Notes for facilitators
Is more 'research' than 'testing'.
Conversational - discussion evolves naturally. Not an interview.
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.
Testing outcomes
- Understand what information students are looking for when they come to the Victoria website.
- Understand
- ow the terms in the current IA compare to the proposed new ones.
- Which terms students recognise and which don't make sense to them .
- How well our subject groupings work. We hope to see evidence that our approach would work better
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.)
| Future students | Learning & Teaching | Study at Victoria | Faculties & schools |
| Current students | Life at Victoria | About us | Use search |
Which would you pick if you wanted to enrol? Why?
3. CSP choices
Which area would you select next? Why?
| Programmes | Degrees | Subjects | Papers |
| Topics | Courses | Qualifications | Careers |
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 then to talk out loud.
What's important here is what they are interested in, rather than how well the current site works for them.
What is useful, and what's less useful?
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.