Sun Basket Usability Test

Jake Edmisten
Usability test for SunBasket.com
Test Preparation
In preparation for these usability tests for Sun Basket I ran through the tasks, but I’m familiar
with this particular site through extensive research on a different paper that I have written about
Sun Basket. The only task that I didn’t already know how to get through off the top was the task
4, but since this test was done by a class of my peers someone else ran into this problem first and
the class was informed of how to complete the task before I had conducted either of my usability
tests. I don’t think the tasks for this test are particularly difficult, but I consider myself a high-
experience user and I’m very familiar with the site.
Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Kara
My first tester is my recent ex, and I chose her for this usability test because she cooks often and
from new recipes. I could imagine a scenario where she might sign up for one of these meal kits,
whether that is from Sun Basket or not. Kara is 21 years old and a student at Northwest. She
doesn’t currently have a job, but is very involved in many extracurricular activities and
organizations. When she isn’t spending her time with one of the activities/organizations she
spends most of her remaining time either studying, cooking, and browsing the Internet. She
estimates that she spends about 25 hours a week on the Internet and about 32% of that is on
social media with the remaining 68% browsing the web. She considers herself a low-experience
user of the Internet, which I can confirm. In the time I’ve known her she has replied to a semi-

obvious phishing email and downloaded harmful browser extensions, but I’ll explain that further
below. She seemed familiar with the kind of business that Sun Basket presents itself as, but she
has not purchased the service from competitors that she is more familiar with. She’s a reasonable
candidate because she loves to cook intricate meals and she spreads herself thin on available
time. There are many ways where a service like Sun Basket could help her out. She is a picky
eater which I could see being an issue so she would have to be satisfied by whatever meals she
has chosen or I wouldn’t imagine her being a repeat customer after trying it out. Kara is the first
person I thought of when this assignment was presented as the most likely person to purchase
such a service.
Environment for Test 1
 Location of test: The location of the first usability test was at Kara’s apartment. It
was chosen because that’s where she browses the web. Her apartment is her safest
and most comfortable place, at least in Maryville.
 Physical environment: Her apartment is a one bedroom with a kitchen and living
room. The test was carried out in her living room on her leather couch. The room was
well lit as it has a big sliding glass door that provides plenty of natural light during
the day time. She has no roommates, but does have neighbors. You can occasionally
hear her neighbors, and one of them often plays music throughout the day that can be
heard but is not particularly overbearing or distracting. She doesn’t have a television
in her living room, or at least one that is connected to anything. Kara sits on the couch
with her feet on the ground with her laptop on her lap. This is the area where Kara
often does her homework when she is home.

 Technical Environment: Kara used a Northwest provided laptop (the newest
variety) to carry out the test. She was connected to the Internet over Suddenlink WiFi
and has reasonably fast and reliable Internet access. She browses using Google
Chrome and doesn’t have any special add-ons that she has knowingly downloaded.
Kara did have an extension called Open Weather App that I was not familiar with. It
ended up being the kind of extension that replaces keywords on websites with links to
services sign up pages. I wanted the experience to be as familiar and close to realistic
to Kara’s technical environment so I left this on but had made a note to disable that
add-on later for Kara’s benefit.
Tester 2: Dom
My second tester is my roommate and friend, Dom. He is 22 years old and from Liberty. He
currently works as a delivery driver for Dominos (ironically enough). He doesn’t like to leave the
house to buy groceries and doesn’t mind cooking simple meals. He is not the ideal Sun Basket
subscriber, but he is admittedly a potential customer of a meal prep service. He spends the
majority of his free time drawing and painting. He doesn’t really like vegetables, but he also
doesn’t really like sweets or deserts. He wasn’t familiar with Sun Basket but was able to identify
the kind of business that Sun Basket was. Dom estimates that he spends 28 hours a day browsing
the Internet but conversely to Kara he spends 80% of that on social media and considers himself
a high-experience user. He already orders things on Amazon that one might simply go to the
store for, so he could potentially like a service like Sun Basket. Dom is about as polar opposite to
Kara as possible when it comes to being a potential Sun Basket customer.
Environment for Test 2

