Usability_Test_iftomhanks

**Usability Test Plan**
 * **Scenario:** IfTomHanks.com is supposed to appeal to a younger audience specifically high school students and college students. Keeping this in mind students at UMD should prove to be ideal test subjects. In the long run the site should present itself appealing to to any user with a creative sense of humor.
 * **List of tasks:** A user should be able to:
 * 1) navigate the home screen to view the jokes
 * 2) easily register
 * 3) post new jokes
 * 4) comment on topics
 * 5) search for the topics and
 * 6) understand the difference between topics and jokes


 * **Pre Test:** This is the form that was used to get a sense of the users’ backgrounds
 * 1) Age: ___
 * 2) Gender Male Female
 * 3) Approximately how many hours per week do you spend on the internet?
 * 0-5
 * 6-10
 * 10-20
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20+
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Approximately how many hours per week do you use social media sites such as youtube, imgur, reddit?
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">0-5
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6-10
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">10-20
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20+
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Are you active in commenting for the above sites?
 * 7) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">never
 * 8) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">rarely
 * 9) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">sometimes
 * 10) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">often
 * 11) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">all the time
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Are you active in submitting content for the above sites?
 * 13) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">never
 * 14) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">rarely
 * 15) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">sometimes
 * 16) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">often
 * 17) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">all the time

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Answer the following questions on a scale of 1-5. 1-strongly disagree, 2-disagree, 3- neutral, 4-agree, 5-strongly agree
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Post Test**
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Searching for topics was easy
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Navigating the website was easy
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Joke submission was easy
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic submission was easy
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The website interface is straightforward

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Please provide answer the following questions in a few lines: <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Usability Test Results: ** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What do you think the site is about?
 * 2) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">did you find any features of the interface that made it harder for you to understand what you are supposed to do?
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Are there any features that you expected to be present but didn’t see?
 * 4) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did you dislike about the interface?
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What did you like about the interface?
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Would use the site again? Why?
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Screen shots of all the views seen by the user**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Each user test was conducted under the supervision of at least one team member so that the responses of the users could be noted accurately. The users however were unaware of the content and purpose of the site. This idea of testing was implemented to get a good understanding of how well the website conveys its purpose. A total of six subjects were used and all the subjects were students at University of Maryland (UMD). In each test the users complained about having to register to the website and the fact that the requirement for registration was not obvious. As a result the test subjects were provided with different test registrations so that they could interact with the content. The test subjects needed to fit a certain criteria, as pointed out in the earlier section. For example all the test subjects needed to be students who are fairly active in commenting and submitting content to social media sites like youtube, imgur and reddit. As a result all the test subjects mentioned below share a common age group and spend a similar amount of time on the Internet (on average 6-10 hours a week). The details of the test process with test subjects are give below: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The second test subject was 21 years old male who also spends about 6-10 hours per week on the social media sites like youtube, imgur and reddit. Again the user rarely submits any content to these websites and is also not active in commenting about the content. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This user took several minutes to figure out the purpose of the website by navigating different pages. As in case of the subject 1, this user found the features like searching, navigation, joke submission, etc. very easy to use. However based on his initial reaction the user remarked that he couldn’t understand the purpose of the website and reasoned that it was due to the lack of content and limited users. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This user, unlike subject 1, didn’t have any issues with the interface. As a matter of fact he commented that it was simple, clean and that he is highly interested in visiting the website again.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Description**
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Subject** **1:**The first subject was a 23 year old male who spends 6-10 hours per week on social media websites like youtube, imgur and reddit. The user rarely submits any contents to these websites, however is fairly regular in posting comments about the content. This user seemed to have a good intuition of how to navigate the website. He was able to post new topics and was able to distinguish between the comments box and the jokes box. The user gave positive feedback for the functionality of searching, navigation, topic and joke submissions, and the website interface. However, the user complained about the submit topic interface not being readily accessible and made a separate note of it not standing out. He further added that the interface was dull and not well organized. When asked about the future visits to the website the user said that he may visit if the interface was improved.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Subject 2:**
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Subject 3: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">21 year old female who spends more than 20 hours on the Internet per week but spends only 6-10 hours per week on the social media sites. Like other users she is not very active in posting new content for these websites but is involved in commenting on the contents. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She acclaimed the search and navigation features but found topic submission quite confusing. She also mentioned that the interface was straightforward but could surely use some coloring and themes. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like subject 1, she seemed to understand the purpose of the site pretty well and thought it was quite fun to use. She suggested that the jokes could use some pictures which would add to the humour of the site. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She also complained about the comment box being on the right side of the screen. She reasoned that her familiarity with the comment box at the bottom of the content made her ignore the right column of the web page. At the same time she liked the idea of poking fun at anyone and was highly motivated to use the site again.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Subject 4: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Subject 4 was 21 year old male. This user on average spends 10-20 hours per week on the social media sites. Even though this user uses more social media than other test subjects but claims to have never post any content or comments on these sites. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He also provided positive feedback for the functionality like searching, navigation, joke submission, etc. and did like the simple interface of the website. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unlike subjects 1 & 2, subject 4 caught on pretty quickly and was interacting very keenly with the site. He was the only user who recognized that the jokes were more like puns and suggested that the interface play a role in making that evident. He also complained that the Bookmark, Hot Topics and Top Users’ links weren’t active and as a result were misleading. Like other test subjects he also suggested to have a proper theme or background for the website and not leave it all white. He also recognized some security issues with registration of the users. For example the required username and password didn’t have a minimum character limit. Also username could start with numbers which is not a typical behaviour. He also noticed that different user names could have the same e-mail address. He also added that the site didn’t have any user notification system to inform the users of the updates to their posts.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Subject 5:**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">21 year old male student who shares the same web habits as the other 4 test subjects. However this user never submits or comments on any contents posted on these websites. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like other test subjects before him this user gave positive feedback on the functionality and the simplicity of the interface. This user also had a good idea of the purpose and the intent of the website. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">However, he pointed out some interesting feature or functionalities that are missing in the website. For example, the site does not implement the search for topics or jokes for a particular user. Meaning there is no way to tell how many jokes or topics a particular user has contributed. In addition to this, the user finds the site to be boring and reasons that the interface is too simplistic. However, the user remains positive about the website and thinks of visiting again.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Subject 6:**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The last test subject was a 22 year old female and who also spends more than 20 hours per week on the Internet. Out of this time she spends only about 6-10 hours per week on the social media site pointed out above. In addition to that she sometimes posts contents to these sites and also comments on the contents posted by others. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She also provides a positive feedback for the implemented functionalities such as searching, navigation, joke submission, etc. Unlike the other 5 test subjects this user did not complain much about the dullness of the interface. However, she did suggest to use a centralized theme to make the website more attractive.


 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Post Test Questionnaire**

The following bar chart shows some statistics of the users' opinions about the site.

Although most of the users liked the concept and the easy functionality of the website but all of them complained about the interface. There was a general opinion amongst the test subjects that the interface was uninteresting. This means that there needs to be work done on the look and feel of the website. There needs to be a background image or a color (at least), general theme for the website and the website should be keyboard accessible. The prioritization of these tasks/improvements is listed as follows: (5 being the most important) 5 - Adding styles to the webpages and the website in general. 4 - Proper error checking for the registration. 3 - Using active links for Hot Topics, Top Users and Bookmarks. 2 - Profile pages for users containing some basic information about them and their recent activity. 1 - Notification system to inform users of the updates to their contents.