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. The Census Bureau plans to conduct this additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). There have been three addendums to this generic clearance. The first addendum was submitted on 3/9/2018 and approved on 4/27/2018. A second addendum to this generic clearance was submitted on 4/25/2019 and approved on 6/10/2019. The third addendum was submitted on 5/20/20 and approved on 7/6/2020. Relevant 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. Our population of interest are naïve and expert users. Naive users are defined as participants without much 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.

Timeline: Testing period will be from October 31, 2020 through September 30, 2021. Recruiting will start once OMB approval is received.

Language: No change. The evaluation will be conducted in English only.

Method: No change. We will conduct these user sessions using Skype for Business to see the participants’ computer screen. Any participant who does not have Skype for Business on their computer will be required to download it prior to the session. Using Skype for Business is a requirement for participating in this study. Skype for Business is an approved Census Bureau video conferencing system. If the social distancing mandate has ended, we will conduct in-person user sessions, and/or continue remote user sessions for hard to reach user populations.

Sample: No change.

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:

5. Speak English fluently,

6. Between 18 to 70 years old,

7. At least one year of Internet experience,

8. 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 had used 179 burden hours and had 17 remaining. We submitted an addendum in April 2019 for 63 burden hours to cover 3 additional rounds of testing (and the extra 3 hours to use in conjunction with the 17 left over). Once approved, we had 80 hours and 60 were used during testing in June 2019, October 2019, and March 2020. We used the remaining 20 burden hours after receiving approval for our addendum to conduct usability sessions remotely in July 2020. In FY21, we plan to run 4 additional rounds of usability testing and 4 rounds of wireframes testing. In each round of usability testing we typically recruit 20 participants and in each round of wireframes testing we typically recruit 10 participants. Each user test takes one hour. Therefore, we are requesting clearance for 120 additional burden hours (20 for each release and 10 for each wireframes test).

Length of interview:

We estimate 60 minutes per respondent for each interview. There will be 120 additional respondents, which is an additional 120 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 and four wireframe tests in FY21 as listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Tentative Usability Testing Schedule

Testing	Usability test
	Start	End
October release	10/31/20	11/30/20
Wireframes	12/15/20	12/31/20
January release	1/15/21	2/15/21
Wireframes	3/15/21	3/31/21
April release	4/15/21	5/15/21
Wireframes	6/15/21	6/30/21
July release	7/15/21	8/15/21
Wireframes	9/15/21	9/30/21

Recruitment: No change. Participants will be recruited using a combination of word-of-mouth, flyers, online and paper advertisements.

Protocol: No change. Sessions will be conducted remotely using Skype for Business. Participants will first be asked to complete a demographics questionnaire and Internet experience questionnaire. Then participants will perform a list of tasks designed to access certain functionalities for the particular development sprint, using a think-aloud protocol. After completing the tasks, each participant will be asked to complete a satisfaction questionnaire, and asked debriefing questions about different screens. If the social distancing mandate has ended, we will conduct in-person user sessions following the previously approved in-person protocol and/or continue remote user sessions for hard to reach user populations.

Use of Incentive: No change. Participants will be paid using USPS priority mail.

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. Protocol (Previously approved by original OMB clearance - enclosure 2)

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

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

5. Debriefing questionnaire (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 – enclosure 5)

6. Satisfaction questionnaire (Addendum approved on 4/27/2018 – enclosure 6)

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

Shelley Feuer

Center for Behavioral Science Methods

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-0873

Shelley.b.feuer@census.gov

Enclosures

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