For this project I worked as part of a team of four students to conduct a website usability evaluation for a social media start-up called SilOOette which was based in the Media Cube at IADT.

SilOOette aimed to connect individuals through their interests. Users could follow topics rather than people, thereby choosing only the topics they want to see and creating their own unique news-stream.

“Cut through the noise and create a filtered News Stream, one filled only with the stuff you care about.”

Testing

Our team compiled a script to brief our users on the testing process. It was felt that this would help to put them at ease and make them aware that the focus of the test was the website itself rather than their own ability. It also allowed for consistency in the testing process as each member of the team carried out tests individually. Each user also signed a consent form and completed a pre-test questionnaire to assess their social media use.

Test scenarios were created by the team to replicate real life use of the website and identify user pain points. The purpose of these scenarios was to maintain consistency between user tests and to give our testers clear instructions, and so avoid placing them under undue stress.

Users were required to sign up to SilOOette using a dummy email address. They were then directed through the test scenarios which required them to follow topics that interested them, edit their profiles, connect with another user, find specified topics, create a post and link content from an external website. Camtasia was used to record the tests with users’ permission. A total of ten users completed these tests, after which they completed a post-test questionnaire.

Data Analysis

Once all tests had been completed the data was analysed by the team. The data gathered included a five second test to give initial impressions of the website, the length of time taken to complete each scenario, user pain points, pre- and post-test questionnaires and general comments.

In general users liked the appearance of the website. However there were numerous user pain points identified which the team grouped into four main issues:

• Connecting to other users was unsatisfactory due to the necessity to click through users individually, plus there was no bio information about users
• Navigation difficulties
• Confusion about editing profiles and understanding some elements of same
• Issues around creating and posting content were the most problematic, due to the fact that SilOOette’s topics of interest was split into sub-topics called channels – this caused great confusion and irritation for users as the difference between topics and channels was unclear

Reporting Results

The team interpreted the results of the data and produced a comprehensive report which included

• Introduction and brief summary of the website’s aims and uses
• Identification of the usability goals that were tested (i.e. effectiveness, efficiency and engaging) along with the type of usability testing that was being conducted (i.e. ease of learning)
• Summary of the testing documents used: script, consent form, pre-test questionnaire, test scenarios, data collection document, post-test questionnaire
• Description of the tests carried out and summary of the data gathered, including our own analysis and interpretation
• Conclusions and recommendations for design changes

Some of our recommendations to improve the user experience of this website were:

• Improve navigation between pages
• Include a search bar
• Explain the meaning of channels and topics
• SilOOette rated it’s users on integrity which some testers interpreted negatively, the team suggested substituting another word
• Include a tutorial to introduce the website and it’s operation
• Improve the user experience of connecting to other users, e.g. provide a list of users to connect with

Conclusion

As this was a team assignment, it was necessary to ensure good communication and teamwork between group members to ensure it was completed to a satisfactory standard. A facebook group was set up and tasks were divided up between team members. This approach worked well and I enjoyed working on this project. The usability evaluation was completed on time and was well received, both by the module lecturer and by the people at SilOOette.

The grade received for this project was an A.