 Location of test: The usability test was conducted in Dom’s room. It’s his most
comfortable place to be and where he often browse the web when he isn’t at his
studio or work.
 Physical environment: Dom’s room is lit by a single lamp that provides enough light
to light the room but is much less harsh that his ceiling lights. His Spotify is playing
Kali Uchis’ discography on repeat (that I turned him on to) in the background. Our
other roommates are in and out of the room sometimes commenting on the nature of
my role and the tasks. Dom’s dog Dewey is on the floor chewing on things that
routinely require Dom to get up and take away from the dog to avoid Dewey choking
and or puking later. Dom sits on his couch criss cross applesauce with his laptop on
his lap. This is Dom’s most common area for browsing the web in our house.
 Technical Environment: Dom, like Kara, uses a Northwest laptop. He also uses
Google Chrome and we also have Suddenlink WiFi, although at a higher tier of speed
than Kara. He however has no harmful extensions nor any extensions of any kind.
Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
On first opening the website Kara was greeted with a pop up advertisement that she was put off
with and thought was annoying. Dom exclaimed that this “looked like work” in disgust. Both of
my testers were able to diagnose what kind of business that Sun Basket is and the services they
provide pretty quickly. Nether had heard of Sun Basket, but both thought that Sun Basket looked
like trustworthy website at an initial glance. Kara found the testimonials along the bottom footer
and said, “I know what Vogue is so they’re obviously trustworthy” which I thought was an

interesting way to phrase that. Both of my testers drew conclusions from the images on the home
page that stem from the same place. Kara thought that the images were pretty and would help
persuade her to try the recipes. She said that it looked more specific than Hello Fresh, probably
because Sun Basket has positioned itself as the healthiest meal kit service. Dom also noticed this,
but he isn’t much of a fan of healthy food and vegetables so he said that it “looks flavorless” to
which my roommate Josh disagreed with wholeheartedly. Dom then elaborated that “more fried
food” would look good to him. One last bit of note was that Kara was put off with white text on
top of some of the photos that had white plates because it was hard to read. A drop shadow on
the text might help here.
Task 1: Determine the weekly cost of a meal plan that appeals to you. Will your uncle’s budget
cover the cost of your preferred meal plan?
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 3 3 3
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Highlights
1. Both testers immediately clicked on “Meal Plans” rather than “Pricing” for this
task. This is probably because of the phrase “meal plan that appeals to you” in the
task prompt. This is a problem because Sun Basket doesn’t provide pricing
information in the “Meal Plans” section nor does it provide information about the
meal plans in the “Pricing” section. The testers want to know what the food that
they want is going to cost them on one page.

2. Kara having had a malicious add on installed managed to click on a link that took
her to the join process for a competitor (Home Chef) in effort to find out how
much this will cost. I then uninstalled the extension.
3. Price can be confusing because of the per serving price. Since both of my testers
are single and only cook for themselves they didn’t like how the options are
sometimes listed as for two to four people. Both stated that they don’t need to
cook for two people, yet in knowing them personally both often cook two to four
servings and store leftovers. Both testers ended up choosing three meals per week
with the two serving option to find that their uncle’s generosity would not cover
their needs.
Biggest Problem
The first problem was the biggest problem. When prompted with the task both went to
“Meal Plans” to pick a meal plan that appealed to them. To find the price from this screen
each user must then click on the “Start Whatever Choice Plan” button underneath the
specific plan. Then the tester has to sign up for an account, customize their plan, order
(choose their meals), and then get to the pay screen to see what it would cost them. This
was a source of frustration for both testers. After encouragement to try a different route to
the solution, both then clicked on the “Pricing” tab and were able to see how much a
generic individual plan would cost them. A generic individual plan did not appeal to
either tester though.
Alignment to Heuristic: Flexibility and efficiency of use

