The Usability Findings on the G1 Portal
How I applied Usability Principles to help one of the biggest news portals in Brazil to improve the User Experience on their Website
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Introduction
G1 is currently one of the largest Brazilian news portals and has been operating in the country since 2006. The portal makes journalism content available from the various companies of Grupo Globo — TV Globo, GloboNews, CBN radio, Jornal O Globo, Extra, Expresso and Valor Econômico, Época and Globo Rural magazines, among others — in addition to its reports in text, photos, audio and video formats.
The Project
In this project, I act as UX Designer and I have the challenge of analyzing from the perspective of User Experience Design the elements of the page and articles published on the G1 website and mobile app, indicating the possibilities for improvement on the user experience to guarantee the best functioning of the portal.
Briefing and Deliverables
In a meeting, it was decided that the project would be delivered in two parts.
The first part referred to the indication of usability findings and improvement suggestions for their website and mobile app, which I would analyze from the perspective of Usability Heuristics and in comparison to competitors’ benchmarks.
The second part refers to the Low Fidelity Proposal, contemplating a work in Lo-fi incorporating screen adjustments and desktop (responsive) components.
As deliverables for the first part, a PowerPoint presentation with the results of the data collected from the analysis and for the second part, screens and/or components in Figma of the proposed improvements.
Methodology and Tools
As parameters, I used the 10 Heuristics proposed by Jakob Nielsen (and Rolf Molich) for the development of interfaces.
Nielsen’s Heuristics
Heuristics is “the art of inventing or discovering” and “a method to reach knowledge or a solution to problems”. Jakob Nielsen developed some general rules of “common sense” so that the user has a better and less tiring journey and experience:
- Keep users informed of system status with constant feedback.
- Set information in a logical, natural order.
- Ensure users can easily undo/redo actions.
- Maintain consistent standards so users know what to do next without learning new toolsets.
- Prevent errors if possible; wherever you can’t do this, warn users before they commit to actions.
- Don’t make users remember information — keep options, etc., visible.
- Make systems flexible so novices and experts can choose to do more or less on them.
- Design with aesthetics and minimalism in mind — don’t clutter with unnecessary items.
- Provide plain-language error messages to pinpoint problems and potential solutions.
- Offer easy-to-search troubleshooting resources, if needed.
First Part: Analysis
* If you are in a hurry, you can check the deliverables of the first part, with the presentation and evaluation of the Usability Analysis and Synchronic Analysis of the competitors, by clicking here.
Heuristics Evaluation
To carry out a correct assessment, it was necessary to first get acquainted with the portal. Browsing for the website and articles, testing features and tools and noting the points of frustration as a user, imagining different profiles with different needs, scenarios and limitations. In this way, it was possible to put me in the place of the site user to analyze with greater empathy, truly understanding the users’ needs.
For analysis purposes, I separated two articles that I observed to have all the resources used on the site, videos, article suggestions, links, podcasts, images, infographics, etc., and together with the home, I started the analysis focusing on the Heuristics of Nielsen, noting positive and negative aspects:
The main problems found were related to the organization in the home, where the news is organized editorially, of what the editor defines as the most important content of the day, as in a printed newspaper. The listing follows a subject identification, however, the same visual resource is used to separate articles from the same topic or different topics (lower solid bar);
Multimedia controls, result in problems with the freedom, control and efficiency of the user. The podcast player, for example, presented a few problems. The player itself lived in line with the content and clicking on any link on the page resulted in navigating away from the podcast player, causing the loss of all progress and changed controls such as volume and playback speed.
With the data found, I produced a spreadsheet, pointing out the problems, the heuristics where each problem failed, the severity and suggestion for improvement in each of them:
The degrees of severity was assigned as:
1 — Cosmetic Problem: Correct when there is time;
2 — Minor Problem: Low-priority fix;
3 — Major Problem: High Priority Fix;
4 — Catastrophe: Correct before releasing the product.
The suggestions for correcting were made taking into account data from the analysis of local and international news portals.
You can check the complete spreadsheet, along with the Synchronic Analysis of the portals, by clicking here.
Synchronic Analysis
Synchronic analysis is used to recognize the universe of the product in question and to avoid reinventions. Comparing and criticizing products requires the formulation of common criteria (BONSIEPE et al., 1984).
This analysis can also be understood as a survey of the products of the elected system (BOMFIM, 1977).
The Synchronic analyses method was chosen because we can consider the heuristic errors pointed out in the heuristic evaluation as comparison criteria. In this way, we would have specific criteria such as focus and visual references for the suggestions on screens.
To choose the analyzed portals, a survey of the largest local and international news portals was carried out, from which the 3 largest in Brazil and the two largest in the world were analyzed:
You can check the Synchronic Analysis of the portals, together with the Heuristic Evaluation table, by clicking here.
Delivery of the First Part
For the delivery, I prepared a PPT presentation and a spreadsheet with notes, the Heuristic Assessment and a Synchronic Analysis of the competing portals.
You can check the material presented after the Reviews and Evaluations of the first part by clicking here.
Part Two: Lo-Fi
Due to budget, the second part was cancelled by the agency.
Following, you can check a quick Lo-fi screen I've made for practice and study.
Home organization
One of the points presented was the possibility of improving the Home of the site:
“The news is organized editorially, of what the editor defines as the most important content of the day, as in a printed newspaper. The listing follows a subject identification, however, the same visual resource is used to separate articles from the same topic or different topics (lower solid bar)”.
In this way, I suggested a clearer delimitation between the editorials (eg: economics, politics, etc.) to group them and better characterize the division between subjects.
For contact, questions, suggestions and criticism, find me on LinkedIn.
