Courtney Leinen

Intro to Web Publishing

Usability Test for UnionStation.org

Test Preparation
Usability testing is an important process in the improving of a
website. A usability test is a way to determine what is going right with
a product, and what is going wrong based on how a user performs
specific tasks. This is important with any product development because
if a customer is unable to use the item being produced they will stop
visiting the site or using the product.
I prepared for conducting this test by going through the tasks
personally. I chose to complete the tasks on my personal laptop, which
is a MacBook Pro with a resolution of 1440x900. I completed this test in
the living room of my apartment in Maryville, Missouri. I opened the
blinds of one of the three windows in my living room so I could have
some natural light. However, I did not turn on the main light in my
living room. The only other form of light in the room was from my
television, which was playing a movie. I sis paused this movie while I
was performing the tasks. I completed this test on Thursday, October
15th around 4 p.m.
I started the test by pulling up my preferred browser, Google
Chrome. I typed the web address into the search bar at the top of the
page. The page loaded fairly quickly. The first item I noticed on the site
was the logo placed in the center of the header. I am interested in why

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the designers chose to place the logo in the middle of the header
instead of the upper left. I believe the site has a nice design, so I would
not change the location of the logo. I was interested nonetheless. The
next item I noticed was the slideshow underneath the header. This item
loaded slightly after the header so the white text on the dark picture
captured my attention. My eyes then moved on to the navigation bar
where I noticed the different sections offered by UnionStation.org.
These included Event Calendar, Plan Your Visit, About Us,
Contact, Follow Us and Visit Science City. I hovered over each
tab, but there were no sub-tabs available.
When I was done viewing the navigation bar, I scrolled down the
page, using the touch pad of my Mac and two fingers. I wanted to view
the information under the above the fold. I noticed there was a section
for events that Union Stations offered along with a link to access more
information. These events included Da Vinci The Exhibition, Daily
Science Activities, New Years Swingin Eve and The Martian. After
looking at this section, I noticed an area that discusses the events
offered by Union Station. Under this section is an area dedicated to
news about Union Station. There are four summaries of articles shown,
but there is also a link for more news. I then scrolled down and noticed
an Explore The Station area, which includes Attractions with four links
to other areas of UnionStation.org, Restaurants and Shops with six
links to other areas, Screens and Stages with three links to other areas

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and Facility Rental with five links to other areas. After this I noticed a
Visitor Info section. This included the hours of Union Station plus a
More Info link and a Science City Hours link. Then I noticed a map
section, which included a map and a link to directions to Union Station.
Under this section was the Parking section with included a More Info
link. After look at this I noticed a Tickets section with a Show Events
link and a Buy Tickets link. Under this section, I noticed an area
where the user can sign up for the e-newsletter, visit the blog, visit
links to their social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube, and a Become A Member link. After this section I noticed an
area with the Union Station address and phone number, an About Us
section including links to About Union Station, Restaurants,
Shopping, Parking, Guest Amenities, Public Transportation and
Building Map. I then noticed a Connect section including the links
Contact Us, Group Tickets, Facility Rentals, Follow Us and
Ontrack Magazine. After this section I noticed a History section
including the links 100th Year Anniversary, Station Timeline,
Renovations, Trains and Reed Family Locomotive. I then noticed
the Get Involved section including the links Membership,
Sponsorship, Volunteers and Donate. After this I noticed the More
section which included the links Press Room, Employment, Privacy
Policy, Photography, Kansas City Tourism and Preservation Fee.

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Looking at all of these aspect took me about a minute and then I
moved back up to the top of the page to start the tasks.
For task 1, I was asked to find out if Union Station had
wheelchairs available for its visitors. I began this task by going to the
Plan Your Visit link on the navigation bar. The link took me to the Plan
Your Visit page. The first thing I noticed was the Admission Information
section, which consisted of prices for each of the events offered by
Union Station. I realized that I did not need this information so I
scrolled down using the touch pad on my Mac. I then saw the normal
building hours section, the Days Union Station Is Closed section and
the Days Science City Is Closed section. These sections were stacked
on top of each other in a format that resembled a chart, which caused
my eye to group these sections together. After I looked at these my
eye traveled slightly back up the page and towards the group ticket
section. Then my vision traveled to the section directly underneath the
group tickets which was for maps and direction section. Then my eyes
moved under this to the Parking Info section and then under that for
the Discounts section. My eye then landed on the Amenities and
Transportation section. I skimmed this section and found that it
discussed wheelchairs so I clicked the Guest Amenities link. I
scrolled down the page and skimmed the headlines until I found the
Wheelchairs section, which was the last section on the page. I
skimmed the paragraph and found out that wheelchairs are available

