Usability Report by Hannah Schindler

F I N A L USABI L I TY RE P ORT for www.suzannecollinsbooks.com H A NNAH SC H IND L E R D E C E MBE R 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Executive Summary II. Chapters 5 6 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18

Site Description Competitor Analysis Scenarios Personas Collage Rationale Diary Study Interview Surveys Cards Sorting User Testing Preparations Card Sorting Analysis Usability Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Problem

The website, www.suzannecollinsbooks.com, has a lot of potential of being a very well designed and useful website for fans of the hers. At the moment, the site is hard to follow, unorganized and doesn’t even include crucial content for an user. The main objectives of the site are to allow users to find all of Suzanne Collin’s works, events, about her and where/how to buy her books. Since it is a pretty simple site, the homepage should include links to all of these task and the user should be able to find the answer very easily. After doing some user testing, the site does not allow for easy accessibility of any of this. The homepage is poorly laid out and the navigation and all the text blend together so figuring out what to click on is almost impossible.

Methods

The methods that were done for the usability testing were competitor analysis, scenarios, personas, diary study, interviews, surveys, card sorting and user testing. The competitor analysis analyzed similar author’s sites and ways those sites compared. The scenario illustrated how a user would be thinking when deciding to click on the site and once they are clicking around the site how they see it. The persona uses that same user and illustrates information about them as a way to understand the types of users that would be going to the site. The diary study shows the user’s emotion and how they solve problems similar to this site as a way to understand how these types of users solve problems. The interview is a way to learn more about the user’s technology usage and some technical things they see after looking at the site. The Survey is a way to understand what the user wants to see on the site and more about the user themselves. The card sorting is a way to determine how people categorize items. User Testings is a way to see how a user responds to the current site and how they try to solve a given task. This is very important in seeing which designs are effective on a site and which need to be reworked so the user can find it more easily.

Results

After all of this research, it is evident that this could be a very great informative site for the author. She has lots of great information that her readers would be interested in learning more about. The site itself though does not reflect her accomplishments as an author at all. One of the user’s even mentioned how crazy it was that someone so successful has such a poorly designed site. He didn’t even believe that this was her site. It is clear from the testing that the navigation needs to be more defined and styled differently from the rest of the text. That right of the bat seemed to give all three users the most confusion just from looking at the site for a few seconds. They all started scrolling to look for some place to click and when they were unsuccessful were able to finally realize that the small, text to the right was the navigation. Another problem was trying to figure out which books were part of a series and which were individual books. Unless the user is aware of the series beforehand it is confusing. There is also no easy way to find where to buy each individual book or even read a summary of the book. The text is so hard to read most of the users even missed the small summaries some of the books included. The about page for the author was very text heavy and hard to read.

Solutions

The biggest solution to this site would be for a better layout for all the content. By using design techniques like chunking to group paragraphs together or cutting the line length, it will create better readability for the user. The homepage should highlight the navigation and allow for it to be easily seen by the user. Another solution would be to add a better structure for the “work” tab. Allowing the users to understand how all Suzanne’s book fit together whether it be the first, second or third book in a series or an individual book is very important if the user goes to either find new books by her or to see which book comes next in the series. Even something as simple as after you click on work there are different buttons that include the different series or individual books. Just allowing the user to differentiate them is important. Once the user clicks on a book, there should be a few links of where they can purchase the book. This page should also include a summary and a place to read user reviews of the book. The last solution is for the about page. The about page should have some kind of way to learn about the author without having to read paragraphs of text. Including shorter paragraphs or some fun facts would be a way for the user to learn about the author without having to read every single thing about her.

SITE DESCRIPTION This website is a website to promote Suzanne Collins books. Her website does not reflect the hugely successful books she is selling. Her most famous books are The Hunger Games series. This website can be dramatically improved to provide information on how to buy the books, read reviews and learn a little more about the author and what else she has coming. Right now, the website has no grid and is not organized at all. The lack of grid is distracting for the user and allows confusion where there is really no need for it. It is hard to figure out where to even click to learn more about the books or the author. The colors are dull and the mix of fonts are not helping. The navigation is styled very similarly to the rest of the text on the page. This in turn makes it blend in with all the rest of the text and the reviews underneath. The reviews also have no structure or reason for placement which leads the user to find it hard to group information together. If there was more of a chunking or grouping system on the site information would be easier to follow and digest. This website can be a great way to market the books and allow the user to get directed to a site to buy the book or allow them to buy the book right off the current site. Users should be able to use the site as a place to see comment on the books, read excerpts, maybe even read never released pieces. There is so much going for the site and the author that are not explored in this poorly designed site.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

