Wolverine Access: Faculty Center Vocabulary Analysis SI 622koparkar/SI622_Vocabulary... · The Vocabulary Analysis consisted of the following three methods which were implemented

Wolverine Access: Faculty CenterVocabulary Analysis

SI 622

Tiffany ChaoSaurabh Koparkar

Jane LoegelMegan Morrissey

4 April 2008

koparkar

Note

Assignment grade = 9.6/10.0

Edited by Foxit Reader Copyright(C) by Foxit Software Company,2005-2007 For Evaluation Only.

Wolverine Access: Faculty Center________________________________________________________________________

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Table of Contents:

Introduction 3

Wolverine Access: Faculty Center 3

Target Population 4

Goals in Conducting the Vocabulary Analysis 4

Methodology 5

Summary of Key Findings and Recommendations 7

Detailed Findings 8

Conclusion 12

References 13

Appendix 14


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Introduction

Faculty Center must be able to stand on its vocabulary. The target population of faculty,graduate student instructors, and other staff instructors must be able to understand the interface’slanguage if they are to utilize the system effectively. This report contains findings designed toassist in the design of a user friendly faculty interface. Results of the analysis were obtained afteridentifying the web site’s target audience and establishing goals of analysis. The methodology ofanalysis and findings that were subsequently obtained are laid out in detail. During analysis, itbecame clear that Faculty Center is functional, but a goal of its design needs to be continuedstreamlining of language. For these reasons, the principle goals of analysis were to assess theclarity of the interface’s vocabulary and to make sure that the site’s vocabulary was compatiblewith that of its users.

Wolverine Access: Faculty Center

The Wolverine Access: Faculty Center site functions as an online resource tool to aidfaculty, Graduate Student Instructors and other teaching staff at the University of Michigan incoordinating and managing their class sections. This system is currentlyknown as “Teaching Support” and is the primary resource for faculty and instructors to performadministrative functions for their courses such as:

• view class rosters with student photographs• manage class waitlists• obtain advisee information• manage and view class schedule• submit grades

New features proposed for Faculty Center are class and faculty searches and additionalexternal links to connect with outside resources within the University, such as the Students withDisabilities Office and Counseling and Psychological Service. The class and faculty searchwould allow faculty and instructors to coordinate meetings with one another. The site isprimarily used at the beginning and the end of the semester and with the new improvements inFaculty Center, site use may increase. Overall, this system is a one-stop shop for the faculty andinstructors to manage their courses and perform the related administrative functions.


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Target Population

The users of the Wolverine Access: Faculty Center are current faculty, graduate studentinstructors and instructional staff who are teaching courses in a given semester at the Universityof Michigan- Ann Arbor. There is almost twice as many faculty than graduate studentinstructors, however, it is unclear how many faculty actually teach each semester.

Faculty (full-time/part-time in 2006):5,542

Graduate Student Instructors for Fall andWinter Terms 2007-2008: 2,234

N= 7,776

Goals in Conducting the Vocabulary Analysis

As we have navigated and evaluated Faculty Center, we have come to see just howcrucial it is for the interface to have a clearly decipherable vocabulary. Our team conducted avocabulary analysis, examining the word choices and language used, groupings of objects andactions performed in the system and real-world applications through metaphors, within FacultyCenter. The analysis was performed keeping in mind the following objectives:

• Determine if labels are clear and appropriate• Ascertain whether or not vocabulary language is familiar and overlaps with that of the

user• Identify particular vocabulary terms which make interaction with the site or difficulty for

the user• Recognize and evaluate patterns of consistency in vocabulary use throughout the system

Target Demographics

faculty71%

GSIs29%

facultyGSIs


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Methodology

The Vocabulary Analysis consisted of the following three methods which wereimplemented to ascertain information regarding the coherency and clarity of the informationpresented in the Wolverine Access: Faculty Center system. One of our primary goals inspecifically conducting the vocabulary analysis was to recognize and evaluate consistenciesbetween old and new versions of the system. Vocabulary plays a crucial role in user adaptationand may be a point of frustration if not rendered effectively in a transition of versions.

