1) Both testers had to complete the full ordering process on the Sun Basket website before they could determine the total cost of a meal plan, which took more time than needed for the task. Neither tester saw pricing information prominently displayed. 2) The meal plans only accommodated cooking for two or four people, with no single-serving option. 3) Pricing information was not clearly visible on key pages like the meal plans page.

1. Usability Analysis Based on User Field Testing
Introduction to Web Publishing
Savana Wiederholt
October 23, 2018
Usability Test for SunBasket.com
Test Preparation
To prepare for conducting usability tests on my participants, I completed the usability test
myself. Before I started the tasks, Icreated an account. After I created my account, the website took
my straight to the ordering section. It said that I had already completed step one, which was “Sign
Up,” and I was now ready for step two, “Customize.” This is where I would build my order. Since I
knew all four of the tasks before I started, I decided to go ahead and walk through the ordering
process because I knew this would give me the answers to the first three tasks. Task one was to
determine the weekly cost of a meal plan that appealed to me. Then I had to determine if my uncle’s
budget of $65 was going to cover the cost of my preferred meals. Task two was to go through the
process of building an order and customizing a meal plan and then choosing the specific meals that I
would like to receive. Task three was to determine the cost of shipping for my first order and all
subsequent orders.
I decided to start by building my order, which is task two. I chose a Lean and Clean meal
plan for two people with three recipes per week. I chose to have my delivery week be the week of
October 22nd
and when I started to type in my address for delivery, it auto-populated my
information, which was nice. After I had decided all of this general information, I clicked continue,
which led me to step three, “Order.” This is where I could confirm and customize my three meals
related to my selected Lean and Clean meal plan. One problem that I noticed while trying to select
the meals that looked appealing to me was that I had to deselect the default meals before I could
select the meals that I wanted. I kept one default meal: Sesame-crusted salmon with scallions and

2. warm carrot salad. For my second meal, I chose steak and roasted sweet potatoes with scallion-
ginger relish, and for my last meal I chose sheet pan pork sausages with roasted apple and squash.
Then I scrolled down and clicked continue. At this point a pop-up came up that said I had unlocked
free shipping; I clicked apply this offer and the pop-up disappeared. Ihad completed task two. This
led me to step four, “Pay.” I saw that my order total was $73.90 with free shipping for my first
order. After my first order, it would cost me $80.89 with shipping and estimated tax for subsequent
orders, so shipping must cost around $7. My meals are $11.99 per serving. Therefore, my uncle’s $65
budget will not cover the total cost of my preferred meal plan. This accomplished task one and
three.
Task four is to assume that I have a very serious food allergy and determine how to go about
placing an order that accommodates that allergy. I knew that I wasn’t going to accomplish this task
in the ordering section and I was currently on the pay page. I clicked the back button which took me
to the “Customize” page. I realized I was going to have to click back through all the ordering pages,
so I clicked the Sun Basket logo to return to the home page. I decided to click on the “Meal Plans”
tab in the navigation panel. Iscrolled all the way through the “Meal Plans” page and didn’t see any
plans that mentioned anything about accommodating for an allergy. When I reached the bottom of
the page there was an FAQ section and one of the questions was “What if I have food allergies or
intolerances?” I clicked on this question and it expanded to reveal the answer which explained that
all their food was prepared in the same place and stated, “If you have a very serious food allergy or
intolerance, we recommend that you do not order Sun Basket.” So I could not place an order
through Sun Basket if I had a very serious food allergy or intolerance.
I was able to easily accomplish all my tasks easily and Ifeel like my shopping experience
through Sun Basket was fairly simple and well set up. However, I wish there was more of a
description with examples of meals for the different categories of meal plans. I chose the Lean and

