Clickable Wireframe Usability Test

The user thought it was a good format and had generally positive feedback. However, throughout the usability test, a few improvements could be seen. It was clear that it was a course review website for Fisher College of Business students.

1. Too many sections in the navigation bar

2. "Account" was confused with "Login"

3. It was not intuitive to find the Buckeyelink through the "links" heading

Usability Test #2 - Clickable (b&w) Prototype

The user was very receptive of how the website work and said she found it very "intuitive and familiar."  Below are some possible suggestions she offered.

1)  If the user could not understand what the website was based on the name, we should consider changing the name

2)  If the user said she felt overwhelmed by how much was in the navbar, we should consider condensing the options

3)  If the user needs to log in to write a review, we should consider making the login form more prevalent 

User test results 1

The user understood the main purpose of the site after examining the home page and reading the tagline. She also understood the main parts and features of the website. Here are some suggestions generated based on the tasks we asked her to complete:

Change:

1) The name of our site: at first glance it gives off the wrong idea and confuses users

2) Instead of asking for rank, as for graduation date. This prevents confusion for freshmen with enough credits to be technically sophomores, but are not really college sophomores

3) The email text should just say “enter your OSU email address” so they know to put the entire email address, not just their name and dot #

4) Get rid of the external links because it may make people think that you can actually schedule on schedulizer, or we we should add descriptions for each link

5) put the “search by” sidebar in the navigation bar instead

6) How they decide on class structure. Some classes are a mixture of multiple styles (lecture, online lectures, and case studies). Allow them to pick multiple

7) Clarify that you’re supposed to put the professor’s name into the “professor” box, not a description of them

Add:

1) a major requirements chart that can be saved for each user

Usability Testing

[Offer the opportunity to use bathroom facilities.]

INTRO

Thank you for coming today.

My name is [name]. We’re working on the design for [product], and as part

of the process we’re asking a variety of people to attempt various tasks

using it to see what elements of the design need to be changed.

I’d like to stress that we’re testing the product, and not your abilities - you can not be wrong today. If you find parts of the product difficult to use or understand, so will other people, and it will be our job to make sure we make the appropriate changes to

improve it.

As you use the product, there will be other people observing, and I’ll

introduce you to them now.

[Introduce participant to observers – even if they are in another room].

Today’s session will last for approximately one hour. If you want to stop for

a break at any time, just say so.

“I encourage you to think out loud. This helps me understand your thought process – The beauty of usability tests is you can actually learn something if they didn’t talk at all (by watching them), however, expressing internal dialog is good at helping understand why a decision was made.”

We have a total of 5 tasks, and I’ll give them to you one at a time.

I’ll be asking you to ‘think aloud’ as you work. For example, if you don’t

know what something is for, please say ‘I don’t know what this is for’, or

something similar.

I may also prompt you from time to time to ask you what you are thinking.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

MAIN TESTING

“Here’s the home page. Just by looking at it, without clicking on anything yet, what would you say is the purpose of this site? What would you say are the main sections of the site?”

1) How would you find reviews for “Professor b1”?

2) How would you find Professor b1's course 1 Review Page?

3) How would you write and submit a review?

4) How would you create a profile?

5) How would you get to actually scheduling your class?

CONCLUSION

Thank you. This completes the tasks. We would now like to ask you a few questions about the decisions you made during the testing.

Why did you do certain things such as...?

Was it clear what you needed to do in order to complete a review?

How do you feel about the design or branding?

Do you have any more comments or suggestions about how this site can be more navigable and intuitive?

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

Tagline needs to be bigger, to solidify what the function of the site is for

Too much in navigation, we can make the logo the home button, combine login and account, change the name of the links to something more catchy

Consider changing specialization button to course name buttons

Buttons should be bigger

SUMMARY 
If the user was confused about creating an account, then we should consolidate the Login and Account links. The account page is a sort of Profile page, which could be included in the footer instead or just as part of the login page.

If the user didn't know what the purpose of the site is, then we need to make the tagline larger. (Your custom course catalogue). We could also use branding in the next stage of the web development process to show that it is a course review site.

If the user thought the navigation bar was too small, then we should consider making it larger.

If the user couldn't find the link to Buckeyelink, we should make it more clear that these are links to external sites. This might be better placed in the footer of the webiste.

Second Usability Testing Plan

Now that we have completed our clickable wireframes, we will conduct a usability test with 3-5 individuals meeting our target demographic.  We will be able to find 3-5 Fisher students through our business classes.  We most likely will not need to send out an email or flyer as our target market is accessible through our classes.  We can ask classmates and group members for our other business projects.

