This paper is about the UX of the website Muckbootcompany.com.

1. Makayla Higgins
Jaqueline Lamer
Intro to Web Publishing
October 21, 2017
Usability Test for MuckBootCompany.com
Test Preparation
Task 1: I started off the tests by clicking on the Women’s tab on the home page, then
clicking on the “Boots” option. I was directed to a page where all the boots where, and since I’m
looking for boots under $140 I filtered my results on the left of the screen only pressing the
“price +” which lets me filter to how much I want to spend. I checked off below $100, and $100-
150. I even with farther and sorted my option from “Price low to high” so I won’t have to go
through all the boots to see what I can afford. By filtering my results, I was able to find 20 pairs
of boots that was under $140. Out of those 20 pairs only 2 of them were on sale for a cheaper
price to be considered affordable.
Task 2: After clicking on each boot to see the description if they were steel-toe
construction boots I could not tell myself if they provided steel toe, so I searched “steel toe
boots for women” in the search bar. I did the same filters as I did to find the boots in my price
range and category (women’s boots), but when I tried to filter “price low to high” it did not do
low to high it actually just mixed the products up so I had to go through them to figure it out.

2. Which brought up 21 pairs of boots that was in my price range. I also searched “steel toe
women boots” and it only brought up 2 pairs of boots, and only one of those where in my price
range. This task was frustrating because I had to go through many boots, or didn’t have many
options.
Task 3: When doing this task I am still on “steel toe boots for women.” When filtering
my searches, I could only choose the option of $100-$150 and nothing under. I choose the
Women’s Chore Tall. I choose these boots because they are very simple and black that can be
worn with anything. These boots costs $124.95 which is under my set price. I choose my shoe
size and added the boots to my cart. I proceeded to check out by clicking on the bag icon at the
top right, next to the search icon. Since I do need to figure out shipping cost to receive my
package on time there was a section to determine shipping cost and tax. In this area I was given
the choice to select my Country, type in my zip code and search for my state. The cheapest
shipping cost is $0.00 which is UPS Ground, but it doesn’t say how long that takes. SO my next
option is UPS 3 Day shipping which is $13.00. After shipping and tax added, my total is now
$145.10 which is over my total budget. If I want to get under the budget of $140, then I either
need a different pair of boots or choose ground shipping and hope that is delivered within a
week.
Task 4: I realized that if I choose 3-day shipping I would have to change my boot type. I
went back frustrated to choose another boot. I finally decided on the Women’s Chore Mid for
$119.95. I added it to my bag and proceeded to check out, again. After putting my zip code in,
and choosing 3-day shipping, my total came up to $139.82, right under my set price. It would

3. have been a good idea if they had shipping cost displayed before you get to the cart. It would
help to display it just in case someone is on a budget, so they won’t have to back track.
Tester 1: Tracy Nguyen
My first tester is my roommate Tracy. We just met this semester so we don’t know each
other very well. Although we live together we get along, but we have two totally different
personalities. I think she is a good person to be a tester because she loves to shop. Tracy is a 19
year old sophomore, and she does not have an occupation here in Maryville. When she is home
she works in her family business at a nail salon with the rest of her family. Tracy has never
heard of Muck Boots before so she was clueless on the website. She does spend 140 hours a
week online, and 50% of that is browsing through social media’s of her choice. She considers
herself a high experience web browser since she is “always on the computer.”
Environment for Tester 1
 Location of test: The location of this test was conducted in her bedroom. She
chose this location because it is where she is most comfortable in and able to be
herself.
 Physical environment: Before the test was conducted the room was quiet.
Before I proceeded to start the test, she turned on music, it was low, but loud
enough to still hear. The lighting wasn’t that bright either. There were two lights
on, the main room light and the light on her desk. Throughout the test, her
phone rang as a notification multiple times. Each time she stopped what she was
doing and looked at her phone.

