MCRN and Useability
It seems that one of the major problems with making a web site for MCRN is useability. When Mary came to see us, she told us about the Tri Community Services site which is not used as much as it could be. She told us that people at the Community Services centre were disheartened because their site is not used by the community it serves. She therefore felt sceptical about a web site for MCRN.
At present Mary sends emails to people to remind them of events that are coming up which are of interest to them. She is worried that people will not go to the web site to view events, and would like us to discuss possible solutions to this useability problem.
What I would like to propose is a problem solving exercise which addresses the useability issues for the MCRN site. If you participate in this problem solving exercise about useability and the MCRN site, you will be potentially achieving a mark for the module Ensure Web Site Useability 3755R.
Below are questions that need to be answered in order to solve this useability problem. If you can think of more questions that will guide us in the right direction, please input in the comments section.
1. What are the basic issues of useability for the Tri Community Services site?
2. How have the Tri people resolved their useability issues?
3. What are the issues for users of the MCRN site?
4. What techniques/web design features could we incorporate into the MCRN site that will address/solve the useability issues [question 3]
Here's a site that might give you some ideas about how to proceed:
http://www.usabilitybydesign.com.au/products_usability.htm
Please submit your questions and suggestions in the comments section of this post by 28th April to indicate that you are participating in the module Ensure Website Useability [3755R]
I look forward to reading your responses.
Genie
At present Mary sends emails to people to remind them of events that are coming up which are of interest to them. She is worried that people will not go to the web site to view events, and would like us to discuss possible solutions to this useability problem.
What I would like to propose is a problem solving exercise which addresses the useability issues for the MCRN site. If you participate in this problem solving exercise about useability and the MCRN site, you will be potentially achieving a mark for the module Ensure Web Site Useability 3755R.
Below are questions that need to be answered in order to solve this useability problem. If you can think of more questions that will guide us in the right direction, please input in the comments section.
1. What are the basic issues of useability for the Tri Community Services site?
2. How have the Tri people resolved their useability issues?
3. What are the issues for users of the MCRN site?
4. What techniques/web design features could we incorporate into the MCRN site that will address/solve the useability issues [question 3]
Here's a site that might give you some ideas about how to proceed:
http://www.usabilitybydesign.com.au/products_usability.htm
Please submit your questions and suggestions in the comments section of this post by 28th April to indicate that you are participating in the module Ensure Website Useability [3755R]
I look forward to reading your responses.
Genie
posted by Genie @ 11:30 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
At 1:02 PM,
Michael said…
Hi Genie! I was looking for the Tri website, but couldn't find the right one at least I hope it's not this Tri-Community Directory website that has been shut down! That would be a shame!
At 4:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
Dear fellow web site developers,
I was not present when Mary came to see us (my apologies) but I have come up with the following questions that may help us. They may however already be reflected in your questions Genie (whoops, sorry Genie) or have been previously discussed in my absence.
1. Why are members of the community not accessing the site? Is it due to lack of interest, time, computer access/technology or perhaps the site is not attractive enough?
2. How does Mary know the MCRN Web site is not being utilised by the local community?
3. Is/should the Blue Mountains community be the only target audience?
4. Why is Mary sending email reminders to people about events that are of interest to them? Is this necessary? Why do these people not access the site themselves? Should a forum be included in the site? Who are these people?
5. Will targeted users utilise the MCRN Web site? What will draw users to the MCRN Web site? Should we conduct a survey with/forward a questionaire to prospective/targeted users?
Thanks for your attention. See you in class!
At 9:57 AM,
Michael said…
Great questions Ivan (about Mary's site... follow the link at the end of this email to see Ivan's comments)!
Mary did answer some of these questions during the interview (bummer that you couldn't be there!). You might want to check out the comments from Jordi and others on the original post where we dumped all our ideas from the meeting!
At 4:37 PM,
swiftsimpson said…
Hello Genie
I looked at one Tri Community website which gave an alphabetical list of community websites in NSW. This format was OK if you knew the exact title of the organisation.
To encourage users to access the proposed MCRN site perhaps there could be one alphabetical list of all the resource networks on one side of the homepage but with a section of all these entities grouped into related subject areas on the mountains. Perhaps a similiar layout to that chosen by Microsoft for their new homepage to target groups of users with special interests.
Links to like organisations around Australia and the world would broaden the scope for the MCRN users. Frequent updating would help maintain user interest in the site,particularly if input from the users was encouraged. A few thoughts from Sheena Simpson
At 5:04 PM,
Genie said…
Great ideas for the useability issue Sheena and Ivan.
So basically what we are saying is the structure and organisation of the site is at issue here.
Mary is sending out emails at the moment to people who she thinks might be interested in attending various events. She is worried that if she only puts info on the site, people will not access it to find out the information.
Maybe a way around this would be to post the events on the site, and have an auto email sent to various people in specialised groups who have expressed interest in those types of events. The email would have a link to the site and users could access the site and see other available events and topics of interest.
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