Usability Analysis of UnionStation.org

8/18/2019 Usability Analysis of UnionStation.org

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John-Paul Culver

Usability Test for UnionStation.org

Test Preparation

The first thing that I did to prepare to conduct the tests was to visit the web page itself

and try to complete the tass that would be placed before my testers! so I new when they were

doing the right thing to answer them. "or the tass I was using the University #$indows% lab

computers Colden &all so I could have the best connection possible. Since it's what I'm most

used to! I decided to use (oogle Chrome as my browser.

"or the first tas I chose the )Plan *our +isit, navigation item because I thought there might be

further information in that area. fter a while of reading I eventually found the amenities lin

that had the information that I needed to complete the tas.

"or the second tas I returned bac to the )Plan *our +isit, page by using the bac button

to see the ticet pricing and if there was a lin to the )/treme 0ovie, section of the website!

since there was no button on the navigation for it. $hen I found the ticet pricing I was

wondering why the name of the theatre couldn't be a hyperlin! instead of the 1ump button found

on the right #when I was doing this I thought this could be an issue in the testing process that

would show up! which it did%. 2nce on the page I was e/pecting to see a date selector and found

none! I had to figure out which movies would be playing at that time.

The third tas! however! I had some difficulty with. I chose 3obots 45 as the movie I'd

lie to see but when checing my cart the button that said )Select Seats,! only allowed me to

change the total ticets I needed. I thought that this will definitely cause a problem during the

testing phase. fter I saw that the ne/t page demanded you to log-in or place sensitive


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information on the web page! this would also provide an issue during tas 4 #testers might not be

willing to send their information to a webpage! 1ust because they're ased too%.

"or the final tas I simply returned to the homepage by entering the U36 again! since I

noticed that the logo 1ust returns you to the bo/-office subdomain and not that homepage as the

rest of the website does #this also proved to be a consistency issue with the testers%. "rom the

homepage I chose the )Contact, navigation item and scrolled till I saw the )+isitor 3elations,

7mailto89 hyperlin and went ahead and cliced it to complete the tas! but I wanted to see a

contact form : possibly one that allowed you to select a receiver from a drop-down menu #again

this was a problem! because a contact form would have been far more usable%.


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Tester 1: &annah ;.

0y first tester was &annah! she nows enough to understand how to navigate most

websites. &annah is a ?@ is on social media and A?@ is browsing. This is my )&igh-

/perience, tester because she has been alive for longer than she has #she has gained enough

e/perience in her life%.

Environment for Tester 1:

Location of test: The test was taen in a Buiet study area for college students at the

library! this place was chosen because she accepted right when I ased if she minded in

being a participant and agreed to do it immediately.

Physical environment: The room was lit very well and there weren't that many

people in the area! plus it was a mostly Buiet group of students in the area we were in.

The only distractions to spea of was a heated math argument that was going on behind

us in whispered voices! although they left during the second tas.

Technical environment: The destop we were using was running $indows ! with

a rather small screen in comparison to the other library destops. The connection speed

was good at a solid


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0y second tester was named &oward Thompson! someone that I randomly ased about

how often they used the internet and if they could help me with a usability test. &e told me that

he understands how to navigate the internet somewhat! and that his wife would is better at it. 0r.

Thompson spends his days watching television or reading boos! as he's retired. &e has never

been to the Union Station website before! but has been to the actual destination. &e hasn't spent

much time on the internet! at ma/ one or two hours a wee : he has also never been on "aceboo

or any social media website #he spends his time reading articles online%. This is my )6ow-

/perience, tester because he doesn't really understand how to do everything on websites.

Environment for Tester 2:

Location of test: The test was taen in the $estport Public 6ibrary in ;ansas City!

02. This place was chosen because he! the same as tester

and the computers were available.

Physical environment: 0ost of the lights in the room were on! while a few were

still in transition of being replaced. 0ost of the other computer users posed a distraction

to him while he was typing! as well as the conversations the librarians were constantly

having.

Technical environment: The computer we used was running $indows and had a

screen resolution of )F/GA., The connection speed at the library was running pretty

slowly. $hen I ased him to open a web browser he chose Internet /plorer.


