User Research
User Research
Usability Report
[This project was executed as part of my Master's in User Experience Design]
Summary:
The company has decided to make changes to its web site as the peak sales season is fast approaching. As part of the change process, the company is planning to conduct usability testing to identify and fix the existing usability issues and to enhance the usability of the new functionalities which are going to be introduced with the next release.
Papajohns.com website is the official website of the PapaJohns pizza chain. This website offers complete online pizza ordering functionality. Customers can place orders online and have the option to pick it up from a Papajohns location or delivered to their home. This website provides an experience similar to walking into a store or placing a pizza order through the phone.
This website constitutes more than 50% of the total sales of Papajohn. The company is expecting a spike in sales due to the upcoming Super Bowl and would like to fix the user’s pain point and increase sales.
In addition to the pizza ordering experience, they would also want to evaluate the other important functionalities offered on the website.
Methodology:
The participants were informed about the venue and time in advance. The usability test script was read to all the participants. The usability test script sets the expectation of the usability study and assures the participants to feel relaxed.
Initially, the participants were asked ice-breaking questions to make them comfortable. Then the same set of tasks were given to all the participants. The tasks were prepared based on the need and expectations of the usability study. Participants were encouraged to think out loud and it helped us to capture the factual feeling of the users. With the permission of the participants, the audio and video of the usability session were recorded. I received a lot of useful feedback regarding the website during these sessions.
Participant Information:
After performing an analysis on the website the participants were hand-picked to suit the need for this usability study. The participants were both male and female with different age groups. The one major criterion which was used for selecting the participants was the past experience of ordering pizza.
The number of participants selected for this usability study was three. I strongly believe that three would be the right number of participants for this usability testing. The outcome of this usability testing would be close to real usability issues.
List of Tasks:
Tasks are meticulously designed to bring out the real feelings of the users. The task had a mix of pizza ordering, registering for coupons, and sending feedback. Three tasks pretty much cover the major functionalities of the website.
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Ordering three types of pizza
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Mushroom and Pepperoni.
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Half onion and half sausage with light sauce.
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A specialty pizza.
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2. Sign up for deals and coupons without registering.
3. Sending feedback to the corporate office.
The same set of tasks were given to all the participants. Their response and reactions were recorded for further analysis.
Synopsis of Findings:
Based on the analysis of the usability sessions, I have come up with my findings:
The overall pizza ordering experience was good. With a few usability fixes, the overall usability experience of the website will be enhanced.
The users felt that the website had a standard ordering experience when comparing it with the competitor websites. This is a good thing as the learning curve for the users will be minimal. The ease of use of the half and half feature was appreciated. All the users were able to complete the end to end pizza ordering process without any major issue.
As part of the usability study, the time taken for ordering a pizza was captured. Participants took an average of 238 seconds.
Areas of improvement:
The following areas can be improved
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The checkout button can provide visual clues when clicked.
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Signing up for deals navigation should be made simple. The number of clicks should be reduced for performing this operation.
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Relevant images can be displayed for each section.
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The feedback section can include other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram in addition to Twitter.
Analysis of Task:
Task 1: Ordering Pizza
The participants had previously ordered pizza online and found this website “pretty simple” and easy to use. The participants were able to navigate and order the pizzas with minor glitches. The feature which allowed users to split the pizza into two and select toppings were well received.
“It was nice and convenient that you can pick your sides that you wanted”
A participant had issues in locating ‘create own pizza’.
Create your own Pizza was placed in the second row and the participant had to scroll up and down before locating this option. The heading was not easy to locate as well.
Got two unique and interesting feedbacks from one of the participants. One was about the picture used for denoting the ‘Create your own pizza’ and another was regarding the Checkout button.
When the participant was trying to locate the ‘Create your own pizza’, he was able to locate the link without spending much time but he gave valuable feedback. The feedback was about the image which was used:
“It’s a little weird that they are showing me like a picture of a market ingredient when I am looking for a pizza.
It is a little bit confusing “
One other glitch which the participant had was regarding the ‘Checkout button’ which appeared in the middle of the page and disappeared after clicking. The participant saw the checkout button and expected to take him to the checkout page but instead, it disappeared.
Expected Behavior: Check out button would take to check out page/payment page.
Current Behavior: Check out page disappeared and added the current pizza to the cart.
“Clicked on checkout button and it disappeared”
Task 2: Signing up for deals and coupons
Signing up for deals was another pain point that was experienced by the user. He was not able to navigate to the section where deals can be signed up for. The participant had a bit of frustration and was not happy by the way he had to click multiple links before he could find the signup section.
“so many clicks to get to it and it is at the bottom of the page where you really can’t see it”
One of the participants had confusion between the rewards program and signing up for the deals and coupons. The participants felt that having the signup option at the bottom of the page was hard to see.
Participants felt that having the sign-up option at the bottom of the page was hard to see
Task 3: Sending feedback
Participants were able to submit feedback without any issue and even they were able to identify all the possible ways of submitting feedback.
The idea to list social media platforms like Twitter as part of the feedback section was well received by the participants.
“Complaining on Twitter usually get a pretty good response”
