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Portfolio: Upromise.com enrollment usability study
Upromise wanted to see how people reacted to the home page for their college-savings Web site. After analyzing the pages involved, I developed a set of open-ended tasks for the participants we recruited. Tasks can be specific if we want people to all do the same steps in the same order. A study like this needed general tasks so people could explore the site as they normally would, but still look at the pages we wanted them to see.
The client let us know that the user experience had improved after taking recommendations from the usability report.
The home page message
As with many Web sites, the original home page had a lot of information, but it wasn't organized well enough to get the message across. They changed the page to show three most important features clearly. Other changes further clarified the message.
New and original home page examples:
The new design has less emphasis on partner logos and more on the program itself.
The original home page had lots of information, but didn't get the 's message across quickly enough
The "How It Works" page
There's a section of the site that explains program details. The text explained the program well, but the page was confusing. Graphics on the page attracted users' attention, but weren't clickable and the text there wasn't as detailed as the text elsewhere on the page. The re-design solved the problem of split focus and helped site visitors understand how the program works. This should increase the enrollment rate.
New and original home page examples:
The How It Works page now has more graphics, but they reinforce the message rather than detracting from it.
The original had text (center) and graphics (right) that competed for users' attention
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