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Test Results

Initial Site Thoughts:

Tester 1 Report: &annah lied the design! it wasn't lie all the other websites on

the internet #it didn't follow the same rules! she thought%. She lied the front page slider

that showcased all the amenities and current attractions! it was the first thing that drew

her eye. She especially thought that showing the 5a +inci /hibition first #their current

attraction% really showed that they eep up on maintaining the website! eeping it fresh.

lthough when she began to scroll! using the scrollbar on the right of the screen! she

noticed that only part of the page moved : while the logoHnavigation and the warning for

closing times on 2ctober >>nd though the >Fthdid not! she thought that maybe the logo and

navigation could be smaller as well as the content so you see more without having to

scroll as much. She wished the navigation had a home button as well as the logo so you

could return home and she also wanted to see )drop-downs, on the navigation for visiting

more specific areas of the website. "rom what she could see8 she could find out about

ClosingOnly way to go


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displays! hours of operation! maybe buy a train ticet! and contact them if needing further

assistance.

Tester 2 Report: &oward didn't lie the website design as much as &annah did and

it made him feel lie the page was shouting! much lie a commercial. $hen the banner

first changed he was trying to read about the 5a +inci /hibit and wasn't able to finish

reading it before it did! so he had to wait till it came around to do so #he didn't understand

the arrows on the sides were meant to cycle through%. &e found it a little annoying that

the top area #navigationHlogo% was following him as he scrolled #with the scrollbar%. &e

did lie the warning on the bottom of the page! he said )at least they let us now in

advance.,


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Task 1: Scenario8 *ou are bringing your grandmother to Union Station for a Sunday afternoon

outing. She can't wal more than about D? steps at a time. 5etermine whether or not there will be

a wheelchair available for her to use during the visit.

Tester 1

&annah began her search for the wheelchair information by choosing )"acility 3entals,

under the e/plore the Station container and after a little searching and confusion she

decided that it wasn't there and went bac to the homepage and chose )Plan *our +isit,

on the navigation this time. 2n the )Plan *our +isit, page she found the (uest menities

lin and that's where she found the answer. Anser: )vailable at the Information ooth located in (rand &all. They are available on a

first come first serve basis for our guests at no charge. $e reBuire a valid drivers license to

hold as a deposit during the use of the wheelchair, #Union Station%. !omplete": *es

Tester 2

Answer on

the “Guest

Amenities

” page


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&oward immediately cliced on )Plan *our +isit, because as he said )this is an important

part of planning for a visit., few seconds of reading and he chose the )(uest

menities, lin because he saw the word assisted and thought it could possibly be there!

and he was e/actly right.

Anser: )vailable at the Information ooth located in (rand &all. They are available on a

first come first serve basis for our guests at no charge. $e reBuire a valid drivers license to

hold as a deposit during the use of the wheelchair, #Union Station%.

!omplete": *es

Recommen"ations to improve #$ for Task 1:

The heuristic that aligns most with increasing the UK of the website would be )fle/ibility

and efficiency of use, because they could have simply made the options into a drop-down menu

in the navigation! an e/ample of what I mean can be viewed below.

Task 2: Scenario8 *ou plan to see an /treme Screen movie during your visit! so you want to

secure ticets in advance. 5etermine what is playing on $ednesday! Lov. >Dth.


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Tester 1

• &annah said that she already saw the /treme Screen as an option on the )Plan *our

+isit, page and went straight to it! she did get a little confused on why the lin to buy

ticets was the only way to access the /treme Screen schedule. She also didn't lie that

there wasn't an actual date selector to see what movies will be available! but you actually

had to scroll through and chec the dates by hand. fter this was finished she tried to

return home by clicing the logo! the only way you could since there was not a )&ome,

button on the navigation and it 1ust sent her through a loop bac to the

)bo/office.unionstation.org, homepage. Anser: Jerusalem and 3obots 45

!omplete": *es

Tester 2

gain his reasoning for finding out where something was is that it's )an essential part of

planning your visit, and he cliced the )Plan *our +isit, menu item. lthough when he

got to the table at ticet pricing he was having difficulty figuring out where to clic from

there! the te/t wasn't woring as he thought it would. ventually he got this )aha, loo

on his face from the confused one and found the right spot.

