System Usability Scale (SUS) Comparison and Task Analysis

Challenge:

In 2022, DO engaged Jumping Elephants through a long-term contract that would be used to help facilitate several usability research projects and accessibility activities. The main goal of the first project was to better understand how DO’s usability compared to 5 other tourism websites.

Services Provided:

Jumping Elephants designed, administered, and reported on a project to collect the System Usability Scores (SUS) for DO and 5 other tourism websites. The specific activities included:

  1. Defining the sites that would be part of the exercise, and then recruiting participants, based on specific demographic requirements including age, location, and family type

  2. Working with DO, Jumping Elephants developed 5 tasks that would be asked of each of the participants to ensure that they had some experience with the site prior to completing the SUS questions

  3. JE developed a project-specific SUS data capture tool that enabled unmoderated data capture and incorporated the standardized SUS questions and scoring mechanisms

  4. 51 participants (Canadians and Americans), recruited by Jumping Elephants, completed each of the tasks and SUS questions. All the participants reviewed both DO and one other site

  5. JE developed a report that illustrated how DO compared to the other tourism websites based on both the task analysis and the SUS scores

Results:

This evidence-based approach leveraged SUS and task results to provide a reliable and valid measure of perceived usability and to help DO prioritize the effort that should be allocated to future usability research and design.