Atlanta Showcase: CDC's Social & Interactive Media Tools

CDC Social & Interactive Media Tools
Evaluation & Next Steps

User Experience Team
Division of eHealth Marketing
National Center for Health Marketing

CDC CCHIS NCHM DeHM Page 1

Overview

Social & Interactive Media @ CDC
– CDC.gov audiences
– Use of CDC social and interactive media
Evaluation Summary
– Products tested
– Why, Who, How
Key Usability Test Findings & Recommendations
Next Steps


To reach users where they are, with the information they need, when they need it.
CDC.gov
Blogs
Buttons & Badges
Content Syndication
eCards
eGames
Email Updates
Image Sharing
Micro-blog (Twitter)
Mobile Web
Online Video
Podcasts
RSS Feeds
Social Bookmarking/Tagging
Social Networking Sites
Text Messaging
Virtual Worlds
Widgets
http://www.cdc.gov/SocialMedia/


eHealth Metrics Dashboard
http://www.cdc.gov/metrics
ACSI Scores, CDC Social & Interactive Media Usage (e.g.
most popular eCard, number of widget clickthroughs)

Social Media
http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia
Descriptions of social and interactive media tools, active
campaigns

eHealth Marketing Data Briefs
http://www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing/ehm/data-
briefs.html
Usage trends, audience data for interactive and media
channels


Who is using CDC.gov?

Role
76% have a college or advanced
degree
70% are female
67% are between the ages of 35
and 69
55% are frequent visitors (visit the
site daily, weekly, or monthly)
46% are looking for health
information for their work
32% are looking for Data &
Statistics and Diseases & Conditions

Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
October 4, 2008 – January 31, 2009 (N = 4042)

Social & Interactive Media Usage

In the last three months, have you done any of the following:
August 01, 2009 - August 31, 2009
(N = 6979)
Watch videos on a Web site 55%
Receive text messages using my mobile phone / device 50%
Send text messages using my mobile phone / device 48%
Sign up to receive email updates from a website 45%
Participate in online social networks (such as MySpace, Facebook, etc.) 39%
Browse through photo galleries 38%
Use personalized web pages (such as My Yahoo!) 35%
Listen to podcasts or audio on a Web site 32%
Read blogs or Wikis 31%
Browse Web sites using my mobile phone / device 25%
Post comments, ratings or reviews on a Web site 22%
Bookmark or tag websites (using social bookmarking sites as Digg or… 19%
Send an e-card 18%
Upload videos to a Web site (such as YouTube) 13%
None of the above 11%
Subscribe to RSS feeds 9%
Add a widget or gadget to your personalized web page 9%
Write a blog or contribute to Wikis 7%
Participate in virtual worlds (such as Second Life, Whyville, etc.) 3%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%


Social & Interactive Media Usage @ CDC
Which of the following items do you use on the CDC.gov?
August 01, 2009 - August 31, 2009
(N = 6979)

None of the above 59%

Email updates 20%

Bookmark and share (to tag content for social
13%
bookmarking sites like Digg or Del.icio.us)
Visitors who use our interactive
Video or CDC-TV 10%
media products are more
Podcasts or Audio 7% satisfied with their visit to
CDC’s Web site
RSS feeds 4%
(84 vs 79 out of 100).
Other, please specify: 3%

Blogs 3%

e-Cards 2%

Tagcloud 1%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%


Evaluation Summary


What We Tested


Why?

Make refinements to the site/product layout, navigation, visual, and
content that are research-based and data-driven
Better understand usage and explore user perceptions of interactive media
technologies
Inform methodology for subsequent usability and user research efforts

Testing during Fall 2008 and Winter 2008/2009
H1N1 Flu activities starting in April 2009 and haven’t slowed down!


Who?
N = approximately 14 participants per test

Typical mix of gender, age, race, target audiences
(typically more educated, have more Web
experience)

Recruited participants who have used technologies
within a specific amount of time

eCards/Podcasts and MySpace/Widgets tests were
combined to save time and simplify recruiting - only
required experience in one technology (helped
ensure they could discuss/respond to some of the
open-ended questions)


How?

In-person testing with one facilitator and one note taker in the room


How?

1 hour session for 2 tests
Metrics
• Successful task completion
• Number of page views
• Time on task (not analyzed
because of probes, follow-
up questions)

• First Clicks (where possible)
• Clickpaths (where possible)

• Initial Impressions
• Comments and suggestions
• Recall and understanding
• Satisfaction


eCards


“Health-e-Cards” Usability Testing
CDC eCards: Similar Tests: Key Elements Tested:
Launched July 2006 Screener / Participants Find Card
Over 308,000 sent and viewed Task Questions Create, Send Card
Most viweed eCard is Flu Methodology / Metrics Receive, Open Card
Prevention for Health Moderator script Tabs
Professionals (over 26,000 views) Analysis Home page Design

