Overview: 

The Department of State OIG site manager requested usability feedback from the DigitalGov User Experience Program before the site's migration to a new content management system, Drupal. My role was to propose and lead a usability service that was low-cost and could be executed quickly.

PROCESS:

• Competitive Analysis

• Task Analysis

• Usability Testing

 Research

• Compare other Federal Office of Inspector General websites & past expert evaluation reports of:

  • Department of Transportation, USPS, Peace Corps, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veteran Affairs

• Review common top tasks, navigation, organization of reports and usability issues

• Compare the usability services of the DigitalGov UX Program

Recommendation: Usability Walkthrough

While an Expert Evaluation can be quickly administered and covers a variety of important usability principles, usability testing provides more insight regarding the completion of top user tasks. Due to the Paper Reduction Act, user recruitment was limited to federal employees. As a result, I recommended a Usability Walkthrough reviewed by the DigitalGov program manager.