Our site hasn't changed much since our paper prototypes.  We did add a navigation bar to the home page, as our previous user test revealed that it was confusing as to where to log-in from the home page.  We considered changing the name of the site and omitting the GPA option as they, too, came up as potential usability problems during the initial test.  Ultimately, we decided that the name was fine, so long as, we kept the tagline "Your Custom Course Catalog" under it on the home page.  As well, we felt as though making GPA an optional form would alleviate pressure for users to put down their GPA, though those who felt comfortable could.

Since there was very little changed on the clickable wireframes, we probably wont change the script to the testing much at all.  We will take another look at the script and consider any fine-tuning that needs addressed.

Usability Testing Results Summary

1) If the user was confused about accessing the login page and creating an account, then we should add a login button on the homepage for easy access.

2) If the user had issues about putting his GPA on the site, then we should consider making that an optional requirement or finding another alternative to give viewers context on the reviewer.

3) If the viewer is confused about the site name and how it relates to the purpose of our site, then we should consider changing the name of our site to something more intuitive.

4) If the user felt that posts should include labels of the semester that the course was taken in, then we should add this feature to add more value to the posts.

Usability Testing Script

Usability Testing

[Offer the opportunity to use bathroom facilities.]

INTRO

Thank you for coming today.

My name is [name]. We’re working on the design for [product], and as part

of the process we’re asking a variety of people to attempt various tasks

using it to see what elements of the design need to be changed.

I’d like to stress that we’re testing the product, and not your abilities - you can not be wrong today. If you find parts of the product difficult to use or understand, so will other people, and it will be our job to make sure we make the appropriate changes to

improve it.

As you use the product, there will be other people observing, and I’ll

introduce you to them now.

[Introduce participant to observers – even if they are in another room].

Today’s session will last for approximately one hour. If you want to stop for

a break at any time, just say so.

“I encourage you to think out loud. This helps me understand your thought process – The beauty of usability tests is you can actually learn something if they didn’t talk at all (by watching them), however, expressing internal dialog is good at helping understand why a decision was made.”

We have a total of 5 tasks, and I’ll give them to you one at a time.

I’ll be asking you to ‘think aloud’ as you work. For example, if you don’t

know what something is for, please say ‘I don’t know what this is for’, or

something similar.

I may also prompt you from time to time to ask you what you are thinking.

Do you have any questions before we begin?

MAIN TESTING

“Here’s the home page. Just by looking at it, without clicking on anything yet, what would you say is the purpose of this site? What would you say are the main sections of the site?”

1) How would you find reviews for “Fundamentals of Marketing” taught by professor Allen only?

2) How would you find reviews for the “Advertising” course?

3) How would you write and submit a review?

4) How would you create a profile?

5) How would you get to actually scheduling your class?

CONCLUSION

Thank you. This completes the tasks. We would now like to ask you a few questions about the decisions you made during the testing.

Why did you do certain things such as...?

Was it clear what you needed to do in order to complete a review?

How do you feel about the design or branding?

Do you have any more comments or suggestions about how this site can be more navigable and intuitive?

Wire Frames

Site Map

Wireframe Paper Prototypes

Sitemap Diagram

Identity Strategy

• Business Name
• As Seen in Fisher
• Web site tagline
• OUR custom course catalog
• Possible Logo
• 
• URL/domain name - What domain names are available for your business? What's the easiest way for a user to find your site
• www.asseeninfisher.com
• Email - info@businessname.com, contact@businessname.com
• contact@asseeninfisher.com
• Facebook name
• www.facebook.com/AsSeenInFisher
• YouTube: AsSeenInFisher
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/asseeninfisher

Personas

Competitor Analysis

After completing As Is Analyses for 3 competitors (ratemyprofessor.com, koofers.com, studentsreview.com), we were able to have an overview of what areas our competitors are strong/weak in.

One of the competitor sites did not date the posts, so users did not know how relevent the post was though, all competitor sites confirmed immediately when the user's post was submitted.  We will ensure to stay competitive by putting dates on posts and by confirming the user that their post has been submitted.

All of the competitor sites use language that is appropriate and up-to-date with the college student demographic.  We will be sure to use language that is appropriate, as well.  Additionally, we could use smiley faces for rating as www.ratemyprofessors,com did, or we could allow the use of smiley faces in writing the posts since emoticons are extremely applicable to how college students express themselves via social media.

We will be sure to have back button support, as this is a site where users will most likely be browsing different areas of the site and going back to different sections.  To allow even more ease of use, we will establish "bread crumb" links so the user will be able to see their activity trail and easily go back to any specific section they were on before.