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at the Information Booth located in the Grand Hall. I completed this
task without a problem. I thought it was fairly simple and
straightforward. Once I completed this task I moved on to the next one
without going back to the home page.
For task 2, I was asked to determine what was playing on
Wednesday, November 25th. I began this task by clicking on the
Events Calendar link on the navigation bar. My eye immediately went
to the calendar on the right side of the page. The calendar is set to the
current date so I had to change it to November 25th. When I changed
the date the page reloaded to show the events offered on that day. The
first two events are extreme screen movies. There are Jerusalem and
Robots 3D. I completed this task fairly quickly and found it pretty
straightforward.
For task 3, I was asked to buy a ticket for the movie and
determine if it was possible to choose the seat. To start this task I
selected Jerusalem as my Extreme Screen movie. To get more
information I clicked on the name of the movie and it sent me to a
different page with more information about the movie. I scrolled down
and found the Buy Tickets button, which sent me to separate page.
Once I got to the new page I saw a Back linked button and an Add to
Basket linked button. I clicked on the Add to Basket button. This link
sent me to a different page where I was able to choose the date of the
ticket. I clicked the drop down arrow and selected Wednesday,

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November 25th. Then I selected the Add to Basket button link. This
took me to a new page that allowed me to choose the number of
tickets I wanted. I clicked the up arrow until I had selected two tickets.
The site automatically calculated the total cost. I thought this was a
nice touch. I do not like having go all the way through the purchase to
find out the cost. There is an Area section with a drop down arrow. I
clicked the drop down arrow and the only option is 3D Movies. Next to
the number of tickets are the words General Admission. I clicked the
Add to Basket link button and was sent to a summary of my
reservations. I first noticed the Assign Owners headline, which then
lead my eye to the summary underneath it. This stated that my items
would be held for several minutes. Then my eye traveled down to a
headline titled My Tickets. Underneath this is the name of the event,
the date, the time and the location. I noticed a bright blue button, and
realized that it was a Facebook recommend and share link. To the right
of these buttons is a Remove Item, Select Seats and Assign
Owners button. I selected the Select Seats button. Clicking this took
me back to the previous page. This is when I discovered that you could
not choose the specific seat. I would have the site add the option of
selecting the actual seat. I would also retitle the Select Seats button
because it can be mistaken as a way to select a specific seat.
For task 4, I was asked to send an email to the correct
department about wheelchair accessibility. I began this task by trying

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to gain access to the main navigation bar. I went about doing this by
clicking on the Union Station logo. However, clicking this did nothing. I
clicked every link on this page before I realized that I had to click the
back button on my browser or retype the web address to regain access
to the main navigation bar. I decided to retype the address into my
web browser. When the main page loaded I clicked the Contact link. I
saw the headline Department Contacts and skimmed the list until I saw
the Visitor Relations option. Then I clicked the email address that is
located to the right of the title. I completed this task. The most difficult
apart of this task was attempting to get back to the main page.
UnionStation.org needs to redesign their ticket section of their website
so that it is responsive like the other pages I visited and has the same
common header.
Overall, I believed that these tasks were fairly easy. I enjoyed
how it is designed, except for the changing slideshow located directly
under the navigation bar. The constant changing of featured events
distracted me from the rest of the page. While completing some of the
tasks I realized that some pages have unnecessary white space. The
Plan Your Visit page is an example. When the page first loaded I saw a
chart about admission information that stretched across the entire
webpage. When I scrolled down I noticed that the information
separated into two separate columns but as I scrolled down farther the
column on the left was white space while the column on the right had

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information. This can cause a problem because the white space on the
left can cause the users to stop scrolling because they believe that
there is no more information to offer.

Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Greg UnKefer
Greg Unkefer is a 19-year-old male student at Northwest Missouri
State University. He is currently a full time student, majoring in
Computer Science with a main focus in network engineering. He stated
that he basically lives on his computer all day. In his free time Greg
enjoys playing game, such as MMOs, Shooters, and rpgs. Greg
guessed that he spends about 56 hours a week on the Internet. He
described his Internet use as about 25% social media and 75%
browsing. He considers himself a high experience user. He stated that
he has a lot of favorite websites some of them bring Facebook and
YouTube. Greg had never visited UnionStation.org before this test.
I decided Greg would be a sufficient tester because he is what I
would deem a high experience user. Because he is majoring in
Computer Science, Greg has to spend quite a bit of his time on the
computer.
Environment for Tester 1

Location of test: Testing was done from the subjects dorm

room in West Tower Suites. I chose this location because this is
where he normally browses the Internet.

