Usability Testing - WorkJuggle
The aim of this assignment was to carry out user research and tests from start to finish, analysing the content of the user tests to outline any issues on the company's website.
Initial Research
In groups, we had to plan, record, carry out and analyse user tests for a website for WorkJuggle, a service that connects professionals with flexible work opportunities.
​
Before we began user testing, we analysed the website ourselves, considering design flaws or aspects of the site that might confuse users. We then outlined quantitative usability goals in order to gain an insight into how many clicks or how much time it would take participants to carry out the task given to them.
An example of one of our usability goals was "How many clicks will it take participants to find how to register as a candidate, while avoiding the homepage, as opposed to how many it should actually take?". Following this we wrote a script to be used in the user testing and printed data collection sheets to be filled in during the user testing. We also recorded the users screen and commentary in order to analyse at a later time.
Usability Testing
Usability tests were carried out and we analysed the notes and commentary made by the participants and noted the struggles they had when navigating the website. Issues such as not having a clear idea of what menu headings meant or what certain terms such as "candidate" meant showed that improvements could be made on the site. We created a usability report containing a summary of the site, the testing materials needed for the user testing and comments on the usability of the site.
Learnings
From this Usability assignment, I learned to carry out user testing and research and how to do that in a team. Understanding that different users have ease or difficulty completing tasks allows me to be aware of the various abilities of users in my future design projects. While one user may have no problem navigating a site, another user may not be familiar with the type of site and struggle without an initial understanding. Knowing this and knowing the importance of user testing will allow me to complete UX and UI design projects to a higher standard.