Process

I gave myself the task of finding a specific obituary in my former newspaper. After all, I regularly searched for obits for both readers and as research for stories. I was bolstered by the knowledge that th e paper was the beta test site for the corporate 's efforts to integrate print and cyber news.

The Projected Process


Steps I thought it would take

1. Call my mother to see if she remember when Jimmy Woods died. She thought it was the first of March.


2. Log onto the Star Web site.


3. Navigate to "sections" and then chose "obituaries."


4. Fill in Jimmy's name in a search box.


5. Retrieve obituary

Steps it Actually took

1. Call my mother to see if she remember when Jimmy Woods died. She thought it was the first of March.


2. Log onto the Star Web site.


3. Navigate to "sections" and then chose "obituaries."


4. The page opened to a list of obituaries by date. http://www.shelbystar.com/sections/obituaries/
   


5. There is no search mechanism for names.


6. The user must remember the date of the death.
   Worse yet the list does not include dates specifically. You must guess the date.


7. I try several of the "March" dates. Finally I find Jimmy's obit.


8. Retrieve obituary

http://http://www.shelbystar.com/onset?id=19646&template=article.html


This task proved much more difficult than I anticipated. I proved much more frustrating and enlightening. I expected that because I knew the paper, this would be an easy task. I believe my paper's web navigatgion and user interface fails to meet the test of a good Web site.