OMB Memo

Generic Information Collection Request Addendum

Request: The purpose of this letter is to request additional burden hours to the testing plan for usability testing of CEDSCI website, part of census.gov. The original request, “CEDSCI Usability Evaluation memo,” which was submitted on 11/10/2016, was approved on 12/7/2016 with Lin Wang as the primary contact. Because new releases of the data.census.gov website will take place within the next year, new usability sessions will be conducted under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). An addendum to this generic clearance was submitted on 3/9/2018 and approved on 4/27/2018. All documents for the original and addendum submissions are enclosed in the present request.

Purpose: New releases on the data.census.gov page include changes to the look, feel, and functionalities of the page, and they are available for usability testing. Usability testing of these updates are needed to ensure users’ effective and efficient use of census.gov with satisfaction.

As with the previously approved request, the goal of this research is to improve the design of the census.gov website in an ongoing basis during the entire lifecycle of the system development.

Population of Interest: No change.

Timeline: Testing period will be from April 2019 through January 2020. Recruiting will start April 20th 2019.

Language: No change.

Method: No change.

Sample:

Our population of interest are naïve and expert users. Naive users are defined as participants without any experience manipulating datasets, and expert users are defined as participants with experience manipulating datasets.

Participants’ inclusion criteria:

1. Speak English fluently,

2. Between 18 to 70 years old,

3. At least one year of Internet experience,

4. Have at least high school diploma or equivalent.

Burden hours:

We previously requested and received clearance to conduct testing with 196 participants. From this clearance, we have used 179 burden hours, and we plan to use the remaining 17 hours during the usability test of the April release (to be conducted in May 2019). We have plans for additional testing after May 2019, and hence we are submitting this addendum to cover those hours. In FY 2019 and FY 2020, we plan to run 3 additional rounds of testing. In each round of testing we typically recruit 20 participants. Each user test takes one hour. We are requesting clearance for 63 additional burden hours. (3 hours for the April release to be used in conjunction with the 17 hours from previous clearance and 20 hours for each of the three remaining releases.)

Length of interview:

We estimate 60 minutes per respondent for each interview. There will be 63 additional respondents, which is an additional 63 burden hours. Participants will be screened using the Census Bureau’s generic screener; thus, the burden hours for screenings are covered under a separate request.

According to the tentative project schedule, there will be four module releases in FY19-FY20 as listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Tentative Usability Testing Schedule

Testing	Quick formative usability test
	Start	End
April release	4/20/19	5/20/19
July release	7/14/19	8/14/19
October release	10/14/19	11/14/19
January release	01/14/20	2/14/20

Recruitment: No change.

Protocol: No change.

Use of Incentive: No change.

Below is a list of previously submitted materials with notes specifying if the enclosure was approved during the original clearance (approval date: 12/7/2016) or during the addendum (approval date: 4/27/2018).

1. OMB Original request (Previously approved by original OMB clearance – enclosure 1)

2. Sample testing protocol (Previously approved by original OMB clearance - enclosure 2)

3. Demographic questionnaire (Previously approved by original OMB in clearance - enclosure 3)

4. Internet and mobile experience questionnaire (Previously approved by original OMB clearance- enclosure 4)

5. Satisfaction questionnaire (Previously approved by OMB original clearance - enclosure 5)

6. Addendum to request additional hours (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 – enclosure 6)

7. Modified study plan requesting for additional hours and modifications to tasks (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 - enclosure 7)

8. Modified internet and mobile experience questionnaire (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 – enclosure 8)

9. Debriefing questionnaire (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 – enclosure 9)

10. Satisfaction questionnaire (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 – enclosure 10)

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

Alda Rivas

Center for Survey Measurement

ADRM

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-3396

Alda.g.rivas@census.gov

Enclosures

cc:
Lin Wang (ADRM) “lin.wang@census.gov”

Kanin L. Reese (ADRM) “kanin.L.Reese@census.gov”

Zachary R. Whitman (ADRM) “zachary.richard.whitman@census.gov”

Jennifer Hunter Childs (ADRM)” “Jennifer.hunter.childs@census.gov”

Jasmine Luck (ADRM)” “jasmine.luck@census.gov”

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