User testing plan: school leavers

Testing outcomes

1. Understand what different navigation labels 'say' to school leavers.
2. Understand what information school leavers need and what they need to see first. 
3. Understand the relevance of faculties and schools to school leavers.
4. Learn how school leavers deal with the terminology we use: which terms are understood by them and which are unclear.
5. Test how well our subject groupings work.

Notes for facilitators

• Is more 'research' than 'testing'.
• Conversational - discussion evolves naturally. Not an interview.
• But make sure key areas are covered.
• Recommend that one person facilitates the discussion and the other makes observations.
• Note taking should be unobtrusive. Leave time for discussing and recording findings after the session.

Equipment and set up

• Victoria laptop with the following:
  • Vic site open in Chrome
  • Vic site open in IE
  • Screen recording software
  • Treejack test in a new window
• Printed copies of ethics form: Participant Information Sheet.
• Printed copies of IA tasks (tasks 2 and 3)

Introduction

The introduction is very important.  

1. Put the student at ease and explain the purpose

Key messages:

• We're planning some changes to Victoria's website, to make it more user friendly for school leavers who are looking for information.
• This session will take about 45 minutes.
• There will be a bit a chatting and we'll also get you to do a few things online.
• We're not testing you or your website skills!
• Your participation is highly valued - you're helping make a difference - thank you.

2. Explain privacy

1. Explain the confidential nature of the testing

"You won't be identified in any notes - at the most we'll use your first name."

2. Explain the screen recording software. Demo if necessary.

"We'll use software that records the screen in case we need to go back over anything after the session. You won't notice that it's running. It will record your voice, but not a photo of you."

3. Get them to sign the ethics form.

3. Collect basic details

• First name
• School
• Year level

Leads into below...

Conversation guide

1. Interests/scene setting

Do you have some idea of what you’d like to do at university, or careers that interest you?

If unsure, ask about subjects at school.

2. High-level navigation options

Where would you look on the Victoria website to find information to help you make decisions about university study? Why?

(If they pick search, ask them to pick a second option too.)

Which would you pick if you wanted to enrol? Why?

3. CSP choices

Which area would you select next? Why?

4. Exploring and talking

Let's have a look at the information that's on the Victoria website now to do with (student interest area). Have a go.

Victoria site is open.

Student will either browse or use the site search (or a mix).

Talk to the student about what they are looking for - get them to talk out loud.

What's important here is what they are interested in - what they need to know (and in which order) rather than how well the current site works for them.

Explore:

• What are their personal priorities? (eg, career info, specific field, degree info)
• What's useful, and what's less useful?
• Did they find out what they were looking for? Was it enough? What's missing?

Is there anything else you need to know when thinking about enrolling at a university?

(Student may mention costs, student life, who are the lecturers, faculties and schools)

5. (TBC) Demo topic page

Here's a mock up of a test page we've created that uses a different approach to introduce an area of study. (Invite them to explore it.)

How useful is it? Is there anything else that could be included?

6. Role of faculty and school

What's your understanding of the role of a faculty at a university?

What's your understanding of the role of a school at a university?

7. Treejack

We're looking at new options for how we provide information about areas of study. We'd like you to use an online tool to help with this.

Bring up the treejack test. (URL will be: https://victoria.optimalworkshop.com/treejack/july-subjects We should have this opened in a different window or tag). 

The participant just needs to put in their name (so we can match their results to other notes later). 

They will see some visual instructions on how to do the task. 

The questions have been loaded into the tool, so the interviewer can read them as they come up. 

• Task 1: They see the list of 15 top-level areas and work though the navigation to find the thing they want. When they find it, they hit a button called "I'd find it here".
• Task 2: Same action and visuals as above. Task can be skipped if you're short of time.