Date(s): May-June 2023
Location: DOT Permit Office Waiting Area, Baltimore City, MD
Web Site: Special Events Permitting & Street Vending Licenses
Purpose: The purpose of this test is to learn how well a representative sample of Event Organizers can interpret and use the Special Event Online Application Site. Areas of the site that will be evaluated for performance and overall user satisfaction include the: Web content, architecture, navigation, terminology, and its ability to meet expectations.
- Participant’s occupation?
- Roughly how many hours a week you spend using the Internet, including Web browsing and email, at work and at home?
- What bring you here in DOT today?
- Is this your first time applying for event permit?
- What motivated you to become an event organizer?
- What is your favorite part of organizing special events?
- Have you heard of [site]? If so, tell me what you know about them.
- Just from looking at this site, What strikes you about it, What kinds of information do you think you could get from this site? Please be specific.
- Who do you think this site is designed for? Why? (Probe: public, health professionals, etc.
- What can you do here?
Scenario 1 – Event Plan As an event organizer You want to apply for a Block party that will have 300 participants and you want a stage for playing music like DJ. How would you apply for that?
| Pathway(s) | Success (Circle 1) | Notes/Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Special event Details Page OR Read about Block party and realize that it needs to be a special event | 0 (Not completed) 1 (Completed with difficulty or help) 2 (Easily completed ) | (Note why was the user successful or not successful, e.g., wrong pathways, confusing page layout, navigation issues, terminology) |
Scenario 2 – Finding details
Now you want to know about initial application fee associated with the event. What would you do to find that information?
| Pathway(s) | Success (Circle 1) | Notes/Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Scroll down the page and found the section OR (Note what they did) | 0 (Not completed) 1 (Completed with difficulty or help) 2 (Easily completed ) | (Note why was the user successful or not successful, e.g., wrong pathways, confusing page layout, navigation issues, terminology) |
Scenario 3 – Apply for Event
Now that you have an idea how much would it cost to apply for your special event you want to move forward and apply for it. What would you do next?
| Pathway(s) | Success (Circle 1) | Notes/Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Start ONLINE Application OR Go In -person | 0 (Not completed) 1 (Completed with difficulty or help) 2 (Easily completed ) | (Note why was the user successful or not successful, e.g., wrong pathways, confusing page layout, navigation issues, terminology) |
Scenario 4 – Complete Checklist
How do you feel about the checklist process?
| Pathway(s) | Success (Circle 1) | Notes/Observations |
|---|---|---|
| Understood that Checklist needs to be checks before applying | 0 (Not completed) 1 (Completed with difficulty or help) 2 (Easily completed ) | (Note why was the user successful or not successful, e.g., wrong pathways, confusing page layout, navigation issues, terminology) |
Give test participants the opportunity to provide feedback you did not plan for. Ask questions like:
- I’m interested in your overall reaction to what we’ve shared today.
- In a scale of 1 to 7, 1 being very poor and 7 being excellent, how would you rate this experience?
- Do you feel this site is current? Why?
- What did you like best about the site?
- What did you like least about the site?
- Is there anything that you feel is missing on this site? (Probe: content or site features/ functions)
- Do you have other things you want to tell me?
- Do you have any questions you want to ask?
- Do you have any feedback to this experiment/study?