Memo

NWOKillers Website Improvement

The Truth

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TO: MARK SMITH, CREATOR OF NWOKILLERS.WEEBLY.COM

FROM: DREW ADAMS, CHAISE GLENN, GRIFFIN LANE, NATHAN LOW, IKEM NKURUMEH

DATE: MARCH 26, 2020

RE: REDESIGN PROPOSAL

Dear Mark Smith,

We are reaching out to you again in order to provide details concerning our previous redesign
proposal of nwokillers.weebly.com. This memo discusses our plans to perform a usability test on
two college student that have no experience using the website. The goal of this usability test is
to determine how quickly and easily users can find specific information on the website. This
memo includes the following:

• An introduction detailing how the usability test will be conducted and what sort of data
we hope to collect
• A script of what we will say to each student at the beginning of the usability test (we refer
to this as our “scripted intro”)
• A list of basic questions that we will ask the students about the homepage
• Two design scenarios that will describe tasks that the students are expected to complete
• A secondary test that the students will perform in order to obtain further data
• A waiver form that our test subjects will sign allowing us to use audio and video
recordings taken throughout the test
• A calendar describing the timeline of events leading up to and after the test, as well as
the general logistics of the test

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 INTRODUCTION
The usability test described in this memo is designed to provide us with information concerning
how easily users can use your website for finding information. Our tests primarily focus on the
location and extraction of information, i.e. how easily users can find specific pages and
information within those pages. Our usability test will begin with a series of questions. These
questions are designed to acquire information about the test subject, as well as the subject’s
initial thoughts about the homepage.

The main portion of the test contains two design scenarios, and the user will be responsible for
completing the tasks within these scenarios. Once the data from the design scenarios has been
collected, we will administer a secondary activity that will allow us to gain more information
about the usability of the website (discussed in further detail later).

Our tests also try to utilize the “think aloud protocol.” This protocol is a method of testing
usability through consistent verbal feedback from the test subject. During the tests, we plan on
taking notes in order to learn how users react to design choices and why this occurs. From our
team, Drew Adams will discuss the preliminary information. This includes the design scenarios,
as well as discussing the contents of the waiver that the test subject must sign. Nate Low will be
responsible for conducting the test (reading the scripts and asking the questions). Chaise Glenn
and Ikem Nkurumeh will be responsible for taking notes during the tests. Griffin Lane will not be
participating in our test (he will be taking another test).

As a final note, we will be using Zoom to conduct our tests. This livestreaming service will allow
us to see the subject’s screen, as well as hear their voice. We will also be able to record the entire
test through Zoom, which will allow us to go back and analyze the tests afterwards. With all of
that being said, we would now like to discuss our plans in detail.

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 SCRIPTED INTRO
SCRIPTED INTRODUCTION
When we bring the participant in, we will read this script inform them what is going on and why
they are here. Below is the scripted introduction:

“Hi, my name is Nate, and I’m going to be your administrator for this session today.

Before we begin, I’m going to give you some information about what you are going to be
doing on the New World Order Killers website.

We’re asking people to try using the website we provided so that we can check how well
the website was designed and how usable it is. The session is going to test the
performance of the website and has no reflection on your performance, so there is no
right or wrong answer. The session should take about 20 minutes.

We would like you to think out loud as you take the test. Feel free to share all feelings
and thoughts about the process. Your responses will be kept anonymous and cannot be
used to identify you. We’re doing this to improve the site, so we need to hear your honest
reactions.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them at any point during the test. Due to the
focus on user interaction with the website, we may not be able to answer all the questions
that you might have. This is solely because we are interested in your interactions with the
website without any outside assistance.

With your permission, we’re going to record what happens on the screen and our
conversation. The recording will only be used to help us determine improvements for the
Bentley Software site. Your name and identity will not be shared with anyone outside of
the test administrators.

I’m going to ask you to sign a simple permission form for us. It says that we have your
permission to record your actions, and that your name and likeness will only be seen by
the people working on the project.

Do you have any questions? If not, then let's begin.”

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DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS
Once the script introduction has been completed and the participant has signed all the

waivers, we are ready to begin the test. We will start with demographic questions that

will allow us to characterize a typical user. Below is the demographic script:

1 - What is your major?

2- What year are you into your major?

3- List any conspiracy theories you know of.

4- Do you believe in any conspiracy theories?

These questions are here to help the participant to start thinking about conspiracy theories and
not to be overwhelmed when they are first introduced to the homepage.

HOMEPAGE QUESTIONS
After the participants have answered the demographic questions, we will have them enter the
address of the website in their browser from any page that they were on before. To gather their
first impressions of the site, we will have the testers tell us out-loud their immediate thoughts.
This, along with recording their facial impressions, we can gather very useful data on their gut
reaction to seeing the site for the first time.

The following is the scripted tour we will walk the participants through:

“We can now start looking at the website. While browsing the website, please say

aloud your thoughts, reactions, and opinions about the website’s structure,

design, and impression.

