The document describes steps to complete common blogging tasks on WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad platforms. For publishing a new blog post, WordPress has clear and simple steps but navigation to the posting area could be improved. Blogger's process is extremely easy and clear. TypePad has some usability issues finding the "compose" button and distinguishing the "publish" button. Creating an "About" page is challenging on WordPress due to the low placement of the "Pages" button. It is difficult on Blogger because the information goes in a separate Google profile rather than the blog. Applying a template is very easy on WordPress but more difficult on Blogger and TypePad

1. Publishing a new blog post
WordPress
Go to www.wordpress.com
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
setting up account, and email from the service.
Enter USN and PSD
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
setting up account, and, had user forgotten, could use "Lost
your password?" recovery.
Go To My Dashboard
Failure: Criteria - Will the user know that to publish a post,
she needs to go to her dashboard? At first, no; the concept
of the dashboard will likely be picked up quickly. Failure:
Will the user notice the correction action is available? Hard
to say - "My Dashboard" is easy to see, but again, there
may be trouble recognizing this as the correct action.
Failure: Criteria - will the user know that an action is
appropriate? If the user has the word "post" in her mind, it
may be hard for her to find this.
Click "Posts" on left navigation
Success: Clicking here will get a pane for entering a post,
clear evidence our user is on the right track. She may have
trouble seeing the "Posts" link, as it is partway down the left
side, but the large "Quick Press" area that is very visually
dominant serves as another doorway for her to get there.
The only area of concern is if the user is unfamiliar with the
word "post" for a new entry.
Click "Add New"
Success: There are two "add new" buttons, one up top and
one in the left navigation. The language is clear and simple.
It is clear that progress can be made towards the goal.
Enter Title
Success: Seems clear, with the only exception that the fields
for title and body are not clearly labeled; however this
seems minor to anyone with any familiarity with online
forms.
Enter text

2. Success: Seems clear, with the only exception that the fields
for title and body are not clearly labeled; however this
seems minor to anyone with any familiarity with online
forms.
Click "Publish"
Success: The "publish" button is bright blue and visually
easy to spot. There could be some minor confusion if the
user is unfamiliar with this language, but this is unlikely;
other areas of minor concern are the large number of other
options on the page - tags, categories, trackbacks, excerpts
- perhaps these options could be turned on or off with an
"advanced" toggle switch or even be a more advanced
setting that expert users could turn on/off?
Click "view post"
Success: A visual icon, similar to a rotating clock hand,
indicates the interface is working and a success message is
displayed, in a contrasting yellow, offering to take the
blogger to view her post.
CONCLUSIONS
Wordpress seems easy to use in publishing a post - but
there are confusions that could arise for new users - namely
getting to the posting area by clicking on "My Dashboard".
This could be solved with a more clear link, box, or button,
that would lead right into writing, the main task that users
considered in this study will use the interface for. Another
area of minor concern are all the additional bells and
whistles - the potentially crowded and overwhelming array
of options may lead the novice user to feel overwhelmed
and intimidated. A potential fix here would be to "hide" more
advanced options from the novice user, perhaps under an
"advanced" button, or through menus that advanced users
would have to activate in their settings.

3. Tasks are in black type, success stories are in blue
type, failures are in red type
Blogger
Go to www.blogger.com
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
setting up account, and email from the service.
Enter USN and PSD
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
setting up account, and, had user forgotten, could use
"Forgot Your Username or Password?" recovery.
Click "New Post"
Success: the "New Post" button is filled in and slightly more
visible than it's counterpart text links (a suggestion here
may be to make it a different color, like the orange used
elsewhere on the site). It is clear to the user that progress is
being made!
Enter title
Success based on previous experience.
Enter text
Success based on previous experience.
Click "Publish"
Success: All criteria are easily met, the only problem
potentially arising if the user is unfamiliar with the term
"publish," but that seems minor. Advanced features are
hidden here under a "Post Options" menu that extends. Very
clean and simple with clear success.
Click "view post"

4. Success
CONCLUSIONS
Extremely easy and very clear. Likely to get our users up
and running quickly and to a place where they can focus on
their end goal - publishing a post - in a very small amount of
time with very few options for mistakes.

