Usability test results for chefd

1. Usability Test for Chefd.com
Test Preparation
Priorto conductingthe usability tests,Ididtake the time tofamiliarizemyself withthe Spoon
University pagesin additiontocompletingeachtask.Myfirstobservationisinregardsto the
accessibilitytoSpoonUniversity.Itisthe only“Chef’dpowered”meal planyetisitonlylinkedunderthe
meal planstab.In my opinion,itshouldbe atleastonthe homepage somewhere seeingthatcollege
studentsare a trafficflowforChef’d.com.
On the SpoonUniversityhomepage.Itinterestme thatthe firstfew wordsa visitorreadsare
“The Foodresource forgenerationY”and “College isstressful.Meal planningdoesn’thave tobe”.Thisis
a clear conversationbetweenChef’dandthe targetaudience.Tome,theyare immediately
acknowledgingthe presenceof the visitor,andlettingthemknow asa targetaudience thattheyare at
the right place.Ithinkthisishelpful.As Ibeganto scroll iswhenInoticedthe Helpbutton, I wonderif
the testerswill utilize thisfeature.
Task 1: The firstquestion,whichpertainstoallergies,wassimple.The bubblesweregreyand
turnedorange whenyouselectedanoption.Idothinkthere isa problemwhenyougettothe second
question.Itaskswhatyou wouldlike yourmealstoinclude exceptthistime the bubblesare highlighted
orange.Thisis a little confusing.Youdon’treallyknow if choosingthemisselectingordeselectingbut I
am goingto assume thatclickingan option,anditturns grey,meansthisissomethingyouwouldnotlike
and Chef’d wassimplymakinglessworkforthe consumerbyhighlightingthemall asmostpeople would
agree to the majority.Afterhittingnext,I hadto scroll up to getto the nextquestionwhichwasalittle
confusingaswell butnotthat bigof an issue tome.I am wonderinghow manysecondsatestermight
take to scroll up. I hope thatthey do not assume the nextquestionisloadingandwaitsasthat might
affecttheirpatience andwe are hardlyintothe testing. Iselectedtwomeal plansandwasgivenmybox.

2. I was veryconfusedbythe grabn’ go swapoptions.Ithoughtthe onlythingsincludedinmypurchase
were the two$13 meals.Scrollingbackupto the paragraphand re readingiswhathelpedme
understand.My total cost was too expensivebutitwassimple togo back andchange the numberof
meals.Idon’tthinkthat will be atestersissue.Creatingameal planwasfairlysimple withminor issues
that I don’taffectthe overall experience.
Task 2: I was alreadyfamiliarwithaddingortakingawaymealssothere wasno issue withthat
but I wasa little challengedwithfindingaspicymeal.Itook the opportunitytoutilize the ‘help’box,
typedinspicy,butwas givennoresults.Maybe the helpbox isfor
site issues? Mynextthoughtprocesswasto use the search bar
withinthe site. Iwasuneasyaboutclickingthe ‘X’but I did,and
searched“spicy”.Iwas givenoptionsbuttheydidnotlooklike
SpoonUniversityoptions.Iproceededtoaddone to mycart to
be sure andit didnot additself tomy box.Ithendeletedit.Gave upon the spicyoption,andproceeded
to returnto my meal planbutwas forcedto clickthroughthe questionsIhad alreadyanswered.Iwas
unsuccessful atcompletingthistask.
Task 3: I startedto complete task3 withease.Iclickedonthe photoof the “Grab ‘n’Go “ optionand
scrolleddownuntil Icouldsee informationaboutthe item.ThenIclickedonnutritional factsandread
the label whichincludedcalorie count.The firstthree loadedquicklybutthe fourthwasmacaroni and
cheese andfailedtoload.Irefreshedthe page (whichmade me gothroughthe allergyquestionsagain
w no loadissues) andclickedthe macaroni again.Itstill wouldn’tload.

3. I refreshedthe page,wentthroughthe questionsagain,chose the nexttwo“Grab ‘n’Go” optionsand
checkedtheircalorie count.These loadedsuccessfullysoIattemptedthe Macaroni one lasttime,butit
still wouldnotload.
Task 4: To complete the taskIwentto the cart, selectedcheckout,enteredmyzipcode and wasgiven
deliverydates.Itlookslike 3-5daydeliverysoIconcludedyes.The meal will arrive bySaturday.
Final Site Thoughts: Ithinkthe overall shoppingexperience withChef’dwasenjoyable.Ithinkitis
simple enoughbutcoulduse afewtechnical tweaks.Ithinkitshouldbe made clearthatthe Spoon
Universitymeal optionslistedare the onlyonestochoose fromif that isthe case.
Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Mariah Barnes
My first tester is Mariah Barnes, a 21-year-old female marketing major. In addition to
being a full time student, she is a part time worker in the J.W. jones student union with
Aramark. She holds an exec position in one organization and is a member of two others. Her
days consists of studying, watching television and browsing the web. She utilizes the internet

4. about 80 hours a week. She is not very active on social media. She described the split between
social media and browsing to be about 25% and 75%. She considers herself to be a high-
experienced user of the internet. She is not familiar at all with Chef’d but she frequently shops
online and has a high interest in food. I would consider her a reasonable tester because of her
internet habits. She rarely uses social media, so she spends a lot of time on other types of
websites meaning she interacts with many other formats and user interfaces. In addition to her
versatile internet usage, she is very involved in her food decisions. She counts calories and
carbs and loves to cook.
Environment for Tester 1
Location of Test: The test was conducted in her suite style dorm, Forrest Village
Apartments, in the living room. This location was appropriate for this tester
because this is where she does most of her browsing.
Physical Environment: Prior to the testing, the tester turned on the lights being
that it was night and there was no natural light. The lights were yellowed, more
like home bulbs rather than a white light. To add to the yellow of the light, the
walls were almost a dark yellow brown color as well. Her roommate was in the
living room with us and was a slight distraction. Throughout the tasks, she would
share something with Mariah that she saw on the internet.
Technical Environment: Mariah used Google chrome on her school issued
laptop. Because we were on campus, she was connected to the universities Wifi.
No add-ons or plug-ins on her browser. She uses the default version.