Anser: Jerusalem and 3obots 45

!omplete": *es


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Recommen"ation to improve #$ for Task 2:

The recommendation for tas > I'm going to give would go under the )Consistency and

standards, heuristic for two reasons8 not being able to clic the name of the )/treme Theatre,

to go to the page and not being able to select a date to see specific movies playing then.

/amples of these can be seen below8

Taken from

Remove this after ing!ake these into hyperlinks to

pages


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Task %: (o through the steps of buying two ticets for an /treme Screen movie on that day.

5etermine whether or not you can choose the actual seats so that you and your grandmother will

have wheelchair-compatible seating.

Tester 1

&annah chose the movie Jerusalem and ept having to go through multiple screens in

order to select )dd to aset, and finally she was able to see the )0y Ticets, page

where you could clic the )Select Seats, image hyperlin! which 1ust too her bac a

page and was unable to find the answer. She said )this part of the site seems unfinished to

me, when we noticed it didn't actually let you select the seats. Anser: LH! couldn't find

!omplete": Lo

Tester 2

• fter choosing 3obots 45 as the movie he would pic he also found the )Select Seats,

hyperlin only to get this loo of utter confusion on his face since it doesn't wor as one

would e/pect it to. ventually he gave up on this tas! after 4 or F tries at using the

)Select Seats, option or trying to see if it was on a later screen instead.

Anser: LH !omplete": Lo

Recommen"ation to improve #$ for task %:

"i#n$t


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The &euristic I thin could be improved upon in tas 4 would be the )&elp and documentation,

heuristic because of the simple fact that users aren't sure how to select the seats and when you

use the )Choose Seats, option it doesn't wor. Buestion mar that you can hover over for more

information would be a nice way to improve this.

Task &: Scenario8 *ou'd lie to spend time waling around Union Station during your visit! but

you want to be sure enough areas of the station will be wheelchair-friendly. (o through the steps

to send an email to the appropriate personHdepartment to inBuire about wheelchair access

throughout all areas of Union Station.

Tester 1

&annah returned to the homepage! by entering the U36 since she new the logo wouldn't

tae her bac from earlier. "rom there she chose )Contact, on the navigation. There she

decided that )+isitor 3elations, should be able to answer the Buestion and cliced the

7mailto89 lin and it pulled up log-in information for outloo and a few minutes later! without

logging in! it simply pulled up a blan e-mail ready to send.

Anser: mailto8visitorMunionstation.org

!omplete"8 *es

Tester 2

On hover this coul#

have supporting

information

%


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&oward had a harder time at this than &annah did because he didn't now how to return to

the homepage to clic the )Contact, menu item he saw before so he 1ust pressed bac until

on the normal site and chose it then. &e had never used a 7mailto89 lin before so he had no

idea what was going on when it opened an empty e-mail! he had this mesmeriEed loo on his

face of pure confusion. &e finally said )$hy can't there 1ust be a contact formN, Anser: mailto8visitorMunionstation.org

!omplete": *es

Recommen"ation to improve #$ for task &:

The heuristic that needs to be improved upon most on tas F would be )"le/ibility and efficiency

of use, because not many people use 7mailto89 anymore! really contact forms are great because

you won't have to login each time you need to contact the company : you could 1ust include the

e-mail as a reBuirement to send the e-mail. n e/ample of a Contact "orm I've wored on can be

seen below8

Testing !onclusions


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!ompletion Rate for Tester 1: 'annah D@! which is pretty good when comparing it to

the typical completion rate of A@.

!ompletion Rate for Tester 2: 'oar" also got a D@ completion rate! which is really

close to the average completion rate. Similarities an" "ifferences: oth of the tester were pretty different in how they went about

completing the tass! or even solving issues. $hile &annah used her nowledge of how most

websites word things and where things are most liely to be under #lie how she guessed

wheelchairs could possibly be under )"acility 3entals,! even though it wasn't! that's why

she piced that first. &oward chose to use common wordsHphrases to somewhat guess where

things would be and he ended up doing 1ust as well as &annah in tas completion

percentage.

'euristic "one ell: heuristic! from Jaob Leilson's )

Documents

Usability Analysis of UnionStation.org