5. TypePad
Go to www.typepad.com
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
setting up account, and email from the service.
Click "sign in"
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
though it is hard to see; may be a challenge depending if
user familiar with upper right corner as traditional place for
sign-in.
Enter email and psd
Success: user would know this based on past experience,
setting up account, and, had user forgotten, could use
"Forgot Password? Need Help?" recovery.
Click on "Compose"
Failure: While this meets all the criteria but one, the criteria
it fails is that it is very difficult to see the "compose" as it is
midway over on a menu, and our novice users are very
likely to be confused. A solution would be to make the
"compose" button much more prominent. I would also move
the TypePad advertising to the right, putting the smallish,
dashboard-like square on the left where it will be seen more
quickly. Similarly, the word "compose" may not match the
user's vocabulary for publishing a new post. While this
terminology is used in many email programs, in this
interface it seems odd and may present users with difficulty.
Enter title
Success based on previous experience.
Enter body
Success based on previous experience.
Click "publish"

6. Success: One thing to note is that the "Publish" button,
while a different color, is of the same sort of muted hue as
a "preview" button above it. Similarly, there is a slightly
confusing "share this post" box located more highly and
prominently than the publish button. While there is the
option to hide some of the more advanced features; this
interface is slightly more cluttered and may leave novice
users a bit unsure or overwhelmed. A solution would be to
move all options to below the post writing box (where
"comments and keywords" are currently), and to make them
all "hidden", as comments and keywords are now. Similarly,
although there is a differently-colored success box, it is a
but subtle and could be made more striking.
Click "view your post"
Success
CONCLUSIONS
Some major nagivability issues here for a new learner,
although they are likely to be easily overcome as the user
becomes more familiar, this site seems to devote more
space to advertising its other services, benefits for bloggers
wishing to monetize their work, etc.

7. Creating an "About" page
WordPress (starting at "My Dashboard")
Click on "Pages" in left navigation
Failure: Criteria - User may not associate that she is looking
for a different "pages" button, and similarly, it is low enough
down on the left-hand side that it may take the novice user
enough effort and/or confusion that the platform seems
diffucult to learn, unapproachable, etc.
Click on "Add New"
Success: there are two buttons for this (like add post) and
the language is clear.
Enter Title
Success based on past experience (esp. that of creating a
post).
Enter text
Success based on past experience (esp. that of creating a
post).
View page
Success is clearly indicated.

8. CONCLUSIONS
The main issue here seems to be with the relatively low
ranking of the "pages" button and the plethora of other
options on the site.

9. Tasks are in black type, success stories are in blue
type, failures are in red type
Blogger (starting at "Dashboard")
Click on "My Account"
Failure: Criteria: will user try to achieve the task by doing
this? It is very confusing that in order to affect the "about"
section of a blogger blog, that information must be pulled
from the users Google Account (separate and distinct from
the user's Blogger account). Users who do not have Google
accounts will have to create one, but more harmfully, users
with google accounts could, unwittingly, have information
they entered (likely at another time, and possibly for another
context) shown in their newly created blog. This also fails on
the criteria that the user would likely not know to look in "my
account" in order to add content to their blog.
Click "Create a Profile"
Failure. This fails again on the criteria that a user likely will
not know that "create a profile" (and in the context of a
google account, which is distinct from the blogger account) is
the right place to put provenance information for their blog,
and other things that tend to appear on about pages -
including contact information, etc. The term "profile" is also
likely not to match the users vocabularly when they are
seeking. Finally, this fails on the criteria that the user does
not at any time - until she clicks back to her blogger, views it
in preview, and happens to check under about, that her
information is there - meaning the user does not have
sufficient information about progress being made in the
profile.
Click "create My Profile"
Fails for same reason as above.
Enter Password
Fails for same reason as above.
Edit Profile
Fails for same reason as above.
Fill out information
Although this action step is clear in terms of what to put in
what fields, it fails because it fails to let the user know this
data and this profile will be counted as "about" - essential
feedback for novice users.
Click "Save Changes"
Fails for reason as above - not notifying the user of
satisfactory progress.
Click "My Account"
Fails for reason as above - not notifying the user of
satisfactory progress; also fails as the user is not likely to
know this is the way to return to her blogger account.

