UX - Usability Testing

USABILITY TEST FOR FURNITURE STORE X*

Course Project

Year: 2021

The following project is a Usability Test for the website Furniture Store X* that was conducted for the UX Design Programme at George Brown. We were tasked with creating the User Scenarios and User Prescreener Questionnaire that was then used to recruit the target audience. Our instructor was the moderator and we were notetakers; after a triage session, we were asked to report our findings.

*(name and branding has been changed for confidentiality purposes)

Furniture Store X is expanding their product line to other areas in the furniture space. With the launch of their new Store X Couch and Store X Outdoor Patio set they are looking to test their current website to evaluate the following:

Discoverability, Product Comprehension: Are users able to find out what makes Furniture Store X unique?
Product Features: What are the specific features of their products?
Website Features: How comprehensive are the instructions and product descriptions for the user to understand?
Path to Purchase: How easy is the path to purchase?
Couch Comprehension: Does the user understand how to configure the couch, and what makes it unique?
Store X Outdoors: How easy is it for the user to understand the outdoor product line?

To validate the goals of the intended experience, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If the intended audience does not understand what Furniture Store X offers and what the users can do on their website, they are most likely to leave.

Approach

The usability test took place on October 18th, 2021 in an online one-on-one moderated session with a selection of three respondents. Each session lasted forty-five minutes and included seven tasks. Users performed these tasks on FSX.com on their personal computers, and their sessions were recorded via Google Meet and Blackboard Collaborate. At the end of each task, the user rated its difficulty on a scale of One (easiest) to Five (hardest).

Approach

Goals and Objectives

Continued product expansion in the furniture space (max 5 big product categories)
Expansion across North America
Product innovation and continuous improvement
Retail integration and store in store concepts
Continue to be proudly privately owned

Participants

Three participants were selected and recruited by the Moderator. A survey was sent out to potential participants which helped narrow down the search. An incentive of a $100 Amazon gift card was provided to each participant at the end of the test via email. Each participant was recruited with the following characteristics in mind:

• The target audience for FSX are women between the ages of 35-45 years
• They have a household income of 95k+
• They are married or cohabitating

• They own their home
• They have two or more children under the age of 18
• They are tech-savvy and avid online shoppers
• They value family, friends and are very social

• They support local, entrepreneurial companies

• They appreciate quality and durability in household products

• They recently experience a life milestone

The characteristics listed above were very specific and were used as a guideline to help create the pre-screener questionnaire. It would be ideal to find candidates that would tick each box, but that is impossible. This helped narrow down the search for the optimal participant. The questionnaire consisted of 18 multiple choice questions, with answers that suggested moving on or terminating the questionnaire if the candidates did not match our criteria.

View the full Pre-screener questionnaire here

To come up with the task scenarios for this test, we first need to understand why Furniture Store X is conducting the test in the first place. I came up with a list of potential reasons why the test would benefit FSX:

Validate whether product objectives are relevant – pre-launch
Determine why specific users aren’t engaging with intended goals
Gain additional insight into friction points in the user experience
Continuous improvement to the experience
Findability of specific items or topics
Evaluate the information architecture
Gauge the level of satisfaction or pleasure derived from the experience
General sentiment and impression
An alternative version of an experience
Real user feedback while a user is interacting with your product
Uncover unknown unknowns

Keeping these in mind, I came up with five potential task scenarios that could be used in the usability test. These scenarios focused more on the launch of the two new products Store X Couch and Store X Outdoors instead of looking at the Store X Table, their most popular product and their website as a whole.

Task Scenarios

Scenario 1

You’ve moved to your new family home that is unfurnished. You and your family like to have comfy movie nights with the kids and at the same time, you like to have your friends over for casual games nights. You are looking for a couch that fits your family room accordingly. This item needs to be versatile to fit your family of four and guests that come to visit. You heard about Store X Couch through a friend, visit their website to find out more about a couch that fits this criterion.

Scenario 2

You’re interested in picking out a couch that you want to purchase, but you aren’t sure whether they charge for delivery to your location in Toronto. Find out whether they deliver to you without a delivery charge.

Scenario 3

You have a space that could fit a couch that is up to 125in long, and you want to find something that could fit your family of four along with as many guests as you can possibly have seated comfortably. Find out which couch would be most suitable for your needs on fsx.com

Scenario 4

Before you select your couch, you want to know how easy it is to assemble, and whether you would need professional help. Find out how you would put it together.

Scenario 5

The new house that you have moved into has a large backyard. You’re really excited to spend time outside hosting parties during the summer. You’re looking for a seating solution that could work for the family and your guests that is stylish and easily configurable to meet your needs. Visit fsx.com to see if you can find something that works for you.

