Usability Studie for 1.5 : Your 10 most commonly completed tasks (discussion)

btelles · Post by **btelles** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:04 am

Hello everyone,

Thanks again for all of your input. Some of you asked questions on your posts, and I have tried to answer them at the end of this post. If you think there’s a place where we can improve the study to meet your needs, please let us know as soon as possible.

Before we begin screening tasks and scenarios, I would like to ask the product developers if they are willing to look at these scenarios and determine which ones are closest to their target audience. This information will help us recruit a slightly more representative sample of participants and it will help us create scenario scripts with more mundane realism.

Here is a list of possible scenarios the community came up with:

News Site (2)
Blog (2)
Personal Website
Club/Society info site
Corporate web site
Non-Government Organization
Migration Project
eCommerce

Of the 60 tasks the community came up with, 14 were mentioned at least twice. These fourteen tasks will be screened on the first round of usability studies this week barring any unexpected hickups. The remaining 46 tasks may be incorporated into existing tasks (for example, if they are related to creating articles) or they may be placed on a To Do list for future studies. The fourteen tasks that will definitely be screened are listed in the attached PDF document.

Answers to questions:

> Shall we consider that multilingual sites specificities are out-of-scope for this first study?
Yes, unfortunately one of the biggest improvements in Joomla 1.5 ( from my understanding, unicode support) will not be tested in this study. The reason is simple. I simply do not have time to implement a cross-cultural study in the short time we have to conduct the study. I would love, however, to do such a study at a later date.

>None of my tasks made it to the list, how come?

Unfortunately one of the scenarios was out of the scope of this study. The migration scenario, although highly relevant to the upcoming release of Joomla! 1.5, its tasks were mentioned only once, an unfortunate event for a potentially crucial usability problem of the new release. Product developers, is this a large enough concern that you would prefer to overrule one of the other tasks in favor of testing the migration process?

eyezberg · Post by **eyezberg** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:52 am

Bernie,
as this is about "the 10 most commonly completed tasks for basic Joomla! usage as a content management system", as interesting as installation (including content migration) is, I wouldn't include this in the study (imho). The installer could (should!) be tested independently from the CMS proper, as it is considered a separate app' which gets deleted post-install. So not day to day usage (except for site admins maybe), more of a do-it-once, get-it-right thingy..
Looks like you're making good progress on this

slord · Post by **slord** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:03 pm

Maybe I'm weird but in nearly all cases the very first thing I do is remove or hide many unwanted modules if I have installed sample data.
This is almost 1st thing after install....
Choosing a template or modifying or writing a new one can't really be done while the unwanted modules are still taking up screen space...

When I make one for someone else I usually stick in sample data... and then turn most of it off.... this actually takes a lot longer than the actual install...

An install takes 2-5 minutes depending if I use the installer or not... but removing modules etc. can take a lot lot longer...

compass · Post by **compass** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:14 pm

Is the "context", i.e. a blog, being using just to generate ideas? Adding content is adding content, yes?

pvh123 · Post by **pvh123** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:59 pm

If still possible, I would like to add a "Church website". I am in the process to migrate our ASP based website ( http://www.legerdesheilsaw.nl ) to a Joomla based website and I would need the following functions:

- Add news in a simnple way with possibiliteis to include pictures, links to other pages either interneal or external.
- Be able to setup pages with music items, so I need good music players.
- Easy inclusion of external facilities like Andromeda, which is a package based on reading directories with media items and play and display whatever is there. (ref.: http://www.turnstyle.com/andromeda/CommunityEdition.asp ).
- Facility to easy differentiate between users , based on the rights they have.
- Calendar facilities, again based on a rights structure.
- Good RSS
- Authorised users must be able to execute certain tasks ie. calendar or otherwise.

Most of the above I can achieve at the moment on my 1.5 testsite, but the inclusion of external PHP packages and the addition of extra PHP pages within the site is difficult.

Rgrds,
Pieter

btelles · Post by **btelles** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:18 am

Hello everyone,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Here are some answers to your questions (if you didn't ask any, feel free to skip the attachment at the bottom of the post

):

Should the install process be tested?
Eyezberg, I could not agree with you more. The major reason for not testing the install feature is that it only occurs once. Hence it is not a common task, and therefore, perhaps shouldn't be tested. There are at least two other points to consider before we rule out testing the install process (which is still plausible).

Parts of the installation process such as adding modules or extensions, may be conducted on a more regular basis. Unfortunately since I've never administered a website through a CMS, I'm not sure how often this comes up.
The second reason is directly related to the core team's perspective on what is important for Joomla! right now. Namely, should the core team focus ease of administration or should they focus on ease of end-user use? If they want to focus on ease of administration, then perhaps the install process should be included in this study. If, however, they are more interested in improving the end-user experience, then they should focus on the traditional common tasks such as adding articles, etc.