1. Object/Action Analysis

This analysis allowed our team to evaluate whether the computer language used by thesystem was a match with user language. The objects are listed as the rows of the table andrepresent items found in they system while the columns contain actions. Within eachintersecting cell are the computer, or system, actions. By performing this analysis, consistencybetween features within the system could be determined.

2. Metaphor Analysis

The primary objective of this analysis was to discover whether the product accuratelycorresponds to user experience of similar products in the physical world. The first columnrepresents an object or service in the real-world that the product features may represent. Functions and characteristics of these objects or services are then identified as whether they arepositive or negative transfers in the product system. Positive transfers are recognized when ametaphor is accurately represented within the product feature.

3. Vocabulary Analysis

A list of Faculty Center terminology was generated from the menus and labels found inthe system. These words were evaluated as being obscure or ambiguous which may hinder theeffective use of the system and recommendations for renaming these terms are given. Characteristic attributes were identified and summarized in a table. These attributes included theterm’s proposed functionality, reasoning behind why the term was obscure or unclear and aproposed renaming of the term.


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The following Severity Ranking was used to assess the problems presented in our systemand to assist in prioritizing our findings (adapted from Rubin, 1994).

Number Severity Measure0 - No Problem

This term is easy to understand and is useful in guidinguser navigation

1 - ModerateTerm is easily understood with little effort

2 - SevereThe term hard to understand but still usable

3 - UnusableThis term interferes with the usability of the system

A rating for the ease of resolution was also assigned to each finding, along with aproposed recommendation to remedy the problem.

Ease of Repair ExplanationEasy Resolution of problem will present very little

difficulty and effort

Medium Resolution of problem will present moderatedifficulty and effort

Hard Resolution of problem will present immensedifficulty and effort

Vocabulary analysis was performed on each tabbed feature of Faculty Center and our listof key findings and priorities were generated from these analyses. A detailed list of findingsalong with further analysis of each tabbed feature can be found in the Appendix.


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Summary of Key Findings and Recommendations

Based on our Vocabulary analyses, the following key findings were generated and are prioritizedbased on their severity in terms of usability

# Key Finding Severity Ease ofRepair

1 ‘Browse Catalog’ metaphor works well. 0 N/A

2 ‘Class Search’ metaphor works well. 0 N/A

3 ‘Faculty Center’ metaphor works well. 0 N/A

4 The icons in the legend are the same size as thelinked icons and appear as though they are also links,

which may be a potential source of confusion forusers.

1 Medium

5 The ‘change’ button appears in a few different tabs butit does not always elicit the same function between

these tabs.

1 Medium

6 In a few of the tabs there are varying terms used toindicate meeting dates (i.e. which semester and year).

2 Easy

7 When looking at class descriptions, the term ‘units’ isused to describe how many credits a class is worth,this can be very confusing as to what information isactually being represented. It is not consistent with

the system used by the university.

3 Easy

8 The word ‘frozen’ appears next to some columnheadings when at the ‘customize’ page for the class

roster. It is unclear what the meaning of this word is inrelation to the column heading.

3 Hard

9 Both the Learning Management Icon and the LearningManagement Tab share the same name yet perform

completely different functions.

3 Easy

koparkar

Note

The Summary of key findings and recommendations and the detailed findings were authored together by the team.



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Detailed Findings

Areas of success


1 ‘Browse Catalog’ metaphor works well. 0 N/A

2 ‘Class Search’ metaphor works well. 0 N/A

3 ‘Faculty Center’ metaphor works well. 0 N/A

Successes #1-3

These three tabs represent areas where no issues were found through vocabulary analysis.Each of these features would be very usable and accurately represent their real-life counterpartsas analyzed through the application of metaphors. The ‘browse catalog’ feature was clearlyreminiscent of a physical catalog that would be used to purchase materials while a directorysystem was seen through the ‘class search’ feature. The ‘faculty center’ feature related well to agrade book or planner that a teacher would use to store information regarding students andclasses. These features also had the greatest number of positive transfers between the real-worldobject and Faculty Center complement.


