Idaho Power Usability Report
Can your grandma pay her power bill online? Idaho Power wasn’t sure. Because of its broad and diverse user base, the company wanted their website tested for usability. Evaluating Idaho Power’s website for usability became the culminating project for my ENG 535 User Experience class.
My group of three spent the semester conducting usability tests and compiling information about the user friendliness of the website. (Did you know you can reserve a campsite on the site? Find the option under the “Recreation” tab.) When the testing was complete, we divided the work of summarizing the tests and writing recommendations among the group members.
In addition to writing up my sections of the report, I volunteered to design the document and write the report’s additional content, (including intro, conclusion, and explanations of each report section). Creating a distinct look and feel, writing in an engaging and easy-to-understand tone, and creating visual representations of the data was a pleasure—and I even got to have a bit of fun. Check out the Severity Ratings and their symbols on page 10 of the report. See the whole report here and read my full project reflection below.
Usability Tests and Report Reflection
For a Usability Test and Report project in ENGL 535 - User Experience, I worked in a group with two fellow students to review the Idaho Power website for usability. In this reflection, I’ll explain the tests we conducted, what we included in the report, and my role in the project.
Rhetorical Situation
Idaho Power’s website has a broad, diverse user base, and the company wanted to ensure that their website was user-friendly for all their customers. Although Idaho Power did focus groups and solicited input from their online community when they redesigned their website in 2017, the research was more for overall impression than usability. Since the redesign, the company has found that there are a number of common user complaints, including difficulty paying bills (specifically setting up autopay), and signing up for services.
My group’s research revolved around overall website structure, accessibility, and what barriers users encounter on the site. Our team of three worked together to create a usability test plan that included a two-pronged approach to testing: we conducted research by surveying customers and conducting in-person site testing. Our intent was to deliver Idaho Power a comprehensive recommendation report on their site’s usability.
My Contribution
Each person in the group took part in all the testing we did. We all attended the in-person test sessions, sent the survey to friends and family, and each conducted two card sorts. After we completed the testing, we divided the tests among group members and each contributed a test write up to the recommendation report. In addition to writing up my sections of the report (the personas and the online survey), I volunteered to design the document and write the report’s additional content (the project overview, top findings, conclusion, and intros to each report section). In writing the additional text portions of the report, I used an engaging and easy-to-understand tone with the intent of making the report easier and more interesting to read.
For the report design, I opted to use Idaho Power’s brand colors and created power-related illustrations for additional visual interest. I also determined how to create visual breaks between the sections and how to emphasize our recommendations using background color and graphics. For the color-coded severity ratings I created icons that correspond with the power industry to make them more interesting and relatable, and to add an element of fun. I also created visual representations of the data so it could be easily understood with just a glance.
Strengths/Weaknesses
Our recommendation report was thorough and comprehensive based on the research the group conducted. We fulfilled the assignment completely by creating a thorough test plan to guide our research, and that preparation resulted in a well-organized recommendation report. We used modern, current test strategies to assess the Idaho Power site’s usability, and intentionally selected a variety of tests to give us a holistic view of the website. We then presented the recommendations in an engaging and aesthetic manner.
The report’s main weakness was likely the information itself. With limited time and resources, we were only able to to conduct in-person tests with six subjects, and we had only 55 participants in our online survey. In a broader real-world situation it would have been possible and beneficial to work with a larger sample size of Idaho Power customers to determine what changes to the site would be most helpful to a broader cross-section of Idaho Power’s customer base.
What I Would Change
From a planning standpoint, it would have been helpful if Idaho Power was able to share customer statistics and data with our group, or even put us in touch with customers who had complaints. Unfortunately, Idaho Power was unable to share data due to customer privacy rules. Lacking that information, our group was essentially flying blind as we planned for our site assessment beyond general statements from Idaho Power about “people having trouble with the site.” Our experience as a group, and the value of the report would have been enhanced had we had more data in the planning stages.
We also could have created a better report if we had had the time and ability to test the internal workings of the Idaho Power site. (Another member of the class tested the internal side of the site, and his research found that people ran into many issues.) With more time and resources, it’s also likely we could have had more participants for each test. Our group had six participants for each of the in-person tests from a range of age groups. This group was a good start, but more participants would have allowed us to find more common threads in user experience and diagnose more issues with the site.
Finally, given more time, I would have liked to get user feedback on the format of the actual report. Since I was familiar with the report content, the layout made perfect sense to me. My group members gave feedback on tweaks to the layout, but as a best practice I would have liked to have someone who was not familiar with the subject matter review the report layout before submitting it to the client.
What I Learned
The greatest learning value I got from this project was through actually conducting usability tests in person in a real-world case study. Reading about usability tests is one thing, but having the opportunity to actually practice the tests in a real-world website assessment situation was eye-opening. Choosing the applicable tests and conducting them with real people outside of the classroom was an illuminating and invaluable experience. I learned that asking test participants the right questions and carefully recording their actions and responses while they took the tests was important. Having the opportunity to present our findings and chat with folks from Idaho Power was also useful. A written report can be helpful, but having a dialogue with the client made the project feel real. Through our discussion I better understood how our recommendations were helpful to the clients and how they might actually use our research to guide changes to their website.
Additionally, I enjoyed creating the layout for the recommendation report. This project was the first time I had laid out a recommendation report, and creating an interesting design in combination with writing introductory text in an engaging tone made me feel like a “real” technical communicator. I felt my group was able to create a document that would be useful and informative to a regular person who is not necessarily familiar with usability testing, and really, that’s what technical communication is all about.