3. Clean meal plan and not many of the recipes sounded very appealing to me. If I had known some
examples of the meals beforehand, I may have opted to choose a different meal plan. I could’ve
clicked back and chose a different meal plan, but that would add an unnecessary step to the ordering
process and make it less streamlined.
Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Max Giesken
My first tester is Max Giesken, my boyfriend. He is 20 years old and is currently a junior at
Northwest studying biomedical sciences and he works as an ER technician at SSM Health hospital in
Maryville. His goal is to attend medical school and become a surgeon. Since he is in school currently,
he works Friday overnight 7 pm to 7 am and Sunday 7 am to 7 pm. When he is not at work he is
usually studying and working on homework. He said he would estimate that he spends close to 50
hours a week on the internet and that time is split 25% social media and 75% browsing, which
includes studying. He said that he considers himself a high-experience internet user. He loves to eat,
but doesn’t love to cook so much. However, he is very aware of the food that he eats so I think he
will appreciate the food that Sun Basket has to offer. He is also very familiar with the internet and is
skilled at navigating through searches. He is not familiar with SunBasket.com, and has never
purchased meals from a meal kit website. He is a reasonable tester because he is very vocal and loves
to talk. He is also very good at explaining things and often asks to explain topics to me while he is
studying to help him remember them. I think he will be able to explain, reason, and think out loud
through the tasks that I ask him to complete.
Environment for Tester 1
Location of test: The location of the usability test was conducted at his house
sitting on the couch in the living room. He sat in one section with his foot rest up and the laptop

4. sitting on his lap and I sat next to him. This location was chosen because this is where Max spends
most of his time studying and browsing the internet.
Physical environment: This test was conducted in his living room at night with the
Chiefs game playing and his dad sitting on the other couch in the room. There is a light up pumpkin
sitting on a side table and orange Halloween lights draped across the large window in the living
room. There is also a light on in the kitchen behind the living room which is casting light into the
living room. This location was chosen because Max spends most of his time working on homework
and browsing the internet when he gets home at night sitting in the living room so that he can spend
time with his parents while working on homework. Some distractions that existed during the test
was that the Chiefs were playing so he kept getting distracted by watching the game and then he
would talk to his dad about plays as they were happening.
Technical environment: Max uses the University issued laptop, which is an HP
model. He was connected to my Wi-Fi, which is through Suddenlink and always uses Google
Chrome to browse. The only ad-on he uses is an ad blocker extension from Google Chrome.
Tester 2: Susie Wiederholt
My second tester is Susie Wiederholt, my mom. She is a paraprofessional at Stanberry
Elementary School and teaches kindergarten through sixth grade the Title I reading program, offers
student assistance, and teaches computer classesin the afternoon. She is also the secretary of Cedar
Ridge Rustic Millwork, my dad’s company, and handles employee payroll, accounting, and general
management. When she is not doing all of this and not cooking, cleaning, or taking care of her
family, she said that she probably spends approximately 15 hours a week on the Internet with a split
of 40% social media and 60% browsing. However, she recently broke her collar bone and two ribs
from a horse accident, so she said she has been spending much more time on the internet as she is
unable to do much else right now. She considers herself a high-experience user of the Internet.

5. Environment for Tester 2
Location of test: I conducted this test at my parent’s house in Stanberry sitting on
the couch in our living room upstairs. My mom sat in her reclining section of the couch where she
always sits at night while she is browsing through the Internet and watching TV and I sat on the
middle section next to her. This location was chosen because this is where my mom always browses
through the Internet and spends most of her relaxation time.
Physical environment: We have many lights in our living room upstairs, but the
only lights on were the small can lights along the wall which lights up the room with a soft, dim
light. Our German Shephard, Rambo, was sitting on the couch next to me. He usually sits where I
was sitting so he wasn’t too happy about me taking his spot. Our Pit Bull, Klaus, was sleeping on his
bed on the floor snoring. My dad was downstairs finishing up the dishes, and he came up when he
was done while we in the middle of the test and talked to us about my brochures and business cards
that I had recently designed for him. This was a brief distraction for us and then he sat down on the
floor next to us while we completed the test, making casual conversation here and there. A cat
popped up in the window during one task and mom asked my dad if that was her cat that they put
inside. My mom was sitting in the reclining section of the couch with her feet up, her left arm in a
sling and immobilized, a pillow sitting under that arm, a pillow behind her back, and a pillow on her
lap which she perched her laptop on. She could only use one hand to browse and she had to use a
wooden spoon to itch her arm a couple times. The fact that she had one arm in a sling and
immobilized also made the test a little more difficult for her to conduct.
Technical environment: She conducted the test on her MacBook Pro laptop. She
was connected to the home Wi-Fi, and she was using Google Chrome as a browser. She had an ad
blocker extension from Google on her device.

6. Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
The first thing Susie mentioned when she landed on the Sun Basket home page was that she
really liked the banner at the top of the page and the Sun Basket logo. She noticed that the company
was USDA approved and she said how important that was so it was great that was one of the first
things she noticed. She gathered that this recipe is about cooking and that it looked to be a packaged
meal kit service from the fancy dishes on the banner at the top and the recipe cards. She said that it
looked like a pretty simple, easy-to-use website and appeared to have a really good design and layout
just from her first impression. I helped her sign up for an account using my email address since she
could only type with one hand and then she clicked the Sun Basket logo to get back to the home
page before we got started with task one.
Max said that the website looked pretty good and that he liked the color scheme. He said
that the website looked like some kind of “gluten healthy meal place for people who care about
organic food and are too lazy to cook.” He noticed that you can have meals that are gluten free,
organic, and more. He didn’t want to sign up for an account using his name and email, so I used one
of my accounts and he came up with a fake name.
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) The first problem that Max mentioned when he was completing task one was that
the meal plans that you can chose from, the classic plan and the family plan, doesn’t accommodate

7. for people who may be single and just want to order for only one person. You have to either chose
to cook for two people or four people and you can only have three recipes per week, no more and
no less. This makes it difficult to adjust your plan when you’re on a budget because the number of
servings is predetermined when you chose how many people you’re cooking for.
2) A problem that both of my testers mentioned was that you had to go through the
entire ordering process, including signing up for an account and entering personal information such
as your address, before you were able to determine the cost of the meal plan that you chose. Max
and Susie clicked on “Pricing” and then chose their plan. They didn’t pay much attention to the
prices listed on the “Pricing” page because they thought the price would vary based on the meals
that they chose. It turns out that the price didn’t vary even if you chose different meals, but they had
no way of knowing that for sure without going through the entire ordering process, picking their
meals, and going all the way to the “Pay” section of the ordering process.
3) Another problem that Max mentioned was that it doesn’t list the prices on the
“Menu Selection” portion on the ordering section or on the “Meal Plans” page on the home page.
On the “Meal Plans” page it has the price per serving in very small font, but he didn’t see this as he
was scrolling. Another thing that I noticed was that when you changed the size of the screen that the
website is viewed on, this information disappears altogether as it responds to changing the size of
the page. This would definitely be a problem if someone was viewing the website on a very small
screen or on a mobile device because they might not even be given the pricing information.
Biggest Problem: I think the biggest problem that was encountered for task one
was that users had to go through the entire ordering process before they were confident of what
their final price would be. If users weren’t actually intending to buy from Sun Basket, but maybe just
wanted to compare prices per meals in relation to other companies, this could be an inconvenience.
Max didn’t like that he had to go through setting up an account and that he had to enter his personal