SCENARIO Scenario for Persona on the right Ellie loved reading the series “The Hunger Games.” She finished them all in a week. She is really interested in learning more about the author and other books or projects she is working on. She googles the author and finds her website. She clicks on it and starts to look around, getting a little confused as to where to click. She first sees a picture of a women in the center of the page and assumes its the author. “Isn’t this a site about her work?” Confused by the photo she continues to look around. Looking for somewhere to click but realizing that everything is styled the same which confuses her and doesn’t allow her to see any navigation. She starts scrolling assuming maybe its a scrolling site and their isn’t anywhere to click until she is further down on the page. She finally realizes the whole page is just words so she scrolls back to the top thinking maybe she missed something. She sees the side panel with quotes and doesn’t understand where they are from or why they are there. Finally, she reads the words above that box and realizes its the navigation, only because she knows the words “home” and “work” usually to linked pages to click on. She clicks on “works.” She is interested in buying another book at a bookstore by Suzanne Collins but is frustrated because she can’t find what bookstores near her sell the book. All she can find is a summary of the book. She scrolls again thinking maybe its further on the page. She still cant seem to find it so she gets frustrated and clicks out of the page.

PERSONA PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

ELLIE BROWN AGE: 12 GENDER: FEMALE HOMETOWN: MISSISSIPI OCCUPATION: STUDENT

MOTIVATIONS

BIO Ellie Brown is a 12 year old student. She is from and lives in Mississippi. Ellie spends her time researching new things and going to museums. She wants to study engineering. Chances are you’ll find Haley reading a good book, or helping her mom in the kitchen. She is especially into series like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and would love to read more books by these authors. She loves being able to find new books from her favorite authors and wants to be able to do some research on her own before her mom takes her to the bookstore.

PERSONALITY (MYERS-BRIGGS) Extrovert

TECH USAGE Introvert

22% Intuitive

Observant

23% Thinking

Feeling

3 HR/DAY

65% Judging

45%

teach people all over the world engineering travel all over like to Spain and France meet a world famous engineer find good books while she is abroad live outside the United States

FRUSTRATIONS • • • •

people that don’t know a second language traveling to places with cold weather people who are rude and not helpful bad and scary movies in theatres

As a student, Ellie uses her computer for school to do research and find lots of information. She also loves being able to connect with people on her computer and spends a lot of time on it. She uses her phone to text her friends, check her social media like facebook and instagram and take beautiful pictures all over the world.

GOALS • find new books by her favorite authors, Suzanne Collins

Prospecting

and J.K. Rowling

33% Assertive

• • • • •

• spend a lot of time in museums with her family

Turbulent

2 HOUR/DAY

• go to Spain and teach engineering

COLLAGE

frustrated distraction confusion angry sad

RATIONALE The first thing I thought about when coming up with words for my collage was that it made me frustrated. Frustrated of where to look first, where to click, what the website was actually trying to showcase. The first few images I picked were ones where the person looked frustrated and bored. The website itself is boring and is hard to figure out which doesn’t help the user. I felt a sense of confusion and was a little lost as I continued to look at the website. I had trouble finding the navigation which along with my frustration led to being confused. This led me to looking up pictures of mazes with no start and no end. The lines of text are all different lengths and they start all over the page. There is no grid layout and some of the lines are so choppy they are hard to even follow. After my frustration and confusion, anger set in. I was so lost and confused that it was hard to figure out where to click. If it takes this long to figure out where to click chances are most people would just click away because they are frustrated. I became sad at how long it was taking me to find what I was looking for. Even trying to read the reviews on the side where hard because they weren’t lined up and the lines and everything don’t read well. They are very choppy and not easy to follow. Another issue I was having was trying to figure out what information was clickable. All the text is pretty much the same font and mostly the same color. A few words are blue which helped differentiate some of the links but the navigation is black just like the body text. This led to more frustration and anger. Once I found the navigation, I clicked on one of the other pages. This page is set up a little better than the homepage with book covers and descriptions next to them. It had more of a purpose, which was also helpful since the cover was just a scrolling mess. I then went to click on another tab and this led to a similar problem I was having on the homepage. The text on this page however was all bold and it was hard to figure out which part was the question and what was the answer. There was long line length which made it hard to follow and they were not chunked well so it was hard to even see which one was the question and the answer even with it all being bold text. Overall this website created a lot of emotion from frustration to anger to sadness that didn’t allow for a very successful experience.

