Source: Flickr. User: 4nitsirk

Our first round of user experience testing wrapped up last week, with a focus on administrator tasks like managing users, creating custom data management plan templates, and adding institution information or logos. Here’s a quick update on what we learned.

1) Overall Response was Positive!

During trials, we got a lot of positive feedback about the design of the site and the added functionality. The ability for administrators to not only customize user roles and responsibilities, but also create sub institutions were especially popular. After working with feedback from user groups throughout the development of the project, it was extremely rewarding to see how our work has been recieved.

2)  Small Changes make a Big Difference

Most of the areas where users had trouble could be resolved with a single tooltip or changing the name of a section or button. We want to make sure navigating the page is intuitive, and make it as easy as possible for users to get the information they need. Identifying the problem areas and getting recommendations from users on how to make information clear has been a powerful tool.

3) An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

With the DMPTool 2’s release date fast approaching, taking the time to do user testing has given us the chance to clean up the remaining rough edges before our rollout. Taking the time to address these issues now has let us take them on one at a time.

We’ll be initiating our second round of user testing, focused on the researcher perspective, in the coming weeks. If you’d be interested in taking a look at the DMPTool2 as a plan author, contact Sherry Lake to schedule a time!