Design Information

Web Proposal

Other Information


Website Testing Results - Typical User

Testers were invited to use their typical computer and network connection to review the site and enter their results in a web form. The form results were distributed to all members of the development team. The project manager compiled the following information based on the feedback that was received.

Target Market: The target audience is broad and includes members of the community at large, clients, family members, and mental health advocates. NAMI Sonoma County seeks to attract a multi-cultural audience. Members of the County Board of Supervisors may view the site as they evaluate grant applications from NAMI Sonoma County. NAMI Sonoma County is a resource for the medical community so mental health professionals may also visit the site. Most visitors to the website will not be mobile phone users.
Testing Respondents: Thirteen individuals from the community at large tested the site and provided feedback.
Computer: Mac - 5
PC - 8
Operating System: Windows XP - 6
Windows Vista - 2
Mac OS - 5
Browser: Firefox 4.0 - 3
Internet Explorer 9 - 1
Internet Explorer 8 - 3
Internet Explorer 7 - 1
Chrome 11.0 - 1
Other - 4
Internet Connection: Cable - 8
DSL - 1
Fiber Optic - 1
Wireless - 3
Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 - 10
1680 x 1050 - 1
Other - 2
What is the overall tone and feel of the site? All thirteen testers found the site to be friendly, organized and professional.
  • Friendly and inviting
  • Friendly, helpful, informative
  • It seems easy to navigate
  • Warm and friendly
  • Informative, easy to navigate, easy to read
  • Very nice, professional site!
  • Very informative, each link works!
  • Very inviting
  • Professional, nice looking, informational
  • Informative with attractive pictorial emphasis.
  • Very clean, well organized and professional. Not entirely welcoming but effective in communicating message.
  • Overall tone is excellent (brightness of colors, the information without being overwhelming), real smooth in navigation (ease and clicking).
  • Attractive and welcoming
What was your first impression of the home page? All testers found the site to be beautiful and inviting. Testers were particularly appreciative of the pictures.
  • Colors were much more pleasing. Display was nicely done.
  • Beautiful! The color scheme is very attractive, and the local photos make it "real."
  • It was very colorful.
  • Easy to figure out where to find the info I might want and to get there.
  • Soothing, inviting. Comfortable feel, not cluttered or overwhelming with too much information. Pictures help to give a personal feel.
  • I liked the round photos and thought the page had nice balance.
  • Easy to read, colors are perfect, font is perfect.
  • Clear and well designed.
  • I liked the photos and the top banner.
  • Busy with graphics and text, but clean.
  • If I happened to land on the site by accident I would not stay long but if I meant to be there I would be very pleased with the experience.
  • Awesome!!!
  • Pleasant colors, appealing pictures and easy to find information.
Did you easily understand what NAMI does by briefly looking at the homepage? All testers responded yes.
Where did you first click? Seven out of thirteen testers clicked on the first tab in the top navigation, the What We Do page. Three of thirteen clicked on the Calendar first.
  • What We Do -7
  • Calendar - 3
    One tester further commented: I was drawn to the calendar in the feature box. I was intrigued by the mechanism but was challenged to understand how to get the information I needed from it. Not entirely successful.
  • Emergency - 1
  • Youth Programs - 1
  • About Us -1
Was the site easy to navigate? All testers responded yes.
Did you find the site inviting? Twelve of thirteen testers responded yes, one responded no.
Did you find the gold feature box on the right helpful? There seemed to be some confusion regarding this question. The question was meant to refer to the gold feature box on the right on some, though not all, pages. Some testers referred to the left sidebar rather than the gold feature box in their answers.
Yes - 8
No - 4
What is your impression of the color scheme and images? The majority of testers found the color scheme warm and attractive. Many testers found the pictures to evoke happy feelings, though two testers reacted unfavorably to the stock photos.
  • Warm and eye catching
  • VERY attractive! The layout is pleasant and uncrowded.
  • Very bright
  • Easy on the eyes, friendly happy images
  • Colors are easy on the eyes, they project a soothing feeling. The images, photos evoke positive feelings.
  • Color scheme very nice. Images looked a little like stock photos - and everyone overall looked a little too happy, given that they're dealing with mental illness.
  • Very good, easy to read
  • I thought the color just right for the subject matter, with good images.
  • I loved it!
  • Colors are pleasant to view - good choice. In reference to the above mentioned "gold feature box," it is on the left side rather than the right :)
  • The color scheme felt a bit clinical or corporate. I felt as though I was looking at a brochure.
  • Perfect and very upbeat
  • GREAT, except I personally do not care for "gold"/mustard shade...
What is your favorite part of the site? Most testers had favorable responses to the pictures and the navigation.
  • Resources
  • The physical appearance. The colors, the layout, the fonts, the arrangement of material on the pages--all look very professional.
  • The gold side. It has lists of groups and meetings, also help links.
  • The drop-down menus at the top of the home page make it quick to find the category of information you are looking for.
  • I like the changing photos.
  • I love the pictures that are associated with the topics, gives a family feel to it.
  • I did not look at it all, but I found it easy to use and the homepage was especially good.
  • The tone is very welcoming and helpful.
  • Photos: both landscapes in upper right corner and pics of people/activities. I also like the quickness with which graphics and photos load.
  • The top banner with the drop down tabs. Pleasant, fluid and makes navigation very efficient.
  • The visuals, which pull you IN.
  • Encouragement to seek help.
What is your least favorite part of the site? Three testers did not submit comments to this question. Of the nine testers who submitted input, three found the left sidebar calendar difficult to use.
