NICE gains insight into user requirements
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.
Webcredible's usability testing and user research work has allowed us to gain a really in-depth view of what our key stakeholders want and expect from our website, allowing us to ensure future developments are focused on this.
Donna Ross, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Objectives
NICE wanted to evaluate the user experience of its current website and use the results and recommendations to inform its future website and e-media strategy. We were commissioned to carry out a research and usability testing project on the current site to understand stakeholders views and requirements. The main objectives of the project were to:
- Determine the overall ease of use, effectiveness and proposition of the new site and pinpoint where improvements could be made
- Gain stakeholder views on the usability of the current site and whether it continues to be fit for purpose
- Establish whether the structure and organisation of information is considered appropriate
- Determine if the current site supports the strategic direction of NICE
What we did
We carried out a comprehensive user research and usability testing project. This began with face-to-face lab-based testing with 12 participants to observe and analyse how easy it was for users to perform common tasks. This was followed by remote usability testing with 18 participants using an un-moderated, remote usability testing tool. This data was analysed according to successful task completion, task failure and task abandonment.
Participants recruited for testing phase consisted of the following groups:
- 5 non-NHS professionals (local government)
- 9 NHS professionals (e.g. GP, practice nurses)
- 5 patients/carers
- 6 general public
- 5 recruited internally by NICE
The analysis of the usability testing phase was then used to inform the design of a follow-up online survey completed by 454 respondents. The aim of the survey was to validate the findings from the usability testing phase.
We then communicated analysis and recommendations to NICE based on the results of the testing and research. Recommendations included:
- Reducing the visual clutter on the homepage
- Concisely explaining the proposition of NICE on the homepage
- Amending the top-level site structure to reflect the different target audiences
- Providing a single search box on the top right-hand side of every page
Results
As a result of our user testing and research work, NICE has gained real insight into the wants and needs of its website users, and can ensure future site developments are aligned with these needs. NICE is currently in the process of evaluating and implementing the recommendations that resulted from our work.