8. address just to figure out the final price including shipping and tax of his preferred meal plan. This
task took both users some time to complete because they had to go through the entire ordering
process to get their final answer, so they actually completed tasks one through three without
realizing it.
Both users didn’t want to enter their own email address so I used one of my email addresses.
I read task one to Max and he said we’re obviously going to go to “Pricing” and clicked on that tab.
This took him to the page that was split between the classic menu which is for two people and the
family menu which is for four people. Here he made a comment that they should have an option for
a single person which would be cooking for one person, but there is no option for that. When I read
task one to my mom she clicked on the “Meal Plans” tab. Both users chose the Classic Menu for
two people with three recipes per week. One interesting way that my mom navigated the website
was that she used the down arrow key on the keyboard to scroll sometimes. My mom’s address
auto-populated so she did that, and Max chose to enter a fake address which let him move on to the
next step, “Order.”
My mom had picked the Mediterranean menu and she got excited when she got to pick her
meals. Max picked the Chef’s Choice menu and didn’t enjoy picking the meals as much as my
mother did. They both finally arrived to the conclusion that their rich uncle’s budget would not
cover the cost of their meal plan per week. My mom’s order came to $73.54 with tax and free
shipping, and Max’s order was $74.17 with tax and free shipping. Max’s order came out to be 63
cents more expensive, which probably had something to do with the tax rate. Mom said that she
would cover the remainder of her order but that her uncle should’ve have given her more money
and Max said that his rich uncle should’ve given him more money because he knew from the
beginning that $65 probably wouldn’t be enough.

9. Alignment to Heuristic: Visibility of System Status
The ordering section did have a status system update at the top of the top that was 1. Sign
up, 2. Customize, 3. Order, and 4. Pay. For the first task, if you would’ve been able to skip through
the steps to just figure out how much the order was going to cost, then this task would’ve taken no
time at all and would’ve been relatively easy. However, users were required to go through the entire
ordering process just to get to their final answer. The website lacked updates throughout the process
because Max mentioned that users should be able to see the prices of their order throughout the
entire ordering process, especially since he was working with a budget. There should be price
updates as the user is going through the order. He is also someone who is very frugal so he said that
he would like to know exactly how much he was spending and what his total was adding up to as he
went along. On the meal selection page, he said that there should be prices listed under each recipe
because if prices varied based on the recipe then he could have picked meals that would add up to
be under his budget if this was going to be possible. I observed that my users would have been
much more comfortable with ordering through Sun Basket if they were aware of the price
throughout the entire ordering process.
Task 2: Go through the process of building an order (customizing a meal plan) and choose
the specific meals you’d like to receive.
Summary for Both Testers
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 5 2 3.5
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Highlights
1) When my mom was going through the process of customizing her meal plan she
picked the Mediterranean Plan and when she got to the “Order” page where she could pick the
specific recipes that she wanted, she said “Do I uncheck it?” This is definitely a usability issue

10. because if the customer is unsure how to check which meals they want or don’t want then they
could end up with the wrong meals and be a very unhappy customer. She did figure out that she
could uncheck the preselected meals and chose the ones that she wanted pretty quickly. However,
she also forgot that she could only pick three recipes so she tried to go through the entire list and
when she got to the bottom she wanted to select another recipe that sounded good but the page
wouldn’t let her because she had already selected her three meals.
2) Max chose the Chef’s Choice menu and when he got to the section where he
could pick his meals he sat there with a blank stare on his face for a few seconds. I asked him if any
of the meals looked appealing to him as he was scrolling up and down the page and he said that they
didn’t really because he didn’t know what they were. Sun Basket uses very specific words for their
recipes that sound fancy and high-class. This may be good for some people if they are a “foodie”
and are really into cooking different foods and have researched lots of different recipes, but for a
male that doesn’t really cook and doesn’t have foods presented to him that are this fancy, this caused
an issue for Max because he didn’t know what meals to pick. My mom didn’t have this issue because
she has been cooking for many years and understood the chef’s lingo.
3) Another problem that I noticed when Max was going through the process of
customizing his meal plan was that it seemed like he didn’t gravitate to any of the specific meal
plans. Before you could move on to the point where you got to pick your specific recipes and could
see what meals were in each plan, you had to choose a meal plan. Max settled on the Chef’s Choice
meal plan because he thought it would taste the best and the other options were unappealing
because they were too specific and he doesn’t have any dietary restrictions. My mom decided to go
with the Mediterranean meal plan, but she mentioned that she wished there was an option to see
recipes offered under every meal plan before you were forced to make a selection. She said that she
could have gone back and forth between choosing a different meal plan and then going through the

