Classmate testing report

Target Market:

People who read La Voz, and who are interested in the spanish-speaking community of Sonoma County. People who speak both english and spanish.

Testing Respondents:

The following are people we did not hear from for the report: Tim Boyle of Green Acre, Don Ensley and Desmond McQuoid, both from the Food Bank.
We had a total of 9 testers.

Conditions of testing

Computer	Operating System	Size	Colors	Browser	Internet
Dell Laptop, PC	Windows XP, SP2	15.5"	32 bit	Firefox 3.6.8	DSL
HP PC	Windows 7	15"		Firefox 4	Cable
Dell Precision PC	Windows 7 Pro	17"	32 bit	Firefox 4.0.1	Cable
Dell Laptop, PC	Windows 7	1600 x 900	32 bit	Firefox 4	Cable
Nexus One Android	Android 2.3.3	4"	16M	built-in Webkit	Cable/wireless
Gateway Laptop	Vista 64-bit	23"	32 bit	Firefox 3.6	Cable
PC	Windows 7	19"	24 bit	Firefox, Safari, IE7,8,9	DSL
Dell Vostro PC	Windows 7	17"		Firefox	DSL

Questions

What is the main focus or focuses of the website?

It's the online version of the print newspaper

Bi-Lingual newspaper

The main focus of the site is to promote the La Voz bilingual newspaper, and to encourage more people to become involved and interested in the content.

The slider in the center of the home page.

A bilingual newspaper

The website both an informational/news tool as well as a community portal for the Latin community living in the North Bay

If you mean visual focus the logo in the upper left corner. On the home page after the logo I found that the visual focus is drawn to the slideshow. If you mean topical focus
then it was clear that the website was focused on a newspaper.

A news and information service for the community with focus to reach Spanish and English speaking people in the community.

Promoting a local bilingual newspaper.

Was the site easy to navigate?

Mostly, but I found the drop down menus that don't line up with the upper level menu items confusing. I also was confused by using the FlickR photo gallery as an article, when everything else is a .pdf in paper layout format. The gallery was confusing to me as well, especially when only the photos linked to the "article" page, and the blurb of the article below did not.

The flow went well. A lot of broken links, however.

Yes, the navigation was quite clear and easy to follow. The items seemed a bit close together, but that might have just been my monitor.

Yes

The site seemed well organized. The main navigation links were a little small and close together for mobile.

For the most part, the navigation worked well throughout the site. The only issue I found was with the navbar on the gallery page being far too small to legibly operate. A larger font size would greatly improve this and solve the problem.

Yes, it was easy to get from page to page, however there were broken links.

Yes

Relatively easy, since there's not too much content to access.

Was the newspaper content easy to access? If not, how can it be improved?

I had no problem accessing the .pdf newspapers. As I said above, I don't think the mixing of the FlickR and .pdf formats works well together. Ultimately, I think a full conversion to a web format with a content management system so articles and information can be updated easily and images uploaded to the site will eventually need to be set up. This would also allow viewers to choose to read the Spanish or English version of an article within the website. The hybrid doesn't offer searchability and reduces the profile of the organization. I'm opinionated about this because I work for a radio station and have some experience with news media----the the need to get content to readers (and advertising seen to bring in the money to pay for it all)

March and April's links are not working in the archive page. It's not clear to me why there is 2 panels for each month, although this could be do to the fact that I don't speak Spanish. Maybe a label for on each one?

I clicked on "Read La Voz" and it took me to a page with several images of issues. I clicked on a few of them, but the liniks were dead, so I couldn't really access the newspaper content this way. From the home page, however I was able to open the PDF and read through it.

Some of the links were broken to the PDF's so I could not access the newspapers

The PDFs were easy to access and the most recent version was obvious there on the home page. The content could be published as HTML to provide a more integrated experience.

The newspaper was great and easy to read. You might want to think about changing the link target to a blank page or tab. Once visitors click on the newspaper, they are taken away from the main website. Because there is no navigation on the pdf, if the visitor closes the window, they have closed out the website all-together. It would be a good idea to change the link target for all pdfs in this fashion.

A large number of the links that were supposed to go to newspaper content were broken. The links to this content are clearly organized, so once you fix those links (or I'm guessing you just haven't had a chance to upload all the PDFs) it should be fine. That you have a screen shot of each issue, and a list of some highlights will also be helpful as far as making sure people can find what they are looking for I think.

Yes it was. I like how you have it displayed too. The archived ones weren't working yet. Probably work in progress.

It's right up front and in the center. The very first thing I clicked on, though I found the news items on the side a little confusing and distracting. Though the headers explain what they are, I would've liked to have a heads up that the sides are reserved for events included in the newspaper.

