The Office of Information Technology's Usability Services team helps University of Minnesota faculty and staff better unde
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It's important to debrief with your team at the end of the project to find out what went well and where things went wrong, to celebrate great performances, and to document your findings.
A self-help guide to plan, write, and manage content at the federal level
Clear steps to consider during content strategy audit stage
Offers a printable sheet about accessibility basics.
Exploring the business reasons for creating a taxonomy
Card sorting helps you to understand how your users think you should organize your content. From this information you can create a site structure that enables your users to find what they are looking for.
Resources for planning, moderating, and assessing results of your own focus group.
A complete guide to Complete Guide to choosing and implementing a content calendar.
Grow your team's knowledge about content strategy with a certificate program designed to take your workflow even farther.
The Usability Lab is located in the basement of Walter Library, 117 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 on the East Bank of
Show the accessibility benefits of plain language with this interactive online exhibit
Focus groups help you generate ideas by listening to your current and prospective users discuss their experiences and expectations with one another. Focus groups can provide:
Purchasing Teams
You’re purchasing something that needs to be easy for the whole University community to use. We can:
Personas help you get out of your own head when you are writing content and designing your product. Personas are:
Determining answers to questions of purpose, users, content, scope, and resources when planning your taxonomy project
Create an interdisciplinary team with the right mix of roles and responsibilities.
Use this RACI chart template for your project
Rapid prototyping is a helpful approach when you want feedback on an early design. At this stage, the design can be on paper or screen.
A stash of headline formulas, social media updates, and more to help organize your team's content on realtime media.
A definition of what "soft launch" entails.
Task-based Usability Evaluations are useful when your design is getting close to being fully functional but you still have some ability to change the interface or content.
In academia, we’re notorious for using older, “fancy”, ten-dollar words, when plain language would be clearer and more effective.
Check the effectiveness of your content in a couple minutes.
Find the gaps in your content and prioritize them based on feasibility.
Research on how different tones of voice on a website have measurable impacts on users’ perceptions of a brand’s friendliness, trustworthiness, and desirability.
The launch of a new blog is an event that shouldn’t go to waste.
Tree testing helps you to learn if your proposed site structure is going to make sense to your users, before you start designing your interface.
Create standards-compliant websites and applications at the University.
Examples of simple, precise words and phrases you might substitute in your writing
Check links and anchors in Web pages or full Web sites
Your content is the most important part of your site.
Often times it can be easy to get ahead of yourself and jump in to a full fledged hard launch.
Part of a research-based guide that covers writing actionable content
Self-Help Guides
Content is one of the main components of a great user experience. This self-help guide walks you through the process of planning the right content to meet your website's goals.