11. customizing process, but this would have turned into a very lengthy process and most people either
don’t have the time to do this or don’t want to do this.
Biggest Problem: I think the biggest problem when I asked my testers to go
through the process of building an order and customizing a meal plan was that my mom was unsure
at first whether she was supposed to check the boxes next to the recipes that she wanted or just
uncheck the ones that she didn’t. When the “Menu Selections” page pops up, all three recipes in the
first row that are above the fold are checked, which leads to confusion because the users might
assume that all the recipes on the page are selected. The website does explain that you are supposed
to uncheck the default recipes if you want to change your menu selection at the top, but often we
skip over small text and go straight to the iconography, which in this case was the big orange check
marks on the top three meals.
Max didn’t have a problem with this process and was able to select his meals with no
confusion, but I think that if any users have a problem with a process then it could be fixed and
improved. My mom figured out that she had to deselect the default meals through trial and error.
She tried to click a meal that looked appealing to her and the site wouldn’t let her. The mouse
showed up as a pointer when she hovered over the unchecked box because there were already three
meals selected for her. When she hovered over a meal that was already selected, the mouse turned
into a hand which alerted her that she could click the orange check mark to deselect this meal. She
really liked the way that this page looked, she kept mentioning how pretty and colorful the recipes
were and even exclaimed, “If I was rich I would do this all the time!”
After some time of scrolling up and down the page to read all the recipes, she chose to keep
one of the default recipes which was braised chicken and artichokes. For her second meal, she
selected one, changed her mind and tried to select a different one but then she had to go back and
deselect the previous meal before she could select the new one. She chose SoCal fish tacos with

12. zesty lime yogurt and carrot-cabbage slaw and quick chicken and white bean chili with avocado and
cheese. Max went through this process significantly quick than my mom, partially because he wasn’t
as interested in the recipes as her, but also because he picked up on the process right away. He
unselected the meals with no problem and ended up choosing salmon alla puttenesca with chard,
Burmese chicken aloo curry, and seared steak with Brussel sprouts and chipotle mustard vinegar. He
was able to pick out his recipes, but he was unsure what some of the foods were, so he ended up
making his selections mainly based off of the meat that was in the recipe.
Alignment to Heuristic: Consistency and Standards
The “Menu Selection” process was different than a standard selection process because normally you
are presented with a list in which nothing is selected and you have to go through and select
everything that you want. In this situation, it was very different and was at first a confusing process
for my mom. First, she could only pick three recipes. So she was scrolling through and tried to click
more and it wouldn’t let her. I think this page also lacked error prevention because it would have
been nice if a little message popped up that alerted her that she had already selected her three meals.
Instead, it just wouldn’t let her click the box and she had to figure out that this meant she had
already selected her three meals. She was also unsure of how many meals she could select because
she got excited when she saw all the pretty, colorful menu options and didn’t really read the
information in small text at the top which said to confirm your 3 menu selections and uncheck the
default recipes if you want. She said that this reminded her of when she was young and they would
get recipe cards for free in the meal that was trying to get you to subscribe to get recipes in the mail.
They never subscribed, but she loved to get the free ones and she would always keep them. She said
this website was like those recipe cards of the future. I think it would’ve been helpful to have a
countdown of how many recipes she had left to select so that she didn’t have to scroll back through
the page to see what recipes she had selected and then unselect them to choose a more appealing

