UX paper

1. Jacob Nine
Web Publishing
Usability Test for EnterpriseCarshare.com
Test Preparation
To correctly conduct usability tests, you need to get into the mind of the testers. One of the best
ways you can do this is by doing the tasks you gave them yourself. For our tasks, we will be
using the website EnterpriseCarShare.com. This is a service that allows you to reserve, rent, and
then return a vehicle at an Enterprise CarShare location. I will now be looking at the website and
going over the tasks myself.
The very first thing we must do is give their initial thoughts on the website. This is important
because it lets us get into the mind of the testee and hear what they think initially about the site,
and maybe understand what they think the website is for. This gives us a good first impression of
the person and the way they think. For my first impression of the website. I noticed how clean
and minimalistic the homepage is. While looking around the site, I can gather that this is for a
service for car sharing and how to use their service. The site is pretty upfront about the places
and prices of the cars. The site seems very informative and wanting to help the people that visit
it.
Our first task states, “You are considering transferring to Saint Louis University. You don’t want
to have car on campus, so you’re looking into how well Enterprise Carshare can handle your
needs. Determine the size of Enterprise Carshare’s presence at Saint Louis University: Do they
have service there? How many cars seem to be available?” For this task I started on the
homepage and scrolled down to their universities or businesses tab, and typed in Saint Louis

2. University. When I typed in “Sai” in the locations, the site recommend the spelling of “Saint
Louis University”, which I clicked and was brought to the Saint Louis University page. From
there I scrolled down and found a google map embedded in the page. I used this interactive map
to zoom out, and see how big the presence of the vehicles are on the campus. Overall from what
I can gather, there seems to be 2 lots on the campus. Both of them seem to have service, and I
could see the types of vehicles they offer at each station.
The second task states “Determine the total cost of securing a vehicle for 3 hours on a weekend
that you plan to drive about 100 miles. (Include all application fees, membership fees, and usage
fees.)” I started this task on the Saint Louis University page, and stayed on the page for the task.
I scrolled down and saw a price chart that gives me the prices of the application fee, annual
membership fee, and the hourly fee. I added everything up that I needed for the task and
determined that cost would be $31 for the 3 hours, assuming that I would be signing up as a
student. For 3 hours I would be pay $7 an hour for the car, and would also have to pay the $10
membership fee.
The third task states “Assume your parents will be paying for your vehicle usage. Is that
possible? How will your account be charged each time you use a vehicle? How and where you
will track your vehicle registration.” I started on the Saint Louis University page and scrolled all
the way to the top of the page and clicked on the menu. From there I clicked on the FAQ page. I
then scrolled down on the FAQ page and looked around for some answers. After a couple of
minutes looking on the FAQ I found the answer to if my parents could pay. Under the “Who can
drive the cars?” question, it states that “Only you or another driver approved on your Enterprise
CarShare account can drive the vehicle during your reservation.” I also found the answer to the
question of how would I pay for my vehicle. Under the billing tab there is a question that asks

3. “How do I pay?” Once I clicked on this I found out that you have to leave a credit card on file,
and that is how you pay for the service. For the last part of the task, I had to find out how to view
my registration history. After looking on the FAQ for a while and not finding the answer, I went
up to the top menu and clicked on the mobile app page. From there I found out that I could view
my reservations on the mobile application.
Task 4 states “Determine your liability responsibilities if the vehicle you use is damaged while
you are using it.” I started this task on the mobile application page, and then scrolled down to the
footer and clicked on the FAQ page. From there I scrolled all the way down to a question that
asked “What happens if I damage the vehicle?” The answer to that question is “If the vehicle is
damaged during your reservation, you may be responsible for a damage fee. Liability and
Damage Waiver coverage varies by program or location …” So I could be liable for the accident,
depending on my coverage, the damage, and how I handled the situation. There is also a question
that say “What if I get into an accident?” When you get into an accident they want you to call the
police, fill out the accident form, and then contact them.
Final thoughts, how do I feel about my shopping experience at EnterpriseCarShare.com? Overall
the website was pretty easy to use. Some things I had a harder time finding than others. They did
a good job of showing and organizing the information they have, considering all of the questions
a lot of people will have.
Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Noah
I choose Noah as my first testee because he was willing to help when I asked without hesitation,
is pretty knowledgeable about a lot of technology, but was not familiar with the website or the

