Glossary Tool for Census.gov Pretesting Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We plan to conduct a series of usability tests on the newly-developed Glossary tool to identify functionality issues and problems census.gov users have with understanding terminology contained on the website. This is part of the work of the Census Bureau’s Plain Language Team.

Census.gov receives widespread praise, but users at times have told us they find our terminology difficult to understand. As a technical agency devoted to scientific method, we must use terms with precise definitions; it is also our obligation, however, to make sure that people understand the work that we do. The intention of the Glossary is to make it easier to understand the technical language we must use.

Between March and December 2013, we will conduct 10 rounds of usability testing. In each round, we will recruit 10 external participants from the Washington DC metropolitan region. The participants will primarily be novice users of our Web site and our data. All participants will have a minimum of one year of Internet experience and use the Internet at least three times a week to search for information. Participants will be recruited from the Usability Lab database, which is composed of people from the metropolitan DC area who volunteered to participate after responding to a Craigslist posting or an ad in a local newspaper. Participants may also be recruited by word of mouth, and Census Partner organizations. Participants will come to the Usability Lab at the Census Bureau for the study and will be compensated $40.00 for their participation.

Participants will be given an initial questionnaire about their Internet experience and a questionnaire that collects demographic characteristics. Then each participant will be given a set of tasks for the Glossary. Each round of testing will include 4 different tasks, each of which asks for the definitions of a term included in the Glossary.

Participants will be asked to think aloud while they work on the tasks, and they will also provide feedback about the Web site during a debriefing at the conclusion of the session. Participants’ eyes will be tracked, when possible, using the eye-tracking monitor and the TOBII software. Participants will be prompted to think aloud when they fall silent. Finally, participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire designed to measure their satisfaction with the Glossary. Subjective satisfaction ratings will be collected for such design elements as the layout of page, ease of finding information, and clarity/jargon of the definitions.

A copy of the tasks for testing, the protocol introduction, background questionnaire, the demographic questionnaire, the post-task satisfaction questionnaire, the final satisfaction questionnaire, and the debriefing questionnaire are included.

We estimate that users will spend one hour on average participating in the study, including time spent working on the demographic and satisfaction questions, the tasks and the debriefing. Thus, the total estimated respondent burden for this ongoing year-long study is 100 hours.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is listed below:

Erica Olmsted-Hawala

Center for Survey Methods Research

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-4893

Erica.L.Olmsted.Hawala@census.gov