Author: Emanuel Strachan

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INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 3: REPRESENTATIVE USER TEST

Individual Assignment #3

The website I’ve decided to analyze is IGN.com and my goal is to see if the end user can efficiently navigate the website as well as take note of any flaws or design errors in the site. IGN, like most websites in its genre, is a gaming website designed to give gamers a place to get information on all things gaming, entertainment, and comic related. Whether it’s an insider review on the highly anticipated Modern Warfare 2, an article on why Henry Cavill is leaving the Witcher series, or even a leak/gameplay of the newest God of War installment, this website is made with a specific user group in mind and tries to cater to their needs.

The chosen user is a 25-year-old male who has an intermediate to advanced skill level when it comes to computers. This user recently graduated college and is a full-time engineer and a hardcore gamer who regularly plays games such as Rocket League and prefers PC gaming. He has general knowledge of web browsers and uses it frequently to work and for personal use. Due to the user working in the tech industry, they have means of indulging in video games and plays during or after work each day.

The user testing method I’ve decided to go with was the Think Aloud method since it provides easier access to the user’s thoughts and gives me an idea of where they’re at mentally. This method allowed me to provide instructions as well as ask questions whenever the user was confused or stuck at a specific task. Because it’s impossible to read minds and predict what the user is thinking or going to do, this method was the best option to get the results that would be the most useful. The concurrent think aloud method is generally used when an instructor wants an end user to talk through a process or provide audible feedback to let the instructor know their thoughts. Because of this, the Think Aloud method made the most sense when examining our website.

The user was given three tasks to complete during our evaluation/analyzation of the IGN website. Each task served a purpose, and the main goal was to see if each task could be done without too much effort.

  • Task 1: Locate and analyze the Game of the Year (2021) contestants and winners.
    • The goal here is to get an idea of the games that were well received by the community and potential grabs for the end user
  • Task 2: Look for any Demos or Walkthroughs for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
    • The goal of this task is to see if this game is any good or would interest the end user. This gives the user an idea of what to look forward to and if the game will be a good investment
  • Task 3: Find any reviews or news on the Game of the Year titles to see if they’re worth buying
    • Like the tasks implies the goal for this scenario is to allow the user to assess all his options and see if any games are good or if any might’ve gone under the radar.

There wasn’t much change from the group’s original task and each assignment served a specific purpose in our analysis.

Because my user was very tech savvy and an avid gamer, we didn’t really have many issues regarding errors, but our experience was filled with a lot of frustration. The first task I had the user complete was locating the Game of the Year for 2021. We both went through the site and one of the first issues we encountered was the lack of a search bar. The user mentioned that while IGN seemed to have everything, it was missing an essential feature. He went to the side panel and looked through Discover, News, and Reviews but to no luck. After about 10 min and a lot of sighs from his end, he eventually just searched for the answer in his browser, and it was relatively easy to locate. After we found the list, he then tried to use the web URL to find the Game of the Year list from the home page but was still unable to and decided the list was almost impossible to find without a home search bar.

During our second task is where we found our breakthrough for the website. The task was to locate a Demo or gameplay for the Zelda game and thanks to his extensive exploration of the site during our first task, he was able to look up reviews for games using the Review tab. While looking at the reviews, he noticed a search icon next to a Playlist button and out of curiosity used it for our target game. He was a bit confused as to the placement of the icon but, it still managed to get the job done.

After completing the first two tasks, the last one was relatively straightforward due to them using the same tools/method. To find reviews on the Game of the Year titles, the user utilized the same page from task one and entered the titles found on that list to get reviews on all the titles listed.

Most of my users’ problems surfaced due to the placement of tools/icons on the website and the layout of the homepage. In terms of design, the website leaves a lot to be desired and could use a restructure to allow new users to be able to find what they’re looking for. My user had a hard time locating the search functions and had to resort to a 3rd party search engine to find resources on a separate site. Another problem I noticed is the confusion when the search icon was eventually located. The placement of tools is also something that could be changed so that users aren’t puzzled as to what different items are meant to do.

