HONDA MOTOR COMPANY
COGNITIVE WALKTHROUGH REPORT
joyce xu informatics 283 MHCID @ UCI Â february 17, 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Methodology Findings Recommendation Summary Conclusion
03 05 09 30 31
INTRODUCTION quick overview
AT A GLANCE
What is this report about? This report details our findings and recommendations from our Cognitive Walkthrough evaluation of Honda's Build & Price interaction. The purpose of this walkthrough is to analyze the usability and flow of the Build & Price task - from a target user's perspective. The cognitive walkthrough identified 2 issues on Step 4's customize vehicle.
METHODOLOGY our evaluation process
METHODOLOGY Warton's Full Cognitive Walkthrough The evaluation is based on Warton's full Cognitive Walkthrough method and allows us to understand the learnability of a system to novice users. We identified the Build & Price task to be the most important and began by breaking down the sequence of steps a user must take to complete this task. In doing so, we asked four core questions (right) and reported on the success or failure of that specific action against the four questions.
At each step within the user task, the Cognitive Walkthrough evaluation answers the following questions: Q1. Will the user try to achieve the right affect? Q2. Will the user notice the correct action is available?
Q3. Will the user associate the correct action with the effect they are trying to achieve?
Q4. If the correct action is performed, will the user see that progress is being made toward solution of their task?
MEET KATIE Needs Hoping to find a reliable compact car that will get her from A to B Wants to stay within her budget Looking for a car she can use long-term Comfort, safety features, and a great warranty are a must When shopping online, she wants a fast and easy way to see the MSRP
Pain Points Just moved to SoCal from San Francisco and hasn't owned a vehicle in many years Not sure what brand of car to get Has not shopped for a vehicle in over 5 years Needs to find something quick
"I just moved to Sacramento from San Francisco. It's a challenge for me to get around right now and I need to buy a car. Age: 27 year old Location: Sacramento, California Occupation: Digital Marketing Manager Education: Bachelors Major: Marketing and Communications
CORE TASK We identified the Build & Price task to be the most important and the focus of the walkthrough. The majority of users go to an auto manufacturer's website to learn about a vehicle's features. Usually, the next step in the shopping process is to get a quote/estimate before going to the dealership.
Core Task - Step Breakdown 1. Find "Shopping Tools" in menu 2. Select "Build & Price" 3. Select the vehicle model 4. Customize vehicle 5. Click "View Build Summary"
FINDINGS what did we discover?
STEP 1: FIND "SHOPPING TOOLS" IN MENU
Q1: Will the user try to achieve the right effect? YES The first step would be to identify the "Shopping Tools" selection in the menu. The choice is clearly labeled on the top left corner of the homepage.
Honda Autos Homepage
STEP 1: FIND "SHOPPING TOOLS" IN MENU
Q2: Will the user notice that the correct action is available? YES The user understands that he/she must select "Shopping Tool" to view the next action.
STEP 1: FIND "SHOPPING TOOLS" IN MENU
Q3: Will the user associate the correct action with the effect they are trying to achieve? YES The user can associate "Build and Price" as the next step once they see it as an option within "Shopping Tools."
STEP 1: FIND "SHOPPING TOOLS" IN MENU
Q4: If the correct action is performed, will the user see that progress is being made toward solution of their task? YES When the user clicks on "Build and Price", the menu interaction drops down and everything else is muted on the page - letting the user know to focus on this area.Â
STEP 2. SELECT "BUILD & PRICE"
Q1: Will the user try to achieve the right effect? YES The next step would be to choose "Build & Price." Based on past web experiences, the user understands that selecting "Build & Price" will take them directly to another page.Â
STEP 2. SELECT "BUILD & PRICE"
Q2: Will the user notice that the correct action is available? YES The menu option clearly lists "Build & Price" clearly and visibly among the other available options on the navigation menu.
Full Shopping Tools menu
STEP 2. SELECT "BUILD & PRICE"
Q3: Will the user associate the correct action with the effect they are trying to achieve? YES The option is clearly labeled and represented by an icon.
Full Shopping Tools menu
STEP 2. SELECT "BUILD & PRICE"
Q4: If the correct action is performed, will the user see that progress is being made toward solution of their task? YES When the user clicks on "Build and Price", the new page shows a Honda logo and the loading bar (filling up the logo).
