stewards who publish and access large amounts of information.

Report overview
This report combines results from a range of usability analysis techniques. Redesign recommendations are based on task analyses, usability testing, a customer satisfaction survey, and an expert review.

Methods
An expert review was conducted which was based on the author’s knowledge of established usability principles as well as insight gained through observing users interacting with the site. For the task analysis, three “expert” users were observed “in action” publishing documents. Subjects were considered to be experts if they had published documents to the site. The publishing function was emphasized since it had been identified as a trouble area for users of the site based on previous user feedback. Task analyses were outlined based on this observation session and recommendations for redesign made based on where subjects were exhibiting difficulty. Two of the expert users also were involved in a usability testing session in which they were asked to perform a number of tasks, which are representative of tasks that would typically be performed on the site. Six other subjects were also involved in the usability testing session, in addition to three pilot subjects who were tested in order to refine the testing procedures. Eight of the nine test subjects filled out a customer satisfaction survey. In terms of recommendations for redesign, one should refer to both the expert review and the task analyses.

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