Microsoft Learning

Running A Full-Fledged Usability Study

Under the guidance of our sponsor, Microsoft, my team and I worked together to conduct usability studies for Microsoft on their online learning platform. Our aim was to perform an evaluative study to understand if first time visitors are able to find appropriate training and certification exams.

Microsoft Learning Masthead

Usability Study Goals

The Microsoft team was interested in both visitors who know what certification they need and visitors who are completely new to the system. We worked toward pinpointing areas where we can improve the search and discovery of trainings & certifications. We concentrated on improving information discovery through a better navigation experience, focusing on the first time user. At the end of the study we also suggested enhancements to help improve the product’s usability.

TYPE : 
Group project with 4 members - Sponsored by Microsoft

METHODS USED :
Personas, Think aloud protocol, Usability Studies, Task Analysis, Participant Screening, Affinity Diagramming

MY ROLE :
I created the task list for the study, gathered data for personas and presented our recommendations. I also moderated 2 studies and took notes throughout.

TIMELINE:
February 2015 - March 2015

The Process

In order to achieve the above goals, we pursued the following process:

  1. We worked with Microsoft to gather actual data about users.
  2. Based on this data, we created user groups. These user groups helped us in creating our personas for the system.
  3. We then crafted a screening questionnaire and began screening participants for our study. 
  4. Next, we created our task list and conducted studies using the “think aloud protocol”.
  5. We analysed the data from our usability study and carefully determined how, when & why users fail to discover trainings & certifications.
  6. Lastly, we presented our recommendations to enhance the first time user’s navigation experience.