13. recipe. My mom didn’t have that “seems familiar, makes sense” moment when she first landed on
the page which could lead to Sun Basket losing their business simply because users are unfamiliar
with the process and confused about what they’re supposed to be doing on this specific part of the
ordering process.
Task 3: Determine the cost of shipping your first order and all subsequent orders.
Summary for Both Testers
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 2 3 2.5
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Highlights
1) My mom was disappointed that shipping wasn’t free after your first order. She
said that she hates paying for shipping and a lot of time she won’t buy it if she’s going to have to pay
for shipping. This could lose the business of some customers to Sun Basket’s competition because
they might try to get free shipping elsewhere. Max calculated that the cost of shipping on subsequent
orders would be around $7, which he said seemed a little steep but then he reasoned that it has to be
refrigerated so that makes sense. When the popup came up that said that they had unlocked free
shipping, both users were excited. My mom carefully clicked the button that said apply free
shipping, but Max clicked the “X” button. When I asked him why did that, he said “Sh*t, does that
mean that I didn’t apply that? I didn’t mean to do that.” When we checked his order the free
shipping had still applied.
2) Another inconvenience that my users encountered was that they had to calculate
to figure out how much shipping would be for subsequent orders. My mom had to squint her eyes
and crane her neck to read the small gray font below the “Place my Order” button. She read the
font carefully twice and then pulled out her phone to use the calculator to figure out how much
shipping would be. Max read the small font and was able to do that calculation in his head and
determined the approximate price of shipping subsequent orders.

14. 3) Both of my testers took a while to figure out that the cost of shipping after their
first order because they had to scan the page to find the light colored font at the bottom of the page.
My mom reasoned out loud that she would have to take the difference of her first order and second
order minus the tax to determine the approximate cost of shipping. They both arrived at the
conclusion that shipping would cost around $7 on subsequent orders, but my mom had to pull out
her calculator and Max had to take time to do this in his head.
Biggest Problem: I think the biggest problem was that it took my testers a while to
figure out what the cost of shipping would be after their first order. When people sign up for a meal
kit plan, it ships your meals automaticallyand bills you each week unless the user goes in and cancels
their subscription or says they want to skip a week. This would be a problem if the user signed up
for the plan and budgeted to spend around $70 a week because that’s what their first shipment cost
them and then the next week they got billed $80. My mom was very upset when she saw that she
would have to pay $7 for shipping, rated this task poorly, and exclaimed, “Ihate non-free shipping!”
I think the fact that Sun Basket tries to hide this information by putting it in very small, light gray
font could lead to confusion and anger when the customer is billed for their second week and it’s
more expensive. Users also had to calculate the cost of shipping on their phone and in their head
would took additional time since Sun Basket didn’t write out the cost of shipping.
Alignment to Heuristic: Error Prevention
I think an improvement to this task would be letting users know in bigger font in a way
that’s more noticeable that they are only receiving free shipping for their first order. Companies
should never try to trick customers into paying for something that they don’t want to pay for
because this leads to companies losing business and having upset customers. An error message
wouldn’t be appropriate for this instance, but I think better design could be implemented that allows
the users to know the cost of shipping for subsequent orders without having to think about it and

15. calculate it. Both users had to squint their eyes and crane their necks to read the fine print about
shipping details for subsequent order. For services like Sun Basket that users have to subscribe to,
this is very important information that should be displayed in a manner which is easier to read and
understand quickly. It would be important to maintain type hierarchy when redesigning this page so
that users understand that shipping for the order that they are currently placing is free, but they will
be charged for shipping on subsequent orders.
Task 4: Assume you have a very serious food allergy. Determine how to go about placing an
order that accommodates that allergy.
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 1 1 1
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Highlights
1) This task was definitely the most difficult for my testers to complete. It was very
difficult to find anything related to food allergies. There were no special tabs for allergies and if
someone was looking for a certain allergy restriction it would be impossible to find. The information
listed on allergies is very vague and simply says, “If you have a very serious food allergy or
intolerance, we recommend that you do not order Sun Basket.” Max and Susie only found
information about allergies at the bottom of the “Customize” page during the ordering process, they
didn’t even find the FAQ page that answered the question about serious allergies. This fine print
said: “Please note, Sun Basket meals are prepared in a facility that handles wheat, and while the
Gluten-Free meal plan follows a gluten-free diet, due to risk of cross-contamination, meals are not
suitable for people with severe gluten intolerance.”
2) Another problem is that Sun Basket doesn’t accommodate for food allergies and
the information that they don’t accommodate for serious food allergies is listed in very small, fine
print at the bottom of certain pages. Sun Basket offers a Gluten Free meal plan, but then Max

