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Usability of Zipcodezoo

Usability of Zipcodezoo. By Michelle Walsh LBSC 690. What is Zipcodezoo ?. It is an online database that has information on over 3 million species of plants, animals, insects, and fish The database aims to be a convenient online Field Guide

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Usability of Zipcodezoo

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  1. Usability of Zipcodezoo By Michelle Walsh LBSC 690

  2. What is Zipcodezoo? • It is an online database that has information on over 3 million species of plants, animals, insects, and fish • The database aims to be a convenient online Field Guide • Each plant or animal has its own article (like wikipedia) where users can find information, photos, sounds, maps and more

  3. What does an article look like? Click the picture!

  4. Who uses it? • The target user group for the database is amateur naturalists, but the website is available to everyone for free • The database is used to identify and find information about many different plants and animals

  5. The tasks • Find out what sound a mourning dove makes • Search any fish, insect, or animal and find out their habitat and diet • Create a Butterfly Finder list for Silver Spring, MD

  6. Task 1 Find out what sound a mourning dove makes

  7. User 1 – Task 1 • Goes to multimedia – No relevant information • Tries the Bird Finder – Too complicated • Searches “mourning dove” in the search bar • Clicks on the first relevant result • Clicks video/sound tab • Nothing loads on the sound tab – Gets frustrated • Clicks Sonogram tab and hears the sound

  8. User 2 – Task 1 • Searches “mourning dove” • Sees results list but doesn’t understand why there are Google results • Clicks first relevant result • Scrolls down the page and doesn’t know where to find the sound • Sees the tab at the top for video/sound • Clicks sound and nothing loads • Clicks it again – still nothing • Finally clicks sonogram and hears the sound

  9. User 3 – Task 1 • Looks through navigation tabs • Clicks multimedia – nothing relevant • Searches mourning dove • Clicks the second relevant result • Clicks sounds/video tab • Clicks sound and hears the result Note: User 3 clicked the second result because it was for “mourning dove” in general, and the first result was for American Mourning Dove. The sound tab happened to work on the general page, but none of the others.

  10. Task 2 Search any fish, insect, or animal and find out their habitat and diet

  11. User 1- Task 2 • Searches for “clownfish” • The page automatically loads – no results page • Finds the diet and habitat on the information page

  12. User 2 – Task 2 • Searches “elephant” • Selects “asian elephant” on the results page • Reads overview • Scrolls and finds habitat and diet

  13. User 3 – Task 2 • Searches “panda” • The glossary page loads • Clicks to search in webpages • Clicks first result • Finds the diet • Presses crtl+F to find habitat information

  14. Task 3 Create a Butterfly Finder list for Silver Spring, MD

  15. User 1 – Task 3 • Clicks List & Find on the navigation bar • Life List tab – no relevant information • Clicks List & Find • Clicks Butterfly Finder • Reads the page over • Sees “To find the latitude and longitude of your US City, click here” • Types in Silver Spring and Maryland • Creates list

  16. User 2 – Task 3 • Uses the search bar to search “butterflies in Maryland” • Clicks first result – not relevant • Clicks another result – also not relevant • Sees List & Find on the navigation bar • Clicks Butterfly Finder • Doesn’t know what the latitude and longitude is • Reads it over then clicks to type in city • Types in Silver Spring and Maryland • Creates list

  17. User 3 – Task 3 • Clicks List & Find • Clicks Butterfly Finder • Reads about the latitude and longitude • Clicks to type in Silver Spring and Maryland • Clicks create list

  18. Completion Time • User 1 – 8 Minutes • User 2 – 12 Minutes • User 3 – 5 Minutes

  19. Positives for Zipcodezoo • Definitions are available for all scientific words • The articles are organized logically into tabs so users can find information using tabs • Users can create or find life lists for their area • They can view all the different species that live near them

  20. Negatives for Zipcodezoo • Searches can take users to a glossary page instead of a results page • The results page shows Google results first • Which confused User 2 • The sounds page tells users to download Flash even though it is installed already • So users have to click “sonogram” to hear the sound • I had to tell Users 1 & 2 that they could find the sound even though it didn’t load • Life lists take a long time to load • All Users exited the website after waiting 2 minutes and seeing no results

  21. Design Changes • Show Google results on the side and not above zipcodezoo results

  22. Design Changes • Change latitude and longitude to city and state

  23. Other Changes • Fix the sounds tab so users don’t have to choose “sonograms” • Make retrieval faster so Life Lists will load • Make all search results similar • So people aren’t directed to a Glossary for one search and a results list for another

  24. Bibliography • Stang, David. (2011) www.Zipcodezoo.com • Screenshots by Michelle Walsh from www.zipcodezoo.com

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