Usability Testing with Your Own Employees
Presentation Abstract
Coworkers complained that our internal knowledge base was difficult to use. The search pulled outdated topics, and the table of contents was difficult to navigate. The knowledge base had been neglected and needed to be organized in a way that made sense to its users. As part of a usability testing project, Jess and her team performed three rounds of testing with coworkers to establish a baseline for time on task, discover the users’ mental model to reorganize the TOC, and then gauge improvement for time on task. They discovered that users struggled with outdated publishing topics, generic duplicates flooding the search, and a TOC with no overall structure, unclear tasks, and too many miscellaneous sections. The team used that data to restructure the knowledge base and create a plan to improve the search results.
Emily Saltsgaver, the Enterprise Content Services (ECS) Department Manager, will introduce Jess Caldwell and the concept of the specialist program.
What can attendees expect to learn?
This presentation reinforces that you need to provide the best help for all your users, including your own employees. If you neglect the content your own employees use, you can’t expect them to provide the best experience for your customers. You should strive to empower your employees by improving the content they use and allowing them to specialize in their areas of interest. It is also beneficial because, if your department or company does not provide usability testing, the best way to start is to test with your own employees. Once your department has completed several internal tests, you will be more confident and experienced when expanding the testing to the actual users of your product.
Meet the Presenter
Jess Caldwell is a Technical Writer Advanced who has worked at Jack Henry & Associates for four years. She has a bachelor’s degree in English for creative and professional writing from Missouri State University. She writes user manuals and help for several software systems in the banking industry, is an editor for the department, and is a specialist in usability and usability testing via our Specialist Program. She is also a team lead for retail delivery products.