Working Title: News Environments
Author: Matt Wilson
Date: December 16, 2009

Subjects:

Three people took part in the beta test, one of whom had previously seen the site and given feedback. Of the three, one has experience in the profession of broadcasting.

Think Aloud Task:

Each participant was asked to explain his/her thought process as he/she clicked though the website. They were asked to find find information regarding awards the company had won and to find examples of previous company projects.

Summary of Think Aloud:

In the alpha test, participants navigated from the Home page to the Portfolio page to the About page, in that order. This was most likely the result of the order those items were presented in the menu at the top of the page, and further feedback indicated that a more logical progression might be as follows: Home > About > Portfolio (portfolio has since been renamed "Design Gallery"). The menu was rearranged prior to beta testing, and as a result, all three participants navigated through in the new desired order.

Each participant indicated that the the most logical place to find information about company awards would be the About page, and each was successful in the task.

All three easily found examples of previous company projects by navigating to the Design Gallery page, but two expressed concerns about the media on that page; those concerns were further addressed in the post interview.

Summary of Post-test Interview:

Two participants expressed that the slide show presentation displaying the portfolio of previous work was lacking. One expressed that the images were simple too small, and another expressed that presenting all set designs in one slideshow and all graphics designs in one slideshow didn't sufficiently highlight those works.

Findings to be implemented:

The effectiveness of the Design Gallery needs improvement to properly highlight the company portfolio.

This will be accomplished by:

•Making slide shows larger. (This may need to be re-addressed further depending on how this alters media download time).

•Developing separate slide shows for previous company projects. This will be to further highlight the creative process and what makes News Environments. Unfortunately, at this point in time this will only be possible for the Set Design aspect of the portfolio; the company just expanded into the graphics business and its current portfolio is sparse.