{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Fueleconomy.gov – Usability Case Study |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Fueleconomy.gov – Usability Case Study",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2013/07/02/fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Fueleconomy.gov \u0026#8211; Usability Case Study","summary" : "Many technical websites have a hard time explaining information to the general public. This happens because users don’t understand the industry-specific or scientific terms. Fortunately, solutions to these problems are fairly easy—changing menu and navigation item text, or adding a line of explanatory text on key pages or complex graphics. The DigitalGov User Experience Program","date" : "2013-07-02T11:08:48-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"jonathan-rubin" : "Jonathan Rubin"},"topics" : {
        
            "research" : "Research",
            "usability" : "Usability",
            "user-experience" : "User experience"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2013-07-02-fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2013/07/2013-07-02-fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2013/07/2013-07-02-fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2013/07/2013-07-02-fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study.md","slug" : "fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2013/07/02/fueleconomy-gov-usability-case-study/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eMany technical websites have a hard time explaining information to the general public. This happens because users don’t understand the industry-specific or scientific terms. Fortunately, solutions to these problems are fairly easy—changing menu and navigation item text, or adding a line of explanatory text on key pages or complex graphics.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe DigitalGov User Experience Program helped conduct a usability test on the Department of Energy’s \u003ca href=\"http://fueleconomy.gov/\"\u003efueleconomy.gov\u003c/a\u003e mobile site in February 2013 that resulted in three top usability problems and solutions. After they implementing our solutions,  the mobile \u003ca href=\"http://fueleconomy.gov/\"\u003efueleconomy.gov\u003c/a\u003e site traffic dramatically increased—for some pages by more than 1000%!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"problem-1-terms-unclear-and-jargony\"\u003eProblem 1: Terms Unclear and Jargony\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUsers were confused about the difference between “My MPG” and “Find a Car” on the homepage.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"solution-1-clarify-terms\"\u003eSolution 1: Clarify Terms\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe “My MPG” was changed to “Calculate My MPG” and “Find a Car” was changed to “Find and Compare Cars”.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/fueleconomy.gov-after.png\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/fueleconomy.gov-after.png\"\n    alt=\"fueleconomy.gov after\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"problem-2-hard-to-find-and-misleading-buttons\"\u003eProblem 2: Hard to Find and Misleading Buttons\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUsers were confused by the “Add a Car” button or missed it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"solution-2-clarify-and-move-buttons\"\u003eSolution 2: Clarify and Move Buttons\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe “Add a Car” button was changed to “Compare Cars” and added to the top of the page so that users could find it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/fueleconomy-compare-cars-before-after-new.png\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/fueleconomy-compare-cars-before-after-new.png\"\n    alt=\"fueleconomy-compare-cars-before-after - new\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"problem-3-lack-of-help-buttons-and-explanatory-text\"\u003eProblem 3: Lack of Help Buttons and Explanatory Text\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was no “Help” buttons or explanatory text for users when they encountered unfamiliar words or acronyms.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"solution-3-clarify-terms\"\u003eSolution 3: Clarify Terms\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA “Learn More” button was added to the bottom of the several pages, including the Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Annual Petroleum Use and EPA Smog Score pages.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/fueleconomy-epa-smog-before-after-new.png\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/fueleconomy-epa-smog-before-after-new.png\"\n    alt=\"fueleconomy-epa-smog-before-after - new\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}