After analyzing this site, one of my first recommendations for IGN would be a redesigned homepage. When I first visited the site, one of the first things that caught my attention was the huge ads that took up a large portion of the dashboard. It doesn’t add much to the website and depending on the ad you get, won’t have anything to do with gaming or entertainment. I’d recommend shifting the middle section of the homepage to the top to give users a familiar feeling as far as navigation goes and to get more relevant information to them more effectively. Another suggestion I’d give would be to make searching for games or content more accessible to the end user. Currently, if a user wanted to search for a specific game, they’d have to jump through a few hoops to even find the search bar or button. My suggestions would be to add a search option to either the side menu or at the top of the page with our newly adjusted home menu. Another recommendation would be to move the news articles below the menu bar so that stories are less distracting to the user. During our initial test, the user didn’t know what some of the news articles were referring to or what gaming platform they addressed. Moving these News articles below the Menu bar would give more context as to what their telling as well as providing a smoother feel to the information flow. This also leads to the overall simplicity aspect of the website and the need to change the layout. Based on the user comments and their experience, they explained how the site had a lot of news and information to go through. This alone is why I’d suggest removing some of the panels of content to ease the user into the site. My recommendation would be to provide a simple design that would make navigation digestible and more straight forward. The user shouldn’t have to go above and beyond just to search for something or even find a game. My final recommendation would be to include a more interactive menu guide to give end users an easier time navigating the homepage. During our scenarios, the end user had a slightly difficult time hovering over the different options and understanding what the different symbols meant. What I’m suggesting is a feature that would make the icons or menu sections fly out when users hover over them giving more context to the page.

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Individual Assignment 2

Introduction to Game Informer

Introduction to Game Informer

The website I’ve decided to evaluate is Game Informer and my goal is to explain my experience browsing the site and how well if functions when trying to complete different task. Game Informer, like its’ name implies, is a gaming website designed to give gamers a place to get information on all things’ games and gaming related. Whether it’s an insider review on the biggest game soon to be released, a podcast on the current state of the gaming industry, or even a demo of the newest God of War installment, this website is made with a specific user group in mind and tries to cater to their needs.

Task Scenarios

My analysis consisted of about 3 different scenarios to see how user friendly this website is and if finding specific topics or reviews prompted any issues. The first scenario had to do with finding news on the highly anticipated Call of Duty (COD). My task was to see if I could either find out any Beta information or any PlayStation exclusive insights. The next scenario involved locating what games were due to be released this year, their platform and launch day. The goal here is to see if a user wants to know when a new game will be released, can they find that game and its information. Lastly, as a final task I wanted to see if a specific game had any new gameplay, demos, or features similar to the new Madden Sense feature that was recently announced.

Website Analysis

At first glance the website has a straightforward layout with a simple design that most users could get behind. Scrolling through the website, there are several news panels that randomly show you upcoming titles and events involving gaming. But taking a closer look, I noticed specific titles didn’t have which platforms the news was referring to. This can cause confusion as unsuspecting users might look at a post and expect it to apply to all systems. This violates rules 1 and 10 of Nielsen’s 10 heuristics which are “Visibility of system status” and “Help and documentation”. Because these articles don’t contain any information on the specific platform, this violates rule 10 due to the need for more context and explanation of the relevant game. This also walks on the toes of rule 1 because while these news clippings are informative, they are only giving the end users a partial picture of what’s supported. Going further into the site I tried looking for COD news under the “News” section but surprisingly it was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until I clicked on “Previews” that I finally found what I was looking for which also brought up another problem. Unless you look at the URL, assuming the end user knows how to read it, there’s no way to track what page you’re actually on. This violates rule 6, “Recognition rather than recall”, due to the user required to remember where they are on the site and increasing their memory load. My next task came in the form of locating what games were to be released this year and the game details such as the launch date and supported platforms. Fortunately for me, Game Informer has a really solid navigation system, so I was able to use the Menu bar to locate the 2022 release list for this task. Now taking into account that this is a list for all of the 1st and 3rd party games, this list is really massive and luckily for the end user, they’ve ordered it by month. Unfortunately, since the list is really large it is really a hassle when you want to find a specific game. There is no navigation to find specific titles and the end user could potentially get put off from scrolling continuously without finding anything that interests him/her.

