...

Results of Usability Testing

The Good

• Most of our users loved the look and feel of the website. The metaphor of using a bulletin board with stickies and paper.
• The idea of task notes and general notes was well received also
• The addition of due dates and the calendar was intuitive
• The idea of having collaborators in a bucket was understood by all users

The Bad and Ugly

• Bucket Metaphor
  • Sevierity - Minor
  • Explanation - Most of the users didn't not know what a bucket was, it had to be explained to them.
  • Possible Solution - We could revert to something more common like categories
• Long Names
  • Severity - Cosmetic
  • Explanation - Some users seem to use long titles in their tasks and did not like the fact that it showed a scroll widget after 2 lines. They wanted it to be symmetric with the short named tasks
  • Possible Solution - We could truncate to single line and have ... at the end. This decreases visibility, but opening a task will show the full name again
• Draggables
  • Severity - Major
  • Explanation - Sometimes, some draggable items on the screen do not get released and follow the mouse indefinitely. This annoyed a lot of the users
  • Possible Solution - More work on the JavaScript.
• Creation of Buckets
  • Severity - Minor
  • Explanation - Because the bucket metaphor failed, most users didn't create buckets for each classes in the task, they just added the tasks in one of the two pre-made buckets.
  • Possible Solution - Demo video or quick interactive instructions after login.
• Task Collaborators
  • Severity  - Minor
  • Explanation - Assigning tasks to collaborators was misunderstood by people. Most of the users failed to realize that a collaborator in a bucket isn't the same in a task. When asked to assign a person to a task, they would single click the task, then check a collaborator in the bucket view
  • Possible Solution - Explain to them - again, demo video or quick interactive instructions
• Notes Vs Tasks
  • Severity - Minor
  • Explanation - Even thought users loved the ideas of having notes and tasks, they weren't sure when to uses a note or make a task, or if other people would see the notes
  • Possible Solution - Explanation, demo video, or quick interactive instructions.
• Enter to complete
  • Severity - Minor
  • Explanation - A few users weren't sure how to commit their typed tasks, this is done by pressing enter. They were searching for a done or OK button. But after a while, it was learned. One user asked how to enter a task in.
  • Possible Solution - Either put a done button, which could decrease efficiency but increase familiarity. OR explain to users. Adding both is an unnecessary redundancy. 
• Note Edit
  • Severity - Cosmetic
  • Explanation - Most users expected that clicking in a note would edit it. They didn't actually notice the pencil edit icon on the bottom right corner.
  • Possible Solution - After explaining the reason for that was because of the dragging feature, they were ok with it.

Quotes
"How do i access my other bucket again"
"What is a bucket?"
"How do i do that?" <- After being asked to complete task 1
"You gotta fix this drag issue"
"Oh wow, looks like a bulletin board, nice"

Reflection

The most important thing we learnt is that user testing is really important!

...