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Physical environment: The tester sat at his desk in his desk

chair. There was a fan on in the background, and the room had
plenty of light. The desk was slightly messy. The test was

started about 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 16th.

Technical environment: The subject chose to use his custom
built desktop for this test. The resolution is 1920x1080. The
subject used an Ethernet cable to gain access to Northwest
Missouri States Internet. He used Google Chrome for his
browser.

Tester 2: Kathleen Leinen

Kathleen Leinen is a 76-year-old female and my grandma. She is
the Vice President and retail distributor for a company that sells
custom fitted bras. She decided that she spends about 10 to 15 hours
a week on the Internet checking emails and submitting orders. She
stated that she does not use any social media and that her main
purpose for using the Internet is to respond to customer emails, submit
order, and browse one of her religious sites for recent information. Her
favorite site is www.spiritdaily.com. She deemed herself a low
experience user. Completing this test was the first time Kathleen
visited UnionStation.org.
I decided that Kathleen would be a good candidate for the low
experience user because I had previous knowledge of how much time
she spent on the Internet. I knew that she was required to check her

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email quite often for work and she was used to performing specific
task, such as submitting her orders to the company she works for.
Environment for Tester 2

Location of test: The test was completed in the subjects office

at her house in Panora, Iowa. I chose this location because this is

where she normally browses the Internet.

Physical environment: The subject sat at her desk in her desk
chair. She had every light in the room on. This included the
ceiling light and a side lamp. She also had the window blinds

open. This test was started around 2 p.m. on Friday, October 16th.
Technical environment: The subject used a HP laptop. She had
it set on her desk and used a mouse instead of the keypad. She
used Internet Explore for her browser of choice.

Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts:

Tester 1 Report:
Greg chose Google Chrome for his browser. The page

loaded a little slow. The first thing to capture his attention was
the logo in the middle of the header. His attention then moved to
the slideshow located directly underneath the header. His eyes
then moved to the navigation bar. After this he scrolled down the
page and spent some time in the footer section of the site. Greg
seemed to like the overall design of UnionStation.org. He
explained that the Science City graphic captured his attention
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when the site first loaded. Greg stated that the site is very in
your face. He noticed that the main points show up in the
middle of the screen. He stated that Its helpful for people, for
me because I dont know whats going on. It basically screams
hey go here, hey click me, hey try this. Overall, He did not
spend a lot of time scrolling through the site.

Tester 2 Report:
Kathleen was very interested in the site and what type of

things it had to offer. Kathleen began the test by opening her

preferred browser, Internet Explorer. Her computer was loading
the site very slowly. She hit the refresh button on her browser
and then checked to make sure her wireless Internet was
connected. An error message popped up stating that
UnionStation.org was not responding so she restarted her
computer. While restarting the computer, she discovered that her
computer was trying to complete updates, which was
contributing to the slow Internet connection. She waited for the
computer to go through the 18 updates, which took about five
minutes before she began the tasks. Once the computer
restarted, Kathleen clicked on the Internet Explore icon. She
made the mistake of clicking the icon more than once so the
browser did not come up right away and when it did three more
windows popped up with it. She exited out of all but one and

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then typed UnionStation.org into the web address bar that the
top of the browser. An error message popped up on her computer
so Kathleen decided to run a program called PC Keeper to try and
figure out what the problem was. After this was completed she
repeated the process of going to UnionStation.org and began
admiring the website. The first thing she noticed was the
navigation bar and she began reading off the different tabs offer.
She was interested in the Visit Science City tab. I had to remind
her that this was test her initial reactions so she was not allowed
to click on any of the links. She paid close attention to the events
that are shown on the homepage as well as the history of Union
Station. She scrolled to the bottom of the page, using her mouse
and clicking on the scroll bar on the right side of the page but did
not seem as interested so she scrolled back up. She then
proceeded to look at the tabs on the navigation bar again. When
she was finished looking at the homepage she was eager to
continue to the first task. She was very interested in all that
Union Station had to offer.

Task 1: Scenario: You are bringing your grandmother to

Union Station for a Sunday afternoon outing. She cant
walk more than about 50 steps at a time. Determine
whether or not there will be a wheelchair available for
her to use during the visit.