DIARY STUDIES This study is used to be able to tell about the user’s emotions and interactions. It teaches us long term behavior and activities of the user. There will be 15-20 people participating in this survey from the ages of 12-20. Sampling will be chosen by participates that are either reading “The Hunger Games” or interested in reading the series. The user will have to complete tasks and write a log of when they read the book and talk about it with their friends. This method doesn’t allow for as much observation and learn everything the user is thinking. They decide what they log and can be as precise as they want. A benefit is that the user is more relaxed so they will be thinking naturally and normally in their everyday life. They will be able to log their real life behavior and how they experience things. The study will last a few weeks or until they have a good amount of information that they logged. This information will be added the other user testing to create an all around representation of the demographic of people using the site and their behaviors.

Questions

Write down every time you read “The Hunger Games.” What made you interested in reading the books? Have you read other book’s in this same genre? How did you learn about the series? Do you talk about it with your friends? If so, who? What makes you interested in reading this type of book? What time of day is your favorite to read? Do you read mostly at school, home, both, other place? How many times have you read the series?

Proposal

www.suzannecollinsbooks.com is redesigning their website They are looking for young, hunger games fans interested in enhancing and improving the usability of the author’s site to allow readers a better way to stay up to date on new books or events that is happening. Participants have to have read or be reading The Hunger Games series and be between the ages of 12-20. Any gender, age and location. The survey consists of keeping of log every week of a few things related to reading and talking about books. If you are interested in having an impact on current or future readers of Suzanne Collins consider participating in this survey. Click here if you would like to participate. 10

INTERVIEW Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview! We are working on redesigning www.suzannecollinsbooks.com and would like to get some feedback on a users perspective. I would like to start off with asking some basic questions about yourself. How often do you read? [answer] What is your main source for finding new books? [answer] How often do you find books online? [answer] Tell me a little about your tech usage, do you use a computer, tablet, mobile? [answer] So you said you mostly use a computer, what are some sites you regularly visit? What are your first thoughts at this website? (shows suzzanecollinsbooks.com) [answer] Just by looking at this site, what are some things you wish it included on the homepage? [answer] These are really good answers. Just a few more questions if you wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind. How often do you tend to read books by the same author? [answer] What would make you continue reading another book by the same author? [answer] Great, last one. How often do you find new books online? [answer] Can you give me some example of sites you use to find new books? [answer] We are done. Thank you so much for all your feedback and answers. We really appreciate your time and your feedback is very valuable in improving this site.

SURVEY How often do you read? a) 1-4 hrs a week b) 5-10 hrs a week c) more than 10 hrs a week d) rarely This determines the types of information that the website will include. If more of the users are frequent reads that can determine the type of language that is on the site. What is your main source for finding new books? a) internet b) bookstore c) friends d) teachers This shows the competition whether it be online or in a store or blogs, etc. It matters in the design because when designing you have to factor in the competitors. How often do you find books online? a) 1-4 times a month b) 5-10 times a month c) 10-20 times a month d) more than that This is important because it might show how often they are thinking of using this particular website and what materials they would like to find. It matters for the design because it would determine the amount of pages the site would need if they visit a lot. Which device are you most likely to use to research books on? a) computer b) tablet c) mobile d) other This is important in determining what screen size to focus on designing for. They are all important but if many users are looking from their phone then the design of that is the most important.

How often do you tend to read books by the same author? a) Very often b) Often c) Rarely d) Very rarely This would determine if the user regularly visits other authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s websites. This would again affect the competitors. How often do you research new books online? a) Everyday b) Once a month c) Every six months d) Once a year This would determine how often the user looks online for books. This affects design because it would show how often the user would likely use the site. How old are you? a) under 10 yrs b) 10-15 yrs old c) 15-20 yrs old d) 20-25 yrs old e) 25-30 yrs old f) over 30 yrs old This would determine the demographic of users visiting the site and what age range to design for. Do you often read reviews of books online? a) very often b) often c) not very often d) never This would determine the types of content that is going on the site and what the types of people using the site would be reading. Do you enjoy sites with lots of images or more words? a) lots of images b) more words This would determine the type of design the user would like to see shown on the website.