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Areas in need of moderate improvement


4 The icons in the legend are the same size as thelinked icons and appear as though they are also links,

which would be a possible source of confusion forusers.

1 Medium

5 The ‘change’ button appears in two different tabs but itdoes not always elicit the same function between

these tabs.

1 Medium

6 In a few of the tabs there are varying terms used toindicate meeting dates (i.e. semester and year).

2 Medium

Problem #4

This problem involves the icon legend on the Faculty Center main page. The icons in thelegend are the same size as the icons in the class schedule table which leads to confusion overwhich icons are the links. It is unclear whether the icons in the legend or those found within theclass description table will lead the user to the correct information (i.e. will the ‘Class roster’icon in the legend or table allow me to access my roster?). It would be helpful to distinguish theicons in the legend from the live icons in the table by making the legend icons smaller or namingthe legend table ‘Legend.’

Problem #5

The ‘change’ button that appears in the ‘Faculty Center’ and ‘Browse Catalog’ tabs as theoption for updating drop-down menus is a source of confusion due to the contextualsurroundings in which they are found. While the word ‘change’ can be literally understood, thevocabulary term most prominently used within the system is ‘select’ and would be a morehelpful term because it is a confirmation of the physical change that the user had to undergowhen accessing the drop-down menu.

Problem #6

In a few different tabs, when viewing individual classes or course descriptions, there aredifferent terms and phrases used to indicate the dates during which a class is held, in otherwords, the semester start and end dates. Just a few such phrases and terms are ‘Dates,’ ‘ClassDates,’ and ‘Meeting Dates.’ Because the naming throughout the site is not consistent in thiscase, it would be helpful to identify and implement a single term or phrase. Possiblerecommendations would be ‘Meeting Dates’ or ‘Term,’ because they are already used in thedrop-down menus where the user selects a semester term. This change would be more timeconsuming to implement due to the number of possible areas that the previous terms appearwithin the system.


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Areas in need of immediate attention


7 When looking at class descriptions, the term ‘units’ isused to describe how many credits a class is worth,this can be very confusing as to what information isactually being represented. It is not consistent with

the system used by the university.

3 Easy

8 Within the customize feature of class roster (FacultyCenter tab), the word ‘frozen’ appears next to some

column headings when at the ‘customize’ page for theclass roster. It is unclear what the meaning of this

word is in relation to the column heading.

3 Hard

9 Both the Learning Management Icon and the LearningManagement Tab share the same name yet perform

completely different functions.

3 Easy

Problem #7

The inconsistency in language is a problem because it may confuse a faculty member andthe student they are advising. Furthermore, it is inefficient to use language that is not consistentwith the university system. A suggested improvement would be changing the term toappropriately reflect the university’s credit system which we feel would not be very difficult toimplement.

Problem #8

This is a problem because the function of ‘frozen’ is unclear. Users are likely to ignorethe function, which could be problematic if it serves a necessary purpose for the website. Arecommendation for improvement would be to use a clearer term and so that the meaning of theword as it relates to the column heading. The customizability feature of the class roster usessimilar terminology found in Microsoft Excel to control the layout of a table or spreadsheet butthe transfer in functionality is not completely accurate because the ‘frozen’ function of Excelprimarily applies to the visual settings of a screen rather than the customizability of a finalproduct. Finding vocabulary which would best reflect the function of this word is a dauntingtask.

Problem #9

The primary issue with the “Learning Management” tab is the name. The name does notimmediately indicate the tab’s specific content, nor does it invite users to click the tab and accessthe links. If the name “Learning Management” was changed to something clearer such as‘External Resources’, this link would likely get more use. In addition, explanations about eachof the Faculty Center features would be helpful for new users and could be placed on the ‘Self-Service’ page. Changing the Learning Management Icon name to ‘CTools’ would best reflect the


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purpose of the link. This problem should be easy to fix because it would just be a matter ofchanging the name.