Should we test usability of hiding unwanted modules?
Slord, hiding unwanted modules seems like an extremely important task for any new site. When I first installed Joomla! I had a very difficult time understanding the difference between modules, sections and categories (*hint* *hint*). We'll have to wait for the core team's perspective on the types of tasks that are important in order to gauge what we should test. I have emailed them and will let you know as soon as I get a response from them.

Paraphrase: What's the usefulness of adding Blog, News or Club/Society contexts to the usability test scenarios?
The usefulness comes in how users conducting the task will view the addition of content. For example, if a user is submitting a news item to a public-facing corporate site, he or she may value a grammar or cliche checker and may want to be made aware of any automatic emoticons being inserted in the article. If the user is writing a blog, the language may be less formal and the user may not value a grammar or cliche checker. Thus, when our participants are writing and adding their content, the context we provide as part of the scenario will help gear their thoughts to the type of task that a real end user would experience and may give us insight that we would not otherwise obtain.

Should we include a Church site scenario in the study?
It's funny you should mention a church site since that was one of the first scenarios I listed on my sample scenario list. My guess is that churches are becoming more and more interested in having their own websites, and this is a prime example of an interest group that has little to do with technology, but values the reachability of the internet (if reachability is a word). How about we make a church the "club/society" scenario?

Last but not least, attached is a copy of the protocol I've developed to summarize one participant's experience as he/she goes through a scenario.

slord · Post by **slord** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:53 am

btelles wrote: Hello everyone,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Here are some answers to your questions (if you didn't ask any, feel free to skip the attachment at the bottom of the post ):

Should the install process be tested?
Eyezberg, I could not agree with you more. The major reason for not testing the install feature is that it only occurs once. Hence it is not a common task, and therefore, perhaps shouldn't be tested. There are at least two other points to consider before we rule out testing the install process (which is still plausible).

Parts of the installation process such as adding modules or extensions, may be conducted on a more regular basis. Unfortunately since I've never administered a website through a CMS, I'm not sure how often this comes up.

The second reason is directly related to the core team's perspective on what is important for Joomla! right now. Namely, should the core team focus ease of administration or should they focus on ease of end-user use? If they want to focus on ease of administration, then perhaps the install process should be included in this study. If, however, they are more interested in improving the end-user experience, then they should focus on the traditional common tasks such as adding articles, etc.

Much as I agree if the installer does have 'quirks' then 90% of people will get them

My last post before this is for the 1.5 installer/database creation and charset/collation and might for instance be a potential issue, rather more for those without a local test machine... just as a note I think the new installer is overall a great improvement but up to the last nightly I tested a couple of options could be put more in the forground ... or more obvious (this is largely semantics I know but) if 90% of people are uisng the installer then if this causes a small problem just through an option not being super obvious it will cause problems later on...
I think what Im saying is the new installer is great, experienced Joomlers however might miss some of the new options

Should we test usability of hiding unwanted modules?
Slord, hiding unwanted modules seems like an extremely important task for any new site. When I first installed Joomla! I had a very difficult time understanding the difference between modules, sections and categories (*hint* *hint*). We'll have to wait for the core team's perspective on the types of tasks that are important in order to gauge what we should test. I have emailed them and will let you know as soon as I get a response from them.

I can't remember what I said exactly but either you reworded it or we had exactly the same experience!

The value of the sample data is unquestionable... without this I was lost

however I think it might be possible to have a graded sample data install?
As an analogy the present situation is like having two entry points in a swimming pool... the shallow and end deep end...
The deep end makes an excellent Joomla showcase! No doubts but is it the most user friendly?
That is a hard question.... by forcing the user to turn off what they don't want forces some understanding... which is generally a good thing, all I would question is if more should be turned off and/or if the sample data itself might contain more explicit instructions as to how to turn it off...
From posts I see here a few things still confuse people, for instance the latest news and other modules that are installed on under mainbody() ... but the bottom lineis I have installed Joomla for quite a few people... with different levels of geekiness...
One to be frank was simply overwhelmed by the sample data.... by the time I turned it off she was convincd Joomla was too complex for her needs... and I have another friend who I installed Joomla as a showcase for his art... also completely technophobic... but I simply turned it all off before showing him... he's still mainly limited to the front end... but hey the guy's learning how to email as well... (that's his level) ...

Its just my opinion but an install where sample data is installed but turned mostly off would really help... the people who need the most help... with this as recommended.... the installer is really simple... the next stage threatens to overwhelm them and they start thinking if they have bitten off more than they can chew...

