Usability Testing at City of Seattle DPD

Subject: DPD Web Usability -- Volunteers Needed

* * * Please View in Html * * *

Department of Planning and Development Web Usability -- Volunteers Needed

Do you use DPD’s website?
Want to improve its usability to get the information and tools you need? So do we — and we need your help to do it.

The Department of Planning and Development (DPD), would like your help evaluating the usability and content of its web site. We will be conducting sessions from Jan. 31 to Feb. 8, 2011. All we need is 1.5 hours of your time; free parking will be provided.

*If you’re interested in helping evaluate our website, please email us at dpdfeedback@seattle.gov. Please include your name and phone number.


RantWoman editorial comments:

1. The City of Seattle has won and RantWoman thinks continues to win all kinds of prizes for e-government and web presence. People interested in details can go to seattle.gov and check things out for themselves.

2. RantWoman is posting this item BEFORE emailing in to see whether she can bring her laptop full of accessibility tools to one of the testing sessions. RantWoman supposes for that to work, the testers will have to figure out some issue to do with connectivity. RantWoman does not think this should be unreasonable. Stay tuned.

3. RantWoman THINKS she is sometimes the sort of policy nerd who would actually like to interact both with various kinds of data available on the DPD website and with the various and sundry reports available there. RantWoman THINKS this, but in practice, sometimes she makes very fast use of various human information digestion resources in her orbit and saves direct unmediated interaction... for other contexts.

4. RantWoman thinks that people's preferences vary about whether to, for instance download a big document in chapter-sized chunks or to download the whole dang thing at once. RantWoman MOST OF THE TIME is a chapter-sized chunks person though she does not mind if the chapters all come bundled in a zip file. Most of the time means sometimes RantWoman wants to search across multiple chapters. Having the whole document in one file makes that easier.

5. RantWoman aspires to have readers who will check this out regardless of whether or not they have accessibility needs.

6. RantWoman cautions the world: what works and is important for RantWoman may or may not be what is critical for other users with accessibility needs.