This is a team project consisting of two students. The instructor will assign you to a team randomly. You will also be assigned a website at random.

Research the organization that owns the site. Include the mission of the organization, products and services, and target market. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the goals of the site? What is the overall affordance of the site? Is this the right affordance?
2. What is the problem that the organization is trying to solve?
3. Who are the intended users and what do you think the organization would like them to accomplish using the site? Can you create a persona of the typical user?

Deliverables

1. Slide deck that showcases research and findings. Include a title slide plus the following two slides (only):
   • Goals, affordance, and problem being solved
   • Typical user persona
2. Students will be selected at random at the beginning of class to present their findings to the class.

Part 2 – Usability Test & Goals

Now that you have completed the initial research and have a better understanding of what the organization is trying to do, evaluate the user experience.

1. Conduct an observational usability test of your assigned site.
   • Download and adapt this usability test script. The script is generic, so you are required to adapt to your situation. The team should use the same adapted script for all of the tests below.
   • Get people (excluding MIS students) to participate in the usability test using the adapted usability test script. Each team member must separately conduct the test with 2 subjects.
   • Document the process and notes and include the notes as well as the modified test script as an appendix in your submission. Each team member must include a separate set of notes.
2. Conduct an heuristic evaluation of your assigned site using Nielsen and Molich’s 10 User Interface Design Heuristics:
   • Each team member must separately conduct the heuristic evaluation and include their individual results in the appendix.
   • For each heuristic criteria, write a two or three sentence rating and explanation. Use the bullet format.
3. Combine the results of the observational usability test with the heuristic evaluation.
   • Combine your analysis with your team member into a new integrated list. The list should show using square brackets who is responsible for which point and where it came from. For example: “The site does not help users recover from errors [Joe] [Heuristic].” It is okay to disagree with your team. If you disagree, identify those issues. As a guideline, we expect most teams will identify 7 plus or minus two issues.
   • List problems, not solutions. For example, “it takes a long time to find relevant information because it is not logically organized” is a problem vs. “the content should be better organized in menus” which is a solution.
4. Apply the following Norman’s concepts to explain any of the problems identified above. You should use all the concepts below at least once.
   • The different types and forms of errors (Ch. 5).
   • Conflict among the designer’s and user’s conceptual and the system image (Ch. 1)
   • Blame: The wrong thing, learned helplessness, oneself
   • Feedback
   • Mapping
   • Note: As you work through the above, you will notice that one problem fits into multiple concepts. If that is the case, then identify the more general concept and explain how the smaller concept fits into it using the results as examples.
   • You will be graded on how well you can take what you learned from the usability testing above and abstract to Norman’s concepts above.

Deliverables

1. Slide deck limited to 9 slides highlighting all of above elements. There is no limit to the Appendix which can be a Word document or additional slides marked as an appendix in the PowerPoint. 
2. Students will be selected at random at the beginning of class to present their findings to the class.