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You saved your resume.  Get ready to go to the career fair.

Observations

We conducted six user tests with our paper prototype during the class sessions.  Two of these students were international (one was a graduate student and the other was an undergrad).  We also ran two additional tests on international students in a dorm.  Below are typed notes regarding each task and a summary of the feedback we received.

Task 1

Notes

• Users generally click on input field and then start typing
• A couple of users use tab to move between input fields
• User sometimes tries click on hint bubbles
• User expected correct examples in hint bubbles
• One user would have preferred separate start and end date input fields
• One user thought “Relevant Coursework” meant include a single class
• One user tried to add a long-form description into “Comment” field
• Bullet points could prompt the user to use short, direct descriptions
• “Address” field might be confusing (is it a mailing, home, or college address?)
• “Comment” field might be confusing, consider changing to “Accomplishment”, “Task”, or “Objective”
• “Add Comment” link sounds like it saves the text typed in the “Comment” field
• Missing a “Save” or “Next” button on first iteration

Summary

A few users chose to click through each text boxes, while others wanted to tab through the boxes. The users who wanted to tab through the boxes not only wanted to tab through the individual details of one category (e.g. “Education Details”), but also wanted to tab from section to section.  The users did not have trouble filling out information and were helped by the help bubbles on the right side.  Changing the help bubbles to specific examples would have helped some users and we experimented with this on the second iteration.

One person wanted a calendar feature to pick dates.  We added the feature in the second iteration, but people did thought it was overly specific.  They wanted to have an option to say “Fall 2011” or something of that nature, which the calendar option would not allow.  Several users wanted to add a phone number and one tried to add multiple email addresses (he searched for an “Add Email” link similar to the “Add Comment” links).

One user had concerns about the biographic information, saying that “Address” (specifying mailing address) was confusing. She did not know whether to put a home or college or other address.

The term “Comment” confused our users and we tried several variations.  We switched to  “Accomplishment” in the second iteration, which was helpful.  Adding specific examples in a help bubble would have been helpful.

Task 2

Notes

• Some users did not realize that the task involves drag and drop from the first sight
• User preferred if the resume was pre-filled with biographic and education details
• User tried to scroll through his information on left side to see everything he has filled in
• User wanted to control the ordering of the draggable elements, and have the ability to reorder them within the resume container
• Use appropriate mouse cues to indicate sortability
• User thought that some of the section headers are clickable  
• Most users liked the idea of restricting the resume to one page
• Some users would like to have different templates for resumes
• Users liked to have a clear-to-see large button for saving the new resume
• Users would like to be able to see clearly how “Save” and “Save As” work: show a dialog for doing the saving process

Summary

Users were initially confused by how to move the details from the left side of the page to the resume template on the right.  They generally tried to click on the details to see what happened and when this caused a section to detach, then dragging and dropping was typically obvious.  One user did not understand the drag and drop interface. The one who did not asked for a hint indicating what to do.

Users did not realize that the resume only takes one page worth of material and rejects material after the resume passes the limit.  However, they all agreed that this was a logical way to build the resume.  Users quickly realized how to drag sections off of the resume.

One tester asked us why we did not pre-fill education and biographic information on the resume, since they thought it was always necessary.  In the second iteration, we pre-filled the biographic information and people appreciated it.

Once the resume was crafted, people tried to remove and add things and switch the order of items.  Everyone was okay with the ordering of biographic details followed by educational details, work experience, and leadership details.  No one tried to change the order of the sections.