SharePoint Focus Group Report

SharePoint Focus Group Report Clients: UITS SharePoint Governance Committee (SPGC) Contacts: Susan Coleman Morse Consultants: Jenny Hertel, Jae Kim, and Sean Connolly Date: May 23, 2011

Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 3 SharePoint at IU History... 3 User Experience Activities... 3 Current Activity Focus Groups... 4 FOCUS GROUP DETAILS... 5 Purpose... 5 Method... 5 Results... 6 RESULTS... 7 Part 1 General Impressions... 7 Part 2 Design Impressions... 8 Part 3 UXG Recommendations... 10 APPENDICES... 11 Appendix A My Site Start Page Design... 11 Appendix B Resource Portal Design... 12 Appendix C Facilitator Script... 13 User Experience Group, Indiana University 2 of 14

Executive Summary SharePoint at IU History SharePoint is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. It was designed as a centralized replacement for multiple web applications and is typically associated with web content management and document management systems. Multiple departments and schools at Indiana University (IU) are utilizing the a cloud-based, environment as a place for team collaboration and content management through departmental or group sites, as well as for individual content management and social networking through My Sites. Until recently, SharePoint use has been decentralized with multiple SharePoint installations and multiple SharePoint farm administrators. In August, 2010, University Information Technology Services (UITS), decided to establish a centralized, university-wide SharePoint 2010 production service to all IU departments, faculty, staff, and graduate students. The SharePoint Governance Committee (SPGC) convened to ensure a unified, centralized approach to the SharePoint environment across all departments at IU. One objective set forth by the SPGC was To provide a consistent high quality user experience. To help achieve this objective, the committee designated UITS Susan Coleman Morse as the SPGC user experience designer. Susan recruited the User experience Group (UXG) and other UITS staff members to be on the SharePoint User experience team (SPUX). User Experience Activities The SPUX team conducted user research by hosting an ad-hoc focus group during an IU SharePoint Users Group (IUSPUG) meeting, sending a survey to all IUSPUG members, and conducting a contextual inquiry with a SharePoint Farm Administrator. Through this research, the team identified several possible user experience problems, but determined that new users being intimidated and uncertain about what to do when they start using SharePoint is the most critical issue. To resolve the intimidation and uncertainty, SPUX created two prototypes: 1) a My Site start page (See Appendix A) and 2) a resource portal which consolidates various SharePoint resources available (See Appendix B), and then determined that UXG should obtain user feedback about the designs. Because the two designs were web pages that contained links, UXG recommended that there were not enough interactions to justify user testing. User Experience Group, Indiana University 3 of 14

Current Activity Focus Groups In May of 2011, UXG conducted two focus groups with current and potential SharePoint users at Indiana University Bloomington in order to evaluate how well the designs resolves this problem. Participants discussed two topics: 1) impressions of SharePoint in general and 2) impressions of the two prototype screens, as compared to existing screens. During these discussions, the novice participants confirmed that SharePoint intimidated them, and when shown the existing My Site start page, they agreed that they would not know what to do when they arrived there. The experienced participants also confirmed that when they began using SharePoint, they were at first overwhelmed and not sure how to proceed. However, the experienced users advised that they overcame those feelings and find SharePoint useful now. Both novice and experienced participants indicated that the proposed designs would be helpful in alleviating feelings of being overwhelmed and intimidated and offered their suggestions for improving upon the designs as well as the overall user experience of SharePoint at IU. The remainder of this report describes the purpose and methods of the focus groups, provides a summary of the comments made during the focus groups, and explains recommendations made by the UXG consultants. User Experience Group, Indiana University 4 of 14

Focus Group Details Purpose Based on prior user research, the SPUX team determined that new users being intimidated and uncertain about what to do when they start using SharePoint is a critical issue that will negatively affect the SharePoint user experience. To address this problem, the team developed two prototypes: 1) a My Site start page (See Appendix A) and 2) a resource portal which consolidates various SharePoint resources available (See Appendix B). To allow primary user groups to provide feedback on what information they desire in such pages and how to best present that information, the SPUX team asked the UXG to conduct focus groups with current and potential SharePoint users. In May of 2011, UXG conducted two such focus groups at Indiana University Bloomington. Method UXG and the SPGC user experience designer sent emails to various schools on the IUB campus calling for volunteers. Additionally, UXG posted the call for volunteers on its website and the IUSPUG forum, advertised it in its Twitter feed, and emailed it to all IUSPUG members. The response from these emails and postings was overwhelming. UXG was able to recruit 17 participants for two focus group sessions, and had to turn many others away. UXG provided refreshments and reserved conference rooms for each focus group. The SPGC provided $10 Barnes & Noble gift cards to all participants. Focus group participants and the sessions were divided by skill level. Ten participants who had experience with SharePoint and classified themselves as intermediate or expert users were placed in the first focus group, and seven individuals who were not familiar with SharePoint or who classified themselves as beginner users were placed in the second focus group. All participants were either IU staff or graduate students. No faculty members responded to the recruitment efforts. The experienced users first answered questions related to their experience of using SharePoint, while the novice users first listened to a brief overview of what SharePoint is and then shared their opinions and impressions based on the overview. Both groups then viewed the two prototypes of potential designs as well as the pages that are currently in existence. One UXG consultant facilitated each focus group by welcoming the participants and asking questions (See Appendix C). IUSPUG provided individuals to be present or available via instant messaging during each session, in case participants raised questions that UXG could not answer. Two UXG consultants took notes during each session. User Experience Group, Indiana University 5 of 14

