For a Intro to Web Publishing class, we conducted a usability test for muckbootcompany.com to find any problems with their site.

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RayLynn Emry-Callahan
September 27th
, 2017
Usability Test for MuckBootCompany.com
Test Preparation
Before conducting the test on other people, I walked through the test myself. I performed
the tasks at my desk where I do most of my computer work. On my desk, I have a water bottle,
some binders, my planner, headphones, and my cellphone. My cellphone is on silent. I usually
have both of my computers, one an HP EliteBook and other one a MacBook Pro, open at the
same time when I am at my desk. On my HP EliteBook computer, I will have either Facebook or
YouTube open. Where I do everything else is on my MacBook Pro. I will shop, work on
homework, and etc. On my MacBook Pro, I have no other tabs open and all other software or
applications closed completely. I am doing the tasks on the safari web browser, using the schools
router, and connected to it through Wi-Fi.
For the first task, I wanted to determine how many boot options were less then $140. To
achieve this I went to the ‘Best For’ tab and went to the ‘Shop All’ option on the pull down
window. After entering the next window, I changed the filter option for price of boots between
$100 and $150. Under that filter option, it does tell me how many boot there are, which is 38, but
since it was showing me boots that were over $140 I want to go through and counted the ones
that were over my budget. To do this easily, I changed the ‘sort by’ to ‘Price (high to low)’ and
counted the one that were too much. After counted, I determined that there were 30 boot less
than $140.

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For the second task, I needed to find a steel-toe construction boots within my budget of
$140. Since there was not a ‘Filter By’ option for the style of boot I went up to the ‘Best For’ tab
to see if I could find what I was looking
for. The ‘Work’ option intrigued me.
When I hovered over it, it changed the
picture to a construction worker wearing
muck boots, shown in the picture to the
right. After entering the next window, I
went ahead and changed the price filter to
$100 to $150 and then sorted by price from
high to low, and found that there were 10 boots that I could choose from that would work for me.
A problem that did accrue was that some boots had steel toe within the name, but other did not. I
eventually found within the description that they did have a steel toe component. This searching
took a lot of time and became very frustrating.
For the third task, I need to figure out what would be the cheapest shipping time for my
boots and how much it would cost. Assuming that it was Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., I needed to have
my boots before my flight on Monday at 6:00 a.m. I went ahead a picked a Chore Mid boot that
was $119.95 so I could still have some money left over for shipping and tax. Above the fold,
Image 1, best for navigation tab on muckbootcompany.com

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there were no options for me to look at shipping. Below the fold, there was a tab for shipping,
shown in the image below.
Image 2, shipping tab from muckbootcompany.com.
The shipping tab gives a brief paragraph on shipping saying that they offer free shipping
and free returns for all orders within the continental US. It also gave you an option to “click
here” to learn more about their shipping. For a moment, I was confused where to click sense the
click here didn’t show any difference from the normal text, but after hovering over it I found
you that you had click on the here. In the shipping methods, it says that the free shipping is for
UPS Ground, but does not tell me how many days it will take. It also tells me that there is no
weekend deliveries, so if I needed my boots by Monday, I would need to get them delivered by
Friday. It also tells me that after 3 p.m., orders will not be shipped until the following day. With
this information, I decided that I would need to get a three or two day shipping option in order
for my boots to arrive on time. The cheapest option was the three-day shipping being $13.
For the final task, I needed to pick the best boot
option and determine the total order amount. I had
already decided on the Chore Mid boot costing $119.95
and leaving me $20.05 left over. I already knew that my
shipping was going to cost me $13 and now I just needed
to know my tax. The only way I knew the cost of tax was
to check out, so I decided to see if I could I get my total
before completely checking out. It was a pleasant surprise
Image 3, estimate tax and shipping from
muckbootcompany.com.