4.  Technical environment: Tracy has a Dell PC laptop that she has been using for
two years. She connects her laptop to the schools WIFI and it is never slow,
unless the connection is down. Tracy uses the Chrome Browser all the time and
no other one. Her browser does have add-ons and plug ins. She says that when
using this browser it’s strong and fast.
Tester 2: Alex Zane
Alex Zane is a 20 year old man from St. Joe. I choose Alex because I don’t know him very
well, he is visiting a friend of mine who also attends northwest as I do. I just met him this year
so he is a perfect tester. He is a student worker, he works at the college he attends which is Mo
west. Alex had no familiarity with this website, he’s actually never shopped for boots online.
Although he has never shopped for boots online he says he spends about 35 hours online
browsing, and about 75% of that is browsing on social media.
Environment for Tester 2
 Location of test: This test was conducted inside of the BD Owens Library. Since
he is from St. Joe, I was not able to travel there, so this is the next best thing for
him to be comfortable at. He says that he is always at his school’s library.
 Physical environment: The lighting in the library is very bright. Before the test
was conducted, he was watching Netflix. Throughout the test, his phone kept
buzzing and going off. He constantly kept looking down at his phone throughout
as well. Other distractions would be the people around us. Since we were on the
first floor it was not quiet and some people were being loud.

5.  Technical environment: The computer type that he had was a Dell PC that he
has had for a couple years. Since he was in the library, he used the schools WIFI
by using my friend’s username and password. The browser he uses is Chrome
because it is better for him. He does not have any type of add-ons that he knows
about.
Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
For both Tracy and Alex, they both had similarities in their thoughts when it
came to the sites initial thoughts. They both thought the site seemed neat with the pictures and
the categories on the site. As they looked around the 10% coupon popped up and Tracy,
immediately took it off. She said she does not care for the 10% off because it is not really going
to do anything. Alex, however read the 10% off coupon because he was interested in what it
was saying, but he didn’t not want to put his email address in just for one discount.
Task 1: Determine how many boot options are less than $140
Summary for both testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 2 4 3

6. Highlights
1. Tracy and Alex were upset about the filters. There weren’t many options and styles
to choose from in this price range. Alex thought there should be a filter for products
on sale.
2. They both realized that the boots were way too expensive for their taste. Wondered
if there were any reliable prices of boots. Alex only found three pairs of boots under
$140, he was very frustrated with his options.
3. Tracy was confused on why there wasn’t a picture for the first pair of boots that
popped up. She didn’t want to click on the pair until she knew exactly what they look
liked. She went to reload the page and an error message popped up saying the site
was down due to maintenance.
Alignment to Heuristic:
The Heuristic that matches the biggest problem would be number one: Visibility of
system status. This heuristic basically says that the system is keeping the users
informed. Although Tracy was informed of what was going on, it still frustrated her to
know that she had to start all over. It is great that the site gave that error message of
“temporarily” being down. She eventually refreshed the page once more and it came
right up.

7. Task 2: You’ve just been advised that you’ll need steel-toe constructed boots. Of the options
you’ve found, which offer steel-toe construction?
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 3 1 2
Highlights
1. When looking through the results of the boots to see which ones offered steel-toe,
Tracy was upset because none of the descriptions of the boots said anything about
the product offering steel-toe.
2. Alex had a problem with only out of the three boots, only one of them provided
steel-toe. Steel toe was actually in the description of the boot.
3. They both suggested that there should be a filter that shows you everything that the
boots provide so you do not have to search and go through each and every boot to
find out.
Alignment to Heuristic:
The heuristic that aligns the best with this task would be number seven: Flexibility and
efficiency of use. This heuristic basically says to allow users to do more or less, in this
case less. The problem was having to go through each and every boot to find on
characteristic that the boots provide, when there could have been a filter that you can

8. just press that shows you all of the boots that are steel-toe. They both had problems
having to go through the boots to find one characteristic.
Task 3: Assume/pretend that it is Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. and your flight leaves at 6:00 a.m.
Monday morning. Determine the cheapest shipping option to receive the boots on time, and
determine that associated costs.
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 3 3 3
Highlights
1. Tracy and Alex both had a problem with the “ground shipping” there was no
information on an estimate of how long ground shipping takes.
2. Tracy had a problem with the prices of tax and shipping costs. She added to different
pairs to her cart two different times and they both had different shipping cost, which
mean the tax varies as well.
3. Alex had a problem getting to the cart. Since he doesn’t really shop online he was
unfamiliar with where to check out at, he searched the whole page to find the checkout
button but realized he had to actually press the cart icon.