We will be sure to keep terms consistent throughout the site, as our all our competitors did so, as well.  Two of the competitor sites had poor error prevention, in such that they did not notify the user preemptively.  One site did not tell the user that their username was already taken until the last step, and the other site did not have a "confirm submission" pop-up before submitting the user's post.  We will be sure to not follow suit within these certain instances, and apply strong error prevention in all areas of the site.

All of the sites were fast, though one was redundant as side bars were the same as the top drop down bars.  We will provide a concise layout with fast loading times.  We will also provide a clean, minimalist layout to avoid overwhelming the user.

We will be sure to have error notifications if an error does occur that tell the user why the particular error occurred, as well, we will offer a button to the help page that gives the user more information on recovering from their error.  Additionally, we will provide a FAQ page that users can go to for any questions.

Market Research (survey) Analysis

Demographics:

12 out of 14 students are in Fisher

7 students were male, 7 female

12 out of 14 students are seniors, 2 are sophomores

8 out of 14 have a 3.5+ GPA, 5 out of 14 have a  3.01-3.5, 1 out of 14 has a 2.0-3.0

Students who answered represented a good variety of specializations

Q: What factors do you consider when you are selecting a class to enroll in?  Rank your top 4 choices.

The top three factors that students consider when choosing courses were time of day, professor, and peer recommendations, as shown in the list below:

1) Time of day

2) Professor

3) Peer recommendations

4) Duration of class

5) Online vs. classroom setting

5) Project based vs. lecture based

6) Class size

7) Number of tests

7) Who else is taking the class

Peer recommendations, classroom setting, and course style were all included (or tied) for the top 5 rankings of importance to our students, which show that there is a demand for that type of information.

Q: What do you do to prepare for class registration?  Check all that apply.

Our students were least likely to ask for peer recommendations and read online rating forums to help prepare for course selections; however, there was a relatively even spread between choices, showing that most students did all of the following actions:

86% 1) Check all open sections within the course, and search for preferred time of day or days of the week

79% 2) Read the the class description in the course catalogue

71% 3) Check all open sections within the course, and search for preferred professor

64% 4) Ask friends/acquaintances who have taken the classes for their opinion

64% 4) Read online rating forums (www.ratemyprofessor.com, www.studentsreview.com)

Q: How much do you value other students’ opinions about Fisher courses?

Based on a likert scale with values 1-5, a strong majority (10 out of 14) of our students felt that they “somewhat valued” other students’ opinions about Fisher courses. This shows that if we were to place information from other Fisher students onto a site, they would find some value in it.

1-not value at all

2-Somewhat not value

3-Neutral

4-Somewhat value

5-extremely value

Q: Would you consider an anonymous Fisher students’ opinion while selecting classes? Another strong majority shows that these students would be receptive to anonymous student testimonials

Yes 79%

No 21%

Q: How motivated would you be to share your opinion of classes you’ve taken on an online forum? All students who answered this question were on the line or leaning more towards helping other students by wanting to share their opinions and experiences of past Fisher courses they’ve taken, and they would be willing to post it on an online setting.

1. Definitely unmotivated

2. Somewhat unmotivated

3. Neither unmotivated or motivated - 5 people

4. Somewhat motivated - 6 people

5. Extremely motivated

Q: If you use online rating forums (www.ratemyprofessor.com, www.studentsreview.com, www.koofers.com) for information about classes/professors, how often do you use them?

The majority of students uses our competitors’ sites at least once a semester to help them choose their courses, showing that, given a “better” option, they would be likely to use that site at least once a semester. “better” in this case would be a site that is tailored more towards their college and would be considered to be more updated and reliable.

-Just once 23%

-Once a year

-Once a semester 69%

-Several times a semester 8%

Q: Do you find these websites helpful?

All students who took the survey found our competitors’ sites to be at least a little bit helpful, which supports our case for creating a site that would be helpful towards them.

-Not helpful at all

-A little helpful (6 people)

-Somewhat helpful (5 people)

-Very helpful (3 people)

Q: In your opinion, what are the most helpful aspects of using an online rating forum for classes/professors?

Based on short-answer responses, 7 out of 13 students said that the most helpful aspect of online rating forums is being able to learn more about a specific professor’s teaching style. 4 out of 13 people stated the most helpful aspect of online rating sites was being able to view comments from other students and users - some clarified that the comments helped them judge the credibility of the users’ ratings while others simply felt that others’ insights were helpful.