Testing and Report
We prepared 3 taskes:
Task 1:
You are a first-time traveler to U.S. You are apprehensive about lot of things like accommodation, car rental, restaurants etc. You are looking for accommodation nearby your office. You want to look for 1-bedroom apartment nearby your office. How would you look for 1-bedroom apartment from various apartments nearby your office?
Task 2:
You want to go to social security office. You will open my relocation planner application to look for nearest social security office near your office. Also, look for the required documents for your social security application.
Task 3:
You are fond of food and love to try new restaurants. You are in search of good restaurants. Open the application to search for various cuisines. You want to view Chinese restaurants.
Participants
My Relocation Planner is a web-based and mobile application for immigrants who are moving to United States for the first time. This application will enable immigrants to become familiar with their surroundings before moving to the United States. The ideal testing participants will be first-time users who are familiar with mobile applications. We will look for candidates who will be moving to U.S from different countries.
We got 5 users tested.
Test Results and Recommendations
General
Problem 1 (Website & Mobile): The account sign-up page shows up the letters when typing in the password, which made User 1 and 4 uncomfortable. Also, when the user clicked on the account fields, the defaulted information does not disappear automatically. The user instead has to delete the default text and then type in what they want, which is a waste of time. No signup function for website wireframe.
Problem 2 (Website & Mobile): User 3 mentioned that the login pages should have error handling for incorrect/mismatching passwords. User 4 mentioned that there should be an error message if the user enters a non-email field in the login page or sign up page.
Problem 3 (Mobile): After finishing the account signup steps, the user is directed to the profile page. Both User 4 and User 5 wondered why the profile page is showed up, instead of basic informations on a homepage. The web-version of the prototype has a different homepage.
Problem 4 (Website): User 4 suggested there should be more information on the home page. He prefers the menu bar on the left side. Also, he suggested to put the 5 services on the home page, which are the most important stuff on this website.
Problem 5 (Website): User 5 thought the font size of the menu button was too small. His first action was left and right arrow. After he clicked through the arrow carousel, there was nothing of value or important showing up in regards to the scenarios. The small circles on the left bottom under the image was confusing. The menu navigation was not the first thing this user found. The user also suggested that the navigation options stay fixed when the mouse hovers away.
Problem 6 (Website): User 2 observed that there was no log out button or link on the website.
Problem 7 (Website): User 2 observed that there was no settings page on the website.
Task 1: Housing
Problem 1 (Website): The test users could not find options for a 1-bedroom apartment. There were options by price point but not by apartment type (1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, etc.).
Problem 2 (Mobile): User 4 suggested that there could be more options in the filter menu when searching for housing.
Problem 3 (Mobile): User 5 could not figure out how to filter to 1-bedroom apartments. He clicked everywhere but the filter button. He said the first thing he wanted to press was the middle bar. He also suggested that the list and filter buttons should be both on the right side.
Task 2: Social Security Office
Problem 1 (Website & Mobile): Users 3 and 4 suggested to move the "checklist" above the "find office" section.
Problem 2 (Website): A few users noticed that the word "security" is spelled incorrectly on the Social Security page.
Task 3: Finding Restaurants
All users were able to successfully navigate through this task and did not have any relevant feedback.
Changes
Based off of the feedback we received from our test users, we decided to implement the following design changes and will incorporate in the next version of the prototype.
Mobile & Web Prototype Updates:
- Redesign the login page on Mobile and web prototypes
- Update password entry so that the password characters do not appear when typing
- Add error handling for email and password fields
- Remove default text once the user clicks on the field
- Add conditions for forgot username/forgot password
- Redesign Social Security Page (Mobile & Web)
- Place checklist first above the map location
Mobile Prototype Updates:
Create Mobile Home Page
Create a home page that the user is navigated to once they create an account or log in to the application.
Housing Page Updates
Add more filtering options so users can further customize their search
Make the search bar functional or clickable
Move filtering button in same column as list option to test if users can execute the filter functionality more effectively
Web Prototype Updates:
Update Web Home Page
Add the services to the web-based home page, so the user can navigate to the services via the home page and the menu bar.
Update the image carousel on the home page. Remove the circles at the bottom and rotate the images.
Update Web Main Navigation
Larger font size
Allow sub-menus to stay fixed when the user hovers their cursor
Housing Page Updates
Add filtering functionality to housing web page (# of bedrooms, housing type, pricing)