This is a report I prepared about the user testing, redesign, traffic, and usage stats for www.chicagoearlylearning.org. Lots of details-- good info for developers, project managers, and people interested in stats on civic innovation projects.

1.
Chicago
Early
Childhood
Portal
Project
Review
Smart
Chicago
Collaborative
October
2,
2013
Executive
Summary
Chicago
Early
Learning,
www.chicagoearlylearning.org,
is
the
City
of
Chicago's
Early
Learning
Portal,
where
residents
can
easily
find
and
compare
early
learning
programs
side-­‐by-­‐side.
The
site
was
recently
re-­‐launched
after
some
significant
effort:
• Extensive
user
testing
with
Chicago
residents
all
over
the
city
• Development
of
a
new
website
that
incorporated
all
of
this
feedback
• Creation
of
an
admin
tool
that
allows
for
the
maintenance
of
the
data
through
time
• Generation
of
significant
and
site
traffic
on
mobile,
web,
and
text
platforms
Following
is
a
deep
dive
into
the
new
features
and
current
statistics
related
to
our
website.
Formal
and
Informal
Testing
We
did
something
rare
in
this
project:
we
launched
a
pilot
website
in
a
very
tight
timeframe
last
year
and
then
made
it
better.
We
actively
listened
to
regular
Chicago
residents,
dutifully
noted
their
feedback,
and
directly
changed
an
existing,
working
app
so
that
it
worked
better
for
our
target
audience.
We
showed
the
site
on
a
typical
computer
set
up
inside
a
Chicago
Public
School
location.

2.
We
demonstrated
the
site
at
a
CPS
Head
Start
Policy
Committee
Meeting
At
Zenos
Colman
Elementary
School,
4650
S.
Dearborn.
We
presented
the
site
to
block
club
leaders
inside
the
ward
office
of
as
37th
Ward
Alderman
Emma
Mitts.
We
also
tested
the
site
in
formal
environments
inside
Action
for
Children
locations
in
Chicago.
2

3.
Review
of
site
features
of
the
new
website
Design
We
completely
overhauled
the
look
&
feel
of
the
site,
making
it
softer
and
more
rounded.
We
moved
from
book
imagery
to
a
crayon/
marker
in
the
logo,
and
removed
the
map-­‐based
homepage
to
provide
more
information
about
what
the
site
does
and
how
to
use
it.
There
are
a
number
of
features
of
the
site
that
we’d
like
to
call
out:
Mobile
Just
like
before,
the
site
uses
responsive
design,
which
means
that
it
looks
great
and
works
great
on
any
device,
reformatting
the
content
automatically.
Here’s
the
homepage
at
phone-­‐size
(at
right).
Notice
that
instead
of
showing
words
in
the
nav,
it
collapses
into
icons.
Text
We
maintained
the
text
feature,
which
was
widely
loved
by
residents
in
testing.
We
made
the
text
phone
number
easier
to
see
and
share
by
giving
it
a
separate
page
with
a
separate
URL.
The
feature
allows
users
to
text
a
zip
code
to
the
number
and
receive
back
a
list
of
nine
locations
in
that
area.
3

4.
Improved
search
We
saw
that
many
people
started
off
their
search
with
a
location
in
mind,
whether
it
was
a
school
or
a
neighborhood.
We
moved
away
from
a
pure
address
search
and
now
pre-­‐populate
the
search
box
as
the
user
types.
This
short-­‐circuits
the
search
process
and
makes
people
immediately
feel
like
this
is
a
place
that
has
what
they’re
looking
for.
The
“Browse
by
community”
function
provides
another
way
for
people
to
dive
in
without
putting
in
an
exact
address.
Improved
filtering
We
found
in
testing
that
people
did
not
know
how
to
easily
drill
down
into
search
results
and
they
very
rarely
used
the
filtering
feature.
We
made
the
filtering
more
prominent
and
took
up
much
more
screen
real
estate
with
details
of
the
search
results.
Previously,
the
user
had
to
click
on
a
particular
item
on
the
map
to
reveal
details.
An
overall
insight
we
observed
from
testing
was
that
the
map
is
not
the
thing—the
details
of
early
learning
centers
was
the
thing.
We
changed
the
interface
to
reflect
this.
Better
comparisons
One
thing
we
heard
loud
and
clear
from
parents
was
that
they
wanted
to
be
able
to
compare
more
than
two
locations.
In
response,
we
completely
changed
the
comparison
system—changing
it
to
a
more
recognizable
star
/
favorite
system,
displaying
starred
items
in
a
grid,
and
giving
the
user
the
flexibility
to
easily
add
and
remove
locations.
4