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Conclusion

Overall, we found that the majority of features in Faculty Center transferred very wellfrom their real-world components through our vocabulary analysis. This means that thelanguage used can be understood by users because they exhibit most of the qualities that onewould expect to find in the real-world item. Users will be able to apply their knowledge andexperience of the physical realm to understand the site and its purpose with ease. In addition tothis, we found that although the site should be easy to understand and use, there are a fewinconsistencies in vocabulary use, particularly in the naming of ‘Learning Management’. Mostof the recommended changes should be easy to fix and should require minor repairs. Throughthis vocabulary analysis, we have found that Faculty Center has been set up very well so as to beclear to users how and why this site should be used.


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References

Rubin, J. (1994). Handbook of usability testing: how to plan, design, and conduct effective tests.New York: Wiley.

Schweitzer, Glenna (2006). Full-Time Faculty by Tenure, Rank, Race and Gender as ofNovember 1, 2006. Retrieved March 12, 2008, fromhttp://sitemaker.umich.edu/obpinfo/files/umaa_fac_ipeds_2006.pdf.

Schweitzer, Glenna (2006). Office of Budget and Planning: Faculty and Staff. Retrieved March12, 2008, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/obpinfo/faculty_and_staff.

University of Michigan (2008). Number of Graduate Student Instructors by Unitfor Fall and Winter Terms 2007-08. Retrieved March 12, 2008, fromhttp://www.vpcomm.umich.edu/gsi-sa/unit_head.html.


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Appendix

The following tables include detailed findings of the vocabulary analyses performed on FacultyCenter. These analyses included: object/action, metaphor and vocabulary functionality and asummary of findings accompanies each set of tables for a given tabbed featured. We decided toperform our analysis based on the featured tabs represented in the system.

We also found that there were no significant problems with the relationships between the objectsand the corresponding actions within Faculty Center. A number of object/action pairings did notelicit a computer response and have been left blank

The following tables are arranged by tabbed features inherent to the Faculty Center system.

• Faculty Center• Class Search• Browse Catalog• Faculty Search• Learning Management


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Faculty Center TabObject/Action Analysis

Faculty Center TabAction

Object Change View Return

LinksClick link, viewinformation

Click ‘Return,’ returnto main page

Visual IconsClick icon, viewinformation

TablesView detailedinformation

Course LinksView detailed classinformation

Radio ButtonsClick radio button fordesired criteria

Click radio button fordesired criteria andview changes

Drop-downMenu

Select ‘term’; click‘change’

ButtonsClick ‘change’, seenew criteria


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General Vocabulary Analysis

Faculty Center Tab

Current Term Functionality Obscurity? SuggestedRenaming

Change Completes actionof selected task

Is not the universalword to use for thiskind of action

Use ‘Select’

View WeeklyTeachingSchedule

Takes user to acalendar featureto view TeachingSchedule

Not obvious what itsaction is based on itslocation

May be helpful to putthis up with the otherlinks at the top of thepage (i.e. My ExamSchedule, View MyAdvisees, etc.)

Find Allows forsearching withinthe page

It does not appear towork and it is unclearwhether it is actuallysearching within thepage

Put in a search boxsimilar to Google orYahoo search boxes.

LearningManagement

Links to CTools Is not obvious that itis the CTools link,has the same nameas the LearningManagement Tabwhich has acompletely differentfunction

Call it ‘CTools’

Class Number Official Classidentifier (for theRegistrar?)