10. Click "Blogger"
This fails on the criteria that even when returning to blogger,
the user will not know her information has been updated, so
she remains in the dark regarding task completion
CONCLUSIONS
Blogger fails on every task here, as their conception of an
"about" page does not match the mental model of the task,
and is likely to both confuse and irritate the user. As more
and more blogs are used by, in the case of our users, small
businesses, in lieu of a traditional, static Web page, this lack
of additional page functionality is likely to make users feel
Blogger, while simple and friendly to new users, is not as
flexible or extensible as other platforms.

11. TypePad (starting at "Dashboard")
Click blog name
Failure: This fails on the criteria that new users, once at their
"dashboard" wil likely not know where to go, so will not
notice that they need to go one click beyond the dashboard
to what is the equivalent of the dashboard in other systems.
Click Posts
Failure: Because pages are nested within the posts tab, the
user is likely to not know or associate the "Posts" term with
the correct place to go for "Pages". This can easily be solved
by re-naming the Pages tab Posts and Pages, or by giving
Pages their own tab.
Click Pages
Success. Although it is hard to notice the "New Page" link -
this could be made as prominent as the buttons at the
bottom of the page.
Click new page
Success.
Enter title
Success.
enter body
Success.
click publish
Success.
click view your page
Success.

12. CONCLUSIONS
Getting to the place to create a page can be a challenge in
TypePad. Like a buried menu item, this can cause users
frustration and could easily be made more visible.

13. Applying a Template
WordPress (starting from "My Dashboard")
Click on "Appearance"
Success. Note that each of these three interfaces use different
words - appearance, layout, and design. The user may have
another term in mind, but overall this task passes the criteria.
The label name is helped out by a small image.
Click "Preview"
Success.
Click "Activate"
Success. Very easy to activate the template from within the
profile menu.
Click "Visit Site"
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
CONCLUSIONS
Wordpress is very easy to use in changing the look of the blog.

14. Tasks are in black type, success stories are in blue type,
failures are in red type
Blogger (starting from "Dashboard")
Click on "Layout"
Success.
Click on "Pick new template"
Success. It is worth noting that this option is slightly hidden
and a novice user may, potentially, not notice the option
outside of a task.
Click on "preview"
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
Close pop up window
Failure. The user has nowhere to go wihin the preview pane
and is not told that the window must be closed and then the
template activated. A fix here would be a line of text indicating
this, or a link to apply the template like Wordpress has.
Click on "save template"
Success. It may be worth noting that the term "save" instead
of "apply" could confuse some users - does saving mean the
same thing as applying? Do they think there is a further step
after saving to activate the template?
Click on "view blog"
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
CONCLUSIONS
Changing the blog's appearance is slightly harder here, but
overall straightforward.

15. TypePad (starting at "Dashboard")
Click on blog name
Failure: This fails on the criteria that new users, once at their
"dashboard" wil likely not know where to go, so will not notice
that they need to go one click beyond the dashboard to what
is the equivalent of the dashboard in other systems.
Click on "Design"
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
Click on "choose a theme"
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
Click button
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
click preview
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
Close pop up window
Failure. The user has nowhere to go wihin the preview pane
and is not told that the window must be closed and then the
template activated. A fix here would be a line of text indicating
this, or a link to apply the template like Wordpress has.
click save changs
Success. It may be worth noting that the term "save" instead
of "apply" could confuse some users - does saving mean the
same thing as applying? Do they think there is a further step
after saving to activate the template?
click view blog
Success based on previous experience and clarity.
CONCLUSIONS
Changing the blog's appearance is slightly harder here, but
overall straightforward.

16. CONCLUSIONS

17. CONCLUSIONS