4. service it provided. Noah is a 20 year old male, who is a full time student, and has no familiarity
with the website or any type of car sharing service. Noah uses the internet a lot, and he estimates
that he spends around 50 hours a week on it, 15% being for social media, and 85% for streaming,
videos games and anything else. What makes Noah a good participant is how he has never really
used a car sharing or car rental service before, and came into this test not knowing anything
about the test or what I expected. He was also very open with his thoughts and the overall
process of the test.
Environment for Tester 1
 Location of the test: The location of the test was completed at Noah’s apartment.
It was conducted her because that is his environment that he consumes most of his
internet. The test was conducted in his living room, on a recliner, because that is
where he uses his laptop in his apartment.
 Physical environment: The lighting in the living room was a little dim. There
was not many distractions expect for his phone that was going off. His roommate
was not present for the test, and we were the only people in his apartment.
 Technical environment: The computer being used was a school laptop, and was
on his apartment Wi-Fi, which was a basic package from Suddenlink. Noah used
Google Chrome, and did not have any browser add ons, or anything on the
computer that would interfere with the test.
Tester 2: Mercedes
Mercedes is a 20 year old female, a student at Northwest Missouri State, who works at Planet
Sub part time. She says on average she uses the internet about 40 hours a week, and 60% of that

5. is on social media. Mercedes is a little familiar with the car sharing industry, and has used it once
before. I think that Mercedes is a good pick because she is different from Noah. She is more
focused on social media with internet use, has some experience with the car sharing industry, but
has never been of the Enterprise CarShare website before.
Environment for Tester 2
 Location of the test: The location of the test was in her bedroom, on a couch.
This is where she says she spends most of her time on the internet, through her
phone and her laptop.
 Physical environment: The room was well lit, and was easy to see everything we
needed to. There was no real disractions for her, and the only thing that slowed
her down was her roommate coming into the house. She didn’t check her phone at
all and seemed pretty focused on the tasks I gave her.
 Technical environment: Mercedes was using a school laptop, on her Suddenlink
Wi-Fi, while using Google Chrome.
Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
For the initial thoughts of the website, both of the testees thought that the site looked clean and
easy to use. They both liked the looks of the navigation, and thought it was easy to navigate
through. The differences between the testees thoughts was that Noah was more focused on the
design of the page, and focused on the membership aspect when giving his thoughts. Mercedes
focused more on what the service could provide, the location of the cars, and how nice or new
the cars were.

6. Task 1: “You are considering transferring to Saint Louis University. You don’t want to have car
on campus, so you’re looking into how well Enterprise Carshare can handle your needs.
Determine the size of Enterprise Carshare’s presence at Saint Louis University: Do they have
service there? How many cars seem to be available?”
Summary for Both Testers:
Highlights
1) The first problem was that the testers did not have the correct spelling of Saint Louis
University. In the box they all put St. Louis University, and were stuck looking around for the
correct location. The problem comes from where you are from, because people spell Saint Louis
differently.
2) Another problem was that they couldn’t find the University page, but were looking at the city
of St. Louis. The testees understood the problem they had, but didn’t know how to fix it. They
would click on the whole city of St. Louis, but could not find the actual University. They even
tried to use the interactive map, but could not end up finding the University quickly.
2) The last problem from this task is that they could not find out the actual amount of locations
available on the campus after they found the campus location on the map. The issue was that the
map showed a lot of locations, but only two of them were for the University. The testees got
confused when trying to decide if the locations on the map were available for the University use,
or whether they were for another location.

