User Testing Report

To test this User Journey we have chosen our flatmate, Caleb, who is entirely unfamiliar with our work and web practices. We believe that this will ensure an authentic and fair user test. Caleb often visits Stuff and enjoys catching up on the news, he also prefers listening to podcasts or watching informative videos online over delving into reading material. We believe this makes Caleb an ideal candidate to test Hemi Kamana’s (Persona 02) journey.

Interactions made throughout the user journey

Caleb as Hemi began this user journey on the home page on his smartphone, we prompted him with our User Objective Statement. “I’m about to go for a bike ride along the bayside and would like to hear the latest Stuff podcasts while I ride.”

Caleb begins on the home screen and scrolls down the page with his finger, after reading the latest headlines he selects the burger menu. Whilst Caleb doesn’t go directly to the burger menu, this user journey still totally works and is expected as Caleb explores the website. From the burger menu, Caleb quickly identifies and selects the ‘Video & Podcasts’ option. Caleb scrolls down the new page, and after reading a few of the latest podcasts headlines, he quickly selects the one he is most interested in. Caleb sees the player functions at the top of his chosen article and presses the play button, from here he also turns up the volume. The audio player being right at the top of the page, right below the article headline, makes the playing of a podcast a simple and easy task for Caleb, minimalizing unnecessary interaction with the interface for those on-the-go, such as Hemi.  

Overall we believe this journey was a success, Caleb could interact easily with the mobile prototype and easily identified the navigation and its functions. During early user testing we refined the smartphone interface and its functionality. During our final user test Caleb easily reached the end outcome and did not have to look for long to reach the user goal. Whilst developing the final prototype we adjusted the video and podcast menu to feature highlight videos of the week at the top of the page, immediately directing users to the most popular content. When selecting a podcast article, we also changed the player functions to sit them at the top of the user’s screen, making it easily accessible for those who didn’t want to scroll down to to the bottom of the page to play the podcast.

The user testing critiques over the past six weeks have been modified over time to heighten the functionality for each user. Making the video and podcast selection easily accessible from the burger menu makes it a fast way for Hemi to get to his desired content. He can also quickly reach the latest videos and podcasts from his smartphone as they sit, top of the hierarchy, on his screen.  Making all the podcast player features directly below the heading also makes it easier for the user to directly reach his content. Hemi can change the volume, buffer through the timeline of the podcast, pause and download the content without having to scroll down the article first. The download feature also makes it convenient for Hemi if he has limited data on his smartphone and wants to continue listening outside of Wi-Fi or save it for a later time.