Appendix B: Raw Data

Subject Times per Task Link

Number of Subjects By Version and Answer

10 = Strongly Agree, 1 = Strongly Disagree

Q1: I prefer to view links all on one page rather then on different pages.

Q2: I prefer interactive menu for navigating through the pages

Q3: If there were 100 links, I would prefer all the links to be on one page rather than 10 pages of 10 links each

Q4: The links in the task list were links I would be interested in.

Q5: The organization of the categories for the links were appropriate.

Q6: The browsing conditions during the experiment were optimal.

Observations:

A1:  “Ugh, can’t find it” about Travel advisory after about a minute and a half

        “huh” about the Online take out and Delivery being a culinary event

A2:  (task 3) “Bad Interface”, “It’s gotta be here”

        (task 4) “Wow look at that”

        (task 5) “slightly better”

        (task 7) “I have no clue”

        Uses the find function for version 3

        Comments that used to a different mouse that allows you to automatically do a back             by pressing another button             

A3:  (task 10, 11) used the find function for version 3

A4:  noise made when saw list for citizen services

        “I have no idea” for task 2

        “don’t know that that means” for task 3

        “I don’t know where it is” for task 6

        For Tavel Advisory looks under MD Scene -> Travel Bureau

        Uses the mouse scroll to scroll

        On task 6 closed the window by accident

        (tested so that pages were on computer, not in lab)

B2:  gave up on task 9 (vehicle emissions for version 2)

B3:  “drive me nuts”, “irritated the hell out of me”, comments on the roll over menu

        “Why is under culinary events?” - about Online take-out and Delivery link

        “Why is that listed 3 times?” -

        “Whole list doesn’t look appealing” on version 3

        “doesn’t look link a link” on the secondary page  of version 3

B4:  For “Travel Advisory” goes to “Getting Around…” under citizen services first

        Also looks in”Travel and Tourism” under Maryland Scene  

        Goes to “Transportation” (lifelines) first for “Vehicle Emissions”

        “culinary events…okay” –regarding the placement of Online Take-out and Delivery

        Looks under “Stay Healthy”  (citizen services) for “Disease Fact Sheets and

            Later tries categories under Maryland Scence…smiles at a blank page.

C2:  doesn’t like the pop up windows

        Looks under MD Scene->Travel and Tourism for “Travel Advisory”

        Uses the find function for version 3 tasks.

        Comments that if know exactly what link name is then version 3 is easier

C3:  gave up on task 6 and 7

D1:  (tested so that pages were on computer, not in lab)

         For vehicle emissions looking under Transportation

        Comment that some of the categories were wierd     

        Comment on the original version was a little confusing since not always the same

        “Whoa!” on version 3 secondary page,  sees “The Arts” on the right hand side first

            and not “The Art” on the left hand side

D2:  For register to vote, looks under libraries

        One of the few people that uses the chain navigation links and the folder tabs

        Goes to MD Scene first for Travel Advisory

        Goes to Hotlinks for Vehicle Emissions, later looks under Licenses and Registration

D3: “Where the hell did you find these” comment when searching for One Stop Shop for

            Business Assistance

       “That makes no sense” on task 3

        “look at that it’s puke green” about business services color

        “this is too big”  about version 3

        “That’s a bad place to put it” – on culinary events

        “now I like the big list of things” after using version 1

        “Stupid link” – about directory of business in MD, proably because

            it is the only link under the category Directory of Companies in Maryland        

         “That’s a culinary event!” –about the online take out and delivery

D4: Went to MD Scene for travel Advisory

       When to right category for Online Take –out and Delivery but skipped the

        correct one initially , “Gosh!” , some signs of fustration

        laughs at the pop up window

E1: comments on original menu

           “gets real annoying” ,    “don’t link this set up at all” ,

            “okay it’s really annoying”

      “Don’t like how it pops up into a new window”         

      For travel advisory, goes to Travel and Tourism first

E2: “not alphabetized” comment while on task 6

       “this stuff sucks” comment while on task 7

        comment that Travel Advisory can be under may things

        “cool” -  on version 1

E3:  Looks unhappy

        “god” while on task 2

        “that was not very….” When found task 6 link

        Looks under travel and tourism for Travel Advisory

E4: lots of fustration on Travel Advisory

       Under resturants, throws off subjects                                   

F4: “have no idea where this is” for task 6

       Looks under lifelines->Transportation for Travel Advisory

    Cell phone went off during testing

    Looks under stay healthy for disease fact sheets

General Observations:

            Many people did not seem to use the chain link navigation or the categories tabs, instead they mainly used the back button.  When looking for travel advisory, most looked under Travel and Tourism, or some link that had the word “travel” or “transportation” in it.  They didn’t associate it with weather.  Many we’re surprised that the Online Take-out and delivery was under Culinary Events.  Quite a few people used the find function when performing tasks that used version 3.

 Comments:

A1:

Version 3, too many options. Can’t view all at once.  Liked the colors that you choose! J

A2:

            Travel Advisory was under a bad category.

B1:

            Bad Organization/placement of links

B2:

            Bad categories arrangement.  Bad color mix

B3:

            Links should be in more than one place if they could logically get under multiple categories.  There was a broken link in version 3.  There was a page w/ multiple links with the same name.  In version 3 the links were not highlighted.  In version 1, not being able to see all the menu options at the same time was bad.

C1:

            Many categories were misleading or seemed redundancy

C2:

Not really knowing real concept of what I was looking for made searching

through menus difficult.

            depending on  the task (about which version was easier to use)

C3:     

Version 1: javascript too frustrating to navigate thru.  Version 2 and 3 not properly categorized.

Use DHTML or drop down menu.  Color scheme too prolific for a state gov site.

D1:

            Pretty web pages (design)

            Some organization (classification) was not intuitive           

D2:

Version 1 was kinda of hard to look at because you can’t really move the mouse too much or else the menu would disappear.

Some of the links you asked could be located in a different portion of the site.

E1:

            The pages popping up in new windows (complaint)

if when you pressed on a menu it expanded, that would be good.

E2:

            V1, V2 had unclear categories to navigate through

            Mouseover of icons lead to results that confused me

            Should mouseover and have menu appear in same quadrant

E3:

            No very intutitive to find all of the links under the categories

E4:

            Misspelled “Government”

            Some stuff was in my opinion miscategorized

F2:

The find function initially was slowed for some reason (took a long time to respond)

F3:

            None other than poor site design (slow down factors)

F4:

Organization of the info, the color scheme could be changed to help (slow down factors)