BizRecycling
Usability Evaluation
CHALLENGE
BizRecycling approached our team with the need of a general usability evaluation for their site as it currently exists. Providing waste management solutions and working with local government and city organizations, they aim to understand how both new users and existing users understand and navigate their site. We were asked to conduct a usability evaluation and provide a findings and recommendations report to BizRecycling.
SOLUTION
Through various research methods and evaluation techniques as well as conducting remote moderated usability test sessions, our team gathered insights and feedback from users to create a usability findings and recommendation report. The report contained annotated wireframes, insights, findings from sessions as well as findings from individual research. Additionally we included proposed solutions, updates to the site and general recommendations.
Methodology
• Heuristic Analysis
• Cognitive Walkthrough
• Remote Moderated Research
• Usability Testing
• Think-Aloud Protocol
• Wireframing
Tools
• Slack
• Google Docs
• Trello
• Miro
• Sketch
• Keynote
Client Deliverables
• Cognitive Walkthrough
• Heuristic Analysis
• Testing Protocol
• Findings & Recommendations Report
• Interview Notes and Transcripts
• Wireframes
BizRecycling
BizRecycling serves as an information source and initial contact point for businesses in Washington and Ramsey county. Businesses can utilize BizRecycling’s services to implement recycling and waste management programs, including free consultations, grants, and free recycling materials.
Their website educates users about these resources and the economic and environmental impacts that improved waste management can have on their business. Informing, providing resources and educational material, as well as supplies or labels for properties and businesses are just some of the amenities that BizRecycling provides to any user.
User
Primary User
Businesses, restaurants, multi-unit residential properties - Most users on BizRecycling are new and visiting the site for the first time in hopes of finding more information. Existing users that currently utilize the services from BizRecycling fall under this category.
Sustainability specialists - Individuals who work for Minnesota Waste Wise and provide site visits, create plans for the business or organization and a solution to their waste management. The specialists use the site in order to provide information and a guide on how to navigate the site with a new 'client’ that signed up for BizRecycling’s services. Often they will find the correct grant information or requirements the business or property need to have and any other resource for the needs of that ‘client’ and/or business.
Research and Context
Client kickoff meeting followed by a heuristics analysis conducted on the current site
After completing our kick off meeting with our client to understand their goals and needs with this project, we were ready to get down to work.
As we dove into this project we began by first exploring the BizRecycling website using two different research methods. Half of our group (including myself) conducted a heuristic analysis based on Jacob Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design.
Navigating through the site and attempting to evaluate if any of the heuristics were violated was a first step in finding out where the most critical issues exist.
The other half of our team was responsible for conducting a cognitive walkthrough of the BizRecycling site, attempting to navigate the pages and content, placing themselves in a users perspective who has a specified goal in mind, such as learning how to complete a contact or sign up form so that they could proceed to connect with BizRecycling as a new user does.
Once we had re-convened as a whole we identified the most obvious pain points and barriers. These were common from both of our smaller groups and the biggest opportunities from the start centered around cluttered text and too much information that buried the important and valuable information, repetitive user paths that would lead a user in a circle of never ending pages that were essentially a repeat of each other but formatted differently.
On top of this there was a clear need for a better understanding of what BizRecycling does, what they can provide to a new client or partner and how the businesses actually benefit with either cost savings or time and energy savings, not to mention simply bettering the environment and planet as a whole.
Usability Testing
After discussing we continued to recruit participants for remote usability testing and drafted a test protocol with scenarios and tasks that we would request the participant to work through and discuss aloud their feedback, thoughts, reactions, etc. to better clarify and support our initial findings.
Assessing users navigation and understanding of the current website
Conducting a total of five usability test sessions remotely over video calls with a variety of participants, we set out to understand what users feedback and interaction with the site looked like.
These evaluations centered around usability and general understanding of the Biz Recycling website. Participants were asked background questions on their involvement with waste management, followed by prompts asking them to complete specific tasks and provide feedback as they interacted with and used the website.
Each session included a moderator who asked questions and guided the participant through the tasks, as well as note takers observing and recording the session to produce insights and notes following our sessions.
Recommendations and Solutions
Upon synthesizing and gathering the common themes in our participants feedback from usability sessions, we prioritized the most critical points that were frustrations or created barriers to users. With these insights and findings synthesized and clarified, each of us worked on and designed a couple wireframes and general revision to pages we collectively identified that need highlighting as the most critical and necessary to revise.
Group work and collaboration effort on project designs in Miro
Additionally, we recommend to concise and streamline the information architecture of the BizRecycling site as whole as there are numerous pages with repetitive information, unnecessary information and ‘noise’ that hinders the important information users need. Many pages lead users through a loop of screens, resulting in frustration after continued attempts.
This was the most crucial place to begin their updates as the content and organization of the site was an exhaustive and confusing task for all participants we conducted sessions with, only emphasized by the fact that every participant made a comment of some sort about the text being too long, information repeating on pages and confusing their mental model, etc.
Shown below is the IA diagram I was responsible for creating, finalizing and designing. Included on the diagram are outlined changes and structure updates to the site with a legend provided. It is crucial that an IA update of the website is the first step in creating a streamlined experience for users.
Findings and Recommendations Report
As the project wrapped up, our team joined the BizRecycling and partners that were stakeholders in the project and discussed a high-level, general overview of our findings and recommendations in the report, allowing them to discuss or ask questions on material we included..
Walking them briefly through our testing, the main themes and explaining the actions we recommend are feasible and allow for the highest impact with the lowest work effort required, they were very appreciative and pleased with our findings, echoing that they had similar assumptions and now have a concrete foundation to stand on an move ahead with their updates and improvements.
Adhering to their existing design and style guide we showed our recommended updates with wireframes highlighting possible solutions, as well as a few general recommendations for the site that are easier to start tackling than some other complex areas.
View the full PDF report here:
Highlights from the provided recommendation report:
Summary
BizRecycling’s waste consulting service is a great example of improving the user experience of a process already in place with waste management systems. They offer great resources to help businesses tackle the daunting process of waste management, resulting in time and money saved by the businesses.
Our findings indicate there are areas for improvement that will help promote these resources more effectively and facilitate more businesses to get involved with BizRecycling. Usability research findings indicate that users are excited about what BizRecycling does once they are fully aware, however many were unfamiliar with the program offerings and intricacies of waste management after visiting the site.
Recommendations our team provided aim to help users get a clear and efficient understanding of who BizRecycling is, how it helps their business, and how to get involved. Whether these changes are implemented directly, or incorporated over time, the team hopes it provides useful insight to the BizRecycling team and compliments the incredible work and mission of the organization.
