Usability Test of a Website (Individual Assignment 1)

Written by Megan Kosove

Introduction

The selected website is called Novel Updates (https://www.novelupdates.com/). Novel Updates is a database of online literature that a person is able to use in order to find novels to read online. It provides a forum, a filtration system, and a search function to help its users. In order to test its usability, a participant has been chosen. The user tester selected is an adult woman with no experience with the site in question. Because she also has no experience with the content of the site, she has been chosen as a way to see whether someone with no user experience and/or general knowledge of the subject matter would be able to navigate this site.

Results

The user was given three tasks throughout the test, two of which she had no issue with but one of which she was unable to complete. The first two tasks, to find out how to register and to find a specific forum regarding users’ original fictions, were completed in under five minutes. The user was able to find the register button immediately after being asked and had no problems filling out the form before being told she did not have to actually register (https://www.novelupdates.com/register/).

The second task to find a specific forum was similarly easy save for the last part; she was able to locate the general forums page under a minute but found trouble in figuring out which forum suited the task as a few pages could have potentially applied (https://forum.novelupdates.com/). However, the correct forum was chosen after around two minutes of deliberation.

The results of the first two tasks were not surprising as the links were fairly obvious and in conspicuous places. Furthermore, as the language was clear, it is not surprising that the correct links were chosen. Although, for the second task, I did not expect that the forum labels would be vague to an inexperienced user. As someone with extensive experience, I am able to understand the nuances of the different terms, so I did not realize that someone else might not be able to.

The third task was to find the least popular action series of all time. She was able to locate the link to the “Series Ranking” page without issue and knew to click on the filter button immediately, but the actual filtration system gave her difficulty (https://www.novelupdates.com/series-ranking/).

Finding the genre section took a few moments, and when applying filters, she accidentally chose an option that took her to the general search page instead of the ranking page. Because she was unable to figure out how to get back, she went all the way back to the homepage to start again. However, even when only filtering for the genre, she did not realize that the tab labelled “popularity,” actually meant “highest reviews” instead of the general meaning of the term, and she did not realize that she needed to select the tab that would provide an all-time selection.

The third task was given as to be of higher difficulty than the first two, so it makes sense that this one would be a bit harder to complete. I was rather surprised that she was able to click an option that took her to a whole different search page as I had no idea that a user could even do that beforehand. Even after watching her screen throughout the test, I am unable to replicate what she had done on my own. This is probably due to random clicking brought on by confusion as I do not understand how she managed to get there. The setup for advanced filtration can be difficult to figure out even for an expert user, so I expected a lot of trial and error here. However, I did not realize until she was unable to find the answer that the website uses the wrong term for its popularity filtration system. Furthermore, as someone who has a lot of experience using filtration systems, I was surprised that she did not notice the extra tabs she needed to click in order to change what kind of ranking she wanted to use.

Discussion

Overall, the site’s most glaring issue in regard to usability is its vague, sometimes inaccurate, word choice. During this test, I was able to learn that, to someone unfamiliar with the general terms, a lot of the wording is difficult to understand. Nuances can go over the head of someone reading text without a deeper understanding of its individual words. Clearer labelling would allow for greater accessibility on this front, and this website would definitely benefit from editing that would get rid of inaccurate labels like the “Popularity” versus “Activity” tabs on the “Series Ranking” page (https://www.novelupdates.com/series-ranking/). Furthermore, this website would benefit from a more straightforward filtration system where the user can use one section to search for what they are looking for rather than having to set up filtration settings then change to a specific tab on a whole different menu. In all, Novel Updates is generally accessible so long as specific tasks given regarding finding a particular novel through the filtration system is not given. An inexperienced user may be generally able to get to the correct page that they may need without issue, but the usage of its database system has an experience requirement in order to use properly. Previous knowledge/experience is required for more nuanced/specific tasks which brings this website’s overall usability down, but as a starting point, this website is functional for even an inexperienced user.