[R U X] Corner
................................................................................ We are graduate and undergraduate students in the Research in User eXperience (RUX) Lab in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology. RUX investigates the usability and user experience of technology in our everyday world. This is a regular column that explores different technologies typically used by Embry-Riddle students. ................................................................................
How Booking a Fitness Class Really Works Out Jenna Korentsides, Caroline Riley, Katlyn Skilton, Andi St Clair, Stephen Woods Graduate Researchers Embry-Riddle’s new fitness center has state-of-the art equipment and facilities. You can walk in, climb a rock climbing wall, try out the weights, and even sign up for a fitness class. But how easy is it to do this? Is the experience great, or does it make it more difficult than necessary? As researchers in the RUX lab, we decided to find this out! Our goal was to investigate the user experience of booking a Group Fitness class through the Embry-Riddle website.
While all six participants were able to complete the task successfully, we noticed some more challenging steps. In particular, simply logging into the site was a challenge. When booking a class, participants are shown a login popup that prompts them to either log in through their University Single Sign-On (University SSO) or their Local Account. Participants did not know what University SSO was, and the prompt came after the user had already logged into their ERNIE account to view the gym’s website. We started collecting using experimental observation, Additionally, it was discovered that the Local Account does think-aloud feedback, and post-task interview questions. not allow you to log in at all. Another challenging task We asked six students to “book any class at the ERAU was finding the ERNIE Fitness Center Page link. Novices gym by starting with the Google landing page, search for expected this to be a button instead of a hyperlink, and the website where you would book a class, and complete they thought the link would be more obvious. the task of signing up for a fitness class at the ERAU gym”. Participants were asked to speak aloud throughout the Participants gave thorough feedback on what they liked session. Having completed this task, they were asked to and disliked. Some participants thought the process was answer a couple of post-task interview questions. Five of easy, while others noted that the process was long, required them were new to this task; one had done this task before. a lot of clicking, and some information was hidden. When asked about their thoughts on improving the site, As a means of evaluating the data, we created a they suggested a shorter registration path, the option to Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)— an HTA describes book further in advance, changes in the wording of the activities in a hierarchical form using goals and subgoals Group Fitness Center Registration button, links that are — based on the experienced participant’s task path. We easy to find, and not having to click Register twice for the also created a Cognitive Demands Table to analyze the same class. Participants felt like the website gave sufficient Think-Aloud Feedback, and, lastly, an Error Identification feedback to indicate that the booking was complete. Not Analysis to discover the most problematic steps. only was there a green check mark next to the fitness class and a green bar, confirming the action, at the top of the We, then, asked our participants: “How easy or difficult page, but the user also received an email confirming the did you find this task? What were some of the things that booking to their ERAU account. improved the experience? What were some pain points? Was there feedback to indicate whether the task was Signing up for a Group Fitness class should be complete or incomplete? Do you have any suggestions on as easy as walking in the door. Our participants improving the booking interface?” suggest several improvements. Page 26