Round 1 – Current Site Round 2 – Prototype

http://www2a.cdc.gov/ecards/

eCards Testing – Round 1

Findings – Card Format:
Key pieces easy to misinterpret or miss seeing
altogether
– 37% could identify “the message in the
card”
– Confusion between personal message,
CDC message
Not clear which part was the card
– The page linked from the email?
– The page linked (“for more info”) in the
card?
Topic of eCard may be sensitive issue
– “Some cards I would like to receive, some
I wouldn’t”, “Some topics are too
personal”



Recommendations – Card Format:
Re-write so card can be read from top to
bottom, as one cohesive piece. “William sent
you a Health-e-Card greeting…”

Remove extra white space, use text labels and
visual treatment to differentiate the key parts
of the eCard (cdc message, personal message,
disclaimer)

Add more “meat” to eCard: stronger/more
specific /actionable health message; Statistics;
Link eCard to page with easier to digest
messages; etc

Address more topics: Aging, Fitness / Eating
Right, Current Health info/news, STDs,
Adolescent Health, At-risk communities, Teen
Pregnancy, Breast exam, Disease / Health
condition management, Smoking



Findings – Email Format: 73% of participants
100% of users worry about viruses/spam felt the email looked
– Affected decision to open eCard credible
Sender’s name and email address is most
important item to the user in deciding
whether or not to open an eCard
– “I would look to see who sent it to me
before opening it”
– “Good to see ‘CDC’, but more important
to see the name of a friend”
– “Never got anything bad from gmail”

Recommendations:
Highlight sender’s name and CDC
Include sender’s name in “From:” line (not just
email address)
Consider adding CDC logo



Findings – Email Format:
Why does it look credible? N %
Email looked credible = 100%
Recognize friend's name 5 50%
Would click the link to view the card
Both: CDC & Friend's name 3 30%
= 91%
Most important: Seeing and See "CDC" and/or CDC logo 2 20%
recognizing sender’s name

Recommendations:
Show sender’s name & email
address in “From” line
Show Sender’s name in Subject line
Begin email body text with Sender’s
name
Show CDC logo when possible
Consider removing line


Podcasts


Podcasts Usability Testing

CDC Podcasts:
Launched July 2006
Over 4.9 million downloads
(audio and video formats)
H1N1 (Swine Flu) is the most
popular podcast – over
158,000 downloads

Key Elements Tested:
Find a Podcast
Tabs
Player controls
http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/
Saving File


Findings & Key Issues – Layout & Tabs:
“Podcasts” label implies that all podcast
information is within the first tab
Most users misunderstood what “Subscribe”
means
Many users did not completely understand what
“podcast” means
Large, duplicate headers take up valuable real
estate and push content down on the page

Recommendations:
Add broader, simpler explanation of CDC’s
podcasts to the top of the page.
Rename “Podcasts” tab, e.g. “Featured”
Add instruction above tabs, e.g.
“To find a podcast, choose a tab:”
Reduce real estate used by headers



Findings – Download:
Most users were surprised when they
clicked “Save This File” and it played
the file
– Users are not reading the
instructional text

Recommendations:
Visually link the instructions with the
“Save This File” elements
– Left-align the text with the icon

Page CCHIS NCHM DeHM
CDC 23 Page 23

CDC-TV Usability Testing
1 - Right Click
Findings - Download:
Most users did not initially notice
the instructions to save the file
40% of users were able to
successfully download the video
1

Recommendations:
Prompt users to download the
4 – Left Click
video in the file size of their choice
by simply left clicking the
download link (remove instruction 1 - Right Click
to right click)

3 - no click

Widgets


Widgets

What is a widget?
Small applications with real-time CDC content that
can be embedded on Web sites and blogs.

Once added, open channel for communicating
critical health messages.

Since October 2008, there have been over
33 million views and interactions with CDC.gov
widgets
Most popular widget = Peanut Recall widget
– Embedded on over 7,000 Web pages
(was at 20,000 during height of recall)
– In February 2009, was viewed more than
1.7 million times
– In February, 2009, more popular than
CDC Homepage, Search,
and the BMI calculator (10% of total
CDC.gov page view traffic)


Widgets


Widgets Usability Testing

Widget page design
Add widget to a Web page
Data & Statistics Widget
controls, content presentation
Share and Info labels

http://www.cdc.gov/Widgets/


Finding:
Users thought that the CDC Data & Stats widget appeared credible and trustworthy,
even after seeing it on another Web page.

I think the CDC Web site is: Pre-Test Post-Test
(t=4.3, p=.002)**
Modern (Dated / Modern)
2.8 3.7

Imaginative (Unimaginative / Imaginative)
3.1 3.5 (t=2.88, p=.02)

Clean (Clean / Busy)
3.6 4.1 (t=2.19, p=.05)

Well Designed (Poorly Designed / Well Designed)
3.6 3.6

Interesting (Boring/Interesting)
3.5 3.8

Up to Date (Out of Date / Up to Date)
3.8 4.0

Attractive (Attractive/Unattractive)
3.9 4.2

Warm (Warm / Cold)
3.9 4.1
KEY:
Trustworthy 4.2 4.5
(Trustworthy / Not Trustworthy) 5 = High
Credible (Credible/Not Credible)
4.6 4.6 1 = Low

**Note: On the “MODERN” question, several users confused “dated” with “recent” or “up-to-date”.


Findings - Date & Buttons:
91% of users were able to identify
CDC content and easily interact with
the current feature.