Paraphrase: What's the usefulness of adding Blog, News or Club/Society contexts to the usability test scenarios?
The usefulness comes in how users conducting the task will view the addition of content. For example, if a user is submitting a news item to a public-facing corporate site, he or she may value a grammar or cliche checker and may want to be made aware of any automatic emoticons being inserted in the article. If the user is writing a blog, the language may be less formal and the user may not value a grammar or cliche checker. Thus, when our participants are writing and adding their content, the context we provide as part of the scenario will help gear their thoughts to the type of task that a real end user would experience and may give us insight that we would not otherwise obtain.

Should we include a Church site scenario in the study?
It's funny you should mention a church site since that was one of the first scenarios I listed on my sample scenario list. My guess is that churches are becoming more and more interested in having their own websites, and this is a prime example of an interest group that has little to do with technology, but values the reachability of the internet (if reachability is a word). How about we make a church the "club/society" scenario?

Last but not least, attached is a copy of the protocol I've developed to summarize one participant's experience as he/she goes through a scenario.

I think this is a increasingly common scenario... and its really an excellent deployment for Joomla...

eyezberg · Post by **eyezberg** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:45 pm

Any news on this? Has this been completed yet?
Thanks

Jinx · Post by **Jinx** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:14 am

Hi Joe, due to the amount of UI issues in 1.5 the usability tests have been put on hold until the release of beta2.

eyezberg · Post by **eyezberg** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:34 pm

According to wilcos beta2 update blog from march 3rd:

We have decided to code freeze on March 10, after that only minor code changes (bug fixes) will be done. From that point on the other development working groups will be working on work that needs to be done to create a beta-2 package:

* Documentation will at least update the api-documentation and also will try to work on additional documentation.
* Marketing and media will work on new sample content.
* Quality and testing will perform some final tests.

We expect the working groups to finish up their work in around a week after the code freeze, and after that we can wrap up a beta-2 package.

I'm really looking forward to meeting him in Paris on Sunday for news, and hope this is still on track and this study doesn't get lost due to too long a delay.

digitaldentist · Post by **digitaldentist** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 3:16 pm

pvh123 wrote: If still possible, I would like to add a "Church website". I am in the process to migrate our ASP based website ( http://www.legerdesheilsaw.nl ) to a Joomla based website and I would need the following functions:

- Add news in a simnple way with possibiliteis to include pictures, links to other pages either interneal or external.
- Be able to setup pages with music items, so I need good music players.
- Easy inclusion of external facilities like Andromeda, which is a package based on reading directories with media items and play and display whatever is there. (ref.: http://www.turnstyle.com/andromeda/CommunityEdition.asp ).
- Facility to easy differentiate between users , based on the rights they have.
- Calendar facilities, again based on a rights structure.
- Good RSS
- Authorised users must be able to execute certain tasks ie. calendar or otherwise.

Most of the above I can achieve at the moment on my 1.5 testsite, but the inclusion of external PHP packages and the addition of extra PHP pages within the site is difficult.

Rgrds,
Pieter

The high points of Joomla is easy End user experience, mass quantity of modules, the ability with some knowledge to build anything you dream of.

The low points, are more from a developers end, you can google the forums for some of my remarks

As for your church site, I do not see why Joomla couldnt be used

Here is my suggestions. DUMP IIS (and windows if you can)
Run apache, Why?
Its faster, Its cleaner, it really has more features and opens up a world of other software (beyond joomla) that provide enterprise level function for free

As for Linux Distros, I would suggestion Suse Enterprise Linux, or Open Suse, as both have excellent install tools, and a nice end user interface.

End Open Source Advocacy
As for Joomla Modules
Community Builder + Copper Mine will Add the necessary User functions support + gallery

As for Joomla 1.5. Its beta, i wouldnt expect a stable copy before the end of the year, so your millage will vary (greatly)

Security Wise, Joomla doesnt shine . There are a few modules to add limited extra levels of security, but if you are looking for a package that has an event scheduler + task related calendaring and security groups, Geeklog is a better choice

pvh123 · Post by **pvh123** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:30 am

digitaldentist wrote:
As for your church site, I do not see why Joomla couldnt be used

Hi,
Thanks for yr comments. I have moved on quite a bit in understanding Joomla since I wrote my post in this thread.
I believe I can do what I need for our website as and when 1.5 is a stable release.
Also I will move our Joomla website (when finished) to an unix environment anyway. One reason is that our current provider does not support PHP on the windows end. I have started to put Joomla 1.5 on a Fedora Core 6 installation and that went very well. So I will get my self some experience there as well.

I will have a look at Geeklog. Ta for that.

Pieter

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