This weeks lecture went more in detail with how to run a usability test, which was briefly touched on last week.
At the start of the lecture ‘Maze’ was brought up which allows you to set a project for a test which can link to a Figma prototype. You can direct users in a certain path for example “I want you to log in”. After the test you can then ask how the users experience was. Once one user was finished you can then go on a dashboard to view analytics to see how many people were successful. However the experience can be different than the results (In person is better to actually know how people are feeling.
Eye tracking was covered in this lecture which was something I have been interested in as it is more widely available even in modern VR. The example in the lecture was a box which tracks what you are looking at using infrared lights. Using eye tracking allows you to really see what the user is doing.
A very interesting personal story shared in class was from my Lecturer who has a friend who uses eye tracking to type, which they can do it really well. This proves that any type of technology can be used by people as a way for them to communicate, which eye tracking something I never really thought of before as when I hear of ‘eye tracking’ I think of using it for games.
Eye tracking works at what your eyes fixate on, where peripheral vision is blurred (what we see but not focus on).
For this task my group was assigned to create three user tasks on the Moore Electrics website which to begin with we choose who would be the observer and the user (who will be later joining another group to complete their tasks). To begin with we all simply tried using the website itself to make sure it functioned well and what the website was actually for. During this time there was obvious fixes such as the ‘Add to basket’ button and the page inside the ‘Collect from store’ was very confusing to know where the store was actually located.
Once we were all familiar with the site we then planned for three different topics which would work in a flow for a user who is not familiar with the website to try to complete these tasks. Originally I had typed them out clearly as a instruction but my lecturer said to make them more like a story, not just to say ‘what to do’. For example I originally wrote ‘Find the cheapest noise cancelling headphones’ which I then added, “You want to find the cheapest pair of headphones/earphones with noise cancellation to help with the loud transport”. I think adding a bit more of a story to explain to the user makes their experience a lot more relaxed and comfortable as just saying what to do can sound demanding, putting pressure on the user which can then lead to poor test results.
We planned for a flow of these three topics, to firstly Login Sign up then (To ensure there are no issues down the line to have proof of purchase), find the cheapest noise cancelling headphones (I noticed there are headphones exactly the same but in different colours but one was cheaper) and finish by the user Locating the store through the map on the website. This last one was important as the products are collection only which the page after clicking the ‘buy’ button does not help the user locate the store. However my group found a ‘location map’ button which is so much more useful as it has a google maps allowing the user to see where exactly it is located, and the user may be familiar with nearby stores which can help them know where this store is located.