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?