The website I have chosen is the Dungeons and dragons 5th Edition Wikidot page. This page is not run by Wizards of the Coast (the creators of D&D), but is instead a publicly created and editable wiki-based website. My user tester for this assignment is fairly used to using technology on a regular basis, and engages in technological activities in both professional and recreational manners. I would consider my test user to be moderately experienced in using technology with a less than firm grasp on using more modern or advanced technologies. In regard to websites similar to the one I have chosen, my chosen test user has very little experience. The closest comparison would be minor usage of Wikipedia, which shares similar aspects to my chosen website, though it has a slightly different layout.
The test user navigated the website with relative ease and found very few snags. They made great use of embedded hyperlinks that connected the user to new pages. While these hyperlinks do provide useful in connecting to the user to relevant pages, I found that my test user quickly fell down a rabbit hole. Each page could direct the user to an entirely new set of pages almost infinitely through the use of hyperlinks, to the point where my test user simply returned to the home page using the “home” button, rather than traversing back through the pages they had previously viewed. Another issue that was uncovered involved the use of the menu buttons toward the top of the page. Each section that the button would redirect the user too is on the main page, and clicking the corresponding button simply brought the user to that section on the home page. However, when clicked the button displays the are directly above the corresponding section, which proved to be initially confusing for my test user who had no experience with the site or even the content within the site.
The setup of my chosen site can definitely prove to be a bit of a hinderance for novice users. As I had mentioned previously, the two issues my test user had uncovered could be easily avoided with better user-centered design. In regard to the hyperlink issue, the website should have a button that is always available that would simply redirect the user back to the page they had previously viewed. This would greatly assist with any navigational issues and would make it much easier for novice users to backtrack if necessary. The other issue involving home page navigation, I feel could be solved in one of two ways. Obviously, the simple fix would be to have the buttons direct the user to their exact correlative spot on the home page, rather than slightly above where the user would intend to be redirected. A slightly more complicated fix could be to give each section that has a correlating button on the home page its own individual page. That way instead of just sending the user further down the page it would direct them to a page solely dedicated to what they were looking for, which may shed any excess confusion.
