Griddle+Usability+Test

Griddle Usability Test

=Usability Test Plan=

//We started with an intro message as follows://

Hi, I'm _. We're testing a web app, called Griddle, we created for our Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction class. With Griddle, users are able to schedule events with friends and see what their friends are up to. We're hoping this is useful for college students who are tired of texting and emailing friends to find out what times their friends are available. We'd like you to help us test our implementation for any flaws in usability. Remember, we are not testing you, we are testing Griddle.

//We then gave our users the pre-test questionnaire. They were asked the following questions://


 * 1) Gender
 * 2) Age
 * 3) Major
 * 4) Any problems in vision?

//After the pre-test questionnaire, we ran our subjects through our set tasks. Users were asked to think aloud as they completed tasks and to speak their mind about anything they had trouble with as they were completing tasks. Under each task below, ways of accomplishing the tasks are listed. The users did not see the ways of accomplishing the tasks://


 * 1) Register
 * //a) Input user name//
 * //b) Input password//
 * //c) Verify password//
 * //d) Input email address//
 * //e) Hit register//
 * //f) Logout//
 * 2) Login and change your status
 * //a) Input user name//
 * //b) Input password//
 * //c) Type into status bar//
 * //d) Hit enter//
 * 3) Create a two-hour-long "Dinner" event and invite "John Smith" and "John Doe" on Novemeber 23rd at a time that will work for everybody
 * //a) Input event name: "Dinner"//
 * //b) Input invitees: "John Doe, John Smith"//
 * //c) Input length: 2 hrs, 0 mins//
 * //d) Input date: 11/23/11 or November 23rd, or November 23, 2011//
 * //e) Click "Show Best Times"//
 * //f) Input time: 8:00PM//
 * //g) Click "Send Invites"//
 * 4) Create an hour-and-a-half-long private "Studying" event for November 23rd at 1:00PM
 * //a) Input event name: "Studying"//
 * //b) Skip the invitees field//
 * //c) Click the "Private" checkbar//
 * //d) Input the length: 1 hrs, 30 mins//
 * //e) Input date: 11/23/11 or November 23rd, or November 23, 2011//
 * //f) Click Send Invites//
 * 5) Go to Ghassan Abu-Ghaida's Profile Page and look at his calendar
 * //a) Click on "Ghassan Abu-Ghaida" under who's currently available//
 * //or//
 * //a) Search "Ghassan"//
 * //b) Click "Go to Profile" next to "Ghassan Abu-Ghaida"//
 * 6) Check your Invites and accept the invitation to Ghassan's Party
 * //a) Click "Invites"//
 * //b) Click "Attend?" on the one next to "Ghassan's Party"//
 * //or//
 * //a) Search Ghassan's Party//
 * //b) Click "Attend?" on the one next to "Ghassan's Party"//
 * 7) Friend "Ghassan Uba"
 * //a) Search "Ghassan Uba"//
 * //b) Click "Friend?" next to "Ghassan Uba"//

//After completing the tasks, users were asked to do a post-test survey. The survey was asked as follows://


 * 1) How did you feel about Griddle?
 * 2) On a scale from 1 to 7, how easy was it to create an event?
 * 3) How would you change the "Create Event" page?
 * 4) On a scale from 1 to 7, how easy was it to change your status?
 * 5) How would you change how you set your status?
 * 6) On a scale from 1 to 7, how easy was it to check your invites?
 * 7) How did you feel about the "Search" feature?
 * 8) How could Griddle be improved?
 * 9) Do you have any other comments about Griddle?

=Usability Test Results=

User 1
20-year-old male college student who is majoring in mechanical engineering with no problems in vision.

While registering, the user wasn't really sure if the user name should be his email address or if there were any requirements on what his user name could be. When it came to logging out, the user had trouble clicking the arrow, since it needed to be double clicked. The user had no problem changing his status.

While creating an event, the user wasn't sure how to separate the names of the people he wanted to invite. He also had trouble figuring out whether the time blocks were asking for start time and end time or asking for hours and minutes. The user also had trouble getting back to his homepage, since there was no link to go home.

During the post-test survey, the user let us know that he liked Griddle and thought it had a pretty easy interface. The user absolutely did not like that there was no easy way to get home. He would have improved the "Create Event" page by having it explicitly ask for start time and end time. He did like the "Show Best Times" button. The user would have added a "Change Status" button on the home page, since not everyone would be able to figure out that they would need to hit the enter button. The user really liked the search feature, and wouldn't change anything about it. It did everything he wanted it to, including correcting his spelling error. If the user were allowed to change anything else about Griddle, he would have the down arrow on the top bar work on first click. He also would have changed the purple color, since it reminded him of the Baltimore Ravens.

User 2
20-year-old female college student studying Physics who wears contacts to correct her vision.

While registering, the user was curious why the "Register" page didn't show her any requirements. She wanted to know if there was any username requirements or password requirements. When logging out, she had trouble finding the down arrow, and then double clicking on the down arrow. While changing her status, she looked for a "Change Status" button before hitting enter.

While creating an event, the user couldn't figure out whether the page was asking for a start time/end time or the hour and minutes. When the user created an event where they didn't invite anybody, the "Send Invites" button didn't make sense. When trying to use the search bar, the user hit enter, which didn't work.

