User Experience Review

The purpose of this content is to provide an overview of the User Experience (UX) Review process. The UX Review section of the UX review process focuses specifically on the user experience, user interface, and usability testing (where applicable). This document describes methodology and standards used by the UX review team during a UX review. It also describes the artifacts delivered at the end of the review.

Introduction

The purpose of this content is to provide an overview of the User Experience (UX) Review process. The UX Review section of the UX review process focuses specifically on the user experience, user interface, and usability testing (where applicable). This document describes methodology and standards used by the UX review team during a UX review. It also describes the artifacts delivered at the end of the review.

Prerequisites

In order to perform a UX review, the review team requires access to the systems’ requirements, use cases, design documentation, etc., and access to a working copy of the application/website with valid test user accounts.

Review Methodology

The application review team will first meet with the review coordinator, at least one business analyst, and at least one of the system developers to get an overview of the system, purpose, primary tasks, and overall user statistics. It is also useful to determine if there are specific sections of the application that are expected to require more and/or primary focus than others, such as high severity defects, etc.

The application review team begins by focusing on the primary tasks of the application.

In general, the review team is looking at the application and task flow at a high level to identify areas of improvement within the overall information architecture. This process will help identify areas that are prone to user error, task inefficiency, and get in the way of the users’ success.

Below is a comprehensive list of all available review categories, along with an outline of each ones’ purpose. Category recommendations will depend upon overall review goals, expectations, and review timeline:

• Heuristic Review
• Contextual Inquiry
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Task AnalysisvInitial assessment of application to identify medium to high severity usability concerns, as well as to baseline the application against established UI standards.
• Initial interview of users to walk through current workflow within application. This helps to identify particular areas of frustration for users, any system limitations/performance issues, error-prone areas, and establish overall baseline user satisfaction.
• Establish primary and secondary keywords that best match the product/application. Identify current page rank among various search engines and how to optimize for best search engine ranking relative to primary/secondary keywords.
• Define tasks of user group and task frequency.
• User Profile
• Information Architecture
• Conceptual Design
• Usability testing (iterative process)
• Usability test results and recommendations
• Detailed Design
• User research to gather user information/statistics such as demographics, user types, level of education, technical baseline, etc.
• Diagram representing the navigational structure and architecture of the site.
• Static graphical representation of concepts. Content and Functional Specs added as available.
• Test preparation (user recruitment, test scripts, etc.) and facilitation.
• Compile usability test results, and determine/prepare recommendations.
• Static and/or interactive representation of revised concept based upon recommendations via results of usability testing.

Deliverables

Upon completion of the User Experience Review, the application review team will provide document that describes in detail each of the findings that were discovered during each categorical review

Each categorical review includes the following detailed documentation:

• Heuristic Review - documentation
• Contextual Inquiry – documentation
• Search Engine Optimization - documentation
• Task Analysis - documentation
• User Profile - documentation
• Topology (Information Architecture) - visio diagram
• Conceptual design - documentation
• Usability test prep (user criteria; test scripts) - documentation
• Usability test results and recommendations - documentation
• Detailed design - documentation
• UI/Functional specifications - documentation

The application review team will review the findings with the review coordinator, business analyst, and developers, to ensure collaborative understanding as well as to answer any questions that arise.