5. Tester 2: Danielle Rivera
Tester 2 is Danielle Rivera. She is a 22-year-old student at Northwest Missouri State
University. She is currently unemployed but it is a full time psychology major who is involved on
campus. She spends about 12 hours a day browsing the web, which is about 84 hours a week.
She says she spends about 40% of her time on social media and 60% elsewhere. She does a lot
of research for her classes. I think this makes her a reasonable tester because she aligns with
the target audience for Chef’d. She is a busy college student so she needs meals that don’t
require a long time to prepare and as far as user experience, I hope to gain insight from her
about the simplicity of the site. She considers herself a high experienced internet user.
Environment for Tester 2
Location of Test: The test was conducted in her bedroom off-campus. This is
where she uses the internet the most. She does her homework and recreational
browsing here. she is sort of lying in bed.
Physical Environment: The room was well lit. There were no distractions. The TV
was not on. She did not use her phone at all , it was silenced before we started.
Technical Environment: Danielle’s internet provider is
Sudden link and she was using her school provided laptop.
The brightness was on 100%. After the test she allowed
me to run an internet test and the results are in the
screenshot. She used Google chrome with no add-ons or
plug-ins.

6. Test Results
Both Danielle and Mariah were overall satisfied with the initial overview of the site.
They felt like there was adequate information on the homepage to understand the use of the
site. All of the information, in their opinion was designed well and easy to understand. Both
commented on the high quality photos. Mariah’s experience started a bit different than
Danielle’s. Mariah was prompted with a 10% discount upon arrival to the site. She did not
notice the “X” to close the pop up for a while and read the site through the darkened area for a
while. Mariah did not watch the introductory video on the homepage while Danielle did. I think
this gave Danielle better insight to the company’s personality. She noted the interracial couple
in the video and admired the fact that that was something they were willing to feature. Both
scrolled all the way down the homepage using the scroll bar on the right.
Task 1: Build a Spoon University meal plan and determine the total weekly cost.
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 1 4 2.5
Success Rate 0% 100% 50%
Highlights
1) Testers were unsure about selecting or deselecting meat options
2) Testers disliked re-doing the entire meal plan to make changes

7. Biggest Problem: The biggest problem within this task is the highlight color of the
bubbles. In the allergy prompt, the bubbles are grey and when you click, they turn
orange.
When asked about meats, the bubbles are orange and when you click them, they turn
grey.
This inconsistency causes confusion as far as selecting and deselecting. Testers clicked
on their preferences which I believe means they would not like to be presented those
options. This problem could be the determining for someone who wants a specific meat
choice.
Alignment to Heuristic: Consistency and standards
This problem matches this heuristic because it makes the user wonder or make
assumptions about the selection process because of the color changes.
Task 2: You have the budget to coverone extra meal per week, but you want it to be spicy
meal. Determine your spicy meal options and choose one meal that you are willing to
prepare.

8. Highlights
1) Testers did not know immediately to scroll down for information
2) Tester cannot find spiciness
Biggest Problem: The tester not being able to find spiciness is the biggest problem. The images
when you click on the meal are so large that it takes up the entire screen, which looks like the
picture expanding is the only thing that happens when you click on the meal. It took the testers
a little longer than it should have to figure out that they had to scroll down for meal details. The
testers clicked on the meal, the picture expanded, and they would click the X in the corner
without scrolling.
Alignment to heuristic: Flexibility and efficiency of use
This heuristic best aligns because an expert user may know that the larger image is for
photographic enhancement and to use the scroll bar, while a less experienced user might think
there is nothing more to the page.
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 4 5 4.5
Success Rate 50% 100% 75%

9. Task 3: Ensure none of your meals, “Grab ‘n’ Go’s” or snacks is more than 450 calorie per
serving. If the calorie count is too high, swap the item for another.
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 2 1 1.5
Success Rate 0% 0% 0%
Highlights
1) Tester can’t find information
2) Testers meal won’t load
Biggest Problem: The biggest problem in task 2 is re-occurring for task 3 since the
information is in the same place. In addition to this, the macaroni option would not load.
Alignment to heuristic: Visibility of system status
The macaroni not loading most aligns with this heuristic because there is no explanation
to the user about it. If it is because it is sold out, the user was never informed
Task 4: Assume/pretend that it is Monday at 3:30 p.m., and you plan to prepare the spicy
meal on Saturday night. Will the meal arrive in time?
Highlights
1) No issues

10. Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 3 4 3.5
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Recommendations to improve UX
Single problem being fixed: Task 1 : Meat selections
Problem Improvement:
I do think that being exposed to potential purchases is the most important part of this
process therefore addressing the issue of task 1 would be my first concern. If a user wants a
meal with chicken, because they only eat chicken, if they mistakenly deselect chicken, they
will not have any options to choose. To fix this, I would have the buttons grey and turn
orange when selected. I think that it should be the same as the allergy prompt because it sets
precedence and expectations to the user.

11. This is what it would look like if the selections were greyed when deselected and orange
when selected.
It would be consistent with the allergy prompt below.