In this heuristic accelerators can speed up the interaction to cater to both novice and
expert users. Right now Sun Basket caters towards expert users in a way that is
frustrating to new users according to my tester’s experiences. I think that the join process
is inefficient in a frustrating way here. Both testers wanted to find more information
directly after clicking the “Start Whatever Choice Plan” button, but instead were
prompted with the beginning of the join process where they have to create an account to
get more information. This reminds me of Pizza Hut’s website where you can create an
account and have some cool perks that go along with being a repeat user (favorites,
discounts, etc) or you can order a pizza without creating an account. I think in a real
world situation that both of my testers would have bounced after being asked to join Sun
Basket in this task, and I think skipping step 1 of the join process which requires them to
create an account would probably result in more people trying out Sun Basket.
Task 2: Go through the process of building an order (customizing a meal plan) and choose the
specific meals you’d like to receive.
Highlights
1. Since both testers almost did this task when they were trying to complete the first
task, they quickly were able to figure out how to do this task correctly from the
get go. However upon getting to the customize section Kara noticed that she had

little information about the meal plan she was about to select. While Dom selected
“Mediterranean” but then exclaimed his distaste for the options on the next screen
as stuff that he didn’t think he would eat. In a real world situation I think Kara
would have gone back to meal plans to rethink her options rather than completing
the join process while Dom would have bounced.
2. Once Kara had reached the order screen she wanted more information about the
specific meals she was going to order like ingredients and recipe information.
Dom being demystified at this point just clicked the three least objectionable
choices to complete the task. This is where I believe that the information needed
to complete task 4 should be placed, perhaps in a dynamic drop down box on the
meals to give the users more information when prompted.
3. Both testers were again displeased with having to set up an account, and
begrudgingly did so because they knew that it would help me out. Kara gave out
her information freely, but Dom gave fake information because of his desire to
not have this site having his contact information.
Biggest Problem
All three of these problems are what I think are significant problems, but they all stem
from the same main issue. Sun Basket does a poor job separating all of the information
needed to make an informed purchase. You have to go to multiple different pages in
order to feel comfortable making a purchase, and then on top of that you have to create an
account to do so before you even know how feasible or interested you really are in the
service. The users were able to complete the task easily taking by starting the join
process, filling out the information in the customize section, and picking their individual

meals. The website does a decent enough job of providing good system status, preventing
errors, but it requires the users to recall too much information.
Alignment to Heuristic: Recognition rather than recall
In this heuristic UX developers can help the users minimize what they have to remember
by providing objects, actions, and options visible that remind the user of what decisions
they want to make. Sun Basket can do better on this task by providing more ways for
each user to get specific information about the meal plans and the individual meals in this
process in order to help keep customers on the path to purchasing the service rather than
leaving the dialogue to go back and find more information about their potential decisions
or just leaving the site altogether.
Task 3: Determine the cost of shipping your first order and all subsequent orders.
Highlights
1. Both of my testers found this information near immediately because of how Sun
Basket adheres to standards of online purchase information. They both
complained of small print, but in my personal opinion it seemed fairly standard.
2. Both users complained of having to do math to do this task, so Sun Basket should
probably say specifically how much shipping is going to be in addition to giving

the total price of future orders. Dom incorrectly calculated how much it would
cost him, but that’s why he’s an art major.
3. Because of the relative ease, it’s hard for me to think of a third problem for this
task. Both immediately diagnosed where the information should be on the pay
screen and then calculated the cost within 30 seconds.
Biggest Problem
The biggest problem with this task is probably how it continues a pattern of being
potentially misleading of pricing information that Sun Basket has on its site. This
problem could be solved with larger print and providing the future price of the shipping
along with the total cost of the meal plans. Each user selected their meals from the last
task and continued to the pay screen where they saw the pricing information and looked
directly below it for information on future shipping costs. They each rated this as their
least pleasing task that they were able to complete despite its relative ease and quickness.
Alignment to Heuristic: Consistency and standards
In this heuristic UX designers can help users by keeping things looking familiar relative
to standards of practice of other larger, more familiar companies. Sun Basket does a good
job of keeping this information relatively available to the users and their payment
information looks nearly identical to things that I have seen like Amazon and the like that
I’m sure contributed to how quickly each tester were able to complete this task. Sun
Basket however has earned itself some bad will from the testers from hiding information
earlier on in this usability test that I think is affecting how each user is rating their
satisfaction. Sun Basket could earn some good will by calculated the math for its users,