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when I got to my bag that had a table to estimate the shipping and tax before I even checked out,
shown in the image to the right. All I had to do was enter in my zip code and state, and it gave
me my shipping option and tax. With my tax being $6.87, my grand total came out to be
$139.86, keeping me under my budget, getting the proper shoe, and getting my boot on time.
I would say that for me the only problems that accord were during the second and third
task. In the second task, finding the right boot was a problem since I had to read a lot and search
a lot until I could find a steel-toe construction boot. With the third task, I had find the shipping
was a challenge. I had to make sure that I would get my boot on time and I did not want to spend
a fortune to get it. I could see that being a problem with customer who is not looking very closely
and would have to end up just guessing when they would get it and then being mad when they
have not gotten it. With these problems in mind, I then went on to conduct these tasks with two
users to see if they face the same problems or if other problems accorded.
Choosing Users
Tester 1: Janie Schutz
Janie Schutz is a 21-year-old female from Albany, New York. She is currently a senior at
Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. She is a full time student studying
elementary education with an emphasis in special education. With every little free time on her
hands, Janie spends most of it on Facebook, listening to music, and shopping. Janie prefers
online shopping then actually going to the store, which I believes makes her a reasonable tester.
Janie grew up on a farm about 90 miles outside of Buffalo, New York. The only ecommerce
store closest to her in Walmart. Other than that, she would have to travel at least 45 minutes to
get to another store. As she got older she decided that online shopping was her easier than

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traveling to go shopping, making her a reasonable participant. She also has lots knowledge on
boots because of working on a farm.
Other information I gathered from Janie was her experience with technology and internet
in general. The first time Janie ever had a computer in the home was when she was four years
old. She also started using computers in school starting in 1st
grade for online reading tests.
Today, Janie says she uses the computer at least 6 hours a day, 75% of the time being for
assignments, papers, and notes and 25% being social media, shopping, and music. She considers
herself to have high-experience of the internet, but still feels stupid when using it. This user
experience test will be the first time she has ever been on muckbootcompany.com.
Environment for Janie Schutz
 Location of test: For Janie’s test, she wanted to sit in her favorite chair in her
dorm room. This is where she spends all of her time on the computer.
 Physical environment: Next to her is her bed and on the other side she has her
desk. She has her windows behind her with the blinds closed. The light in the
room is from the main room light. She does have her phone on her lap with her
computer. The vibration is on to notify her of texts or notifications.
 Technical environment: Janie is conducting the test on her school laptop, which
is a HP EliteBook. She is using the browser Chrome since it was already open
with 10 other tabs. Some of those tabs included Facebook, Netflix, Pandora, and
other shopping sites. She is using the schools internet and is hooked up to it with
Wi-Fi.

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Tester 2: Jennifer Emry
Jennifer Emry is a 44-year-old female from Blue Springs, Missouri. She is a teacher for
the Fort Osage School District teaching Health Sciences a college prep class for high school
students. The program that Jennifer has to teach is all online. This leads to her being on a
computer most of the day either preparing for classes, or grading tests and assignments. Jennifer
lives in a much bigger city than Janie, and only lives about five miles from the closest
ecommerce store. With the convenience of store around her, Jennifer only ever shops in stores.
On rare occasion, she will turn to the internet to shop for something she is in need something.
Compared to Janie, Jennifer has a very different relationship with computers and the
internet. Jennifer spends at least 8+ hours a day on a computer, but only ever uses it for
schoolwork. Because of the age difference between Jennifer did not grow up with a computer in
the home. The first time she used a computer was in school in the fourth grade. At this time, the
only thing that the classroom used the computer for was the game Organ Trail. When she finally
got a computer at home, she was 20 year old. Today, Jennifer thinks she has high-experience
with the internet because of her job.
In many ways, Jennifer is very different from Janie and I believe that makes Jennifer a
great participant. It would be a great way to see how two very different people go about doing
these tasks. Will they handle things differently or will do they complete things the same way? In
addition, will the same problem accrue between the two?
Environment for Jennifer Emry
 Location of test: Jennifer took her in her living room in her chair where she
spends most of her time on the computer because she has it set up as her desk.

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 Physical environment: Jennifer has the TV on in the background. She is
watching Harry Potter because she knows the movie by heart, so it is not
distracting and is great for background noise. The only light in the room is
coming from the windows. She also has her phone and IPad next to her with the
sound on to notify her of texts and notifications.
 Technical environment: Jennifer is conducting the tasks on her HP ProBook.
She is using her main web browser, which is google chrome. She does not have
any other tabs or applications open. She is using Xfinity internet, and is connected
to it with Wi-Fi. The router is located next to the TV in the living room.
Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
At the beginning, both users looked at muckbootcompany.com very differently. When the
pop-up came up, shown in the
image below, Janie became
irritated and said, “Yuck.” She
quickly exited out of it before
she read anything of the
information. Jennifer on the
other hand, saw the pop-up and
became excited about the 10%
offer that she could get.
Continuing on to exploring the page, Janie never went below the fold, while Jennifer looked
Image 4, pop-up on muckbootcompany.com.

