Findings from Tests

Findings from Taylor

Taylor struggled to navigate the drop down menu at 1:19, but was able to complete the task by using the search bar. At 2:40, Taylor was able to easily find the item tasked to find by using the filter features. Again, at 5:22, Taylor struggled to navigate the departments drop-down menu. Taylor struggled when trying to find customer support contact information at 7:42 and struggled to navigate the help page at 9:50. Taylor found it "extremely confusing" (10:48) to find customer support, but after navigating the help page once, easily found the return policy at 11:03.

Findings from Kyle

Kyle easily found the bedsheets using the search bar at 1:06. Kyle thinks that Walmart's filter system is "easy to use" (2:16) and "really like it"(16:45). At 3:18, Kyle easily found the reviews, and found the way they're organized helpful. At 4:20, Kyle found it easy to find the home improvement category but at 5:39 he said that the drop-down menu was "laggy" and at 6:23, he thought that the organization of the departments was a little confusing. Kyle struggled to find the customer support feature at 8:35. At 10:14, Kyle states that it should be a lot simpler to contact customer support. At 12:14, Kyle struggled slightly to find the return policy and found it "very difficult to find" (13:07). Kyle thinks that it is easy to buy stuff on the website, but hard to find help or make returns(14:14). Kyle finds the promotions and ads on the homepage annoying (17:13).

What does it mean?

Overall, both users found the site usable. However, they found that finding help was frustrating and confusing. Both struggled to find the customer service contact and took the most time out of any other task to do. While they both found the dropdown menu to be at least a little confusing, Taylor especially found it confusing and thought it should be simpler. Also, Kyle found the homepage to be annoying with all the promotions and ads plastered everywhere. The results are how I anticipated, I thought that finding help was confusing and harder than it needed to be and so did my participants. I also found the home page promotions to be annoying and distracting like Kyle did. Also, I anticipated the participants to struggle with the drop-down menu at least a little.

What should be done

The site definitely needs changes in the areas mentioned above. The homepage could be cleaned up to make the promotions less intrusive, they could either be made smaller and less frequent, or be given their own page. The dropdown menu could definitely be simplified, and some categories and departments could be merged to help with confusion, and some could be separated, like the Home, Garden & Tools department that Taylor was confused by. Finally, the help menu should be way easier to find than it is. It should be featured at the top of the page or somewhere else where people are likely to see/look for it like the services drop-down menu.

Top Findings

Both users found the filter feaure to be very helpful and easy to use. Kyle found it especially helpful and really liked it as stated above in the findings section. Both users didn't have many issues finding different items and adding them to the cart and had no issues with the search bar. However, they both had some sort of problem with the drop-down menu. The issue experienced with the drop-down menu would be a severity rating of 2, It would be nice if it was fixed, but it is not a major issue. One thing both users had issues with and thought it absolutely should be fixed is the help page. Both users struggled to find and then navigate it and thought that it was unnecessarily confusing. Originally, I would have given this issue a severity rating of 2, but after conducting the tests and seeing how my users struggled and got their opinions, I would say that this issue would have a severity rating of 3. This absolutely needs fixed, but it isn't breaking the website. Next, the homepage, Only Kyle and I saw the promotions on the homepage as an annoyance, but it is still an issue with the site. It is not causing any other issues besides being distracting, so I would give this a severity rating of 1. It should be fixed, but there are more pressing issues that need addressed first. Additionally, when I mentioned that the windowed and fullscreen versions of the site were different, windowed being slightly easier to navigate, both users found this very odd and thought that this should be addressed. I would give this issue a severity rating 2.