USABILITY TESTING: BEST BUY S WEBSITE AND MOBILE APP

Transcription

1 USABILITY TESTING: BEST BUY S WEBSITE AND MOBILE APP Nick Ortega, Noah Gary, Yimeng Duan I300 Fall 2015

2 Process In this study, we chose Best Buy as the site that we wanted to use, and also their mobile app. Many people use best buy and buy technology through them so we wanted to see which platform was easier to buy things. To test this, our first test subject is a 19 year old male that is averagely tech savvy. He spends about 40 hours a week online cumulatively on his laptop and phone. Our second test subject is a 20 year old female that isn t very tech savvy. She spends about 20 hours a week online, most of which is for school. The studies each took about 30 minutes each for a total time of an hour. Method Krug s six stages of usability is the method we used for this. He uses this to make sure everything flows well and is adequately organized. He starts by welcoming his subject and explaining to them what he is trying to look for in the study. This relieves any anxiety the subject may have and allows them to know how to act. Krug then begins to ask questions. He wants to get background information so he knows how to compare them later on when working on the design. He asks questions such as how long subjects spend online and also the dispersion of browsing the web and ing. Krug also likes to know subject s favorite sites so he can implement different aspects of those sites into the final design. In this step, he usually will ask the subjects to view the homepage before questioning the analysis. Next, Krug enters the main portion of the test which is asking the subjects to complete a certain task using the website. He wants the subject to speak out loud while they are working on the task and narrating their actions. Using this information, Krug begins to probe, which is when he asks what the subjects found ineffective or effective about the design of the site. Krug then concludes the study by thanking the subject for their help and analysis.

3 Website To start off the testing, we welcomed the subject by telling him what this would consist of. We also told them to speak out loud about what they were thinking. Then, we explained that they could ask questions and we would try to answer them at the end of the test. Next, we asked them a couple questions such as occupation and how many hours they spend online a week. Then, asked what they primarily use the web for and how many hours they do it. Then, we opened up the Best Buy website and asked the subjects a few questions about it such as who owns the site. We then asked them to explain what they saw and what they could do without any help. This next part of the test is the biggest part. We explained to our subjects the task we wanted them to accomplish: Your phone broke and you need to order and customize a new phone off of Best Buy. Find the best fit for you. After they completed the task, we found out the site works very well and is easy to use. Very straight to the point and many options. When finishing, we asked the subjects what they didn t like and what they liked about the site. We also asked them to report any problems and gave them a chance to ask questions. Mobile App To start off the testing, we welcomed the subject again by telling him what this would consist of. We then asked if there was any questions. When using the app, we then asked them to explain what they saw and what they could do without any help. During the app testing we noticed that when trying to buy something, it redirects you to the mobile version of the website on the internet. It isn t very cohesive and is hard to navigate compared to the app.

4 This next part of the test is where we explained to our subjects the task we wanted them to accomplish again: Your phone broke and you need to order and customize a new phone off of Best Buy. Find the best fit for you. When finishing, we asked the subjects what they didn t like and what they liked about the site. We also asked them to report any problems and gave them a chance to ask questions. Background on Company Best Buy wasn t always called by its known name. It started off as an electronics store called Sound of Music, which specialized in high fidelity stereos in Saint Paul, MN. It made about $1 million in revenue and about $58,000 in profits its first year. Best Buy was named Company of the Year by Forbes magazine in 2004 and many other awards. It has come a long way!

5 User interfaces website Quick links Navigation Bar

6 Refine Search Product description Customization options Purchase Product

7 MOBILE APP Search Search bar bar Navigation bar

8 Customization options

9 Purchase Product Note: The mobile app redirects you to the mobile website when you want to purchase a product

10 Case study Subject 1 Website Step Action Input Feedback 1 Search for the product you want 2 Choose the color of the phone you want

11 3 Add the phone you want to shoppin g bag 4 Choose your phone plan 5 Choose your shipping method

12 6 Go to check out 7 Enter your shipping address 8 Enter the payment informa tion

13 9 Review the details and place the order

14 Mobile App Step Action Input feedback 1 Select Products 2 Select cell phones

15 3 Select desired phone 4 Select desired phone model

16 5 Select phone to customize 6 Customize color 7 Click buy

17 8 Click yes 9 Click upgrade your phone Enter shipping and payment info

18 USER 2 WEBSITE Step Action Input Feedback 1 Search for the product you want 2 Choose the color of the phone you want

19 3 Add the phone you want to shoppin g bag 4 Choose your phone plan

20 5 Choose your shipping method 6 Go to check out

21 7 Enter your shipping address 8 Enter the payment informa tion

22 9 Review the details and place the order

23 MOBILE APP Step Action Input feedback 1 Search desired phone 2 Refine search criteria

24 3 Select desired phone 4 Click buy 5 Click yes 6 Click upgrade your phone Enter shipping and payment info

25 Preliminary Findings Through our usability testing with two users using two methods of completing a task, we found that using the website on a computer proved to be more useful and provided the users with a faster and overall better experience. The problem with the mobile application is that purchasing products is not integrated into the application itself. In order for a transaction to be completed, the user has to exit the mobile app and be redirected to their mobile device s default browser. This created a disconnect and made both of the users dissatisfied. Design Recommendations The mobile app could definitely benefit from some design modifications. The biggest one is creating a unified experience across the app. This would include integrating the cart and the purchase page into the app itself instead of redirecting users to their mobile web browser. The website is a lot better than the app, but that doesn t mean that it couldn t benefit from some minor changes. For example, the page that shows all of the products if really cluttered. This is understandable because there are a lot of products available, but if there was somehow a way to organize the products into less cluttered sections on the website, this would be ideal.