Assignment 1: the micro-usability test.
I do realize that no journal entry was required for this assignment. I also realize that all of the following entries will be late as late can be. BUt as far as the final goes, this will be the most studying I have done for any of my classes this semester.
So.
I have been using Twitter since the beginning of the school year, and I know that many people know of it, but they have never tried to use it. The concept of the site seems simple on the surface, and the things I use it for are incredibly simple to use, but I decided to use it for this assignment, just to see what I could turn up.
I had a hard time picking out tasks for my users. I realized that, once I established my own account, I only made use of perhaps two features of the site, including making and viewing entries and direct messages, and finding others to follow. I decided to explore the searching options and make sure that the site’s documentation was clear, in addition to the more basic tasks.
As I tested my two users, I observed that they made many of the same assumptions, correct or incorrect, regarding where to look for links and solutions to the tasks I posed. For instance, they both ultimately looked at the bottom of the page for the information about user content I asked them to find. The separation of user and keyword searching confused both my users and myself.
One thing that I didn’t include in my tasks, the option Twitter offers to send and receive posts on your phone, is advertised in multiple places on the site, including when the user creates an account, underneath the buttons for following or blocking other users, and on the sidebar of the user’s home page. THis is apparently an effective way to get Twitter users to connect more/more often, because one of my users asked about the option while he was in the process of completing one of the tasks I had set.
Having unfamiliar users perform tasks which I am myself proficient in and take almost no time to do or think about emphasized the learning curve for new websites.
This assignment only used input from two people, but it still helped to turn up issues in the site’s design and emphasize a few of it’s good points. Since usability testing will be covered in greater detail in a later assignment, let’s move on.