16. discovered that if you have a very severe gluten intolerance then this meal plan wouldn’t be safe for
you to consume. This information is also only written in very small, light print at the bottom of the
meal selection page, so if people with a gluten intolerance didn’t search for this information, they
wouldn’t know this information and could potentially order this meal and then have an allergic
reaction if they eat something that has been cross-contaminated.
3) Allergy details were listed in very small print at the bottom of certain pages. When
my testers were trying to complete this task they had a very difficult time finding any information on
allergy restrictions and accommodations. This task took Max an especially long time because he was
trying to find the information about the allergy accommodations in the ordering process. He looked
through the “Customize” section and scrolled up and down looking for details that would make
sense for the task. He noted that if you were lactose or gluten intolerant then there were little boxes
at the bottom of certain recipes noting that these could be suitable for people with these dietary
restrictions. He finally discovered that allergy details were listed in very small print at bottom of
page. My mom didn’t even find the information on the ordering section, she tried to click the
“Customize” tab of the home page and it wouldn’t let her so she decided to click on the Sun Basket
logo to return to the home page. She decided to go the “Menu” navigation tab where she finally
found information about dietary restrictions at the bottom of the page.
Biggest Problem: The biggest problem is that details about a serious allergy
accommodation is almost impossible to find and very vague once it is found. When I asked Max to
complete this task, his eyes got big and he sighed that I was going to make him leave the page. He
began hitting the back button until he got to a page that looked promising, which was the third step
of the ordering process. He scrolled up and down this page and couldn’t find anything at first. He
clicked back a few more times, saw nothing useful, and clicked forward to go back to the
“Customize” section. He scanned the page a little more thoroughly this time and found small text on

17. some of the recipes that alerted users that some recipes were Gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and so
on. He said that this would be helpful if you had a non-serious allergy, but if your allergy was very
serious as the task said it was this probably wouldn’t be enough. He began to get frustrated at this
point because he wasn’t sure if he was finding the right answer or not. I encouraged him to look
around a little bit more just to see if he could find any more valuable information. He kept scrolling
until he came to the bottom of the page where he read “Please note, Sun Basket meals are prepared
in a facility that handles wheat, and while the Gluten-Free meal plan follows a gluten-free diet, due
to risk of cross-contamination, meals are not suitable for people with severe gluten intolerance.” He
determined that if someone had a gluten intolerance then it wouldn’t be safe to order here, but
decided to keep searching a little more as he felt that this answer wasn’t detailed enough.
He kept asking me if that was the right answer and I told him that I didn’t know, it was
whatever he thought would satisfy his thoughts if he was in that situation and was the one with the
very serious food allergy. After some sighs of frustration, he decided to keep looking a little longer.
He kept clicking the back button until he reached the home page. I had told him not to use the back
button but it’s such a habit of his that he kept forgetting he wasn’t supposed to use it. He
determined that the FAQ’s listed on the home page was nothing relevant, so he went back to the
ordering process, clicked through his order again, and then clicked on the Sun Basket logo to go
back to the home page for the second time. He went back to the “Menu” tab and then to “Meal
Plans” where he scrolled all the way down and finally found the warning that recommended you
don’t order Sun Basket if you have a very serious food allergy or intolerance.
My mom found this information quite a bit faster than Max did, but she still had the most
trouble completing this task. She clicked on the “Meal Plans” tab after she came back to the home
page and said that if you needed gluten or dairy free you could probably accommodate for that but if
you had a very serious allergy there would be no way that you would be able to order from Sun

