AP NEWS
Usability Test
This website represents the data collected from a usability test conducted on AP NEWS.
Search Function is Unclear
Our first task was to search for something on AP News and navigate to an article corresponding to that search.
The search function proved to be a little unclear, as instead of searching
as usual it provides a list of topics and stories pertaining to your search and
you have to click one to find an article. The user was a little confused but quickly recovered.
Recommendation: change search to function as expected, if they wish to keep the
“topics search” provide that as a drop-down option that is not automatically selected as
it is a unfamiliar to most users.
Mailing List Pop-Up
Our second task was to join the mailing list/find the mailing list pop-up.
The mailing list pop-up appears when you first browse the website and also when you open the website in a new tab.
The user had it appear immediately after they clicked off an article. This may have just been luck however,
as we were unable to find a dedicated place to join the mailing list and users would have to rely upon this pop-up
to join.
Keyboard Navigation
Our third task was to navigate to another article using only the keyboard.
This was by far our most difficult task and the user was unable to complete this without help.
While the user was able to recall the website well they were unable
to navigate using only the keyboard without a hint. The options on this website are not great,
and it is very frustrating to navigate without a mouse.
Reccomendation: we reccomend that AP News take steps to improve accessibility with a keyboard,
in our case if you press “Tab” instead of immediately beginning to tab through the website it selects the
“enable accessibility” icon and you have to hit tab several more times to begin keyboard navigation. This was very
confusing to our user, who expected it to begin tabbing through all the options. Additionally, adding other input,
like the arrow keys, could improve navigation.
Sections Menu
The next task was to use the ‘sections’ menu to navigate to another article.
The user very quickly navigated to another article, commenting on how easy it was.
This feature is very intuitive, and helpful when navigating through the website.
Social Media
Our last task was to navigate to one of the site’s social media pages.
This can be done from almost any page and the user immediately remembered this.
At this point the user was clearly very accustomed to the layout of the
website and easily able to navigate almost anywhere. Their navigation was very
accurate and overall they recalled the majority of the website.
Conclusion
AP NEWS has two major problems in regards to accessibility, the search
feature and the near complete lack of keyboard navigation on the website.
The search issue is a fairly easy fix, as they can just make what they’re
already doing optional via a drop-down menu, but the keyboard navigation may need some serious work.
Their mailing list pop-up is good but it could be improved if there was a button
so it’s accessible at all times instead of at random. Their social media links and the ‘sections’
feature are both very well done and I do not have any reccomendations for those.
Overall the website is definitely functional. It takes a little getting
used to in the beginning and there are things that need to be worked on but it is not
as bad as most news websites on the whole.