CUTGroup User Testing

User testing for the City of Ann Arbor website’s parking service

My Role

UX Researcher

My Team

3 UX Researchers, Product Manager, and a Research Mentor

Timeline

Oct - Nov, 2022 (4 weeks)

What I did

- Stakeholder meetings
- User testing protocol
- User interview & note taking
- Affinity wall analysis
- UI redesign
- Final report

Background

At CUTGroup(Civic Testing Group), we make civic websites and public applications more accessible to city residents.

The client for this session is the parking department from the City of Ann Arbor, which is the government organization for Ann Arbor, Michigan. The requirement from client is to conduct a usability test on their parking website.

01 - Planning

To understand the problem better,
we communicated with the parking department.

In order to avoid parking ticket, users always call the department to ask if they are allowed to park. Why are they not using the website which already has concrete explanation?

02 - User Testing

Can people use the website to find the information they need in order to avoid parking tickets in Ann Arbor?

We concluded three common tasks for drivers

- Find out how long you can park and what the hourly rate is.
- Find out if you can park overnight.
- Find out if you are eligible for a residential parking permit.

And we observed how first-time users would finish these tasks on the website

We conducted 13 tests on City of Ann Arbor residents in total. We collected their opinions during the test and analyzed with their task completion rate after the testing.

VIEW Full Script
03 - Finding & Recommendation

Finding 1: Parking Map Difficult to Navigate

• Difference between top navigation and Quick Links was unclear, which makes users confused

Finding 2: Inconsistent Link Destinations

• Less tech-savvy users were unsure how to manipulate map
• Difference between evening and overnight parking was unclear

Finding 3: Residential Parking Map Lacked Key Functionality

• Users were unable to locate and read the map without reading through guidance

Takeaways

1. Next step: Usability Testing for the recommendations.

Although follow-up usability testing is not within the scope for CUTGroup, we would be glad to conduct more usability testing after the City of Ann Arbor actually implemented our suggestions.

2. Restrictions for the real-world problem.

In order to make the website better, we actually have many other insights. However, due to the restrictions of the parking system, we are not able to change some parts of the website. Also, it would be easier if we can change directly from the parking ticket system. But that is not something a UX Researcher and change either.

Dan Zhang