STEP 3: SELECT THE VEHICLE MODEL
Q1: Will the user try to achieve the right effect? YES Here, the next step is to choose a vehicle model. Based on the user's past experiences browsing websites, the user knows and understands that they must choose the vehicle to proceed to the next step. There are helpful tabs that separate the vehicle type for easy viewing.Â
STEP 3: SELECT THE VEHICLE MODEL
Q2: Will the user notice that the correct action is available? YES The cars can be easily identified. The car's images are represented clearly and let the user know what car they are looking at. From here, the user knows they have the option to browse all vehicle models and click on the "Build" button to start building.
STEP 3: SELECT THE VEHICLE MODEL
Q3: Will the user associate the correct action with the effect they are trying to achieve? YES Yes, the user is expecting to see some sort of screen that will allow them to build the car and customize the features.
STEP 3: SELECT THE VEHICLE MODEL
Q4: If the correct action is performed, will the user see that progress is being made toward solution of their task? YES The page loads when the user clicks on "build." The user is brought to that vehicle model's screen, then the page rearranges and auto-focuses on the customization section.Â
STEP 4: CUSTOMIZE VEHICLE
Q1: Will the user try to achieve the right effect? YES In this step, the user must go through and customize the vehicle to get a quote. The user will use the accordian-style tabs to easily build and customize the Honda vehicle they want.Â
STEP 4: CUSTOMIZE VEHICLE
Q2: Will the user notice that the correct action is available? MAYBE There are a lot of tabs the user must go through. Because of this, the list can get pretty long depending on the level of customization a user might have in mind. This affects accidental scrolling to other areas of the page. The accordion-style, collapse, and toggle list can get long, repetitive and requires a lot of manual work from the user. Loading time is also slow.
Recommendation The customize vehicle functionality should have its own dedicated page to allow users greater flexibility and enough space for digestible content.
STEP 4: CUSTOMIZE VEHICLE
Q3: Will the user associate the correct action with the effect they are trying to achieve? Maybe Yes, the page clearly shows the vehicle update in real-time as the user selects features for the exterior. Also, the sample image of the feature to the right of the feature title. The user can also click on the info icon to see a pop-up of the feature in detail. However, the interior updates preview are not available. This presents a lack of consistency.
Recommendation A separate car-interior update image can be helpful for users when building their vehicles.
STEP 4: CUSTOMIZE VEHICLE
Q4: If the correct action is performed, will the user see that progress is being made toward solution of their task? YES The user can clearly see how far they are in finishing the build via the "Customize Below" bar. The progress bar fills up as the user makes a selection in each feature category (tabs).
STEP 5: CLICK "VIEW BUILD SUMMARY"
Q1: Will the user try to achieve the right effect? YES The next step is to click on the "View Build Summary" button to proceed to the build report. The "View Build Summary" button is clear and visible to the user. The user knows they must click to proceed.
STEP 5: CLICK "VIEW BUILD SUMMARY"
Q2: Will the user notice that the correct action is available? YES It's clear to the user that they must select "View Build Summary" to view the entire report.
STEP 5: CLICK "VIEW BUILD SUMMARY"
Q3: Will the user associate the correct action with the effect they are trying to achieve? YES Yes, the user knows the next interaction will show the full summary report. The labels are clear and prepares the user for the next action.
STEP 5: CLICK "VIEW BUILD SUMMARY"
Q4: If the correct action is performed, will the user see that progress is being made toward solution of their task? YES The sees an itemized report of the build summary upon click on the button.Â
RECOMMENDATION SUMMARY Overall, the Cognitive Walkthrough of the Build and Price task showed positive results. We identified minor usability errors in Step 4. Customize Vehicle. Two quick-fix recommendations can be found below that should be considered for implementation. This will provide more flexibility while the user browses through the build and price functionality.
Step
Question
Finding
Recommendation
4
Q2
The tabs require a lot of work from the user and increase the length of page resulting in a lot of scrolling.
Vehicle customization and build should have its own dedicated page to allow users greater flexibility to see all available options instead of crammed information.
4
Q3
The user is not able to see real-time updates of the interior car feature they select while the exterior features update upon user selection.
Provide real-time updates on the vehicle's interior to remain consistent with the other feature. This can be helpful for users when building their vehicles.
CONCLUSION summary and next steps
CONCLUSION Summary and Next Steps Our evaluation reveals minor issues on Honda's Build and Price tasks. We recommend moving forward with the two quick fixes to provide an even better customer experience that will directly affect customer engagement and purchasing behavior. In terms of next steps, we also recommend conducting a competitive analysis. This would be extremely useful and provide insight into how your competitors' site functions in comparison to Honda's. From that analysis, you can also get an idea of what elements other auto manufacturers provide on their site.