I assume that this isthe official classidentifier for theregistrar but it isunclear what purposeit has

Call it ‘Class Code’

Units Shows how manycredits a class isworth

Is not congruent withcurrent universityterm

Use ‘credits’ instead

Career Shows whetherstudent is atUndergraduate,Graduate, orDoctoral level

This is not the normalterm used to describethis information

Use ‘class standing,’‘degree’ or ‘level’

ClassComponents

Tells what isincluded in classand whether it isa required course

The terms used todescribe this are notclear as to what theyactually mean

Use ‘class type’ tosay whether it’s alecture, lab, etc. and‘required’ that can befollowed by a yes orno


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Dates Shows the datesduring which theclass is held

Not clear that theseare the dates duringwhich the class isheld

‘semester’ followedby the term and year(ex. Fall 2008) or‘Meeting Dates’

Program and Plan Shows students’course of studyand major path

‘plan’ is notinterchangeable with‘major’

Instead of ‘Plan’ use‘Major’

Frozen The elementswith frozen nextto them cannot bechanged whencustomizing

Word is not intuitive Do not add thefrozen elements inthis table becausethey can’t bechanged.

Metaphor Analysis

Faculty Center: Gradebook (like your elementary teacher used) and/or foldercontaining class informationReal-World System Transfer Pattern Target System

List of Students Positive Class Roster

List of Assignmentsand Grades forStudents

Positive Grade Roster and LearningManagement (CTools)

Materials (papers)applicable to class

Positive Learning Management (CTools)

Schedule of Syllabus Positive Faculty Center mainpage, ExamSchedule, Learning Management(CTools)


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Key Findings for Faculty Center Tab

The Faculty Center Tab is a very comprehensive tab that incorporates much of what isneeded for faculty and GSIs to manage their classes and schedules. If the tab does not directlyinclude resources that would normally be included in a Gradebook and/or folder for classinformation, there is a link to the resource. A good example of this is the Learning Managementicon because although you do not have access to the course materials within Faculty Center,there is a handy link that will take you straight to those materials. When comparing the FacultyCenter tab to its real-life component, it translates very well. However, when looking at some ofthe specific terms used within the different functions of the tab, there is some ambiguity withterms. The following are the two most noticeable inconsistencies in the Faculty Center Tab:


1 Learning Management Icon (CTools) and LearningManagement Tab have the same names but different

functions.

2 Easy

2 ‘Find’ link is easily understood. It is unclear where thetool is searching and it does not appear to work.

2 Hard

To make these problems more useful, we recommend:

- Changing the Learning Management Icon name to ‘CTools’ to reflect the purpose of thelink. This problem should be easy to fix because it would just be a matter of changingthe name.

- Include a search box that is similar to Google or Yahoo search boxes. This should makethe function easier to understand and to use. This might be hard to fix because the systemonly has certain capabilities since it was purchased from a vendor. While this changewould be ideal, it may not be possible within the system and if it is possible, it mayrequire a major overhaul.


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Class Search TabObject/Action Analysis

Class Search TabAction



Visual IconsClick icon, viewinformation



Drop-downMenu

Select menu option;the page refresheswith the subsequentrelated drop-downmenus gettingpopulated with data

ButtonsClick ‘Search’ to seethe search resultspage, or click ‘Start aNew Search’ button tostart a new classsearch, see newcriteria, or click on‘Clear Criteria’ to clearall the search inputparameters.

Click on ‘View SearchResults’ button to goback to the searchresults page from thecourse details sectionpage.

koparkar

Note

The 'Class Search' Tab Vocabulary Analysis was performed by me.



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Class Search Tab


CourseSubject(main page)

Select thedepartment/school/subjectcategory where thecourses are offered.

The term is not clearand does notconvey its function.

Course SubjectCategory /Department

Class Nbr(main page)

Input the course number The term ‘Nbr’ ismisleading as it isnot a standard shortform of some term.

Class Number

Meeting Dates(Class Searchresults pagecourse table)

Denotes the starting andending dates for thecourse.

The term isconfusing as theterm indicates classmeeting datesinstead of startingand ending dates.

Start and EndDates

EnrollmentTotal

The term displays thetotal number of studentsenrolled in the course.

Placement of theterm ‘total’ should bebefore ‘Enrollment’

Total Enrollment

Wait List Total The term displays thetotal number of studentswait listed in the course.

Placement of theterm ‘total’ shouldnot be after ‘WaitList’

Total Number ofWaitlisted Students/ Total Wait List

Metaphor Analysis

Class Search Tab: Directory System

Real World Item Transfer Pattern Target System

Users search in the directoryfor data which maybe names,phones numbers, files etc.

