1.Pre-Interview Process
Ask to download and launch current Watch ESPN app. Have user interact with the app and its show / game calendar list features to have them get familiar with the functionality.
Send tester the invision link prototype and pre-load to their mobile phones for faster browsing.
2.Start Video Taping
3.Task Introduction
Thank you ( User Name ) for your time testing my app.
My name is Jan Solis and i’m working on re-designing Watch ESPN’s calendar feature.
When researching how to improve Watch ESPN, i find it very difficult to find teams or future games on a later date. Also, there is no way for the app to remind me / bookmark when the show or game schedule i am interested.
The above features are my main focus in re-designing Watch ESPN’s app.
Graphic items, fonts or buttons colored in Red in the prototype indicates that they are clickable and does an interaction.
Do you have any questions before we begin?
4.Questions asked to user while interacting with prototype.
1.Scroll down to the calendar section. Is the new calendar more organized to you?
2. Is the future dates calendar easy to navigate? Click on Thursday, Nov 24. Is it easy for you to find games in that date?
3. When you find a game, and click on the bell notification red button. Does having a pop up to add that game to your schedule list make it easy for you to remember when that game is going to play / stream?
Any suggestions in improving the functionality?
4. Back to the calendar list, does the additional calendar filter navigation bar make it easy for you to sort what you are interested in?
Click on your teams, then click on Golden State for example. Does the filtering Golden State warriors games easy for you to find their future games to watch and stream.
Any suggestions in improving the functionality?
5. When you find a Golden state game, and click on the bell notification red button.
Does having a pop up to add that game to your schedule list make it easy for you to remember when that game is going to play / stream?
Any suggestions in improving the functionality?
5.Task completion and debrief.
Thank you again for your participation regarding user testing my Watch ESPN app redesign.
User Tester 1: Hector ( Very familiar with sports streaming apps. In fact he streams soccer and baseball games on his phone during lunch time at work )
User Tester 2: Ryan ( Very familiar with sports apps but only for statistics ( player, team ) scores and video recap highlights; streams live games sometimes )
User Tester 3: Nick ( Uses ESPN app to check scores, read sports related news and watches clips. He does not stream live sports games on his phone, prefers to watch on his TV )
What did you learn from the user testing session?
Learned this technique from my UX 1 professor which is by having items colored in red or any highlight color on an B&W mid-fidelity interactive prototype really helps users know which of the buttons or graphical elements are clickable and active, especially on a complex layout with lots of buttons and graphical elements.
A quite testing environment really helps reduce distractions as well.
I also prefer doing user testing on a mobile phone for a prototype designed as a mobile app. I think a combination of using iOS’s new screen recording feature and record the mouse / press clicks while the user interacting with the prototype and also use a separate video camera positioned on top of the phone to record their finger gestures, how they are swiping etc.. will have a better visual insight on what works and where the pain points are on the design.
What do you need to revise in the design of your app for the next iteration?
I did notice that having a clear back button or return to the previous screen helps users re-orient them where they are in the app especially the home screen / page which i’m going to feature on the final hi-fidelity of the prototype.
Also notice that by having a better design hierarchy helps guide the user to the most important elements of the app, which i noticed that even though i highlighted a button in red, it still took the user some time to press on it because the proportions are smaller compared to the elements near it especially on my app’s main calendar navigation / filter bar.
On the final hi-fidelity iteration of my app prototype, i’m going to re-implement the color red to indicate to the user its an active button, link etc.. but when adding images & graphic elements, i’m going to reduce their transparency about 50% to create a visual contrast to the elements that are active. This way, i’m visually guiding the user to press the more brighter / important active, clickable hierachy elements of the prototype and limit pressing the lighter elements especially on a complex layout with many buttons / graphics & images.
Becoming proficient at user testing requires practice. Do you feel you’re getting better at it every time you do an user testing session? Why or why not?
I do believe having more practice in user testing increases my awareness of user’s thought process. I start to notice common patterns of how users interact with my prototype, what works and what can be designed better to visually communicate effectively for an easier, faster interaction. It also helps if my testing questions are clear and the user was able to perform the task i asked them. It really helps recording the testing sessions because there are many other elements that i missed during testing but i can go back and review the videos to learn the other details.