This is a direct violation of rule 7 “Flexibility and efficiency of use” because if I wasn’t already familiar with a title’s specific release date or the Ctrl + F command, I’d have no idea how to look up specific games. My last task involved searching for the actual meat and potatoes of a specific title. Due to my previous experience on the Release List, I’ve decided to use the search feature and look up my game. This task actually required more digging than expected for what I thought was a easy assignment. By typing in a title’s name, the site only brings up news articles of that game and makes the user click through random articles before you run into the main game page.

 From here, everything else is a smooth experience and it’s simple to find the core components of the given game. This violates rule 10 and rule 8 “Aesthetic and minimalist design” because when an end users tries to look for a game, irrelevant information shouldn’t be returned which causes them to go down the rabbit hole.

Final Recommendations

My first recommendation with this site would be a way to separate specific news or games by platform. In the gaming world there are multiple platforms in which users can play videogames and for some games, they’re often console specific. This would bring more relevance to the website for users looking for specific titles and news. This would also lower the chances of misinformation spreading and give the site a more reliable reputation. Whether they go to the Release List, reviews, or previews this little aspect can cause a major impact. My next recommendation would be fine tuning the search function to bring out more relevant results. If a user searches for the God of War title, there should be a result that brings them to that titles page and not just irrelevant news articles. Also, including a search option on specific pages would be really convenient when navigating core pages. I mentioned earlier that if I went to the Release page and wanted to know the release of Call of Duty, I had to already know the month and also, enter Ctrl + f to find that title.  Giving the user an option to look up a title on that page and automatically returning that game would really save the end user time when browsing the page and lessens the chances of them using another gaming site or search engine. Finally, a title section for each page would help the user know where they are at all times. It doesn’t even have to be a huge header; it could be one of the navigation bars highlighted a darker shade to give the end user an idea of where they left off.

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Individual Assignment 1

Introduction and Webpage:

The goal for this experiment is to see how efficiently a user can navigate the specified website (https://www.reddit.com) and if they can complete the given task. There will be two tasks given to the user and as the analyst, I will be observing their experiences, failures, and any successful task completed. We will also take into account the different ways the user completes specific task and how I would’ve done the same activity. The user is a retired teacher so their expertise would have to do with analysis and comprehension. I’d put their familiarity level with this site in the beginner range as they don’t have any experience with it.

Graphical user interface, application Description automatically generated

Observation:

To complete this experiment the user and I started a meeting using the Microsoft Teams application. I had the user share their screen and walk through their settings to make sure everything was ok to run. Based on my observations, the user seemed to be initially confused. The user first scrolled through the website home page and tried clicking on the pictures posted. After reading on through the blog post the end user tried clicking on the available arrows. (Upvotes, downvotes, comments, etc.) 

Graphical user interface, application Description automatically generated

Doing this actually brought out some interesting results as it prompted the user to either sign in or create an account. Once that failed, the user then tried to use the other buttons to get more options. From there the user clicked on the comments to see additional post and scrolled around a bit for information. Here is where I noticed the user seemed to be more confused during the assignment while also scrolling through website as most of the options, they were trying to select required them to make an account to proceed.

Graphical user interface, application Description automatically generated

 Once done, the user navigated back to the home page by selecting the back button multiple times. This is where I instructed the user to try and find post about the different football games that happened over the weekend. The first thing the user did was click on the side panel and select the sports section. 

Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message Description automatically generated

Once on the sports section the end user scrolled through the page until they found the LSU game results and looked for the comments underneath the post for details.

Graphical user interface, application, website Description automatically generated

Analysis:

Looking at the what the end user did in what vs what I would’ve done brought some very interesting thoughts and new methods to mind as far as navigating goes. When giving the user the task of finding information on sports and college football, my user decided to use the community bar on the right side of the screen to find sports and ultimately college football. To me this required a little more steps to complete the objective as I would’ve probably used the search bar to look up a specific game or teams to get my information. While both eventually got to the same end result, I did notice that once a sport was selected, the page showed all relevant teams and events which in theory probably gave more accurate information and articles about the events that occurred. In this regard the site helps novice users by analyzing different clicks and suggesting topics that fall in that category. Another small observation I had was how the end users navigated the page. Rather than using the Reddit button/home button or sliding back on their trackpad, my end user decided to go the old fashion route and keep selecting the back button or mistakenly opening new tabs. This tells me that the user isn’t as efficient with navigating webpages which explains why some tasks might take longer than others on different sites.