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The last usability problem lies in the fundamental design choice to group stream by categories. Categories are at times limiting and restrictive. One user was not sure how to navigate to a particular stream because she did not know enough about the stream to narrow it down by categories (and did not see or choose to use the search box). Categories seem good for mindless perusing, but inefficient to finding specific streams. We also need to find a balance on how many categories and subcategories to display. Too many can overwhelm users; too few doesn't give the users enough information. We currently err on the side of too few categories (except for gaming and sports, which we expect our target audience to be looking for).
Positive Feedback
During our last round of user testing, we received a positive feedback as well as the usability problems outlined above. People overall tend to like our simple and efficient design. Because of the minimalist design, user tasks are done overall immediately obvious and quickly executed. The history bar was also intuitive and noticeable (we feared otherwise based on the feedback on the paper model). For users who are good at internet searching, the search box was something they found easy to use and efficient. Our loading animations were able to keep users patient as the data loads. Lastly, because Streambrowser eliminates the clutter of advertisement and chat, people found it to be faster to use our site than Justin.tv and other similar sites.
Reflection
From the iterative process, we learned that ...
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