2nd "Usability Testing"

I currently work for the University and today we will be looking at a website to see how user-friendly it performs. Although this is called a Usability test, we are not actually testing you.   I am not the designer of this website, and there are no right or wrong answers so feel free to be honest! I encourage you to think outloud. This helps us understand your thought process.

Look at the home page.
 

 -When you first saw this homepage, what did you think this web site was about?

First Person: Noticed the slogan at the top of the page and confirmed it was a site about housing search.

Second Person: Noticed the tag line located in the header

Questions:
 

1.   If you were a student looking for housing, where would you go to find an available property fit to your standards?

First Person: Located the search bar.

Second Person: Looked at the search toolbar on the bottom left hand corner.


 2.   If you wanted to find out more about our company and contacting us, how would you go about finding this?

First Person: Clicked on the about us page and sift through the content.

Second Person: Went to the about us page, and looked at the contact information listed  

3.   If you are a student at OSU and you wanted to create an account where would you go about doing this?
 
First Person: Clicked Sign In tab, and then entered student information to sign up.

Second Person:Clicked sign in, and then click on the new member sign up button. 

4.   How can you tell that this website is available only to OSU students? 

First Person: Noticed the Dot Number you need to have in order to sign up. This is something that OSU students have.

Second Person: hesitant.. she went back to the home page, she didn't see anything that said Ohio State on it.

(Since there was an issue here, if we were more specific on the sign up page in relation that this site is only available to Ohio State students)

 5.   Once logged into your new account, where would you look to compare properties you recently viewed?

First Person: Either in the center for saved properties, or she noticed the right toolbar that listed search history.

Second Person: Would search first.. (little hesitant here) She couldn't find it because she didn't hit the sign up button so she missed a whole page. 

(If we re-worded the question, this issue would be solved)

 6.   If you are interested in reading reviews about one particular property, where might you find this?
 
First Person: Noticed that there was a review section located on the search results page. 

Second Person: Search (was searching in two different places.. on the top and then on the bottom).. Search by the number of bedrooms.. She was not about to located the reviews 

7.   If you are interested in finding out where off-campus you might want to live where might you go about doing this?

First Person: Click on the map present on the left toolbar

Second Person:Went to locations & then availability...

(Since there was an issue here.. to fix this problem it would be helpful to change the word "map" to "campus map".)

 8.    Explain the path you would take to look for a list of available properties you are interested in. (Go back to the home page)

First Person: Entered Search standards and clicked search which was brought to a results page

Second Person: Went to availability on the search toolbar. 

 9. Where would you write a review about a property?

First Person: Located the review button located on the profile page. This was located under each saved property

Second Person: trying to find the write a review button... 

(She suggested making a write a review button that is present on the home page and then linked to the properties page)


Things to Improve/Add:

- Add sort by button on search results page.
- If time, add a web page customized to a students personal profile.

Plan for Usability Testing your Clickable Wireframes

• Where can you find 3-5 individuals from your target audience to test this web site on?
• Lee
• 2-3 roommates who are familiar with OSU's housing search process
• Leandra
• 2 commuters from OSU that have been recently interested in finding a place to live off-campus
• How can you solicit for these individuals to take your test?
  • Will you require flyers/marketing around a certain area or building?
  • No we plan on asking them in person
  • Will you send out emails to a particular group of people on or around campus?
  • No, the individuals we plan on interviewing are close friends who fit inside both user personas
• How has your site changed since your paper-prototype version?
• More detailed
• Defined the gray-scale hierarchy 
• Add a comparison page 
• How do you foresee differences in usability testing from the paper wireframe exercise we did in class - will you have to modify your script?
• Yes, we will have to modify our script from the previous time