MENGWEI ZHOU’S
PORTFOLIO User Experience Research | 2019
Usability Study
UX Researcher Intern Project
Bus Stop Exerciser
Android APP Design & Research Project
Usability Study UX Researcher Intern Project Summer, 2019
1 Background & Goals 2 Methodology 3 Results 4 Reflections
Background & Goals
•
To improve overall user experience of Zephyr, China UED team plans to identify a comprehensive list of usability issues on iOS mobile application.
•
The results of the study will help China UED team to understand how real users interact with our product and gather the data to improve Zephyr’s design.
•
Based on the results, China UED team will create updated design to solve the usability issues.
• An evaluative study of Zephyr (version 2.54.1) • 75-minute 1-on-1 interview with 15 participants • Task-based usability testing including 12 tasks • Three types of metrics were collected
Methodology
1
Task Complete Rates
2
Single Ease Question (SEQ)
Pass = completed without assistance Pass with help = completed with assistance Fail = not completed even with assistance
Participant were asked to rate the difficulty of the task from 1 (extremely difficult) to 7( extremely easy).
3 System Usability Scale (SUS) SUS is an industry standard way of assessing “usability”.
Participants • • • • • • • •
15 participants in total LinkedIn members based in Beijing Participants aged 22-39 10 males and 5 females Mix of engagement level Mix of industry/role/career stage Use LinkedIn on iOS mobile device Exclude recruiters and headhunters
Tasks
High Severity Task 4 Add one alert under job subscription SEQ
Fails
3.6
5
WTFs
Results Ranking of Tasks by severity of the usability problems
Task 9
1. There is no entry point for adding alert in Manage subscription page. 2. The pencil icon is hard for users to notice and understanding its meaning. 3. The tabs of keyword subscription fail to indicate users it can be selected. 4. The layout can be refined to better differentiate job preferences and job subscription.
Manage your feed
SEQ
Fails
5.2
6
WTFs
1. The format of the text “Following(已关注)” can be refined to make this access easy to identify for the users to unfollow the contents. 2. The way to unfollow a company on profile page can be more intuitive for users to understand.
Medium Severity Task 8 Write a post including pics, use @ to mention someone and use # to tag a topic
Results Ranking of Tasks by severity of the usability problems
SEQ
Fails
5.6
4
WTFs
1. The auto drop-down list shown after typing the @ symbol can be improved. 2. Some guidance can be provided for hashtag function.
Task 1 Search for a specific position SEQ
Fails
5.53
1
WTFs
• The location filter can be considered to add for searching companies.
Task 12 Add your WeChat account number as your contacts SEQ
Fails
6.13
0
WTFs
• The “Instant messenger” text can be formatted to differentiate from other titles in gray to indicate it is the entry point
Path1 – subscribe the key word by dialog drag to fresh the page
Task 4 Add one alert under job subscription SEQ score
3.6
Pass
3
Pass with help
12
Fail
0
Typical path • Path 1 Most participants started by searching job title in the search bar but only some received the dialog and tapped subscribe to subscribe the key word they just searched before. • Path 2 Only two participants founded the pencil icon button when they looked around in Career tab.
Path2- subscribe one job title by adding alert Job Subscription page
Add alert page
Task 4 Add one alert under job subscription Me tab
ISSUE 1/3 Manage Applied Jobs
• Most participants did not know the job subscription before. • Some participants landed on Job subscription page through Job management in Me tab, but there is no entry point for adding alert in Manage subscription page.
RECOMMENDATION
One entry point for adding job alerts can be added in Manage subscriptions page.
Saved Searches Manage
Job Management
Saved job alerts
Manage alerts
Task 4 Add one alert under job subscription
Career tab
ISSUE 2/3 • •
The pencil icon was hard to notice and some participants have problem understanding the meaning of it Some participants even did not know the key words tab can be selected after they finished one subscription RECOMMENDATION
•
•
The entry point of adding job alert should be easier for users to detect; e.g. some text like add subscriptions (添加订阅) can be added beside icon. More visual hints can be provided in the job subscription bar to indicate that the tabs besides Discover jobs(职位推荐).
Discover jobs
New design
Task 4 Add one alert under job subscription Job Subscription page
ISSUE 3/3 • •
Discover jobs
Nearly half of the participants felt confused about the difference between job preferences and job subscription. Two participants thought the setting of job preferences should be completed before adding job alerts. RECOMMENDATION
•
The layout of the job subscription page can be improved to make it easy for users to understand the logic between job preferences and job subscription.
