DMICSolutions: Usability Evaluation Report -Non Technical User

Usability Evaluation Report

Dated

03/18/2015

Prepared By

NAME: Mahanama M.G.G.D.D.P - IT13124854

Chiththananda H.K.I.C.L - IT13121884

SIGNATURE :

Brief Description of User

The selected user is currently a 1st year student who is reading a degree at SLIIT. She is not that much into technical related activities and she doesn't have much experience with using news web sites. So that’s why We selected her as our non-technical user.

Process Overview

Methods used to process the usability evaluation are Questionnaires, Videotapes, Think aloud protocols etc. We used SLIIT 7^th floor lecture hall as the location for the usability evaluation. Because it was easier and it was less noisy.

Can you find the top story of the web page?
There are several top stories here. Can you view them?
Can you find the last updated time of the web page?
So what do you think about it? Do you find any difficulties?
Can you view the recent headlines?
Can you go to the world news?
Next can you go to the business news?
Do you know how to view the full story of a news?
Can you now go to the homepage?
If you want to find a particular news, can you search it?
If you want to put a like to this news site here how do you do it?
Can you find any advertisements in the site?

Transcript

I - [00:15] Can you find the top story of the web page?

U - [00:20] It’s here.

I – [00:23] There are several top stories here. Can you view them?

U – [00:32] Is it these things?

I – [00:50] No. It’s not sliding actually. There’s a button for that.

U – [00:58] Ah.. This one.

I – [01:11] Okay. Now can you find the last updated time and date of the web page?

I - [01:41] (She is just scrolling here and there so we had to help her) It’s actually at the top of the page.

U – [01:46]] This is it.

I – [01:49] So what do you think about it?

U – [01:53] That’s very difficult to identify. It’s not that visible.

I – [02:03] Okay. Now can you find the recent headlines in this news site?

U – [02:09] Is this it?

I – [02:12] These are news stories. There’s a separate section for headlines.

U – [02:20] Here it is. But it also should be more visible than this.

I – [02:36] Can you go to the business news?

(She clicks the business tab and goes there easily)

I – [02:51] Can you view a full story of a news?

U – [03:00] (Clicks Read More button) Here it is.

I – [03:07] Now can you go to the home page?

U – [03:19] How can I go ?

I – [03:26] In the menu bar there’s a button for home.

U – [03:41] This one? (finds it after some time)

I – [03:47] If you want to search a particular news, How do you do it?

U – [04:16] Do I Need to scroll down or something ?(She takes some time to find it)

U – [04:35] Ah..This one?

I – [04:37]]Yes. So did u find any difficulty in finding it?

U – [04:42] Yeah. Because it’s along with these social media links. So it’s bit difficult to find.

I – [05:04] Can you put a like to this page using your facebook profile?

U – [05:12] Here. (She finds it easily)

I – [05:18] So can you find any advertisements in the site?

U – [05:23] These are the advertisements.

I – [05:57] You only saw the advertisements in the home page. Go to some other page and see.

U – [06:01] Here there are many advertisements. It’s too much. It’s better to reduce them, So we can easily read the news.

I – [06:29] Okay Thank you.

#	Prototype Screen	Reference	User’s feedback/ critical incidence/ problem	Reason for negative feedback / breakdown	Scope	Severity (High/ Medium/ Low) and Justification for giving it that rating	Way(s) to rectify and any Tradeoffs (i.e., why the fix might not work)
1	See Picture 1	[00:23]	User was uncomfortable in finding several top stories. She tried to swap through the images without clicking on the next button.	Because it was too small.	This page only.	Low. Because it’s only in the home page.	Change the buttons in a way that user can easily identify and also can make those top stories move automatically in a sequence.
2	See Picture 2	[01:11]	User got confused when he was searching for the last updated time of the web page. It took some time for her to find that.	Because it was too small and she couldn’t see it properly.	It’s in the master page. So it appears in everywhere.	Medium. Because it’s not a highly important section in the site.	Change the font size of it and also the color of the fonts.
3	See Picture 3	[02:03]	User had to spend some time to find the recent headlines section.	Because it’s not much visible.	This page only.	Medium. Even though it’s only in the homepage it’s an important section. So it has to be visible to the user.	Change the font size of the headlines.
4	See Picture 4	[05:57]	User finds it uncomfortable to see many advertisements in the news site.	Because User cannot read the news easily. It’s bit messed up.	In few pages.	High. Because reading news is the ultimate goal of the user and these advertisements ruin it for the user.	Reduce the number of advertisements and arrange them in an order.
5	See Picture 5	[03:47]	User was unable to find the search at first place.	Because it’s not much visible.	This page only	Medium. Even though it’s only in the homepage it’s an important section. So it has to be visible to the user.	Search icon should be more visible and if possible it should be named as “Search”.