  • Schedule of events was a little difficult to read when you went to the weekly view.
  • There are scattered errors in grammar and punctuation. Some wording is a bit repetitive and vague. Note: This response was truncated due to its length. The details are available on request.
  • If I had to pick one, I would say the past events section. I don't want to know what I missed.
  • The calendar in the sidebar on home page and various other pages. Clicking on the events did not show a window where all of the information was viewable as on the calendar page. I found it ineffective.
  • I think the calendar on the gold bar on the left is distracting because of the truncation. Maybe instead a link to the full view page would be better.
  • I did not like the way the Brochures opened at 224% where the rest I looked at was about 75% to 100%.
  • The schedule of classes, just because it isn't pretty like the rest.
  • No objections to any features.
  • Too many stock pictures. While it does give the site motion, it is clear that they are not associated with the organization. Mainly the circle at the top of the feature box.
  • The mustard color behind the agenda on the left.
What did you think of the NAMI calendar? Was it easy to find? Again, there were some unfavorable responses (five of thirteen) to the left sidebar calendar and very positive responses to the full size calendar.
  • Easy to find, difficult to read at the weekly level.
  • Very good. I like the linear arrangement.
  • It was good. It is readily accessible.
  • I liked the calendar on the actual calendar page, but didn't like the mini calendar in the gold left sidebar because the info was squished. Doesn't seem useful.
  • The calendar that is accessed from the Events/Calendar menu worked much better than the left sidebar calendar. Since it is easy to get to, I found that I did not use the one in the sidebar at all.
  • Easy enough - might be better to pull it up a level or leave it in "Events" and make it's own link too. Or to have the truncated version become the full version when clicked upon.
  • Very detailed, yes
  • Calendar was excellent and very easy to find.
  • Yes.
  • Nice to see the calendar presentation format - easy to read.
  • The large calendar under the Events tab was very successful. I particularly like how the detail of an event opens when clicked. The small calendar in the feature box is hard to read and confusing. It does not seem to belong.
  • Very easy to navigate and find the key info.
  • Yes, easy to find and interesting short list of activities.
Did you find the volunteer area on the website? All testers responded yes and some provided additional comments below:
  • Easily found it under Get Involved
  • Yes. It is very obvious. All the main sections of the site are easily noticed and accessed. Well done!
  • Yes. Right under the Get Involved link. It's a good idea to put it there, because some people would shy away from the word volunteer.
  • Yes, photo slideshow of volunteers did not show any pictures.
  • Volunteer area was easy to find.
Did you find out how to make a donation to NAMI? Twelve of thirteen testers responded yes, one responded no.
Would you feel enticed to volunteer or donate if you were interested in mental illness? All testers responded yes.
Were there any links that did not work, images that did not load, typos, etc.? Six of thirteen testers answered no. Other testers identifed the slideshows as areas that need attention, as well as some odd character display issues.
  • All the links that I tried worked well. On the iPad, the slideshows did not work. Are they Flash-based?
  • Espanol did not appear correctly on the home page on my PC. Photo slideshow of volunteers did not show any pictures when I clicked the play button on the volunteer page.
  • The jump up in size for Brochures is my only complaint.
  • On Resources page, the link to the NAMI brochure was not functioning and displayed error 404 page not found. The brochure list did display when using the drop down menu at the top of the page.
    1. Odd characters in "De Familia" on family progam.shtml. Odd characters in caption on get_involved.shtml. Odd characters on volunteer.shtml.
    2. Photo slideshow not working on volunteer.shtml, family_programs.shtml, client_programs.shtml, youth_programs.shtml. (Is it possible that there are no pictures to show?).
    3. Odd character in pink "Cuentame" box on youth_progams.shtml.
    4. Apostrophes not displaying properly throughout.
  • Only that you ask re the gold featured box "on the right" and it is on the left.
Do you have any other suggestions or input?
  • I am very well-impressed with this project. I think that NAMI and its clients will be pleased with the finished product. My main suggestion for the final "polishing" process is to re-examine the textual content for grammar, punctuation, clarity, and conciseness. You all make up a great Web-design team! I think that you should go into business! ;-)
  • Much more colorful and easier to use than the old site.
  • I didn't like the fact that the nav in the left sidebar changes depending on which page you're on. I never felt that I knew where I'd come from and it was confusing. Persistent nav is what I'm more accustomed to, and a breadcrumb might be helpful.
    1. The "Emergency" button leads to confusing splash of info. In an emergency I would have walked away. Consider a simple screen indicating that the user "call 911 or contact sonoma county mental health services" providing the link.
    2. On the forms, be more clear that the user needs to PRINT the form and fax it.
    3. Include a contact number at the top of the form for the user to call if they can not print.
    4. Allow the user to fill out the form before printing.
    5. Remove slide show box from each screen and have a slide show index page.
    6. Replace the small calendar in the feature box with a scrolling list of upcoming events: "May 2011 events", for example.
  • No - very nicely done!
  • Great job!
  • I am not very good at suggesting due to lack of knowledge, but I did look at the old site and think this new one is quite to my liking. Congratulations!
  • No, I thought it was lovely.
  • New site is far superior to previous NAMI website; more informative, easy to read, and brighter presentation of information. Nice work, team!
  • Links to mental health resource articles -- both local and North Bay focused