Positive Faculty use class search to findinformation about coursesoffered during a term.

The data is searched byvarious indexing criteria whichcan be alphabetical,geography, subject etc.

Positive Classes are searched based onterm offered, subject category,course number and otheradditional criteria.

The directory contains subjectdescriptions.

Positive Course descriptions are offered.


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Key findings for Class Search Tab

The real world metaphor of a directory translates very well into the Faculty Centersystem’s class search functionality. The class search functionality is usable to a good degree interms of the vocabulary and terminology of the labels present on the TAB pages. Most of thelabels and terms are easy to understand with respect to their function. A few misleading labelslike the current term/label ‘Course Subject’ for the drop-down box on the Class Search TABmain page is not clear about its function which is selecting the academic subject category whichhas the courses corresponding to that subject category. This label can be replaced by ‘CourseSubject Category’ or ‘Subject Category’. Another such misleading label which confuses the userabout its purpose is the ‘Meeting Dates’ column name in the course details table which denotesstarting and ending dates of the course. An ideal replacement for this label is ‘Start and EndDates’. The object action analysis reveals that all the objects perform their functions effectivelywithout any exceptions.

The class search functionality is usable to a good degree in terms of the vocabulary andterminology of the labels present on the TAB pages. Most of the labels and terms are easy tounderstand with respect to their function. A misleading label which confuses the user about itspurpose is the ‘Meeting Dates’ column name in the course details table which denotes startingand ending dates of the course. An ideal replacement for this label is ‘Start and End Dates’.


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Browse Catalog TabObject/Action Analysis

Browse Catalog TabAction

Object Change View Return Show

Letter1. Place cursor2. Click letter

Number1. Place cursor2. Click number

TablesSelect “viewclass section”button

Course Links 1. Click ‘return’ 1. Place cursoron “showsections”2. Click

CourseDescription

Drop-downMenu

1. Place cursoron ‘term’-click “change”

1. Select ‘termsoffered’ (frommenu)2. click ‘showsections’

Visual Icons


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Browse Catalog Tab


Change Completes action ofselected task

The term ‘select’ isused in the samecontext

“Select”

Dates Gives the calendar datesfor the duration of theclass

The term ‘days’appears in samecontext which liststhe days on theweek which thecourse occurs on

“Meeting Dates”

Start Represents the beginningtime of the proposedcourse

Since this term is inthe same context of‘date’ and ‘days’, it isunclear if this termrefers to a calendaror time of day

“Start time”

Stop Represents end time ofthe proposed course

Since this term is inthe same context of‘date’ and ‘days’, it isunclear if this termrefers to a calendaror time of day

“Stop time”


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Metaphor Analysis

Browse Catalog Tab: A physical catalog which contains content regarding a specifictopic (i.e. clothing, supply purchasing)

Real World Item Transfer Pattern Target SystemIndexed browsing Negative There is no option to see all

courses listed within the catalog

Table of contents to allow userto preview contents and selectarea of interest

Positive A table of letters and numbersare displayed which correspondto the subject areas and coursenumbers

Logical order of contents Positive Letters are in alphabetical order,numbers are listedchronologically within thebrowse table

Page-by-page navigation Positive Each letter of the alphabetdisplays a new page withcourses that begin with thatletter which minimizes confusion

Description and details whichaccompanies product orservice

Positive Complete course detail,enrollment information anddescription accompany each

Key Findings for Browse Catalog Tab

The metaphor analysis between the ‘browse catalog’ feature to a physical catalog wasvery applicable and accurate. This metaphor definitely enhances the usability of this feature.There were a few areas of ambiguity in the vocabulary used within the system. Many of theseterms are found in the same physical context of a table detailing course logistics and it is difficultto differentiate whether terms are referring to calendar dates or time of the day. Overall, thesevocabulary obscurities do not present severe usability problems. The Object/Action analysis didnot yield any significant findings in regards to user language and computer language; actionscorresponded well with proposed objects within the system but some objects were static and didnot have a corresponding action or else the object/action pair only appeared in specific situations.


