moderated usability Study: Profile Navigation
Puprose
Evaluate ease of finding navigation items in user profile interface.
Follow-up on Card Sort & Tree Test studies, to determine if users experience greater success with newly labeled and organized categories within the
Research Questions
From IA studies
How many tries does it take users to navigate to items?
Are any top level categories more difficult to navigate to than others?
Are any category labels unclear?
From previous usability tests
Do participants understand which sections are global and which are brand-specific?
Do they notice when their profile information is private or public?
New Questions
Are participants able to navigate to personalization and interest items?
Where do participants look for saved articles? Saved recipes? Newsletter preferences? Shopping Lists?
Where do participants look for their own recipes that they have submitted?
Method
Participants
Number: 6 (and 1 pilot)
Demographics
Age: 25-64
Education: High school +
Location: USA
Recruitment: UserZoom Go
Device: Desktop
Approach
Moderated usability test
Screener
Screen in:
Frequency: Looks for articles online about health, parenting, entertainment, food, beauty or travel monthly or more
Age: 25-64
Screen out:
design-related professionals
Top Findings
Favorites vs Saved Items
Users expressed uncertainty about whether or not favorites were the same as items they had saved, as they may not know whether or not they like something when they save it. It may be something they’re interested in trying later. They equated favorites to things they really enjoyed, or similar to facebook likes.
Favorites vs Personal Recipes
Users displayed some confusion about where to find recipes they submitted. They were unsure if Personal Recipes were recipes they had saved.
Shopping Lists
Users displayed no difficulty finding shopping lists. All participants found them from the My Account dropdown
Recommendations
Consider “Saved Items” or other label using the word “save” as label for “Favorites” section
Consider condensing address/region information to one section under settings, or connect address to auto-populate region
Ability to have more than one region? Or some way to use different regions with the site, for people performing tasks outside their home.
Explore ways to differentiate Personal Recipes from saved recipes, and to clarify that Personal Recipes are recipes submitted by the user. Consider “Submitted Recipes”