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Tester 1
Greg began the test by opening Google Chrome on his
custom built desktop. He typed UnionStation.org into the address bar
at the top of the page. The page loaded fairly quickly. He began the
first task by scrolling through the main page to see if there was
anything that mentioned handicapped health or disabilities. He scrolled
down the page with the use of his mouse until he got to the very
bottom of the page and saw the Guest Amenities link under the
About Us section located in the footer. He opened the link by right
clicking on the link and selecting open in new tab. He scrolled through
the page that appeared in a new tab until he saw the section on
wheelchairs. He completed the task and came to the conclusion that
wheelchairs are available.
Answer: Yes, wheelchairs are available
Completed: Yes
Tester 2
Kathleen began task one by selected the Plan Your Visit
tab on the navigation bar. She looked at the information that is offered
on this page. She asked if this site offered senior discounts and was
very excited when she realized they did. She continued to scroll down
the page until she saw a section titled Amenities and Transportation.
She skimmed the paragraph and saw that it mentioned wheelchairs.
She clicked the Guest Amenities link and scrolled down the page until
she got to a section with the headline wheelchairs. She said yes they
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offer wheelchairs. She completed the task fairly quickly and without
any problems.
Answer: Yes, wheelchairs are available
Completed: Yes
Recommendation to improve UX for this task:
There are a few changes that I would recommend for this
site. The first would be to add sub-tabs to the navigation bar.
This would cut down on the time spent searching the site for
specific information. For example, if the Plan Your Event tab
contained the sub-tabs Admission Information, Hours, Group
Tickets, Map and Directions, Parking, Discounts, and
Amenities and Transportation task one would be completed in
fewer steps because the user would go directly to Amenities and
Transportation link instead of having to click Plan Your Event

link and then scroll down and click the Guest Amenities link.
This is how the website originally looks.
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Here is what the site would look like with sub-tabs.
The next recommendation I would make would be to indicate
what page the user is on. This would improve UnionStation.orgs
recognition rather than recall heuristic because it would show the user
what page they are currently on instead of having them rely on their
memory.

This is how the website looks originally.

This is what the website would look like with the current page

indicated on the navigation bar.

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Task 2: Scenario: You want to plan to see an Extreme

Screen movie during your visit, so you want to secure
tickets in advance. Determine what is playing on
Wednesday, Nov. 25.
Tester 1
Instead of staying on the current page to move on to the
second task, Greg closed the second tab he opened so that he began
the second task from the home page. I did not instruct him to do this.
This is something he does when browsing the Internet on his own. From
the home page, Greg selected the Plan Your Visit link on the
navigation bar. He then scrolled down until he found the Regnier
Extreme Screen Theatre area under the Admission Information section.
Once he found this he clicked the arrow under the buy tickets option.
This link took him to a separate webpage that he opened in a separate
tab so he had both the home page and buying tickets page pulled up in
separate tabs of the same window. When he got to the page the
Buying Tickets link took him to, he selected the Extreme Screen
link from the second navigation bar. This pulled up the list of Extreme
Screen movies. He selected the movie Jerusalem by clicking on the
More Info link. This pulled up a brief summary about the movie and a
Back link and an Add To Basket link. He selected the Add To
Basket link, which took him to a page that allowed him to choose the
date that he wanted to see the movie. He completed this task.

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Answer: Jerusalem
Completed: Yes
Tester 2
Kathleen began this task by clicking on the Events
Calendar tab on the navigation bar. She looked around the page and
saw a calendar on the right side of the page. She then changed the
calendar so it showed the month of November by clicking on the arrow
to the right of the name of the month. She then selected the 25th day.
Clicking on this date reloaded the current page so that the events
offered on Wednesday, November 25th aligned to the left of the
calendar. She then looked at the events that were displayed and looked
to see which ones were Extreme Screen Movies. She came to the
conclusion that Jerusalem and Robots 3D are the Extreme Screen
Movies offered on Wednesday, November 25th.
Answer: Jerusalem and Robots 3D
Completed: Yes
Recommendation to improve UX for this task:
I would recommend having a different page load after the
user selects a date on the events calendar. Reloading the same page
can become confusing because the user may not realize that the
events on the left hand side changed. I would also add a filter option to
the list of events. This would make searching for a specific type of
event faster and easier for the user.

