Testing the new home page mockups

I tested my family (Bill and Judy) each separately on the following mockups and with the following four question

1. Design1 : The subject rollover version of the "busier" design.
2. Design2 : The version with really strong horizontal bars.
3. Design3 : The actual content visible in "Find Content"

The four questions were:

1. Q1: Your friend told you that Connexions is a good site to find information on [interest education]. How would you look for information on that interest?
2. Q2: Your friend told you that you can create material and share it on Connexions. How would you do that?
3. Q3: You want to find out more about what Connexions is -- How would you do that.
4. Q4: Assume that you have selected a link on this page and gone to it. How would you get back to this page.
   

Some notes in common -- both subjects indicated "Start a Tour" would be the first thing they would do on Design1. In Design 2, the "Learn more" link drew Judy more than the Start Tour, but the tour is what she wanted. Neither read "Connexions is" text on Design 1. The top four tabs were a complete mystery and "Technology" can be confused with "Technology" as a subject. But "Software" definitely didn't help and both thought they might need to download some.

Notes for Bill: (interest -- aviation education)

Design 1: (On my Dad's PC, the 1-2-3 graphic is completely below the fold).

• Q1: "I might start a tour". I would look under "About", "Content" or "Technology". I don't know what the difference is between those. I might click on Subject-Science and Technology. He thought maybe those buttons could be distinguished in some way so that Content was "different" than About and Technology indicating that it was "special". Thought About CNX might be clearer than About, just because he is trying to find out ABOUT aviation.
• Q2: "I would click Create content in 5 minutes". On the content, I would like to see an example of a particular kind of content I might create, rather than a generic get an account, ..."
• Q3: I would start the tour.
• Q4: Click on the "Home" in the top right small nav. (What Manpreet expected -- but see Judy's answers.)

Other comments: Ordering of the categories alphabetically decreases the importance of science and math, which he thinks is more important. He suggested top-level "Humanities" and "Science" and then the subcategories of what we have. Thought the sample content didn't look very "scholarly".

Design 2: Read the about Connexions material here -- liked it. Felt it explained the site -- didn't notice it on 5.3.

Notes for Judy (interest -- middle school math teaching -- she was one)

Design 1:

• Q1: Went straight to Math and Science in the subject categories. (Noticed author login -- said, I don't need to do that because I am not an author). Did look at "Connexions Is" -- and the bullets for authors, instructors, learners -- did not read text. Then said she would Start Tour. When Judy clicked on the tour, the hover over the Find Content categories switched to language accidentally and the question marks were confusing to her. She did figure out on her own how the hover worked and what had happened. So although it was distracting, it wasn't critically distracting (imo).
• Q2: I would first get an account (step 1) and then login in the author login. Judy did experiment with the login box and found that the text she typed was very hard to read (might need some padding and a bigger initial font-size). Notice "Rhythm" in the "recently revised" and was interested in finding out what it was.
• Q3: I would start the tour. (same as Bill) I would also look through the featured content. In general before authoring anything I would look at the content carefully and make sure that this is a reputable site with high-quality material before I waste my time with an account. I would also run through the "create in 5 minutes" and "author guide" before doing anything. Before I gave up on the site, I would also read the news to see what outside sources think about this site.
• Q4: Would use the browser's back arrow to get back to this page. "I can't tell what page I am on -- one of the menu should be the same color as the bottom bar so that I know where I am. Never found the "Home" link. Didn't know the page showing was the home page.

Design 2.

• Q1: Would click on "Learn more" first. Then tried to click on the yellow bars -- thought they looked like menu bars and should be active. Music content at the top was distracting. Also thought Grilling a steak and lingerie made site look unappealing for a teacher. Noticed "Browse all content" in this design and thought it should be a prominent link on the page. "How do I find out what grade level -- elementary, middle, high school, college -- the material is? Wanted to click on Email Bag to send a message to CNX. (Doesn't like mispellings "connexions" -- but was OK with it).
  

Exploring the real site .

• Looked at the People page (didn't see any of the right side click menus which we are hoping to get rid of anyway). Really wanted a concise bio of the advisory board and the team members. Especially the advisory board. Thought the board Chair, Cindy Lindsay, especially needed at least some descriptive text.
• Wanted pictures with all the bios.