Project 3: Usability Testing

Transcription

1 Project 3: Usability Testing An Analysis of the EBay Website and Mobile Application Danyell Bailey Nathan Bruhn Anthony Chamberlain I300 Spring 2015 Overview Usability testing is an important tool in evaluating the effectiveness of a technological design. This sort of testing produces a first-hand account of an actual interaction with the design being analyzed. In this project, we tackle the process of analyzing the design of EBay s desktop website and mobile application. We test two subjects by giving them both the same action to complete in both environments. We then compare these results and develop conclusions about the usability of these implementations. EBay is a multinational corporation and e-commerce company. Because of this, the demand and use of EBay is very high. In this project, we chose ebay as a target site and had the task of conducting a usability study of its website and app. By doing so, we determined the strengths, weaknesses, and differences of the two methods of use. Background EBay is an international online marketplace that lets third parties sell and buy various products. These products can include household products, automotive parts, electronics, clothing, and more. EBay was founded in 1995 and was one of the firs majorly successful websites. Today, EBay is a multi-billion dollar company with over 33,500 employees. People can even make a living by selling items on ebay. The company charges sellers a fraction of their profits in order to generate revenue. Method Steve Krug gave a basic framework for conducting this testing that we used as a guideline in this project. He identified six steps, which included Welcome, the questions, the home page tour, the tasks, probing, and wrapping up.

2 Process We chose the ebay website because it is a service that is very familiar to many people and regularly receives a high volume of traffic. Because of this, it is essential that the website and application are designed in an effective manner to ensure a high level of productivity. Our testing process followed the six steps of usability testing as outlined by Steve Krug. Step 1: Welcome We created a dummy account on ebay and opened a web browser to Google.com. Before the testing began, we gave some valuable information to the testing subjects. We let our subjects know that the session should take about twenty minutes or less and that we are testing the site/app and not the subject, so that they would not be uncomfortable when fulfilling the tasks that we set. Step 2: Questions We went through a series of questions that gave us a better understanding of our test subject. The questions we asked included the subject s occupation, level of expertise using technology, and personal preferences of favorite websites. Step 3: Home Page Tour We allowed our test subjects to browse the home page of ebay and let us know what they thought about it. This gave us a basic idea of how the website is viewed in the user s perspective. Step 4: The Tasks Our test subjects were put through the task of adding a black iphone 5 that is unlocked to the watch list. This was a task that we knew would give us a great scope of the ebay process since the iphone is something that many people are interested in buying. We also asked the test subjects to go and view their watch list. Instead of telling the test subject how to complete the task, we let her explore and find out how to complete the task on her own with minimum help. We also made sure that our task was not too specific so that the subject had a number of options to choose from when selecting the iphone.

3 Step 5: Probing As our subject was fulfilling the tasks, we asked questions that allowed us to understand what the subject was thinking. These questions tried to determine problems that the user was having and how they were feeling about their interactions. Step 6: Wrapping Up We ended our study by letting our test subjects know that they were very helpful and made sure that they did not have any more questions to ask us. Usability Test Subjects Our first subject was Dionna Witherspoon. She is a student at Indiana University Bloomington who is 20 years old. She is moderately technologysavvy, as she uses the Internet often to check her and browse social media. The study took approximately 15 minutes total. Our second subject was Tiffany Camden. She is 20 years old and works as a Team Member at Skyzone Plainfield. She considers herself to be minimally technologically oriented. Her use of the internet on a weekly basis largely consists of browsing social media sites and streaming on Netflix. Background on the User Interface The homepage includes the ebay logo in the top right corner with a search bar to the right of that. There is also a navigation bar that has options to select categories of items. Further down the home page is a section that has today s featured collections. It sorts out multiple items and groups them by themes. After typing in a search, your search results are displayed. This page shows related searches directly under the search bar. In a column to the left of your search results, it shows that categories that are related to

4 your search as well as more options to narrow down your search with more specific information. FIGURE 1: SCREENSHOTS OF Website Mode First Usability Test We completed the first usability test of the ebay website with the help of Dionna Witherspoon. Click on this link to watch the video: FIGURE 2: FIRST USABILITY TEST Second Usability Test Our second usability test of the ebay website was carried out with Tiffany Camden. The testing video can be found here: Tiffany seemed very confident in her use of the ebay website. The table below outlines the steps and feedback that she encountered in the test. FIGURE 3: SECOND USABILITY TEST