Results The comments from the focus group participants are summarized on the following pages in three parts. Part 1 is General Impressions and contains comments about participants impressions of SharePoint in general that are 1) simply statements that require no action and are for information purposes only and/or 2) suggestions made by participants that, because UXG consultants are not SharePoint subject matter experts, the practicality of the recommendation is unknown. In the case of 2), the SPGC is encouraged to evaluate the comments to determine if the suggestions are feasible. Part 2 is Design Impressions. These comments concern the participants impressions of the two prototype screens, as compared to existing screens and any recommendations they may have relating to the design. Part 3 is UXG s Recommendations related to iterations of the two prototypes design. User Experience Group, Indiana University 6 of 14

Results Part 1 General Impressions Many participants expressed concern that other people may be reluctant to adopt SharePoint due to a general resistance to change, failure to see the need for SharePoint, and a lack of understanding in the advantages SharePoint offers. Particularly, participants stated that others would need to be convinced that SharePoint offers advantage over the tools that are currently being used (e.g. Oncourse, Google Docs). o Participants suggested that marketing efforts focused on education around these issues might improve adoption rates. o Multiple experienced SharePoint users noted that tracking documents through SharePoint was a very useful task. In addition, they particularly liked the security settings SharePoint offers. These participants suggested marketing efforts include mention of these functionalities. When experienced participants shared specific examples of how they are using SharePoint, other novice participants noted that information helped them understand SharePoint better. o Two examples that received raves were a room reservation system and an equipment rental system. Participants suggested that highlighting these projects would be effective marketing material. o Additionally, participants suggested that UITS should schedule regular infoshares so IU SharePoint users can interact and learn how others are using SharePoint in person. o Another suggestion was to do a FLIP CAM mobile academy where teams get a FLIP CAM to tell a story in brief about their use of SharePoint and post those videos somewhere easily accessible by beginners. A majority of the participants stated that they preferred a dedicated team to support SharePoint. However, recognizing that this is probably not feasible, some participants indicated that it is critical that the online SharePoint support tools (i.e. sites that are linked on the IU Sharepoint Portal mockup) are as rich and as updated as possible. Particularly, the FAQs and/or Knowledge Base will need to be current and relevant, as these would include unique IU-specific questions that are not covered by general help sites like the Shepherd s Guide. Multiple experienced participants noted that they strongly dislike the problems they encounter when using SharePoint on a Mac and having to repeatedly log in as they transition between different SharePoint sites. Experienced users stated that the standard 1G-storage allotment fills up too quickly. Some noted that they would upload 10-15G to My Site if they could. User Experience Group, Indiana University 7 of 14

Part 2 Design Impressions My Site All participants indicated that they preferred the SPUX prototype to the existing My Site Newsfeed that users first see and thought it would be more useful for novice users. A majority of the experienced users stated that they never use the Newsfeed and don t believe it should figure prominently into this page s design. A couple of participants stated that the phrase Welcome to your SharePoint My Sites! felt awkward and didn t add value to the page. Experienced participants noted that when they go to their My Site, the first thing they usually do is navigate to My Content, as that is where they interact with My Site the most. Based on this, they suggested that if the My Content page were the initial start page, instead of the current Newsfeed, then they would feel more confident about how to proceed. When asked about this, novice users speculated that seeing My Content first would better enable them to begin using SharePoint. Many participants did note, however, that the label, My Content does not express well what that section is. One suggestion was to change the label to My Documents. Another was to provide brief descriptions next to each of the icons on the page. Add the Getting Started with SharePoint video that currently exists at https://www.sharepoint.iu.edu. Resource Portal All participants indicated that they preferred this resource page to the existing resource page. Suggested names for this page include SharePoint Support, SharePoint Help, and HELP!!!! Experienced SharePoint developers suggested that there is a need to create separate Support pages for users and developers, as each have different needs and expectation of support. Participants noted that IU is not prominently displayed, so this page could be seen as a general resource page. Some participants suggested that if the page were called, for example, SharePoint Resources @ IU, it would instill more confidence in new users since they would be able to identify easily that the resources are IU-specific. User Experience Group, Indiana University 8 of 14

Participants unanimously agreed that the resources page should be accessible by anyone, and therefore it should not live inside SharePoint, which requires users to log in. They said it was OK for all of the links on the page to point to resources that reside inside SharePoint. Some participants noted that they didn t think the icons on the right were clickable. Participants suggested the following as other information to include on the Resource Portal page: o Prominently displayed alerts about browser and Mac incompatibilities and their work-arounds o Glossary o Ability to search across all SharePoint resources (the Shepherd s Guide, the Knowledgebase, Lynda.com, etc.) o Email contact and Live Chat for support or questions o FAQs o Video testimonials of how others are using SharePoint o Add a Getting Started link to the portal. There is an MS Sharepoint video that should be of value as a Start Up guide. (No suggestions were made as to what this link would contain.) o Best practices guide for developers, including best information architecture and usability practices, or perhaps even a wizard something that asks how do you primarily intend to use this site? and then suggests a template. User Experience Group, Indiana University 9 of 14