1 The term ‘Meeting Dates’ is confusing as the termsuggests class meeting dates/times instead of starting

and ending dates.

1 Easy


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Faculty Search TabObject/Action Analysis

Faculty Search TabAction





Drop-downMenu

Select menu option;the page refresheswith the subsequentrelated drop-downmenus gettingpopulated with data

ButtonsClick button for goingto next page whichmaybe search resultspage for instance, forclearing the searchparameters, forcanceling the search

Click on ‘Search byName’ button to goback to the main pageof the Browse FacultyTAB from the facultyschedule searchresults page.


Faculty Search Tab


Class Dates(FacultyTeachingScheduleTable)

Denotes the starting andending dates for thecourse.

The term isconfusing as thecurrent termindicates classmeeting datesinstead of startingand ending dates.

Start and EndDates

koparkar

Note

The 'Faculty Search' Tab Vocabulary Analysis was performed by me.



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Metaphor Analysis

Faculty Search Tab: Directory System

Real World Item Transfer Pattern Target SystemUsers search in the directoryfor data which maybe names,phones numbers, files etc.

Positive Faculty use faculty search tolook up faculty and theirteaching schedules.

The data is searched byvarious indexing criteria whichcan be alphabetical,geography, subject etc.

Positive Faculty is searched based onvarious criteria such as first andlast name, Campus ID and otheradvanced search criteria.

The directory contains subjectdescriptions.

Positive Teaching schedules of thefaculty are described.

Key Findings for Faculty Search Tab

The real world metaphor of a directory translates in a very good manner into the FacultyCenter system’s Browse Faculty functionality. The Browse Faculty functionality is usable to avery good extent in terms of the vocabulary and terminology of the labels present on the TABpages. Most of the labels and terms are easy to understand with respect to their function. Thereare no serious vocabulary issues in case of the labels and terms. The object action analysisreveals that all the objects perform their functions effectively without any exceptions.


1 The term ‘Class Dates’ is confusing as this currentterm indicates class meeting dates instead of starting

and ending dates.

1 Easy


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Learning Management TabObject/Action Analysis

Learning Management TabAction

Object Change View Return Show

LinksClick links, viewinformation

Link opens in anew window


Learning Management Tab


Learning Management Brings user to list oflinks to outsideCampus Departments

Wording does notclearly indicatecontents of page

“External Links”

M-Pathways-HEMICH9-Home Takes user to facultycenter homepage

Name isconfusing

“Home”

Worklist Function is not clear Name is alsounclear

N/A

CRLT Request Consultation Brings user to Center forResearch on Learningand Teaching to requesta teaching consultation

Meaning of“CRLT” wasunclear to users.

Insert bullet pointbelow linkexplaining“CRLT”

CRLT Teaching Strategies Brings user to Center forResearch on Learningand Teaching

Meaning of“CRLT” wasunclear to users.

Insert bullet pointbelow linkexplaining“CRLT”


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Metaphor Analysis

Learning Management: Building Sign Directory (list of offices)

Real World Item Transfer Pattern Target SystemBuilding organized by floor Negative Learning Management

organized alphabetically

Gives room numbers Positive Provides links to the departmenthome pages

Key Findings for Learning Management Tab

The primary issue with the “Learning Management” tab is the name. The name does notimmediately indicate the tab’s specific content, nor does it invite users to click the tab and accessthe links. If the name “Learning Management” was changed to something clearer, this link wouldlikely get more use.


1 The tab’s name, “Learning Management” is unclearand prevents users from selecting the tab.

2 Easy

2 The links to “Center for Research on Learning andTeaching” are abbreviated CRLT, which is unclear to

users.

1 Easy

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Wolverine Access: Faculty Center Vocabulary Analysis SI 622koparkar/SI622_Vocabulary... · The Vocabulary Analysis consisted of the following three methods which were implemented