This report summarizes the findings of a 2016 evaluation of the websites run through the US Legal Services Commission. Evaluators looked at sites using a set of 63 usability criteria that spanned nine focus areas: ease of navigation, accessibility, visual design and iconography, plain language, content presentation, mobile friendliness, community engagement, language access, and user support.
High level findings from the project include:
- "Sites that used visual design purposefully to enhance usability performed best.
- Information density and content presentation was a consistent challenge.
- The customization available to Drupal-based sites allowed them to produce more usable experiences.
- A future system of templates should deliver a streamlined experience for end users, while removing the guesswork for website managers about how to implement a great user experience.
Key opportunities identified by the evaluators:
- "Balance flexibility and structure in site templates.
- Take a mobile-first approach.
- Modernize visual and interaction design to enhance usability.
- Guide users through workflows and offer next steps.
- Improve readability, translation, and organization of content.
- Support multiple navigation strategies for alternate methods of interacting with content.
- Connect navigation elements to page content
- Provide contextual help.
- Collect and analyze direct user feedback
The Legal Services Corporation has also launched a website that reports on this evaluation and gives practical guidance to website managers on how to improve user experience.