During the post-test survey, the user let us know that she thought that Griddle would be useful in life since she's always busy and so are her friends. She also thought it was pretty easy to use. The user was confused by the "time" section while creating an event. If the user were allowed to change the "create event" page, she would add a list of people who she frequently invites to appear under the "Invitees" bar. She would also add a calendar to manually select the date and time. She would change the width of the textboxes to make more sense with the length of the input and have a spot to select AM/PM. The user didn't like how there wasn't a "Change Status" button under the status bar, since hitting the Enter button wasn't obvious. She liked how easy it was to check her invites, but she would have added a feature to see who else was invited when an event is clicked. She liked the "Search" bar feature, but she would have allowed the Enter button to work to search. She would have fixed the "down" arrow, so that the user wouldn't have to double click on the down arrow to make it work. She would have also added a way to get back to the home page from any other page.

User 3
22-year-old male college student studying Mathematics with no vision problems

While registering, the user suggested identifying rules for passwords (e.g., minimum length, allowed characters, etc.), as well as some way of seeing whether your username has already been taken by somebody else. When the user finished filling out the form, he hit Enter expecting it to work, which it didn't. The user also had trouble hitting the down arrow, since it didn't respond on first click. The user was also curious why hovering over the down arrow didn't change the cursor to a hand to indicate that it could be clicked on. When logging back in, the user suggested the browser being able to store the login and password upon registration, making it easier to log back in. The user had no issues changing his status.

While creating an event, the user suggested a feature which provides a list of friends in some format to make it easier to pick which ones to invite to the event, or have some sort of autocomplete feature which will insert names separated by commas. The user also suggested a feature where the best time can automatically be the selected time for the event in order to prevent keying in 8:00PM manually after seeing 8:00PM is the best time. The user was also confused about the time format since it wasn't explicit. He wanted a more standard way of doing time and date input. While checking invites, after click the "Attending?" button, the user suggested changing the gray color of the text since gray of purple was hard for him to read. The user also would have liked a way to cancel the "Attending" status from the page.

During the post-test survey, the user let us know that he thought Griddle was a neat concept and that with some improvements, could be a lot better. For the "Create Event" dialog, he wasn't sure why "Event Name," "Invitees," and the private checkbox were separate from the other input fields. He also thought the date and time input could be improved. He would also add a symbol to show the user when he has a new invitation pending. The user didn't think the search feature was very useful since it didn't drop down a list of suggestions as he typed. The user did like how the search results page did list people with similar names, which was convenient. He didn't really like the purple color scheme, but that was just a personal preference.

User 4
21-year-old female college student studying Communication Studies and Family Science without perfect vision and sometimes wear glasses

While registering, the user had no issues. The user had no problems finding the down arrow to logout, but didn't expect to have to double click to get it to work. When the user tried to log in, the she hit enter after inputting the password, which didn't work as she expected. While updating her status, after hitting enter, she couldn't tell whether the status was updated or not. She thought there should be a different section where the status is printed.

When creating a new event and inviting the people, the user was upset that there was no autocomplete feature, since she couldn't tell if the names were valid or not. The user really liked the "Show Best Times" button. She did think it took a little time to find, but she really liked the feature. The user didn't think the time input boxes were not labelled properly. She also wanted the end time to show as automatically calculated due to length and start time. When going to a friend's profile page, she thought the page looked very plain. While checking invites, the user didn't like how there weren't buttons for "Attending, Not Attending, or Maybe Attending" as Facebook does. She thought of the sight as a combination of Facebook and Google Docs. The user didn't like how their was no way of getting back to the Home Page. The user also didn't realize the Search feature searched Griddle, so she could not find "Ghassan Uba," and could not friend him.

During the post-test survey, the user let us know that she thought Griddle was very basic. For the Create Event page, the user thought the end time should be automatically filled because the user gives the start time and the length of the event. She also wanted the "Invitees" field to autocomplete as the user types. The user wanted better feedback when changing her status. She didn't know at what point the status was changed and didn't like that. The user didn't realize the Search feature searched for Friends and Events in Griddle. She thought the Search would search Google, instead. The user would have liked more affordance in the Search feature and thought it was too close to Facebook and Google Docs. She said she would not use Griddle if it were a real product.

=Screenshots=

//These are the screens the users saw during testing.//

Create Event Page


=Statistics=

Ease to create event: Average rating of 5.75

Ease to change status: Average rating of 7.00



Ease to check your invites: Average rating of 6.75



=Problems=

Username/password requirements: 5

Hitting enter after filling out register/login forms doesn't work: 4

Change the cursor to a hand when the user hovers over the down arrow: 2

Arrow shouldn't need to be double clicked: 5

Lack of "Change Status" button: 4

Lack of feedback that status was changed: 4

Hitting Enter after typing in Search field doesn't work: 4

Lack of a mental model of what the Search does: 3

Time/Date Input on the Create Event page/Format of Create Event page: 5

No standard way of inputing Invitees on Create Event page: 5

No way of declining invitations: 3

No way of getting back to home page: 5

No way of seing that you have a new invitation: 5

Color scheme: 3

"Send Invites" button doesn't make sense when you don't invite anybody: 3