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everywhere. Janie scanned through the page as quickly as she could, whereas, Jennifer took her
time looking through all of the information. Eventually Janie finally went below the fold after
she accidently scrolled. She expressed that she did not realize that there was more than the top
fold.
Eventually during the searching, the users began to show
some similarities between them. They both spent some time looking
at the slide show at the top of the page and became interested in the
boots they were showing. A funny thing accorded when Janie and
Jennifer looked at the #MuckBoot slideshow after noticing a puppy
in one of the pictures, shown in the image to the right. They both
became excited and scrolled through the slide show and looked at
the boots shown. Both users expressed how they liked seeing real people wearing the boots, and
became more interested in the boots.
Task 1: Determine how many boot options are less than $140.
Summary for Both Users:
Janie
Schutz
Jennifer
Emry
Average
Average
Satisfaction
3 3 4.5
Table 1, on a scale of one to five.
Highlights
1. Compared to me, both users only search for boots under $140 in the women’s
section. This decision limit the total number of boots that they could choose from
by half. On the other hand, this also limited the uses of shoes size if they decided
Figure 5, from #MuckBoot on
muckbootcompany.com.

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on a men’s shoe. Possible, there is a way to create a chart for users who may need
the sizes for a shoe of the opposite gender.
2. Janie rushed to find the answer, so she only used the sort by tool. Whereas
Jennifer took her time to find a more specific boot for her under $140. Jennifer
used the sort by tool, but also the filter. She pick price, size, and gender, and then
went on to search for wide calf boots as well to find a boot that would actually
work for her.
3. Neither of them ran into any serious problem during the task.
Alignment to Heuristic: Flexibility and Efficiency of Use
Although there was not any major problems, I could see a small problem with the
filers and searches already. When Jennifer decided to look for boots that would work exactly for
her she searched for wide calf boots. She also used the filter for price and then the sort by, but
the tools were not working. The efficiency of the filters and sort by were not working in the users
favor.
Task 2: You’ve just been advised that you’ll need steel-toe construction boots. Of the
options you’ve found, which offer steel-toe construction?
Summary for Both Users:
Janie
Schutz
Jennifer
Emry
Average
Average
Satisfaction
2 2 3
Table 2, on a scale of one to five.
Highlights

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1. Both users decided to use the search bar right off the back, whereas, I decided to
use the navigation, more specifically, the best for tab and the work option.
Because of this, I believe that I was about get a more wide range of boot option
then them. When they searched, they only got boots that had steel-toe in the
name. I was able to get a wider range of boots what had a good chance of having
steel-toe, but most of the time I had to click on the boot to read the description to
determine if that had a steel-toe.
2. Both tester had problem with their searches. After getting the search results, they
both wanted them sorted by price from low to high, but the sorting never changed
the order.
This became a big problem later when they needed to find a boot in general and made
both of them very irritated and frustrated that it was not working.
3. Janie with finding a boot with in her budget and with steel-toe, which lead to her
quitting and wanting go to a different site at this point. Jennifer had similar
Image 6, before the sort by filter on muckbootcomapny.com
Image 7, after the sort by filter on muckbootcompany.com.

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problem as well, but was able to find a boot for her. She had remembered the 10%
offer from the pop-up at the beginning and thought that she could factor that in to
stay under her budget.
Alignment to Heuristic: Error Prevention
With the search bar not working with the filters or the sort by, it has led to a
problem, or an error, with the users. It make both users irritated and making Janie want to
leave the site. If this did these to both of my users, then this problem is probably accruing
to many users. The problem needs to be fixed before any more users are lost because of
the search bar.
Task 3: Assume/pretend 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 the associated costs.
Summary for Both Users:
Janie
Schutz
Jennifer
Emry
Average
Average
Satisfaction
3 2 2.5
Table 3, on a scale of one to five.
Highlights
1. Janie was lost from the very beginning of the task. She looking for shipping in the
tabs and tried using search bar, but could not find it. She did not spend very much
time looking for it, and eventually decided she would leave the site being of the
lack of information.

