Usability Pilot Test: Observations

Test Subject 1

Female Age 20-25 Single First-year SIMS student

Task 1: Subject clicks icon, "Buy Books." She picks GUI Bloopers from book list. Subject understands that the "Responses" column means the number of people who have contacted that particular seller. She makes an offer to Andrew. Fills out form. She wants to be bid. Reads confirmation page. Clicks Sell a Book link on confirmation page. Selects Modern Information Retrieval from book list. She doesn't like to type in personal information again since she already did it for the first part of the task. Says she would rather login at the beginning and let the system fill out the information. Fills out form. Reads confirmation page. Wonders what Edit Postings page looks like.

Task 2: Types "Social Life of Information" in Search Box. Doesn't see title. Browse courses in pull-down menu: 204. Finds required book and clicks on title. Checkmarks all sellers. Easily finds seller's lowest price. On the sell form page, subject comments that she likes the fact that she doesn't have to remember the sellers' prices from the previous screen.

Task 3: Clicks Sell Book tab. Selects The Handbook of Usability Testing from book list. Fills out form. She really wishes that the form was automatically filled in. Clicks Home tab. Click Edit Postings tab. Clicks the Edit link under the book title. Changes book condition from excellent to fair. She wishes she can preview the changes before saving, or see a confirmation of the changes on a confirmation screen.

Test Subject 2

Female Age 35-40 Married, two children First-year SIMS student

Task 1: Subject clicks icon, "Buy Books." She types GUI Bloopers in Search box. Clicks title. Buys from Andrew. Fills out form. She did not notice how many people had contacted the seller (the Responses column). Uses Tab key to move to difficult form fields. In comment, offers to buy book for $17. She is not sure when seller will response, so she writes, "respond in 3 days." Clicks Sell a Book link on confirmation page. Selects Modern Information Retrieval from book list. Fills out form. Doesn't know what to write for asking price. Perhaps the system should display the book's new and used prices on the sell page. Subject asks for $10.

Task 2: Types in Search Box, "Social Life of Information." Clicks title from search results. Checkmarks all sellers. Fills out form. Comment is "I am willing to pay no more than $11.50 for this book." Clicks "Make an Offer" button.

Task 3: Clicks Sell a Book link on confirmation page. Selects The Handbook of Usability Testing from book list. Fills out form. Clicks "Try to Sell" button. She wants the form to have automatically filled out fields, such as sims.berkeley.edu. From the Home page, clicks the Edit Postings icon. Clicks the Edit link beneath the book title. Changes book condition from excellent to good. Clicks "Save Changes" button.

Test Subject 3

Female Age 45-50 Single Second-year SIMS student

Task 1: Subject clicks icon, "Buy. Books." She picks GUI Bloopers from book list. She did not notice the "Responses" column, but she had no problems filling out the form. She carefully read the confirmation page. Clicks Sell a Book link on confirmation page. Selects Modern Information Retrieval from book list. Fills out form.

Task 2: Subject clicks icon, "Buy Books." Doesn't see title in book list because of the alphabetizing issue in the list box. Types in Search Box, "Social." Clicks title from search results. Checkmarks all sellers. Fills out form. Clicks "Make an Offer" button.

Task 3: Clicks Sell book tab. Selects The Handbook of Usability Testing from book list. She hesitates at the price box because she doesn't know what the going rate is. Fill out form. Clicks "Try to Sell" button. From the home page, she clicks icon, "Edit Postings." Does see the Edit link beneath the title. She hesitates for awhile and expresses confusion. Types in the Search Box to find book. Goes to the seller's page, realizes it's not the correct page, and clicks the Edit Postings tab. She still doesn't see how to get into the edit form. Finally she sees the edit link. Changes book condition from excellent to good. Clicks "Save Changes" button. She wonders whether she is supposed to receive a confirmation page.