On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 6:05 PM Jim Hall <jh...@freedos.org> wrote:
>
> I mentioned in February that I've been working on a new website
> redesign as a "back-burner" project for a while. I also shared that I
> was working with undergraduate students in Usability Testing, at the
> University of Minnesota and Michigan Tech University, to do a
> usability test of the "new" website.
>
> The students have been working on their usability tests over the
> semester. This week, the first group (MTU) presented their results.
>
>
> Brief background:
>
> The new website design was proposed to us for free by a professional
> website designer based in Germany. I modified the design slightly (the
> web designer wanted to change the colors and logo and some other
> things .. I changed these back) and I used that to create a
> mostly-working version of the new design at https://test.freedos.org/
>
> The student groups designed, executed, and analyzed a usability test
> of the test website from late February (or early March?) to mid April.
> The MTU students presented their results this week. (U of M students
> will present their results on May 3.)
>[..]
I had the date wrong; the U of M students presented their results
today, May 2. Here is my summary:
Two groups from U of M did usability testing on the new mock-up
website at test.freedos.org
Summary of group 1 results and findings:
Group 1 tested the new website with four test scenarios, which
included one or more scenario tasks. A "task" is where you give the
tester a brief context, then ask them to do something specific. A
"test scenario" is one or more related tasks grouped together in a
kind of "story." Their test scenarios were:
1. Find information about FreeDOS and how to use it
2. How to set up FereDOS
3. Download a version of FreeDOS
4. Find information about games, and find the FreeDOS email lists
They tested with 5 testers: 1 had used DOS in the 1980s and 1990s, 1
had used DOS in the 1990s, and 3 had never used DOS (only one of these
had heard of FreeDOS, but had not used it). Based on their usability
test, they made these recommendations:
1. The header links are confusing. The header links are "Wiki About
News Contribute Download [search]" but testers were confused by
several of these terms. "Wiki" was confusing. "Contribute" was
confusing. They recommend changing the header links to "About Forums
Help Download [search]". Note that "Wiki" becomes "Help" and
"Contribute" becomes "Forums."
1a. Testers didn't look for a "how to install" on the front page. They
expected this on the Download page. So we should move that link button
to the Download page.
2. Inexperienced users didn't know what a "virtual machine" was or how
to install FreeDOS in it. Since I usually recommend new users install
in a VM, I'll need to change that. They suggested adding additional
guidance specifically on installing in a VM.
2a. The "how to install" link points to a screenshots-based
walkthrough of how to install FreeDOS. Instead, they recommend linking
to a "how-to" video or article instead.
3. (similar to #1)
3a. Suggestion to add a "FAQ" somewhere in the website, probably in
the Help ("wiki")
3b. Leverage the content on the YouTube channel, and embed "how-to"
videos on the website so this information is easier to follow along
while doing it yourself.
Group 2 tested the new website with four test different scenarios,
which contained one or more scenario tasks. Their test scenarios were:
1. Download FreeDOS
2. Download a game from a linked website (I think this was a mistake-
this is testing someone else's website)
3. Find instructions to install FreeDOS
4. Find the FreeDOS email lists
Their findings were similar, even with their mistake on test scenario 2:
1. Update the links in the header. Their testers didn't want to leave
the FreeDOS website to visit the wiki, and wanted to find everything
on the FreeDOS website. Not sure how to tackle that one. General
recommendation seems to be to focus the wiki to become a "Help"
website, with easy to follow instructions for how to install, how to
use FreeDOS, etc. (I wrote articles about that for Opensource.com that
we can re-use here.)
2. Users can't find help very easily (I think because most of the
"Help" was on the wiki). They agreed with Group 1 that renaming "Wiki"
to "Help" might help users find this.
3. The FreeDOS site uses a lot of jargon. Some of the "jargon"
mentioned by testers includes "open source," "DOS-compatible,"
"bootable CD," "LiveCD," and similar terms. Most of the comments were
on the website (not a surprise, since they tended to avoid the wiki).
That will require simplifying the language on the website.
Group 2 also recommended a "FAQ" link, and opening off-site links
(like to the wiki or to other websites) in a new tab so these aren't
confused with being part of the FreeDOS website.
There was some discussion to make the wiki look more like the website,
and I commented that I'd been planning a wiki redesign someday, but
hadn't planned on doing it now. Might have to move that up on the
schedule, maybe this summer. I'd been thinking about moving the wiki
off of SourceForge, which is slow - and moving it to the same web host
service that runs the main website. At the same time, I might change
the name from wiki.freedos.org to help.freedos.org and update the look
and feel so it feels more like the rest of the FreeDOS website.
I've asked for their permission to share the full report on the wiki.
I'll share it only if I get a "Yes" from everyone in each group.
Otherwise, I'll post a summary in the wiki.
(I asked the same of the MTU students, but one student declined, so
that's effectively a "No.")
Jim
_______________________________________________
Freedos-devel mailing list
Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