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2. Jennifer search for shipping similarly to Janie, but since she had found a boot that
she thought would work she tried looking with in the boot preview. She never
went below the fold therefore, leaving her with no information on shipping.
3. Jennifer then decided to look in checkout and found the estimate tool very helpful,
but this aligned with a problem I previously predicted. Jennifer guessed that the
shoes would not be shipped until Thursday and that she would need then shipped
by Saturday. She then decided that she would need to pick the 3-day shipping.
Luckily, even though she was wrong about the shipping day and when they would
arrive, she would still get her boots on time. Nevertheless, this issue of guessing
could lead to issues for other users.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and Documentation
Shipping is a very important fact when it comes to shopping online. With no
documentation anywhere above the fold, users would not find the information they need.
It is also strange that since muckboocompany.com does offer free shipping that it is not
advertised anywhere for customer to see as soon as they enter. The tab below the fold
does share the information, but does not provide any other information unless you go to
another page. However, even going to the other page had resulted in a problem where it is
hard to understand what click here means. Having the information above the fold and all
in one place for users to see would be quick and convenient for users.
Task 4: Choose the best boot option and determine the total order amount, including
shipping.
Summary for Both Users:

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Janie
Schutz
Jennifer
Emry
Average
Average
Satisfaction
1 4 2.5
Table 4, on a scale of one to five.
Highlights
1. Both users had trouble finding a boot that was within budget and steel-toe. They
had both searched for a boot and used the sort by, which was not working, so they
had to skim through. They both picked the same boot for $139.95 when there was
a cheap option for $119.99.
2. Janie ended up going over budget and became frustrated. She told me she would
look at a different sight to stay within budget. Jennifer on the other hand, had
remembered the pop-up and used that to her advantage. She was only $4.91, and
told me she should would have gone ahead and bought the boots, since it was not
that much over.
3. Janie was more impatient than Jennifer was, and I believe this has to do with their
ages. Janie grew up with technology and been able to get information without
searching very hard with the help of technology. Compared to Jennifer, who grew
up without a computer and was used to having to search for information.
Knowing this, there are things that need to change to make it easier and faster to
get information on muckbootcompany.com since neither of the users could find
information. For example, there needs to be clear and more links to shipping
above the fold.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and Documentation

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The struggle of finding a boot was prominent for both users when they could not
find a boot that would work. There was no clear documentation on what the boots had
such as, waterproof, steel-toe, roll down, etc., unless they looked at the description, which
neither one did. Just like the problem with shipping in the above task, have clear and
accessible descriptions of shoes would led to happy users.
Final Site Thoughts
After the tasks, both users were leaving with different feelings about the site then when
they initially thought. Janie was irritated and frustrated that should know never find the
information she needed. According to Janie, “the website needs to check itself,” and expected
more from the website. Jennifer on the other hand enjoyed the website aside from the problems.
She thinks the site could be successful all around once the search bar is fixed, shipping
information is more clear, and could find a description of the boots better.
Recommendations to improve user experience
Single problem being fixed:
Task 3: Users could not find information on shipping throughout the website.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and Documentation
I want to focus more of the help and documentation heuristic because it
corresponds with the problem finding information on shipping. According to Jakok
Nielson’s article 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design, “it is better if the
system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and
documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on user’s task,

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list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large (Nielsen, 1995).” Since the users
were not able to find the shipping on their own, muckbootcompany.com needs a way to
help users find the information easily.
Problem Improvement:
Right now the only shipping information on the website is below the fold with the
descriptions of the items, refer to image 2. It does not provide a lot of information, so to
get specific information you have to go to a separate page. Since some people do not go
down below the fold, therefore shipping information is not found.
To fix the issue, I would like to put a shipping icon next to the price of the boot to
make it easier for users to find information. There are two thing I do like that
muckbootcompany.com already does. One is the estimate shipping and tax tool in the
shopping bag, and secondly is the chart about when shipments would and would not go
out. Having these two tools together would make it easier and simpler for users.
Therefore, within the shipping icon I would like to put in the estimate tab, refer to image
3, and the delivery schedule shown below.
In the below two pages I have shown what it looks like right now and then my
plans to improve shipping information. With the new changes, I believe that the
experience for both users better. Janie probably would have not gotten frustrated if she
would have had the icon to find the shipping.
Image 8, delivery schedule from muckbootcompany.com

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Before the Shipping Icon

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Right now, all of these things are
on separate pages, sending users
on a hunt for information.

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ESTIMATE SHIPPING AND TAX
With the Shipping Icon
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00

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Works Cited
Muck Boot Company. (n.d.). Muck Boot Company. Retrieved from Muck Boot Company :
https://www.muckbootcompany.com/
Nielsen, J. (1995). 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design.