7. Biggest Problem
In my opinion, for this task, the biggest problem was the testess trying to find the number of
locations for the campus. They were not sure if the locations from the surrounding area were on
the campus or not. If someone is not familiar with the area, looking at the map could be very
confusing on where you are at. When using the interactive google map Noah originally thought
there was 6 locations on the campus. He scrolled out too far and was not sure what was
considered on the campus location. As you can see from the map below, there are a lot of dots
that indicate locations for vehicles.
He then scrolled down away from the map, looking for a list of the locations, and he did not find
one. Eventually he went back to the map and zoomed into the campus, and found the 2 locations
on the campus. He sent about 2 minutes total deciding and looking for the right locations, which
can be frustrating for the user.
Alignment to Heuristic: Match between system and the real world
I believe that this matches up because someone not from the area would not be sure what would
qualify as a Saint Louis University location. If you are not familiar with the area at all then you

8. might get confused by the other dots on the map that indicate vehicle locations, and whether they
are on campus or not.
Task 2: “Determine the total cost of securing a vehicle for 3 hours on a weekend that you plan to
drive about 100 miles. (Include all application fees, membership fees, and usage fees.)”
Summary for Both Testers:
Highlights
1) The first problem that our testees encountered was not understanding if they could had to pay
the student fee and rates. The only prices listed are those that a student would pay, and it has
nothing about whether someone else who isn’t a student would pay the same prices. If someone
wanted a vehicle on the campus, but is not a student, would they be turned down?
2) Another problem my testees came into was if they would have to pay a weekend fee. On the
task you are asked to find the price for a weekend rate, and on the price list, there is nothing
about what a weekend would cost. It only shows the hourly rate for any day as a student, and my
testees didn’t look into weekend rates anywhere else on the website.
3) The last problem for this task we ran into was if you are already a member of Enterprise
CarShare, you would not get the 80% off you receive when you sign up as a student at Saint
Louis University. Anyone that is already a loyal member to their service would not be as
rewarded as someone who just signed up.
Biggest Problem

9. I believe the biggest problem on this task would have to be if they would have to pay the student
fee, or would there be a different price for them. There is no prices listed for non-students, and it
doesn’t say anywhere whether or not non-students could even use cars from that location. Even
though the task asks you to think as a student going to Saint Louis University, what if someone
outside of the University needed a car? As you can see from the picture below, there is only
student prices listed.
Mercedes was confused about the pricing off the student fees, and said she does not understand
them. She tried to look around the website for answers, but could not find anything. Overall she
wasted about three minutes looking around, and couldn’t find anything.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and documentation
I think that a lack of help and explanation caused this problem. There was no disclaimer, or any
type of explanation on whether you have to pay as a student or not. It never stated what someone
outside of the university could do.

10. Task 3: “Assume your parents will be paying for your vehicle usage. Is that possible? How will
your account be charged each time you use a vehicle? How and where you will track your
vehicle registration.”
Summary for Both Testers
Highlights
1) The first problem with this task is that there is only videos on the Saint Louis University
page that can answer the whole question. Although visual and audio are great content,
sometimes text still works for getting your information out. A lot of people will ignore
videos all together, and they do not work as well with mobile users, even if our tests were
to be done on desktops.
2) A lot of people will skip through videos to speed up the process. People will often miss
information when watching videos because they do not want to watch the whole video,
and can miss key points. Infographics are great content tools that can present data in a
more interesting way than text or a video. You cannot always rely on the user to watch all
of the video, and you should not put all of your info just in videos.
3) There is no links on the Saint Louis University page to any FAQs about the topic of how
the car sharing works. The only info you get from the page is on the page already, and
you would have to go to the footer or the top navigation to get more info for the task on a
page like FAQ. This makes it confusing for the viewer, when there could be links to the
relevant topic on the page.