Was the advertise content useful? If you had products or services that matched the La Voz community, would you want to advertise with them based off of the website and the advertise page?

The advertising information was very easy to find; it probably could have used a bit more explanation about the types of advertisers that are already in the newsletter to give prospective advertisers a better sense of their audience and their interests.

Yes

Definately, The website and newspaper is a great resource for the Latin community.

Yes I would.

Yes, Highly desirable.

The advertise content confused me a little. It looks more like the mission statement. I feel
like the "reasons to advertise" should be up front and not on the side.

Is it easy to advertise or subscribe to La Voz via the website? If not, how can it be imporved?

I think an online form would have made it easier, or at least a printable .pdf----but I'd want to save the stamp.

On the subscribe pg: there is no way to print the form and the "read current issues" link not working.

Given the fact that the "form" you have to fill out and send in for a subscription isn't really in an easy to print setup, I would say this could be improved. Perhaps you could use either a web form, or at least offer a PDF to download to help with the printing and subscribing process.

There needs to be a printable PDF version to fill out. The website tells you to print out the form but I was unable to locate the print button or link.

The subscription link was broken, from the Get La Voz page. Drop down menus are generally difficult to use a smart phone, since there is no "hover". I was able to get to the subscription page eventually. The advertisement option could be more fully integrated into the site as an online form.

Instructions seem to be relatively easy and straight-forward. I did receive a font error when viewing the "Display Advertising" pdf. Embedding the font into the pdf would solve this.

It wouldn't be really difficult, but you could make it a lot easier by putting up a PDF, and a form that they can fill out would be nice, though maybe this route wasn't taken because they don't want to take money online. Also your link to your subscription page from your

Get La Voz page is broken.

Yes. Have you thought about offering advertisements as a banner ad or anything like that? Maybe too obvious. The advertising is great.

On the subscribe page, there seems to be a typo: Please send "$#36;2." Also when it
says, "Please print this form, fill it out, and mail with your check to," there's no address. Other than that, I think it's very clear.

Did you enjoy the photo galleries, why or why not?

I did not---because they didn't blend with the rest of the design of the site.

I did. I liked the page layout (how the image was on top with the heading underneath and then the story below that). I didn't care so much for the nav bar above. I think it would be fine however, if when the viewer clicked on a future month, there would be a jump link to take them "somewhere" with a label stating "June 2001 Photo's will be here." (Or something to that effect.) Otherwise it just appears to be a broken link.

The galleries were nice, and it was a nice use of Flickr.

Its ok. It would look better if the images were all the same height or width.

I liked the pictures and detailed captions. The layout made it a little difficult to read on my smartphone.

They were links to Flickr galleries, which are OK, but I think

it would be nicer to have a neat on site gallery, perhaps powered by a JS library like JQuery or such.

They were links to Flickr galleries, which are OK, but I think it would be nicer to have a neat on site gallery, perhaps powered by a JS library like JQuery or such.

Sure, I enjoyed it. I would be very interested in a gallery on a topic I read about. In a perfect world you wouldn't be directed away from the site to view the pics… I'm not complaining though.

I like that they link to Flickr and that they're very well organized.

Did the the slide shows on the home page, Rosie page, and History page load in a reasonable amount of time?

They loaded fine (except I don't see a "Rosie page") but I found them distracting---- mostly because they changed too fast.

Yes. (Although I couldn't find the Rosie page.)

The slideshows all loaded up very quickly. There was one image in the home page slide show that seemed a bit stretched to fit, and the transitions were a bit too quick on the History page to really read the text and get a good look at the image. I would recommend slowing them down a couple seconds, so people can see the wonderful content there!

Yes

They loaded very quickly.

Yes

Nice and Smooth

They came up immediately. Virtually no load time.

What was your favorite page and why?

The home page. I really like the colors and that header! The two- tone "La Voz" looks very cool!

I really liked the home page best. It was appealing to look at, and gave you a lot of information in a quick glance.

You guys did a great job in coming up with a creative way to display the newspapers instead of making them links to the PDF's

I liked the format of the "Read La Voz" page.

I really liked the homepage, with its three column layout. Looks great. The margin for the slideshow is different than the rest of the margins in the boxes below it. This, though not a huge deal, is noticeable.

Missing issues/broken links issue aside The Read La Vos pages, because they are organized well, and I think will be useful to La Voz's readers whom might want to look back at older issues.

You did a great job making the feature the magazine. I like being able to click through the pdf's.

Probably the home page, because of the pretty slide show.

What was your least favorite page and why?

The gallery page because the format wasn't consistent with the rest of the site, and I wasn't sure what made it a gallery.