but the way that they presented this information seems to be well in line with standard
practices around the Internet.
Task 4: Assume you have a very serious food allergy. Determine how to go through about
placing an order that accommodates that allergy.
Average Satisfaction 2 1 1.5
Highlights
1. Neither user completed this task, which speaks to how unavailable this extremely
important information is. Sun Basket states that if you have allergy problems then
you Sun Basket might not be for you if you look hard enough to find that, but
those with allergy problems might not look up that information. Dom is deathly
allergic to peanuts, which is something we often tease him about. My roommate
Josh heckled Dom by calling him “peanut boy” when I read off this task. Dom has
in the past accidentally consumed products with peanuts in them without knowing
and gotten really sick after forcing himself to throw it back up.
2. To find this information you must go down to the footer and look through the
“FAQs” section and then scroll to find out that Sun Basket doesn’t cater to people
with allergies.

3. Their recipes don’t offer up enough information in the join process to make sure
that people with allergies can even try and choose meals based on ingredients that
they can eat.
Biggest Problem
Both went back to the home screen and then to the meal plans to look for the information
and were unable to find it there about allergy information. They tried going to different
tabs before giving up without being able to complete the task. After giving up I informed
each user where the information was located and both users were frustrated with how
hard it would be to find that information and also surprised to see that Sun Basket doesn’t
cater to those with allergies.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and Documentation
In this heuristic UX designers can help users by providing documentation and help by
making things easy to search for on their site. Sun Basket has a FAQ section, but they
don’t have a way for users to search for information on the site besides requiring them to
scan each page in hopes of finding the information that they need. I’m reminded of the
Northwest’s own website which has a pretty decent internal search bar that quickly
allows for users to find exactly what they need.
Final Site Thoughts
Both users felt that Sun Basket has a difficult and confusing experience for first time users, but
through observing them participate in the tasks the more familiar with the site they got they
would have little issue completing the tasks in the future. Sun Basket could do better to scale
their UX for novice users. Kara thought that the site looked good, while Dom ended up stating

that the site didn’t meet his expectations. When I asked him to elaborate he followed that up by
saying that he could potentially be interested in this kind of service, but that he specifically
would not be interested in trying Sun Basket. Both users gave relatively poor scores throughout
this usability tests for their satisfaction of Sun Basket, but they did not have a particularly hard
time completing the tasks. Sun Basket could use that information to try and make their UX a bit
more delightful to complete and less like a chore. The obscuring of information seems like a
choice they have made, but one that frustrates users so I would encourage them to change how
they handle that as both of my testers complained about that throughout the test.
Recommendations to Improve User Experience
Single problem being fixed: A problem I noticed that could really help aid the user
experience is on the second step of Sun Basket’s process for becoming a Sun Basket
subscriber. Currently they have a very simple process probably in hopes that the fastest
route to becoming a subscriber will result in less potential subscribers giving up. From
this test I could see that users want more information before committing to a meal plan,
and to do so they would have to abort the join procedure to find that information.
Potential consumers want to see pictures and a brief synopsis of the different meal plans
before committing to the meal plan. The next step shows pictures of the meals of that
meal plan with check boxes that allow you to select meals that look good to the user and
my proposal for improvement is to do something similar on the second step of the join
process. This would help the user know what kind of commitment they are about to make
and might encourage them to not abort the process.

Problem Improvement:
This is a mockup for how I would
solve this potential problem while
maintaining site familiarity. The
check mark system could be identical to the way that Sun Basket allows users to pick individual
meals while providing more information to the user earlier on in the join process. Sun Basket
seems to have a problem of hiding a lot of information till later in the join process. This was a
frustrating choice of Sun Basket’s that users and I would be interested to know why there seems
to be a conscious choice to hide information until later in the join process. Users would feel more
at ease joining a relatively new industry with information more up front or at least providing
information throughout the stages so that they can recognize what decisions they want to make
rather than having to recall them.

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