Week One: Mon

User Experience Test

This weeks independent study was to conduct a user experience test. The participant was given the task of finding what electives are available for visual communication design students at the 300 level. As per the instructions, I had planned for the same person repeating the test three times with varying circumstances, but my first user was too frustrated after the first failed attempt to try again. I swapped users for the second test and they also gave up and did not want to participate again. My last user was a Massey student, which was clear with the speed that they completed the task.


This was the first attempt at the task. The user was presented with the Google homepage and no other information to go on. The user was not familiar with the Massey University website and after 7 minutes, the frustrated participant gives up.

After typing into Google, 'Massey university visual communication design' they were brought to this page. This is the correct page to be on but unfortunately the information is not clear at all and the participant went for the search bar to help them find the information. This is as close to finding the information as they were going to get over the course of the test.

My participant then got stuck on the Course search page for a good few minutes until they gave up. I really think that this page is so useless.

The second participant is also unfamiliar with the Massey website, and also has no prior knowledge of university lingo, eg. they did not know what 300 level meant. This attempt started on the Massey homepage and went for 6 and a half minutes. The second participant got closer than the first since they managed to find the correct page with the link to the 'yellow book' but they gave up also without finding the information. 

The last video is of my third user using a phone to find the information instead of a laptop. They are presented with the Google homepage and must find their way from here. The third user is a Massey student. It seems that going straight from Google was the easiest way since the Massey website is so convoluted.

The results from this test are very interesting but mostly expected. I knew that it was not going to be easy for users 1 and 2 to find the information because I struggled to find it too and I am a Massey student. Before I ran this test I was trying to locate the information so that I knew where my subjects had to go, but I couldn't find it and had to text my friend to help me.

I also remember how confusing the Massey website is from when I was enrolling for the first time. That was not easy and it made me very frustrated and stressed, just like how it did today for my test users.

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What I found most interesting was that the third user found the information so much easier by simply typing the objective into Google. Surely it should be just this simple to locate the information from the Massey site as well.

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From this task I can see clearly a few things that could be redesigned.

Number one is the search bar in the Massey website. This is absolutely useless for most people and then leaves them with no clue where to go next. This needs to be redesigned so that you can search for what you need and it comes up!

The second thing to change is where the 'yellow book' is found and also what it is called. Nowhere does it say in that sentence that the book contains information about electives. It is also easily scrolled past and thrown in between a whole bunch of 
information and other links, even though it is clearly an important resource.

It really seems like such an huge oversight to not put the link to the 'yellow book' in the elective courses section as well as just courses. The website doesn't seem to cater for people who want to see what classes are available. The course search as mentioned after the 'yellow book' link is only useful for those who know which class they want to look up, as well as the class number. There is no other location where one can find a list of all the classes and electives available, that I have found anyway. The website definitely seems to be catered for people who are thinking about enrolling for the first time, although funnily enough the site is just as confusing, if not more for first timers.

Good Website Design

This website is for the American tea company 'Art of Tea'. I am particularly drawn to this website because of the clean and minimal layout, and the beautiful photography that aligns with the intangible feeling of the products they are selling. I also like the colours and I think they have done a good job of keeping the colours similar and in the same tone. Additionally it is easy to explore the site and everything is laid out in the menu bar at the top of the page for easy access.

This website is for the American tea company 'Art of Tea'. I am particularly drawn to this website because of the clean and minimal layout, and the beautiful photography that aligns with the intangible feeling of the products they are selling. I also like the colours and I think they have done a good job of keeping the colours similar and in the same tone. Additionally it is easy to explore the site and everything is laid out in the menu bar at the top of the page for easy access.

https://www.artoftea.com/

Choosing a Topic

Out of the ideas I brainstormed, I am most drawn to three.

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1. Growing your own vegetables, and how to do this even if you live in an apartment with no garden

2. Boycotting fast fashion, and focusing on either buying from sustainable and ethical brands or learning how to repair, re-wear and revamp old clothes

3. How to compost even in a city apartment

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I have decided to go with growing your own vegetables at home, particularly from scraps rather than seeds.

Class Notes