Without moving or clicking anything on the page, what is the first thing that draws your
attention?

What does NWO stand for?

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 Now you may scroll on the site, but don’t click on any pages or links.

What do you think the site is used for?

Did an individual or a company made this website?

Explain reasoning.

What do you like about the homepage?

What do you dislike about the homepage?

What do you think about the navigational features on the top of the page?”

DESIGN SCENARIOS
The following scenarios are intended to test the navigation and scannability of
nwokillers.weebly.com, as these were our primary concerns that we expressed in our redesign
proposal.

SCENARIO 1
You are a journalist who is trying to write an article about conspiracy theorists. In your article,
you would like to interview at least two theorists that you find through the internet. You find
your way to NWOKillers and wish to contact the owner of the website for an interview. You
would like to retrieve the owner’s name, phone number, and email. You would also like to
know if this person has written any books (and the names of these books) in order to gather
information prior to your interview.

This scenario is primarily used to check how accessible your contact information is. If people
would like to reach out and talk with you, then the website needs to allow users to find the
contact information easily. Furthermore, if a user would like to learn about your beliefs, they
should be able to quickly find any material that you have published.

SCENARIO 2
You are a person who has always been interested in reading about conspiracies and the end
times. You spend around an hour each day going through conspiracy forums on the internet.
One day, you find a thread discussing the website nwokiller.weebly.com. You begin reading
posts that people have made about the website; however, you frequently see people
discussing something called the Apocalypse of St Thomas. You have no understanding of what

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this is and decide to visit the website in order to learn about this subject. Your task is to find
the page discussing the Apocalypse of St Thomas and give us a brief explanation of what you
find.

This scenario is designed to test how effectively specific information can be found on the website,
as well as how scannable this information is. This test is meant to test both the menu and search
bar navigation. As such, we will first ask the users to refrain from using the search bar. If they find
the information (or fail to find it), we will ask them to go to the homepage and relocate the
information using the search bar.

SECONDARY METHOD
As a secondary way of gathering information about the usability of NWOKillers, we have an
additional activity for our test subjects. The goal of this secondary method is to determine the
initial response of the user to the appearance of the website. With this information, we hope to
determine how the layout and information within the website affects how to user gathers
information.

For this activity, we first ask the user to select a subpage from the “MORE…” tab that interests
them. Once they have selected a page, we will ask the user to scan that page for 3-5 minutes and
gather as much information as they can. We will then ask them to give a rating to the following
statements (1 – Strongly disagree, 2 – Disagree, 3 – Neutral, 4 – Agree, 5 – Strongly Agree):

• The content of this page feels completely relevant to its title.

After tallying up the scores, each user will have given the page a rating out of 20, which will give
us better data about the usability of the website. Finally, we will ask the test subjects why they
gave the ratings that they did. This will allow us to specifically identify the problems with the
website design.

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 WAIVER FORM
Figure 1 shows the participant waiver form for our usability test. This waiver allows us to record
audio and video throughout the test, as well as permits the distribution of these recordings to
our customers.

FIGURE 1: PARTICIPANT WAIVER FORM

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 CALENDAR
The practice usability test is taking place on March 31st and the actual usability tests being only
two days later on April 2nd, all of which will be done over Zoom. The tests will be performed by
three members of the team: Drew Adams, Chaise Glenn, and Nathan Low. Drew will tell the
testers about the usability test and what will be done with their results, as well as go through the
waiver and scripted scenarios that are prewritten. During the actual testing, Nathan oversees
running the tests and asking the users questions about their experience with the NWOkillers
website and prompt them to give thorough feedback on ways they believe the website could be
improved. Chaise will be writing notes and summaries of the user’s feedback. The tests will be
audio and video recorded through Zoom, so the user will not need to install any extra programs
in order to participate. It is unknown who will be the test users as they will be chosen at random.
Figure 2 shows an outline of the test days and report that will be compiled from the results.

FIGURE 2: A CALENDAR THAT OUTLINES THE TEST DAYS AND REPORT TIMELINE.

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 FINAL REMARKS
We would like to formally thank you for allowing us the chance to conduct these tests and suggest
improvements to your website. We look forward to continuing our work with you and share our
findings.

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The Truth,

Great work here. This memo contains all the right parts and looks really nice. The only things you
lost points for are an unanswered question in your intro, something needing more specificity in one
of your scenarios, and one significant technical issue: don't get your client's name wrong (in the
scripted intro, where you copied material from one of the samples). See below for a breakdown by
section, and make sure to read my suggestions on the attachment thoroughly, as they'll help you
tweak your scenarios and other elements of your test script.

Introduction (13/15)
Scripted Intro (5/5)
Homepage Tour Questions (10/10)
Scenarios (28/30)
Homemade Method (20/20)
Waiver Form (5/5)
Calendar (5/5)
Document Design and Correctness (9/10)
Total (95/100)