11. Biggest Problem
I believe that the biggest problem is that there isn’t any links to relevant FAQs, or any button I
can press to give me more info on the topic. The lack of information on the page can get
confusing for the user, and can have them search around wasting time, when the answer could
linked on the page, if the information is not there. The picture below is the part of the page that is
supposed to explain how the car sharing works.
Both of my testees said something along the lines of “I guess I have to watch a video.” Since
there was no other options to answer the whole question on the page, they are almost forced to
watch the video. The problem with this is that the video can take a lot longer than other forms of
content. Both of my testees skipped around the videos looking for more info, so I don’t think this
type of content work for this page.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and documentation
I believe this is the correct heuristic because of the lack of help on the page. There is a clear lack
of relevant questions that need to be put on the page. Not all of the videos on the page where
relevant to the current page.

12. Task 4: “Determine your liability responsibilities if the vehicle you use is damaged while you
are using it.”
Summary for Both Testers:
Highlights
1) The first problem with this task is that the University page does not have enough
information on the topic of your responsibilities. This is an important topic you need to
know as a driver, and I think there is not a lot of information on the topic on the
University page. There is a lot more you need to know as a driver that can be found on
other pages.
2) The second problem is that all of the important and meaty details about the liabilities are
found on the FAQ page. There is also no link anywhere to get to the important details you
need to know as the driver.
3) There is no physical damage and liability protection tab at the top of the page. If
Enterprise really valued this they would have seen this as important and put it as a tab at
the top. If there was something at the top I believe that more people would see it.
Biggest Problem
I believe that the biggest problem with this task is the fact that there is no physical damage and
liability protection tab at the top of the page. This would have had the user be taken straight to
the information about liabilities. One of the complaints from Mercedes was that she had a hard
time finding the page and information needed. She just ended up going to the FAQ page to find

13. the answer. It would make sense to add this feature to the page, because it already is an important
section of the page.
As you can see from the picture above, there is navigation that will bring you down to the part of
the page for, locations, rates & fees, and how it works. The liability is a decent portion of the
page below, and should deserve to be a part of the navigation part also.
Alignment to Heuristic: Consistency and Standards
I believe this aligns with consistency and standards because the navigation bar at the top is
supposed to bring you to important parts of the page. Forgetting to put certain parts into the
navigation is not a standard that this website.
Final Site Thoughts
Out of 5, Noah gave the website a 5 overall. Mercedes gave the website a 4 overall. Both of them
said they really enjoyed the navigation, and thought the website was easy to get around. Noah
said that there was a lot of information for them to display, but he thought they did a good job of
putting them in the right place. Mercedes said she enjoyed the membership ship of the deals, but
Noah was not a fan of that idea. The both said if they needed to use a car sharing service they
would probably use this site if they had the opportunity. Overall they did not have any big
complaints for the website.
Recommendations to improve user experience

14. Single problem being fixed: In my opinion, for this task, the biggest problem was the testess
trying to find the number of locations for the campus.
Problem Improvement:
Before
After

15. As you can see from the pictures above, this is how I would change the page to improve the
user’s experience. One of the problems I ran into running these test was that the testees did not
understand what locations where apart of Saint Louis University. If you are not familiar with the
area, then the google map could get confusing as to what qualifies as on or off the campus. I
believe that all universities/businesses that have their own page should have a list of all of the
locations in the area above the google map, so anyone not from the area can know what qualifies
as their locations. You can still keep the google map for more experienced users, but giving the
user more options here will help them make the right decision, while still giving them the option
to use the interactive google map. This is a fairly simple fix that could greatly improve the user’s
experience. A popular tactic in user experience is to take a minimalist approach and keep all
useless information off of the screen, or make the users go find that information. In this case I
believe giving the user two ways to find the same thing is actually effective, even if it goes
against this tactic. This gives options to both inexperienced and experienced users, which in my
opinion is better than being aesthetic or minimalistic with the design.