Once all the task scenarios were gathered from everyone, the moderator finalised the scenarios that were used during the usability test. Even though the initial reason for testing was to gauge how users were responding to the new product line that had recently launched; it was decided to have a test that included a more general overview of all the products and the website as a whole. Final task scenarios listed below:

Task Scenarios

Scenario 1

You’re finally ready to have a large family gathering this holiday season after so many months apart, but have decided that you’re in need of a better communal table to accommodate everyone. A friend referred you to Furniture Store X and you’re curious about their product. Visit the Furniture Store X website and find out what makes them unique.

Scenario 2

You’re quite excited by the Store X Table, but you want to make sure it can fit everyone in your extended family of 12 before you make a final decision. Find this out on the FSX website.

Scenario 3

You’re feeling pretty confident about the Store X Table, but want to make sure you can handle putting it together when it arrives. Find this out on the Store X website.

Scenario 4

You’re ready to make a purchase. Add the Full Dining Set to the finish of your choice to your cart.

Scenario 5

While navigating the website to purchase your Store X Table, you noticed that they also have a Store X Couch and you’re curious to find out more. Find out what makes this product unique.

Scenario 6

Buy the Store X Couch that would be best for your family.

Scenario 7

You also noticed that Furniture Store X has outdoor products. Find out what they sell, and choose a set that’s right for you.

It's very important to be organised, therefore I filled out the Usability Test Plan Dashboard template by Dr. David Travis to help us layout the approach for the usability test. The plan makes sure everyone is on the same page: it highlights the test objectives, details about the participants, key roles and responsibilities of the team, the task scenarios, why we're conducting the test in the first place, along with a procedure, location and dates. This test in particular was on a much smaller scale, with only 3 participants, but I can see why it would be crucial to have all this information in one place when you are conducting a larger-scale test.

Overview of Findings

All three users were new to FSX.com. First impressions were very positive, they were all intrigued by the products and were interested in learning more. They all had a favourable reaction towards the video content on the homepage and couch product page.

In total there were fifteen issues that were raised; 2 Critical, 1 Major, 4 Medium and 8 Minor. The respondents found the tasks that involved learning about the products (table and couch) the easiest. They were able to go through the website and discover what makes these products so unique and how to put them together fairly quickly and easily.

There were two main critical issues that were discovered during the test, all three of the respondents struggled with the Outdoor product, they found it difficult to comprehend the general concepts and felt like more information was necessary. The users were reluctant to purchase the couch due to the need to feel the fabric. Some users thought that the photography of the fabric colours was inconsistent across the website. A major issue that was brought to light was that the users were confused by the information surrounding the number of people that could sit on the couch.

Minor issues such as the countdown timer was considered confusing by one user, they were unclear as to what this was counting down to. Another user did not notice that there were other fabrics that were available and needed clearer labelling to differentiate them. Delivery times when noticed for the table and outdoor patio set were acceptable, but one user did feel that the February Delivery date was a deal-breaker.

Medium severity issues arose when one user was trying to filter and sort the reviews, the user wanted there to be some functionality from the reviews and wanted to be able to jump to them versus scrolling down to find them. Users also clearly wanted more imagery of the product in real-life situations, they prefer when the products are shown within a context of a home.

Overall the tasks were all completed successfully by each user, with encouraging feedback throughout the test.

Issue Summary

Conclusion

Overall FSX.com tested extremely well, with high praise and valuable feedback from our users. The tests indicated trouble spots for the users and the areas where they were getting stuck or confused. Furniture Store X product tested well, with the users having a clear understanding of how the product worked. The couch and outdoor sets were appreciated but had the most problem areas, and would need further attention on getting them to the same level as the table product pages. All three users had an extremely positive response to the videos and thought the products were great. With a few adjustments made to the Outdoor and Couch product pages, I believe that there would be higher conversion rates in the future.

View the full report here

Key Takeaways

With this process, I learn that usability testing is such an important part of getting the user experience right. It is not enough to build a great product, you have to see firsthand how your users interact with it. This exercise solidified the notion that "You ≠ User". During the test, some moments were so unexpected as I thought the tasks were very simple and some things were very obvious, but I realised that what was obvious to me was not necessarily obvious to our user.

To re-iterate "You ≠ User"
The user is not wrong, if they can't find something or can't understand something, then it's just not clear enough
Talking to the user and observing them interact with your product, really helps understand how your user thinks, and that is the most valuable tool we have available
You can make the most beautiful product but it is pointless if it doesn't function the way your user needs it to function.