Users struggled to find the date of
the most recent and previous
features – 55% could correctly
identify when the feature was added
to the widget
– Some users thought this was
the date the data was
published, not the date of the
feature.

‘Previous” button was confusing -
many users did not realize that there
was more than one feature. When
asked to find additional features,
most users clicked the current
feature.


Recommendations – Date & Buttons:

Consider whether the “published on”
information is necessary - could place on
“Info” screen for most content types.

Rethink the concept of ‘previous’ and ‘next’
navigation.

Consider a ‘paging’ feature, as well as an
index of features by topic.


Findings – Share, Add to Page: 5 – No Click

Users struggled to share the Data &
Statistics widget (get the embed code) –
only 45% of users understood how to
place it on another page to make it
available to others
54% of users could successfully add the
widget to an iGoogle page
User Comments: 5 1
– “I don’t know” (6)
– I want to copy and paste image (3)
– “I missed the share button” (5)
4 – No Click
– “I think it would let me enter an email
address” (5)
– "I have no idea how to do it on this
one…share, maybe. [clicked on share] I
would just copy this and paste it onto
MySpace.”
– "Perhaps I could forward it…I couldn't
cut and paste…I don't know, I have no
idea.” 3 4


Recommendations – Share, Add to Page:
Improve the design, placement and prominence of the share option. The current button
appears below the widget in gray; many users missed it.
In place of “Embed Code,” offer brief instructions such as “Copy this code onto your Web
page.”
Explore additional ways to allow users to share the widget (e.g. email)
Redesigning the widgets page as a gallery – more clearly indicate how to add to pages


MySpace


MySpace Usability Testing

CDC’s MySpace Profile:
Launched November 2007
~ 890 friends

Navigation to CDC.gov site
Badges & eCards Sections
Videos
Additional Content

http://www.myspace.com/cdc_ehealth



Findings:
Users would first explore the top-most image
above the blog, the blog articles, and the videos

40% of users indicated they could find
nutrition/diet information on this site – image at
the top is key

When looking for recently updated articles, only
40% of users could locate the blog entries -
“Well , I see the recent blogs, but I don’t see
what’s recently updated…like on a blog it might
say updated September 5th…I see the
campaigns.”

20% of users looked for the link to the CDC.gov
home page in the “About CDC” section – they
tried to click banner logo, looked in Contacting
CDC.gov, clicked MySpace home link



Recommendations:
Add a link above or in the blog section
and descriptor text that is related to the
feature image (Nutrition, Healthy Living,
Men’s Health, etc.)

Add additional labeling to the Blog
section, including article dates to better
indicate this content is like “feature”
content and is timely

Provide additional and more explicit links
back to the CDC.gov home page near the
top of the page, close to the logo

Consider different page arrangement to
better use the left column space and
move the videos and other content
higher on the page


Next Steps


Next Steps – eCards & Podcasts

New eCards site launching
October 2009

Currently implementing
Podcast site testing
recommendations

Planning a full redesign of
Podcasts site with
additional testing early
2010

http://www2a.cdc.gov
/podcasts/index.asp
http://www2a.cdc.gov/eCards/index.asp


Next Steps - Social Networking Sites

Adding other content areas
such as A-Z index, links to
main health and safety
topics, and content users
suggested in testing

MySpace 2.0 templates –
much more flexibility for
page formatting and layout

Applications to provide
users with
popular/important content

Additional user research –
How well are social
networking sites meeting
http://www.myspace.co
m/cdc_ehealth information needs,
communicating key health
http://www.facebook.com/CDC messages?


Next Steps - Widgets

Adding additional share features

Usability testing on various
navigation approaches and
interaction - buttons, tabs,
menus, animations/effects
– What can and should be
standardized?
(maintenance, similarity to
other widget/interactive
ad experiences?)
– Can we and should we
offer a set of templates for
different widget content?

Design a widgets gallery

http://www.cdc.gov/widgets

Next Steps – Mobile Web

Audience analysis – survey,
interviews

Analysis of content needs of
target users

Developing best practices
for content page formatting

Usability testing of site
navigation

http://m.cdc.gov


Next Steps - Content Syndication

Content syndication provides a way
for CDC.gov Web page content to be
placed onto your site and
automatically updated.

Currently a manual process for CDC.
CDC sends out packages with
instructions, sample code, and lists
of available content that Web
developers can add to their site.

Developing a self-service system that
allows users to sign up, search our
online catalog of syndicated pages,
select pages they’re interested in,
and download the syndicate code to
their site.

Usability testing of self-service
system


Thank you!

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Division of eHealth Marketing
Sarah Greer
Northrop Grumman
sgreer1@cdc.gov

Catherine Jamal
cjamal@cdc.gov

Cari Wolfson
Mike Peltz

Thanks to these folks for their work on these projects!
Nick Sabadosh, CDC, CCID
Sanjay Koyani, FDA


Atlanta Showcase: CDC's Social & Interactive Media Tools

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