Usability Study & Heuristic Evaluation: Evaluating a professional conference and association management admin dashboard

Usability Study Executive Summary

The company provides software for the management of professional conferences and associations within the academic, scientific, medical, and engineering space. This usability study was conducted from November to December 2021 by five evaluators.

The purpose of this usability test was to assess the usability of core tasks often required of conference admins working within the platform’s admin dashboard. The evaluators also assessed the usability of the interface design, navigation, functionality, information architecture, and more.

  • 8 participants, ages 27–53

  • 4 previous users; 4 new users

  • 1 hr sessions conducted remotely through video

  • Participants had access to a standard test environment

  • Participants were instructed to think aloud during study

  • Study included 1 exploration task, 3 main tasks, and a short follow-up interview

  • Study captured the participant’s questions, navigation decisions, task completion, feedback, and more

Expert Review & Heuristic Evaluation Process

  1. Understand business goals

  2. Identify main user persona

  3. Conduct background research to choose test tasks

  4. Choose effective set of heuristics (Nielsen & Molich) and severity scale (Dumas & Redish)

  5. Conduct individual heuristic evaluation

  6. Synthesize results as team

  7. Write applicable recommendations to address heuristic violations

  8. Present findings: View Heuristic Evaluation Presentation

    1. 185 heuristic violations documented

    2. Most violations were a level 2 violation

    3. Both positive and negative findings were addressed

Findings & Recommendations Summary

Through the usability test and the expert review/heuristic evaluation, we were able to observe and discover common pain points that conference administrators often experience. These observations allowed us to identify a range of key issues hindering the dashboard’s usability.

Paired with recommendations, these findings can be used to improve the usability of the admin dashboard and ultimately cut down on the number of support tickets received surrounding the tasks tested.

Our team grouped the main findings from the study into four high-level themes including layout & design, information architecture & wayfinding, system feedback, and functionality (View Usability Study Presentation).

This project was completed as part of my graduate studies at Bentley University with teammates Allison Brustowicz, Lauren Dunn, Mariah Ore, and Tony Tran.

 
Kaydee Herreraresearch, usability study, human behavior