I'd have to say the page that I think could use the most work would be the About Us/Mission page. It seemed a bit short for such a great organization. I would definitely recommend fleshing out the actual content for the page. I think it's always a good idea to give people a better sense of who you are right up front, especially in the web world, where everything is so detached.

The gallery page, the pictures are all different sizes.

The subscription page. the form should be writable.

It's hard to pick my least favorite page. I like them all pretty much, and they are all uniform in style.

The About Us page, it just doesn't have much of anything on it, lots of empty space. Could use maybe a little more text, perhaps a image or two.

All the pages are about the same… I dunno. I don't dislike any of the pages… maybe About Us? Hahah!

Probably the Mission statement page, because it had so little content.

What aspects of the site would keep someone on it for a long duration of time?

It is engaging. The colors work very well.

I think that the back issue pdfs of the newsletters would keep people interested for quite a while. It's an excellent resource and quite fun to look through!

All the pages that contain a variation of color and images.

Reading the publication

Probably reading the actual newspaper(s)

Probably reading the back issues

The magazines/pdf's. nice

The newspaper PDF itself.

What aspects of the site would bring people back to the site?

The actual newspaper itself.

The promise of more newsletters and the ability to interact with it.

Easy navigation and design layout of newspapers and articles. I think people will be drawn to the images of the PDF's as oppose to links. The images catch your eyes and draw the viewer to the article

New publications

Again, the newspaper would make me come back often, especially looking for deals and bargains!

More back issues, maybe wanting to find out a bit about the new issue before going and buying it.

The archive of the magazine

New events and latest issues of the newspaper.

Additional Comments:

"I had problems with the basic design of the site. I found the colors too much blue. I think the main page would be more readable if it was white background with blue bars separating the columns instead of the other way around. I didn't like the font. With the blue scheme it was too stark and cold. The banner is good, the logo and coloring there fit well. There were broken and mixed up links in the past issues. I think the March was not there and one of the February links showed the March issue. I wasn't sure why there were 2 links for each issue. The Health Faire picture was stretched to fit and the people looked a bit strange (which their friends and family would really notice)
I tested the site on my Android Hero 200, v2.1-update1 On the phone the slide show took a very long time to load, and so did the thumbnails of the .pdfs. When I tried to look at the article about the exhibit, the .pdf downloaded but I got an error message saying I couldn't open it because it had a security level my phone wouldn't accept. I didn't do any extensive testing."

"I found a typo on the gallery page: typo .. very first word. (selecte)
The top nav bar runs off the column on my screen. (could be b/c I'm on a small screen laptop)
I think for consistency it would be nice if the clickable part of all links were on the images vs. having some on im- ages and some on text.
I hope my answers aren't too picky as I thought you all did a nice job."

"There was a typo on the advertising page under "Important Population Information", third paragraph, second line, says "community.er back issues, please..."
There was a typo on the Subscription page, under "Subscribe to La Voz", third paragraph, first line, says "Please send $#36;2 extra"
All in all, the site is very well done. "

"Great Job! The colors work for the site as well."

"You will laugh. I initially clicked the first link in your email and did an entire review of the old website, not realizing it was indeed old. I spent a lot of time and effort trying to form my lack of being impressed into nice, constructive comments. I hated the other site, and thought to myself, "are you serious, is this really what they made?... this is horrible." Then I felt like the idiot when I realized I hadn't even looked at the new site. I guess that will teach me to read emails carefully!

Finally getting to the new version of the site, I was pleasantly surprised. The color scheme is nice and soothing. The gold on blue works very well. I love the slideshow's placement. The only thing I noticed is that it may be a good idea to alterante the image entrance transitions. My eye is continually pulled to the same animated movement of the images coming on screen. It got to be kind of irritating after a few minutes.

You used multiple columns very well throughout the site and once again, I enjoyed the column styling and colors.

My only major suggestions are to have all pdfs open in their own window or tab (preferably), and increase the text size of the image gallery navigational bar. Besides that, I think you have done a great job taking a horribly boring and eye-sorer of a site and turning it into something inviting and organized."

"Overall it looks pretty good, but the navigation bar extends past the box that the content is in, which makes that part of the design look awkward. The form also dips under the right sidebar, and past the main content container area, which is also visually awkward, and could make filling out the form a little awkward. I attached a screen of both of these things, just in case no one in your group all ready noticed it. These things showed up in all the browsers I checked the site on, with the one exception being Safari."

"Huge improvement over the old site! Nice job. Suggestions? Maybe Events or Advertising could stand out more…. If you had a pop up menu… Maybe you could have some sort of roll over feature or media (youtube video) on the front page or a banner ad? I say this as a lowly Content Developer with little idea of how to do any of that."

"Perhaps you can link the logo with the home page. Also, the pretty La Voz image in the background looks pixelated and not crisp. That's probably an easy fix."