5.
Admin
tool
An
important
milestone
in
this
reporting
period
is
the
creation
of
an
easy-­‐to-­‐use
admin
tool
to
manage
all
of
the
locations.
Previously,
the
site
was
run
by
a
“magic
spreadsheet”
that
was
difficult
to
manage.
The
admin
search
tool
allows
you
to
drill
down
quickly:
5

6.
6

7.
And
location
detail
pages
are
managed
through
a
simple
web
form:
7

8.
Site
usage
statistics
Overall
site
traffic
is
stable
and
growing
with
very
little
promotion
17,437
people
visited
the
site
since
December
1,
2012.
26%
of
visitors
are
return
visitors,
which
is
healthy
for
a
site
of
this
kind,
as
a
resource
that
people
need
to
come
back
to
as
they
are
managing
their
decisions.
Other
good
indicators
are
a
relatively
low
9.8%
bounce
rate
(meaning
that
more
than
90%
of
the
people
who
arrive
at
the
site
perform
a
search)
and
twice
as
many
page
views
as
visits
(again,
an
indication
of
people
performing
searches).
The
average
visit
duration
of
4:45
is
also
promising.
That
aligns
well
with
the
our
tests,
which
indicated
this
is
about
the
right
amount
of
time
to
have
a
search/
review/
print/
share
experience
on
the
site.
Text
usage
is
solid—17%
of
visits
include
querying
the
site
via
text
To
date,
4,069
text
messages
have
been
received
and
9,200
text
messages
were
sent
back
in
response
through
this
service.
With
23,534
visits,
that
means
people
used
the
text
function
17%
of
the
time.
Considering
the
context
switching
(changing
devices
from
desktop
to
smartphone;
moving
from
browser
to
phone
apps
on
a
smartphone),
this
shows
the
popularity
of
the
feature.
8

9.
Mobile
usage
is
significant—23%
of
all
visits
A
full
23%
of
visits
to
the
site
were
on
mobile
devices,
with
Apple
devices
accounting
for
58%
of
the
visits
(3,157
of
5,426)
and
various
Android
devices
taking
up
the
bulk
of
the
rest
of
the
views
in
data
from
December
1,
2012
to
September
24,
2013.
We
were
surprised
to
see
firsthand
the
myriad
types
of
devices
running
Android—there
were
63
different
device
types
that
accounted
for
10
or
more
visits.
This
number
is
on-­‐target
for
average
mobile
usage
for
a
website
in
the
United
States.
By
comparison,
here’s
mobile
usage
on
other
sites
we
run
at
Smart
Chicago:
34%
for
Connect
Chicago
(where
people
are
actively
searching
for
a
public
computer
center),
26%
for
the
CUTGroup
(where
location
is
not
relevant
to
the
site
content),
and
19%
for
the
Smart
Chicago
website
(which
is
a
content-­‐driven
website
with
no
particular
mobile
context),
and
16%
for
Chicago
Health
Atlas
(where
the
main
activity
is
comparing
neighborhoods).
9

10.
If
you’d
like
to
be
able
to
log
in
to
view
the
traffic
stats
on
a
regular
basis,
just
send
me
an
email
at
doneil@cct.org
with
a
Gmail
address
and
I
will
add
you
to
the
dashboard.
10