Do you enjoy watching videos? a) yes b) no This would also determine types of content that would be included on the website. Can you give me some example of sites you use to find new books? FILL IN ANSWER This would determine competitors and what kind of similar sites the user visits. This would affect the design because creating a site that is different but familiar makes the user more comfortable on the site. So you said you mostly use a computer, what are some sites you regularly visit? FILL IN ANSWER This would determine what other sites the user is familiar with and is used to using. Keeping the similar to other sites design-wise would help the users feel comfortable on the site. What would make you continue reading another book by the same author? FILL IN ANSWER This is important because you need find out what makes users go to the site in the first place and their main goal. This affects the design because the main goal should be addressed clearly on the homepage. What are some of your favorite websites to visit? FILL IN ANSWER This is similar to the question above but more general not just for finding books. What are some of your other hobbies? FILL IN ANSWER This would determine the types of people that would be going on the site. It would help understand the types of people that you are designing for. What is your main reason for visiting this site? FILL IN ANSWER This would determine their goals and reasoning for visiting the site. This would affect the design because the goals should be addressed on the homepage of the site. Who is your favorite author? FILL IN ANSWER This would also help determine the types of people visiting the site and who you are designing for. 14

CARDS SORTING 1. Script of the session

This is a card-sorting test, which is used to determine how people categorize items. This is used when determining how information is organized on a website and allows you, as a user, to be able to find items on the site most effectively. The data that is collected will be compiled and analyzed to show where people look for specific items. This way when you are on a site and try to find a book review you will know exactly where you should look for it and it will be easily accessible.

2. Detailed Instruction for Participates

Thank you for participating in this user testing for the site www.suzannecollins.com. This activity will take about 10 minutes to complete. There will be items on the left of the screen. You will take these individual items and sort them into groups that make sense to you. You can use the groups that are provided or create your own groups. There is no right or wrong answer so just try your best. When you are done click finished at the top right hand corner.

3. Cards

All cards all books book reviews new releases about author purchase books book tour movie adaptations news book club future books merchandise multimedia blog audiobooks photo gallery keep connected on social media contact subscribe to newsletter

FAQs series calendar other projects read an excerpt interview with the author links to other related sites picture books sci-fi fantasy book covers events Categories Works About Upcoming Other Media 15

USER TEST PREP Introduction The purpose of this test is to assess the usability of a www.suzannecollinsbooks.com website. I will be asking you to walk through a few tasks to see how the usability is on the site. This test is not to test your abilities but to test how user friendly the site is. Do not be afraid to give your honest opinions and do not feel like any feedback is not important. For the purposes of this test, I ask that you explain everything you are thinking and that you give as much feedback as you feel is necessary. Take as much time as you need to complete each task and do not feel rushed or pressured. This session will be recorded for research purposes. Would you be comfortable signing an agreement allowing for monitoring and recording of this session? Present and have signed the form General Questions How often do you read? How often do you look online for book recommendations? What would you say is your most used device to do research? (tablet, computer, phone) Begin Tasks You have just finished â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Hunger Gamesâ&#x20AC;? by Suzanne Collins and you wish to find the sequel in the series. Find the sequel in the series. You finished The Hunger Games series and you would like to find more books by the author and read some reviews to see if you would be interested in reading more of her books. Find a review on another book by the author. You would next like to read a summary of the book from above. Where would you go for this? You would like to find more information about the author. Find this information and how you feel about how the information is presented. You would like to purchase a book after looking at the reviews on the site. How would you go about doing this?

CARD SORTING ANALYSIS This activity was interesting because when I was testing it on participants one of them commented saying that a few of the items could be sorted in two different categories. I told him to put it where he thinks it fits best. The main items that were categorized were pretty consistent like about author, book covers, events, future books, calendar, multimedia and purchase books. A few had some discrepancies including book club, new releases, series and news. This is a very simple website so these in either category would work well and would be easy to find. It was interesting because all three participants sorted social media links into three different categories, about, media and other. I think that social media doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really have a strong place on a site and that it can be repeated on multiple pages.

USABILITY REPORT Introduction www.suzannecollinsbooks.com is a website to showcase work by the author Suzanne Collins. On author websites, there are usually books, reviews, summaries, places to buy the books, upcoming events, upcoming books and a bio about the author. Hannah Schindler, a graduate student in ICM 512, conducted usability testing on participants who were asked to complete five tasks. TechSmith Relay was used to record their voice and capture their screens as they were using the site. Hannah administered the three participants user tests from Massachusetts using Safari and Macbook Pro. The purpose of this test was to assess the usability and design functionality of the site. The participants were asked to complete five tasks. The participants had never visited the website prior to the test. Participants Participant 1- Man, age: 50+, familiar with computer, not familiar with site or content Participant 2- Woman, age: 50+, not as familiar with computer, not familiar with site or content Participant 3- Man, age: 16, very familiar with computer, not familiar with site but familiar with content List of Tasks You have just finished â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Hunger Gamesâ&#x20AC;? by Suzanne Collins and you wish to find the sequel in the series. Find the sequel in the series. You finished The Hunger Games series and you would like to find more books by the author and read some reviews to see if you would be interested in reading more of her books. Find a review on another book by the author. You would next like to read a summary of the book from above. Where would you go for this? You would like to find more information about the author. Find this information and how you feel about how the information is presented. You would like to purchase a book after looking at the reviews on the site. How would you go about doing this?

