Top Findings & Severity Level
This website has potential but needs much work done to be suitable. My first finding is that the navigation bar did not
give the user feedback when hovering over links and/or showing the user where they currently were on the website. This made it confusing
for me and my testers to truly identify where we were on the website, especially considering there were no breadcrumbs.
Severity Level:
3 = Major usability problem
Throughout the website, I found broken links. For example, the 'Shop' link did not work in the footer. Broken links are unacceptable in
any website environment, especially considering that US Quadball is a nonprofit with no physical location. Users must be able
to use an up-to-date navigable website that prevents error.
Severity Level:
4 = Usability catastrophe
In each of the page bodies, there began an image with the page's text heading over the image. Having the text be white made it incredibly
difficult to read. Furthermore, the photos were poorly chosen and negatively drew attention. For users to really know
what page they are currently located on, the page's text heading must be displayed in a more prominent way and have more attention
on the text rather than the image.
Severity Level:
3 = Major usability problem
Some of the critical content was poorly placed, which caused difficulty in finding them. For example, the quadball tutorial video was located at
the bottom of the 'What is Quadball?' page after 10+ images were laid above it. This video is essential in understanding how the sport works
and must be displayed prominently. This goes for all key content, such as the Rulebook, donation link, list of teams, etc.
Severity Level:
3 = Major usability problem
The search bar has minimal functionality, which is unusable. The only way to get anything to populate from
searching was to search with one word, which also caused other pages that contained that word to populate. This greatly hinders the user experience
and forces them to find elements in the website manually.
Severity Level:
4 = Usability catastrophe
Many links were not clearly displayed as links, which likely affected their clickability rate. Using consistent buttons and hyperlinks could
probably make the user see important information and want to click it. A good example is the '(map)' link linked to the US Quadball Cup's
address that is found within the 'Events' page. This link was not styled at all and was easily missed.
Severity Level:
3 = Major usability problem
Six Recommendations
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Recommendation #1 -
Remove the pop-up banner that first appears when entering the website. This likely puts a negative impression on new
users because that is the first thing they see when they use the website, which may likely drive them away.
It would be better to remove this so users can see the home page and its essential elements. Some ways to incorporate
the information found through the pop-up banner would be to have a button called 'Get Updated' which would allow the user to
find the button willingly and click it to subscribe to US Quadball's newsletter.
-
Recommendation #2 -
Create buttons for any important links. A significant issue with in-text hyperlinks is that they frequently blend in and can go unnoticed.
For example, on the 'All Teams' page, a hyperlink
takes the user to the complete list of teams. However, the interactive
map drew so much attention that it went unnoticed by all three of my testers. Creating buttons for these essential links,
will draw more attention and save a lot of time for new users.
-
Recommendation #3 -
Either remove or repair the search bar. After seeing user #2 try to navigate the website through the search bar, it is clear
that it has issues, as it only works if the user searches one word. This (lack of) functionality makes it nearly impossible to
find what one is looking for since there are likely a lot of places on the website that contain text with that exact word.
This search bar is useless, and I recommend it be removed.
-
Recommendation #4 -
Remove the shopping cart that is found on the navigation bar. After my time looking at this website,
it is clear that there is nowhere on the site that allows one to add an item to the site's shopping cart. Especially considering there are two external merchandise
shops. The best decision is to remove
this shopping cart so users will not have to wonder why it is displayed on the website yet not usable.
-
Recommendation #5 -
Create one donation page instead of having 3+ different pages. While it is understandable why US Quadball has donation links,
it is very frustrating that there are so many various links to it, especially when they all link to different places.
The best solution would be to create one page that combines anything relating to donating, such as gift matching or a donating leaderboard.
That way, if people feel like donating, they know precisely where to go and find all the information in one place, instead of going
to countless pages to see what they are looking for!
-
Recommendation #6 -
It is incredibly easy to get lost on this website, as there is no breadcrumbs to let the user understand where they are currently located. While adding a breadcrumbs would be my overall recommendation, if there's a chance this could not be added, another solution would be to change
the text color of the page on the navigation bar that a user is currently at. This immediately tells the user where they are and how they got there.
Remove the pop-up banner that first appears when entering the website. This likely puts a negative impression on new users because that is the first thing they see when they use the website, which may likely drive them away. It would be better to remove this so users can see the home page and its essential elements. Some ways to incorporate the information found through the pop-up banner would be to have a button called 'Get Updated' which would allow the user to find the button willingly and click it to subscribe to US Quadball's newsletter.
Create buttons for any important links. A significant issue with in-text hyperlinks is that they frequently blend in and can go unnoticed. For example, on the 'All Teams' page, a hyperlink takes the user to the complete list of teams. However, the interactive map drew so much attention that it went unnoticed by all three of my testers. Creating buttons for these essential links, will draw more attention and save a lot of time for new users.
Either remove or repair the search bar. After seeing user #2 try to navigate the website through the search bar, it is clear that it has issues, as it only works if the user searches one word. This (lack of) functionality makes it nearly impossible to find what one is looking for since there are likely a lot of places on the website that contain text with that exact word. This search bar is useless, and I recommend it be removed.
Remove the shopping cart that is found on the navigation bar. After my time looking at this website, it is clear that there is nowhere on the site that allows one to add an item to the site's shopping cart. Especially considering there are two external merchandise shops. The best decision is to remove this shopping cart so users will not have to wonder why it is displayed on the website yet not usable.
Create one donation page instead of having 3+ different pages. While it is understandable why US Quadball has donation links, it is very frustrating that there are so many various links to it, especially when they all link to different places. The best solution would be to create one page that combines anything relating to donating, such as gift matching or a donating leaderboard. That way, if people feel like donating, they know precisely where to go and find all the information in one place, instead of going to countless pages to see what they are looking for!
It is incredibly easy to get lost on this website, as there is no breadcrumbs to let the user understand where they are currently located. While adding a breadcrumbs would be my overall recommendation, if there's a chance this could not be added, another solution would be to change the text color of the page on the navigation bar that a user is currently at. This immediately tells the user where they are and how they got there.