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Task 3: Scenario: Go through the steps of buying two

tickets for an Extreme Screen movie on that day.
Determine whether or not you can choose the actual
seats so that you and your grandmother will have
wheelchair-compatible seating. [Take this step all the way
through the process, and stop only when asked to enter
credit card information.]
Tester 1
Greg began this task by staying on buying tickets page of
UnionStation.org. He clicked on Robots 3D and then he selected
the Add to Basket link. This took him to a separate page where
he was able to select the date Wednesday, November 25th. Once
he selected the desired date from the list of dates offered in the
drop down menu, he clicked the Add to Basket link. This took
him to a separate page where he was able to select the number
of tickets he wanted to purchase. He noticed right away that the
site stated that this movie was General Admission, which he
knew to mean that selecting the actual seat was not an option.
Greg did not take this step all the way through to checkout
because he chose not to make an account with this site. He
completed this task without any difficulties.
Answer: No, You cannot pick your own seating
Completed: Yes

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Tester 2
Kathleen began the next task directly from the page she
left off on from task two. She selected the Extreme Screen Movie,
Jerusalem by clicking on the movie name. This action caused the
site to load a new page. She scrolled down to the bottom of the
page and made a comment about the newsletter and then she
started to scroll back to the top of the page. It took her about 15
seconds to find the Buy Tickets button. Once she found this
button she clicked on it. This took her to a new page. Almost
immediately she noticed the Add To Basket button and selected
it. This took her to a new page. She noticed that the drop down
menu box had the wrong date so she selected the box and chose
the appropriate date from the list provided. After she completed
this, she skimmed the paragraph that summarized the movie.
Then she selected the My Basket link located under the
navigation bar. She noticed that the wrong movie appeared. She
assumed that she had the wrong movie highlighted so she went
up to the navigation bar and selected the Tickets tab. This
action reloaded the page she has currently been on. She read the
tab option in the second navigation bar which consisted of Hot
Tickets, Science City, Planetarium, City Stage and
More. She then noticed the message that popped up
between the two different navigation bars that stated, Members

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must be logged in to see discounts shown in shopping cart. She
decided that this was not the area where she wanted to be so
she clicked the back button offered by the browser. She arrived
back at the area where she was able to select the date of the
movie from a drop down arrow. She selected the Add to Basket
button this time and a new page loaded. From this page she
noticed that there was a drop down arrow box that said 3D
Movies but she did not select it. She then moved on to the drop
down arrow box with a 0 in it. She pushed the up arrow on the
box twice to change the ticket amount from 0 tickets to 2. After
she completed this she selected the Add to Basket button. This
took her to a new page. She looked around the page and noticed
a warning message that stated, Your items will be held for you
for several minutes, as indicated by the clock above. She looked
around the page again and noticed a Select Seats link so she
selected it. This action took her back to the previous page where
she selected the number of tickets she desired. She then came to
the conclusion that you were unable to select a specific seat. She
then selected the Add to Basket button, which took her to a
new page with her purchase information. She then selected the
Proceed to Checkout tab. She did not want to make an account
so she stopped at this step.
Answer: No, you cannot pick your own seating

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Completed: Yes
Recommendations to improve UX for this Task:
I would recommend adding a select your seat option.
If specific seat selection is unavailable, I would specifically state
that reservations are not accepted. I found this task slightly
confusing because the site did not specifically state that you
could not pick your seat while purchasing the tickets. I
understand now that General Admission means that a person
cannot reserve a seat but not everyone does. It also took me a
while to realize this.
I would also cut out on the number of steps required for
purchasing a ticket. Instead of having only a More Info button
with the list of movies, I would have a Buy Tickets button. This
will save users time because they would not have to go to the
movie summary page just to purchase a ticket if he or she
decided to purchase tickets that way. I would also change the
Add To Basket button to Buy Ticket or Purchase Ticket.

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This is how the site normally looks.

This is how the site would look if a Buy Ticket button was
offered.

Task 4: Scenario: Youd like to spend time walking around

Union Station during your visit, but you want to be sure
enough areas of the station will be wheelchair-friendly.
Go through the steps to send an email to the appropriate

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person/department to inquire about wheelchair access
throughout all areas of

Union Station. [Take this step all the way through the process,
and stop only when the actual email could be written and
sent.]
Tester 1:
Greg closed out of the buying tickets page of
UnionStation.org immediately after completing the third task,
which allowed him to start task four from the homepage. He
selected the Contacts tab on the main navigation bar. From
here, he skimmed through the list of departments and realized
immediately that he would need to send the email to Visitor
Relations. He selected the email link that was located to the right
of the name. He completed this task quickly and without any
problems.
Answer: Email Visitor Relations
Completed: Yes
Tester 2:
Kathleen started this task by clicking the back arrow on her
browser until she arrived at the UnionStation.org homepage.
When she arrived at the homepage she selected the Contact
tab on the navigation bar. She then skimmed through the list of