Analysis All of the three participants commented right away about the poorly designed interface. They all said it was hard to follow and understand where to look first. The participants had trouble completing all the tasks and were left looking for more information. Participant 1 and 2 were having a hard time even trying to figure out where the navigation was. They both started scrolling to find the answer to the first task. Participant 2 was able to find some information on the homepage but was still unclear about which was the sequel to the first book as she saw that they were not labeled or organized by series. Participant 3 was familiar with the series and was able to easily identify which was the sequel. It was also interesting because he was the only one to be able to identify the navigation within the first few seconds of looking at the homepage. User 1 time spend looking for nav

44 sec

User 2 didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even notice it for a few minutes

User 3 10 sec

They all struggled to complete task three (find the summaries of specific books) although participant 2 was able to find one sentence about one of the books. The other two participants were left confused and not sure where to look for the summaries. They didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize that there was a summary on the work pages itself. They all were able to find information about the author but all commented about how much information there was. Participant 2 said she would read the beginning and then scan the rest. Another reoccurring problem all three ran into was trying to purchase the book. They all were able to find the quick links in the bottom after a little while of searching. They clicked on it and were disheartened to see that it took them to the amazon homepage and not the specific book page they were on. They all were expecting it to take them directly to the book they were looking to purchase. Participant 3 even clicked on another book to see if that specific book would take him to the direct page link. The participants agreed that it would be useful to have a purchase book option when you are reading information about the book.

“Very tiny links” “not very well laid out” “not clear which books are connected and not connected, some are in a series some are not in a series” “looks like a lot of words in a small area and it just doesn’t seem appealing to me” Recommendations for improvement - add a structure and design to the site to create a more consistent layout - add better navigation buttons - add a better “work” structure so you can see which books are part of a series and which are singular books - add a place to read reviews, summary and a place to purchase the book (that are all cohesive and in the same place) - create a more interactive way to learn about the author even just shortening the paragraphs or adding some bullets that if you don’t want to read paragraphs would give you some information and not be so long Add a structure and design to the site to create a more consistent layout-HIGH IMPORTANCE This is very important to the success of the site. The participants spent so much time just trying to figure out where to find the navigation and were to find even the book titles. There was so much information presented on the homepage they were overwhelmed and confused as to what it all meant. There needs to be a focal point on the homepage whether it be a direct thing to click on or just highlighting an event or news by the author. The site also needs a better overall layout for the content. By chunking the paragraphs together and cut the line length, it will create easier readability for the user to follow. Add better navigation buttons-HIGH IMPORTANCE This is also very important because the two of the participants were not even sure where to find the navigation. They spent time scrolling through the site and were not sure where to click and what items were click-able. Making the navigation look clickable and more prominent of the page would allow the users to find it more easily and

complete tasks more effectively. Add a better “work” structure so you can see which books are part of a series and which are singular books-HIGH IMPORTANCE The purpose of going to this site is to see what books the author has written and to get more information about them. The participants were having trouble figuring out which books went with which series. This is important so you don’t buy the third book before you read the second. Adding different buttons to click on once at the work page would be helpful for the user. Add a place to read reviews, summary and a place to purchase the book (that are all cohesive and in the same place-IMPORTANT This has started to be done on the site but it is confusing to users which are reviews and which are summaries. Two of the participants completely didn’t even see the summaries on the work pages because there was so much information cluttered on every page. The reviews were way too long and they were hard to follow because they were treated the same way as all the other text on the site even though they are a more concentrated amount of text. Also adding a link on that page near the summary of places to purchase the book. Create a more interactive way to learn about the author even just shortening the paragraphs or adding some bullets that if you don’t want to read paragraphs would give you some information and not be so long-LOW IMPORTANCE Creating a more dynamic way to read the author biography is important if you are on a site about just her books but can be an easy fix by adding some bullet points or some shorter paragraphs styled a little more interested and different than the navigation and header text. I found this testing very interesting. I tested it on two older people and one younger person. The younger person was able to identify things much more easier than the older people and that is definitely important to note when designing a website for younger people. The two older people also started scrolling first before looking for links and the younger person scrolled for a second and then realized he could click on the links. Although the test was meant on younger people, it was interesting to see the difference age has on how people interact with technology. Older people have a harder time differentiating things on a site while a younger person can pretty much identify things very easily because they have been exposed to technology and websites since they were born.