Add alert
Job Preference page
Next Step
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The results of usability study will be shared with China and global UED design and product team.
•
China UED and product team will iterate the design and fix the issues in new release.
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China UER team will continue to conduct usability study annually to track the performance of Zephyr focusing on usability and overall user experience.
• For task-level usability, we chose SEQ to let user evaluate the difficulty level of each task. It give us a subjective evaluation from participants with low cost.
Reflections What really works
• Time planning worked well
• Task design
Reflections Challenges
• Tasks involved the fake position may affect the results compared with letting users to search a interested position as they normally do. • To limit the amount of tasks, we emerged some related tasks into one. But some participant could feel that some tasks sound complex at first.
• For using SUS questionnaire, some participants have problem understanding some statements such as statement 2, 5 and 9, the moderator explained the meaning of statement according to different situations
Bus Stop Exerciser Android APP Design & Research
Master Course Project Nov. 2019
1 Background & Goals 2 Design Process 3 User Research 4 Reflections
• Within the project theme “Sports and Exercise in the Smart City”,
Background & Goals
a concept will be developed for designing and implementing a mobile application.
• A sedentary lifestyle has become an increasing health issue, and
fitting exercise in the time of waiting bus can be seen as an opportunity to address this issue.
Research Phase :
Design Process
I
II
III
& User testing
Research Phase I Observation study / Quick interview
INSIGHTS
GOAL
• Most people had their headphones on while waiting for the bus, unless they had company; most people looked at their phones while waiting.
To get a general knowledge about how people think and behave in the bus-waiting context
• The types of the exercises should take account of the length of the waiting time.
METHOD
• Some light stretching could be a more appropriate level of exercise to conduct in a bus stop.
• Quick interview with open questions • 40-minute observation study at the Lindholmen bus stop
Regarding statistics collected during 10 minutes, the average waiting time is about 3 or 4 mins and the longest one is not more than 5 mins.
One user express the concerns of making a fool of oneself and raising concern with others if doing some vigorous exercise at a bus stop.
Research Phase II Journey Map / Field study / Body storming
GOAL
METHOD
To identify potential design issues and understand user’s mental needs along the whole interaction flow
• Journey map • Based on the design prototype, a draft user journey map with general stages was created for identifying issues along the whole flow in the field study . • Journey map (refined) was used as a tool both to collect and analysis data, which was then refined to guide design team for next design iteration. • Field study with performing body storming was then conducted at the same bus stop.
Research Phase II
INSIGHTS
Results
1 The instructions needs to be simple, and easy to remember. 2 Exercise alternatives can be provided to refresh the user.
2
1
“ It’s difficult to stretch while having your phone in your hand.”
“It got boring to do the same exercise for five whole minutes.”
Research Phase III Heuristic evaluation / Usability study / Wizard of Oz Scenario 1 Task 1 Initial setting before going to Imagine you just download the app, and the bus stop now you would like to create your own profile before using it.
GOAL To detect usability problem both on improved design and the implemented app
METHOD • Heuristic evaluation
Task 2 Scenario 2 Imagine that now you are going to the bus To activate the notification stop, you receive a notification from the by approaching the bus stop app when approaching the bus stop and now you would like to view and get and at the bus stop exercise instruction from the app. Scenario 3 At the bus stop
Task 3 Imagine that you don’t like the current exercise and would like to switch to another type of exercising
Scenario 4 After leaving the bus stop
Task 4 View the history to see your last exercise Task 5 Imagine that you moved to a new place and now you are going to change the location in your profile
• Usability study on high-fidelity prototype • Wizard of Oz style (Figma mirror ) • 5 scenario based task • Testing on real app
Research Phase III Results from usability study
Page Main page
Profile creating page
Problems
Recommendations
The beginner got confused by unclear text like “exercise preference”
Clear wording for example “Exercise suggestion regarding body parts”
The tag of the types of the exercise should not look like a button
Use text for tags without the background shape of the tag
A pop-up window can be considered Information is missing to inform users to add as an interruptive notification that exercise session has been finished once the bus has arrived. The exercise is hard to differentiate in the exercise history
Date information can be added here for each exercise
• Heuristic evaluation • fast and cheap • provide more evidence for actual usability tests
Reflections
• not real user test • does not capture overall user experience • does not tell you if product is good or bad
• Method can be combined to better answer questions • Journey map & Field study & Body storming • Usability study & Wizard of Oz
• More participants for survey and interview • More data required to better understand user ‘s mental model
THANKS THE END.