5 Action Taken Clicked on search bar o This action was intuitive. The subjects seemed to know to do this from their daily use of the Internet. Typed in unlocked black iphone 5 and pressed enter o Again, this step was intuitive and gave the subjects no problems Feedback Given Cursor moved to the search bar A screen with search results was loaded Clicked on a search result item o The results that appeared after an item search were readily visible and obvious to the subject Click on Add to watch list o This button was contained in the item details box and did not take long for the subjects to find. A screen with product details and actions was loaded Link changed to Watching and a green check mark appeared next to the link Tiffany did not encounter any complications in her use of the ebay website. She did, however, say that she was familiar with the concept of ebay and the general idea of what their website would entail. The time it took her to complete the task of adding an unlocked black iphone 5 to the account s watch list was relatively quick and effortless.

6 FIGURE 4: FLOW CHART OF THE DECISION PROCESS IN BOTH ENVIRONMENTS

7 App Mode First Usability Test Dionna Witherspoon returned to assist us with our first usability test of the ebay mobile application: The video can be found here: Second Usability Test FIGURE 5: FIRST APP USABILITY TEST Tiffany Camden assisted with the completion of the second usability test for the ebay app. This video can be found here: FIGURE 6: SECOND APPLICATION USABILITY TEST As you can see, Tiffany also completed the task on the ebay mobile application with great ease. Her most important reactions to the application is that it was much less cluttered than the website. She thought that she was able to find information (like the watch button)

8 more easily on the application. See the tale below for the specific interactions during the test. Action Taken Feedback Given Clicked on search bar Keyboard popped up Typed in unlocked black iphone 5 A screen with search results was loaded Clicked on a search result item A screen with product details and actions was loaded Click on blue Watch button Button text changed to Unwatch Findings From our usability tests, we were able to determine that the mobile application seemed much more straightforward and simple to use. The users decided that the application uncluttered information in a way that made navigation and decision making easier. Our subjects agree that it would be more efficient to use the mobile application in general every-day scenarios, but when a user wants to have a greater range of information and search results, using the website would be more prudent. In cases where speed and timeliness is a factor, the mobile application fares better. When specificity and depth are desired, the website would be a more efficient tool. Design Recommendations Based on our analysis, we were fortunate to work with two ladies who had a pretty good understanding of how the Internet worked and how to interact with websites and applications of this kind. Because this is the demographic that ebay might be targeting, we decided that their design was working pretty well to accomplish their desired task. However, some suggestions that might be valuable for ebay to consider in redesign their web interface include them making the specific item pages less distracting, as well as, creating a larger or easier to find button for the add to watch list task. Something that was noticeable in watching the interaction of both of our users was they were lost in all of the data on a specific item page that was trying to display the details and prices of one particular item. This might make a different user less likely to buy or bid if they are confused in what is going on. As for the add to watch list task they we instructed our users to participate in they were able to easily accomplish the task, but admitted that it might be

9 hard to find for other non-tech savvy users. By making the button or icon large, ebay would make certain that any users would be able to accomplish that task with ease and not get lost in all of the other tiny details surrounding the item they are trying to purchase. In the figure below you can see that we thought it might be appealing for ebay to change the size of the add to watch list button; however, we did not want to make it the same size and appearance as the buy or other such buttons above because it shows that these two actions are different in degree. Conclusion FIGURE 7: OUR CHANGES TO THE EBAY WEBISTE THE ADD TO WATCH LIST OPTION NEEDS TO STAND OUT MORE These usability studies were meant to provide insight on the effectiveness of EBay s mobile application and website. We asked two subjects to complete the task of adding an unlocked black iphone 5 to their watch list on both the site and mobile application. These tests allowed us to analytically compare the performance of these two platforms. To complete the usability tests, we referred to Steve Krug s six steps for usability tests. We outlined a testing script and used it in our test implementation. Upon completion of the tests, we determined that both EBay services are very simple and intuitive to use. Our users identified that the website had much more clutter in terms of product advertising than the mobile application, so users who want a quick and clear-cut experience should use the application. Those wanting a more detailed product list should utilize the desktop website. References EBay. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2015, from Krug, S. (n.d.). Advanced Common Sense. Retrieved March 31, 2015, from