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department contacts. She hesitated on the Facility Rental area
but then moved past it and decided on Visitor Relations. To send
them an email, Kathleen selected the email link to the right on
the name. This took her straight to an email form. She completed
the task fairly fast and easily.
Answer: Visitor Relations
Completed: Yes
Recommendations to improve UX for this task:
I would redesign the website so that the Buying Tickets
links did not sent the user to a completely different website. This
caused problems with the last task because the testers and I
could not figure out how to get back to the homepage. A simple
solution for this problem would be having the header from the
UnionStation.org homepage on the Buying Tickets page. This
simple solution would help improve the User control and freedom
along with the Recognition rather than recall heuristics. If this is
not an option because of the current design I would make the
Union Station logo a link to the homepage, much like it is on
other pages of UnionStation.org.

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This is how the website looks originally.

This is how the website would look if the header was added to
the Buying Tickets page.
I would also recommend having more information about
the different department contacts on the Contact page. I would
include the name of an individual for each department along with

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a phone number. I would also give examples of commonly asked
questions and who to contact for the answer.

Testing Conclusions

Completion rate:
o Greg completed 100% of the tasks and Kathleen completed
100% of the tasks. The over all completion rate when you
combine both testers is 100%. It is above the national

average, which is 78%.

Similarities and differences:
o One similarity Greg and Kathleen shared was the method
they used to arrive at UnionStation.org. Both testers chose
to type the web address into the address bar of their
browser. They also both sat at a desk to complete the test.
Greg and Kathleen approached the first task in completely
different ways. Greg found the Guest Amenities link in
the footer of the home page, while Kathleen chose to visit
the Plan Your Visit tab and then scrolled down until she
found the Guest Amenities link. Both testers ended up in
the same place but used totally different methods. Greg
opened his links in a completely different way than
Kathleen. He right clicked on the link and chose to open it
in a new tab, while Kathleen just clicked on the link and let
the new page load over her current one. They also scrolled
differently. Both testers used a mouse, but Greg used the

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scrolling part on the mouse while Kathleen used the mouse
to click the down arrow on the scroll bar. Another similarity
between the two testers in the task is that they ended up
on the same page and completed the task.
Greg and Kathleen differed in the location where they
started the second task. Greg started the task from the
home page while Kathleen started it from the Guest
Amenities page. He then selected the Plan Your Visit tab
while Kathleen chose the Event Calendar tab. Actually,
the two testers were never on the same page for this task.
Gregs method involved more steps than Kathleens but in
the end they both completed the task. The only similarity
between the two tasks was the outcome.
Like the pervious task, the two testers did not begin
the task on the same page. Kathleen had to complete more
steps than Greg. Greg started this task on the Buying
Tickets page while Kathleen started from the Event
Calendar page.
The testers had many similarities during the last
task. They both chose to select the Contact tab of the
navigation bar. From this point both testers scrolled down
through the different department contacts until they saw
Visitor Relations. Both testers selected the email link that is
located to the right of the department.

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Courtney Leinen
Intro to Web Publishing
I found it interesting that the two testers did not have
more similarities. I did not realize that there would be so
many different ways to complete a task. I also did not
realize that people would preform even the simplest task

differently, such as opening a link.

Heuristic done well:
o In my opinion, UnionStation.org achieves the Match
between system and the real world heuristic well. All of
their links and headlines are written in a way that does not
confuse the user. UnionStation.org achieves this by using
words and phrases that most people use in everyday life.
For example, the tabs on the navigation bar are fairly selfexplanatory. When I read events calendar, I assume that
there was going to be a calendar with a list of events
offered on certain dates. This is exactly what is offered
under the Event Calendar tab.

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Courtney Leinen
Intro to Web Publishing
This shows the use of everyday language in the
navigation bar.
The navigation bar is not the only area that shows the use
of real world language. The buying tickets page also shows
evidence of real world language use. For example, when
looking at an event the users has to option to view more
information or add to basket. The Add To Basket phrase is
an example of real world language because everyone
understands that add to basket means you are purchasing
that particular item.

This shows the real world language used in the

links.
Overall, the site is fairly easy to use. There are some
areas that could use improvement as I stated earlier but
they did not stop my testers from completing the tasks at
hand.

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Courtney Leinen
Intro to Web Publishing

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