San Diego Conference Testing

[JonellaCulmer]

What we're after: We need to prepare testing materials for the San Diego conference (October 29-30), including identifying what to test and the materials to conduct that testing.

Proposed ideas for testing:

• Dates and Deadlines usability
• PAC spending chart
• Raw versus processed usability

Second tier ideas:

• Improved nav to data viz: Homepage banner image mock-ups
• Improved nav to data viz: New homepage layouts
• Improved nav to data viz: Modified call to action, blue box on homepage
• Improved nav to data viz: Current location, Raising and spending by the numbers/visualization charts easier to find

To prepare and conduct this testing we need to do the following:

• Confirm test topics
• Mock-up relevant prototypes or comps (including dates and deadlines)
• Write test scripts
• Create notetaking template
• Create sign-up form in ethnio
• Compile results from testing

[JonellaCulmer]

At the San Diego conference, we tested a number of areas including:

• Candidate comparison line chart (mock-up)
• Raw vs Processed toggle (production)
• Dates and deadlines page (prototype)
• Active vs Terminated committee status (production)

We were unable to get enough testers to come away with clear takeaways for the data sections including the Candidate comparison line chart or the Raw vs. Processed toggle, but we were able to get enough testers for the other two.

Here are our takeaways:

Dates and deadlines:

• All were able to find where they would immediately look for their next reporting deadline. ⅗ said they would go to the calendar. ⅖ said they would look at the cards. One said they would also look at the “not sure” button to find what they were looking for.
• Most expected to find a list of the upcoming reporting deadlines. One user expected to see the dates broken down by state or office.
• Most users found what they expected when clicking on one of the reporting schedule pages, a list. One user said this isn’t what they expected, they didn’t think they would have to click down to another page to find the specific dates by seat.
• Generally, users want to get their questions answered sooner and made more accessible if they’re not as familiar with the information.

Active vs. Terminated committee status:

• There appeared to be no confusion over the terms Active and Terminated.
• Users predominantly looked in the about this committee section as well as the two-year period, then the filings to determine whether a committee was still active or not.
• Users predominantly looked at the two-year period to determine whether there was money and if it was the latest two-year period. If not, the user determined the committee was not active.
• Users would appreciate an indicator of whether or not the committee was active or not. Something prominent. One user suggested something in the global search dropdown, two others suggested something at the top of the committee profile page. Two others suggested an indicator without saying where they would prefer it.

Recommendations/Next steps:

• Continue to make adjustments to the Dates and deadlines landing page design to provide more information upfront and organized in a way that better supports the reporting lifecycle.
  Also incorporate feedback from the Information division, already provided shortly before the conference.
• Consider ways to communicate a committee’s active or terminated status. At this time we know that a lot of our users have to guess and look for clues to know for sure whether a committee is still active or not.

[JonellaCulmer]

Follow-up design tickets have been opened:

Update dates and deadlines design mockup fecgov/fec-cms#3324
Design solution for active vs terminated committee status fecgov/fec-cms#3325