Situation/Objectives: A blockbuster pharmaceutical brand hires a leading video-game based developer to develop an innovative videogame-like patient tutorial. The tutorial is designed to help new patients – many of them children – understand their treatment and make the transition to self-treatment. The objective of the research is to assess the tutorial/web site on the user experience: navigability, usability, and content.
Action: PMI conducts ten one-on-one interactive interviews. Participants are seated at a PC and asked to navigate the site, while the moderator sits adjacent to them, observing them navigate on a separate screen. The approach combines unaided and directed navigation, to ensure feedback on all elements of the site.
Results: The site scores high on content and is well-received for its innovative approach. However, the user testing uncovers a variety of areas for improvement, and PMI’s recommendations lead to many improvements in technical areas (e.g., the size of the mouse ‘grab areas’), organization, flow, and layout of content, and consistency of approach from one menu to the next. Nearly all of the changes are quickly incorporated into the site, which went live shortly thereafter.