Website usability testing for Kingston University

Challenge

Our main objective was to test the usability of the university’s ‘Services for Business’ and ‘Short-courses’ microsites. This was part of a wider review that included an SEO audit, and competitor benchmarking.

Research questions included looking at key website pages and user journeys to evaluate a series of specific criteria. Our experienced UX consultants devised a fast and cost-effective approach that would deliver qualitative usability testing insights to inform the web team’s work.

What we did

A rapid round of one-to-one usability testing was agreed, with simultaneous live note taking to involve the client team. The methodology involved a scenario-based usability testing approach with the ‘think-aloud’ protocol.

We recruited 4 business user participants for the Business and Enterprise Centre usabiity testing. One of our researchers moderated the one hour sessions, while another facilitated simultaneous live note taking. We then ran a collaborative analysis workshop and debrief with the university team.

Benefits

The user testing showed conclusively that site users were not reading lengthy content or academic jargon – instead wanting to know very briefly what was on offer, and how to make contact.

“Observing the user testing sessions first hand was a really interesting experience. The Business and Enterprise Centre user testing report was comprehensive and very clear… this made it easy for us to go over everything and prioritise recommendations,” says Georgina Cox of Kingston University.

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