Part 3 UXG Recommendations My Site 1. Add the Getting Started with SharePoint video that currently exists at https://www.sharepoint.iu.edu. This will also fill in some of the extra white space. 2. Add the word again and a period at the end of the sentence Don t show this page. 3. Change the phrase Welcome to your SharePoint My Sites! to Welcome to My Site, your personal SharePoint site! as it provides a sense that this is the user s own site. 4. Under the Manage my Newsfeed icon, add an icon and the words Learn how to customize My Site that points to https://www.sharepoint.iu.edu/sites/supportwiki/sharepoint Shepherds Guide for End Users/Create and Customize a My Site.aspx 5. The first time a user opens My Site, the existing prototype should be displayed. No iterations are necessary. 2. If a user checks the box next to Don t show this page again, then the next time the user opens My Site, he/she should be taken to My Content. 6. Add a link to the Resource Portal in the drop down list under user s names. 7. While participants suggested changing My Content to My Documents, UXG does not recommend this, because that area contains more than just documents. UXG expects that label will become familiar as users access My Site more. Resource Portal 1. Although participants suggested adding FAQs, doing so would require creating and maintaining another resource. The portal page needs to feel like it already answers any FAQs related to SharePoint, so UXG does not recommend this suggestion be followed. 2. Add @ IU to the page name: SharePoint Resources @ IU. 3. Make the text in the center of the icons change as the users move their cursors of the icons, so that the text is describing which icon the mouse is hovering over. 4. Ensure that when an icon is selected, there is sufficient notification, such as making it brighter, or change color. 5. Consider participants suggestions for providing known issues and work-arounds, video testimonials, the glossary, support contact information, and best practice guides. User Experience Group, Indiana University 10 of 14

Appendix A My Site Start Page Design Appendices

Appendix B Resource Portal Design User Experience Group, Indiana University 12 of 14

Appendix C Facilitator Script Hello everyone. Welcome and thank you very much for participating in this focus group discussion. My name is [facilitator]. I am a consultant with the User Experience Group, which is a team within the University Information Technology Services, or UITS. As you may have heard [novice]/as you know [expert], UITS provides a centralized, universitywide Microsoft SharePoint Server environment. SharePoint provides sites for team collaboration and content management, as well as My Sites for individual content management and social networking. The IU SharePoint team has been working on a support portal for SharePoint users, as well as a customized My Site to help the new users get started. In order to evaluate how well the new design and features meet the needs of the target audiences, the SharePoint team would like to obtain user feedback through focus groups. You have been recruited because you were identified as being one of their target users, and your voice is very crucial. We want to find out what you think about SharePoint what you understand it to be, your level of exposure to it, and how you think it might help you in your roles at IU. We also would like to find out what UITS can do to help the new users of get started with SharePoint, and we will be showing you a few screenshots of what we ve been working to see if we are headed in the right direction. In order to keep our discussion focused, I do have a set of questions that I am going to ask. However, discussion is going to be a pretty casual conversation. Now, let s go over the ground rules for today s discussion. First, there are no right or wrong answers to the questions I will be asking during the session. Please feel free to share your point of view even if it differs from what others have said. If you want to follow up on something that someone has said, you want to agree, disagree, or give an example, feel free to do that. We re interested in hearing from each of you. So I may have to interrupt and give others a chance to speak if you are taking an unfair amount of time. On the other hand, if you are too quiet, I may have to call on you. We just want to make sure we hear from all of you. As you should already be aware, the session will take no longer than two hours. Many times, it takes much less than that. So, we will be done by [ ]. Before we proceed, do you have any questions on anything I have said so far? User Experience Group, Indiana University 13 of 14

Ok. Let s start with introductions. Please tell us name, your title and your role at IU. Since I ve already introduced myself, let s start with [person to facilitator s right]. [After Introductions, turn it over to Subject Matter Expert for a brief overview of SharePoint:] Questions Focus Group How are you using SharePoint (experts)? / How do you think you would use SharePoint (novice)? If you had a question about Sharepoint, where would you go to try to find the answer? UITS is considering providing a consolidated resource page for accessing SharePoint services at IU. What would expect to see at such a page? o What name would you give that page? o Why or why not do you think this would be useful? How would you expect to find out about this resource page? Questions Design Critique (4 screens) Initial impression What you like/don t like Features you feel are important/unimportant What do you think is missing/needs to be added? What would you expect to see in the link target pages? (For the My Site mocks only, and for novice users only) This is the page you ll see the first time you log in to SharePoint. Does this help you figure out what you can or should do next, now that you re logged in? Why or why not? Which design do you prefer and why? User Experience Group, Indiana University 14 of 14