Typical User Testing
Website demo at  http://student.santarosa.edu/~sschmidt/aclu/

We contacted numerous users of all walks of life (ACLU’s typical audience). 5 responded successfully; a 6th respondent claimed the link did not work for her and, after she received detailed instructions we gave up trying.

Target Market:
The target audience will be all citizens concerned with personal rights. They are various ages and from various income levels. This site should be visually appealing to attract the general public. Target market examples include: ACLU members, potential members, students entering essay contest, general public looking for information about the ACLU.

Project Vision:
To create a user friendly, information rich site, with an updated look and feel (in contrast to the existing ACLU web site). New features include a Listserv, pdfs of past and present newsletters, pdf forms for annual dinner reservations, membership (join and renewal), Past recipients of the annual awards and a description of them. No under construction links.
Our objective for the Tone and Message of the site: Patriotic yet not a red, white and blue site.

Questions:

What is the site about?

ACLU!

ACLU (is a trick question?)

civil liberties

Equal Rights / Open Minds

What was your first impression of the home page?

Liked it! Very sharp and attractive. Liked the layout, too – though maybe personally I would prefer that the graphics not take up not quite so much space at the top - but it's still very good and everything is very clear and crisp and easy to read.

Very clean, sharp, professional look. Message is "this org has its act
together!" Strong images speak volumes...set the tone.

Looks GREAT, loved the graphics!

Very Patriotic

Professional.

Where did you first click?

"Essay Contest" link on right side.

Civil Liberties...personal interest part of the decision, plus it's the first selection option.

First one - Civil Liberties - 3

Did you find the site easy to navigate?

Yes - with exceptions noted below (index page was good - other pages less so for me)

Yes, very.

Yes - 3

What is the overall tone and feel of the site?

Very informative, attractive, and has a nice feel (can't think of a better word).

Very clean, sharp, professional look.

Very Positive, people who care.

Clean, professional.

Were the pages interesting? Why or why not?

Yes. I especially liked the "Civil Liberties Issues" page and all the information available through the other links there.

Yes, very. Love the palette of predominately warm colors. Good, strong images.

Death Penalty info-very interesting issue. People are either for or against, no in between.

Did you find what you expected from the pages?

Yes - except I expected to see more resources on the "Resources" page. Not sure what else, but just more....

Yes. - 4

Could you find information on the Essay Contest and Contest Resources?
Describe how you found these items.

Easy, because there are two links to the Essay Contest on the index page- one on the left, and one on the right.

(Another trick question?) Select from menu on right on home page. Very easy to find.

Yes, Clicked on the appropriate bar - 2

Yes, through both links

What did you think of the second-level pages?

I did not like the buttons being on the right side on the other pages –though a coworker says they look better for balance. However, I would still prefer they be on the left side, for consistency with the index page - plus I didn't like having to go "over there" to click on those links. Every mouse movement counts!

Consistent look and organization ... very clear and navigable.

They were fine

Good information and easy to read. Nice layout.

Were the third level links easy to find and use?

Yes. - 5

Yes. I like the look of your site more than these; also easier to understand; one of ACLU, Washington, links doesn't work.

What did you think of the newsletters in PDF format?
Could you find them? Could you read them?

I would like to see some notation that these are PDF documents – before clicking on them. Plus, it would be useful to have a link to a free download of Acrobat Reader 5.0 on every page with PDF documents.

Couldn't find them, although it may be because I am limited in the amount of time I have to check out the site.

They were great.

Easy to find. 2

Did you see any images missing? If so, on what page?

No. - 4

All present.

Did any pages take an aggravating long time to load? If so, which ones?

No - things worked fine. - 4

All really fast. Bravo.

Did you find any links not working? If so which link and on what page? What
was the error message received?

No - but I did not try every single link (though I did try quite a few)
None found on this site.

No- 3

What did you like best about the site?

The crisp, graphic layout and easy navigation and the Civil Liberties Issues page (and links).
Visual layout. The only thing I would change is... track the "of Sonoma county" under "ACLU" on the home page a little tighter so that it is aligned under "ACLU"; or make it hang out more. As it is now, it looks like it missed the mark slightly. On other pages I noticed that it hangs way out, so it's a consistency issue, albeit, minor one.

The Color! Contrast was good, layout was good. It had a ‘rich ‘ look. Very nice!

Graphics on the front page.

Please give 3 words to describe the site.

Sharp, informative, user-friendly

Wish I’d done it! (sorry – four words)

Easy, clean, informative

Any suggestions for improvement?

Minor quibble - I hate seeing an apostrophe used for "1950's" . Grammatically, there is no reason for the apostrophe, since the "s" in 1950s (and other similar date) is simply a plural.

You done good!

All long pages should have a ‘return to top’ in the navigation bar at the bottom. (ie: Chapter & News)

In the “Get Involved” section how to contact Congressperson, Senators, etc. the Civil Liberties in Congress button I could not readily find how to contact. This page was mostly how to join ACLU.

The Listserv did not "click", it appeared to be a link. No error message.

Comments:

Very nice graphics - they look great!

So who's the next lucky "client"?

Summary
We are pleased with the results received from the typical user questionnaire. The design layout, color scheme, graphics, organization and clarity effectively contributed to the professional, informative and easy to navigate site. We have already corrected the following problems and/or suggestions that respondents indicated: PDFs were noted as such, Links were given underlines and the rollover color has been changed to navy, the side scroll problem was addressed and solved, and the color shift from the main page to the second pages was solved. Third level inks were set as classes to make the other ones easier to modify in the future. Forms were originally made for the Annual Dinner and Get Involved page along with the use of PayPal. We also set up a listserv that people could join at the site. The client chose not to utilize these processes. Therefore, PDF documents were provided and a link to tell people who to contact to join the listserv was designed. We are very pleased with the final site for the ACLU.

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