Usability Report 2 (Beta Test)

Working title: Yangtze River Dam: Promise or Threat?
Report Author: Susan Connell
Date: 1 May 2003

Brief Profile of Users

I observed and interviewed three people for this beta test: a teachers' aid, an accounting manager and a public relations professional, all of whom were reasonably computer literate. None were familiar with the WebQuest format. Operating systems and browsers used were Windows 98 with Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6 and Mac OS10.2.5 with Internet Explorer 5.2.2.

Think Aloud Task

The subjects were asked to locate at least two areas on the Three Gorges Dam site where the might find, or find links to, satellite photos of the Yangtze River.

Summary of Think Aloud

• All users found the the small satellite photo relatively easily. They also found both of the links to the NASA site shortly thereafter.
• One suggested that the graphics on the "The Story" page might be more effective if they had captions explaining what they were.
• Two of the three subjects noticed that one of the links on the resources page did not open in a new window and suggested that it should behave like the other off-site links that did open in separate windows.

Summary of Posttest

• The Windows 98 user had a small monitor and could not see the entire width of the screen on "The Story" page, but only a small bit was truncated after the adjustments I made following the prototype test.
• All of the users appreciated the descriptions placed with the links on the "Resources" page and thought they would be helpful on the other links pages.
• As with the prototype test, all of the subjects liked the notebook metaphor and thought it would be nice to have more graphics on the pages.
• One user suggested that it would be nice to have "expanding" menus off of "The Story" page so that returning users could go directly to the links pages beneath it.

Findings to be Implemented

• Correct Visible Earth link on the "Resources" page to open in a new window.
• Will add captions to the graphics on "The Story" page.
• Would like to add more graphics and descriptions as the site is further developed.

Findings that will not be Implemented

I had hoped to have time to do more elaborate menus on the site that would include "pop-ups" for the sub-pages, but I ran out of time.