9. Alignment to Heuristic
The heuristic that better aligns with these problems would be number ten: Help and
documentation. This one basically says that it may be necessary to help out. I think there should
have been an icon that pops up providing help from the company if a person is on a page too
long, this is to help them out with whatever problem they are having. There should have been
more information about ground shipping. It was needed to know about how long ground
shipping would take just in case the product would be there on time and they wouldn’t have to
pay $10 for 3 day shipping.
Task 4: Choose the best boot option and determine the total order amount, including shipping.
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 1 3 2
Highlights
1. Alex’s boots where $119.99 before tax and shipping. After tax and shipping
his total become 139.86. He was not upset with the tax but more upset with
the price of shipping. It’s too expensive.
2. Both wish they knew what the ground shipping was. It would be much better
if they had estimates of it.

10. 3. Tracy had to go back to choose a different shoe because she did not have
enough money after shipping and tax was presented, which means she had
to start all over which made her frustrated.
Alignment to Heuristic
The heuristic that aligns the best here would be number seven: Flexibility and
efficiency of use. This heuristic aligns well because of the simple fact they had to find
out the shipping and tax after they picked their boots out and continued to checkout. It
would have been great to have the options of shipping in the same area of putting the
boots in the cart. It would be less work for the customer and also it would be less
frustrating just in case they have to go back and find different boots because after
shipping and tax, they went over their budget.
Final Site Thoughts
At the end of their tasks, both of them expressed how difficult and frustrating the
process of choosing one pair of boots. They felt like the site should be more efficient for the
user and considerable for people who have a set budget they cannot go over. They thought it
was great that they added a lot of pictures of the boots, but more description was needed as
they were looking for certain boots and couldn’t find them. Alex expressed how he wished
there were more options that were cheaper for men that still had similar uses such as the more
expensive boots. Tracy explained how her experience on this site was not great and that she
was anxious to leave. She did not like the prices and the checkout area, all because of the

11. shipping prices. Neither one of them would not recommend Muck Boots to anyone because
they are so overpriced and the sight is slightly hard to navigate, you would have to keep going
back and forth for prices in your range. They both recommended better boot customization,
Alex described it as “boring.” Overall after this experience, they were both unhappy with the
site.
Recommendations to improve user experience
Single problem being fixed:
The problems that I will be fixing is from Task 2. For this task the users had to find out
which of the options of boots offered steel-toe construction. I choose this problem to fix
because it simple and easy fix without having to go through a hassle to figure it. The tester had
the main problem of not knowing if the boots provided steel toe or not. There was no filter or
any descriptions that said if they provided steel toe.
Alignment to Heuristic
The Heuristic that aligns the most with this problem if number seven: Flexibility and
efficiency of use. This heuristic matches this problem because we as web designers should give
the user less to do. In this case, the user had to do more by searching for a certain description
of the boots that were not available or shown which frustrates the user. Eventually after the
user realizes that they are doing too much, our bounce rate will continue to rise.

12. Problem Improvement:
So to fix this problem that was stated above, I simply added more Filters for the
products. I added more filters because there should be more such as the description that boot
offers. I choose to put this extra filter there to help people narrow down more what type of
boot they are looking for. It works this way so the person won’t have to go through each and
every boot to figure out if it offers what they are looking for. This way, it gives the person less
to do, and it is way more convenient.
This is the before View of the Website:
I circled the problem area where I will add to the filter.

13. WireFrame of MuckBoot Website:
In this wireframe that I made, I added a new Filter which would be named “description.”
My sole purpose of adding this is to make it more convenient on anyone who is looking for a
certain boot. In our Task, our testes were looking for steel toe shoes. So by adding steel toe as a
description, it is way easier to find the type boot without having to look through each and every
boot.
This will most definitely improve the sites UX, just by simply making the site more
efficient to use. More people will be willing to find the right type of boot, without having to go

14. through them all. I recommend a website as such to add descriptions for their products. Not
only does it make it easy for customer, but there will also be less complaints/frustrations about
not being able to find certain products.