18. Basket. “Ithink you would be screwed,” she said. She found the warning at the bottom of the “Meal
Plans” page also and read that to me. If someone had a very serious food allergy, then it would be
very hard for them to figure out if it was safe to order from Sun Basket or not. My mom thought
that they should add a tab to the navigation bar or something in the footer that would lead to a page
detailing allergy accommodations. Both of my testers rated their satisfaction levelpoorly on this task
because it was nearly impossible to find any details on what users should do if they have a very
serious food allergy.
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and Documentation
SunBasket.com lacks help and documentation when it comes to figuring out what a user
should do if they have a serious food allergy. Sun Basket needs to make this information much easier
to find and more detailed. My users probably spent at least ten minutes on this task whereas the
others they completed in half that time. They were both frustrated and appalled that it was so
difficult to find allergy accommodations because this would be a very serious problem if someone
was trying to order Sun Basket while accommodating for their allergy. If they couldn’t find the
information, they might go ahead and order Sun Basket and they could potentially have an allergic
reaction from ingredients that come in their box, which would be very bad for Sun Basket. Another
huge issue that Max called to my attention when completing this task was that although one menu
plan claimed to be gluten-free, the fine print at the bottom warned that food may be cross-
contaminated so if you have a very serious gluten allergy, you should not order from
SunBasket.com. Some users might not be this thorough when placing their order, especially when
they’re in a hurry and not conducting a usability test. Sun Basketneeds to have a way to alert
customers that they shouldn’t order Sun Basket if they have a very serious food allergy, such as a
callout at the top of the page instead of at the bottom in fine, light colored text.

19. Final Site Thoughts: My mom’s final thoughts on the site was that it was fun site to look at
and she enjoyed looking at the different meals because they were very pretty and were presented
very nicely. Max didn’t have as delightful of an experience because he was confused by what some of
the recipes were and he said that this website was designed for people who are much fancier and
more high class than he is. They both thought that the website had good design and they liked the
color scheme and logo, but they both found errors related to user experience throughout their tasks.
My mom wondered if she could switch her meal plan around every week or if she had to
stick to the same one for a whole month. She also wasn’t sure how the payment plan worked and
asked if she would have to pay the fee no matter what, even if she didn’t want meal that week. I
explained that she could cancel her plan or skip a week anytime. After we completed the test, my
mom browsed around the site a little more as we were chatting about the site and watched the
promotional video on the “Values” page. She said that she thought his voice didn’t match what Sun
Basket is about and what they are trying to sell. He had an upbeat, cartoon-like voice and she
thought that the narrator should sound more like a farmer. I agreed that his voice seemed out of
place in comparison to the content of the video. Max said that he enjoyed his experience alright and
that the website was designed fairly well, but he thought there were a couple places for improvement
such as making the recipes easier to understand and making information pertaining to food allergies
easier to find. My mom thought the same thing about the food allergies. They both completed each
task fully with only minor difficulties and were very vocal throughout the test which gave me lots to
write about.
Recommendations to Improve User Experience
Single Problem Being Fixed: Task 4: Placing an order that accommodates a very serious
food allergy is not possible and it is very difficult for users to find information pertaining to food
allergies and accommodations.

20. Problem Improvement: Since the main problem for my testers was that they were unable
to find any information at all on dietary restrictions and allergy accommodations, Ithink adding
information to the home page about this topic would make viewers more likely to see this
information. I added a page to the footer navigation called “Dietary Restrictions.” When users
clicked on this page they would be taken to a page that would have all the details needed about
specific plans and recipes related to dietary restrictions. It would tell users which meal plans that
they could choose and what recipes they could choose that would be safe to consume if they had
only a minor intolerance or allergy. On each allergy or intolerance, users would be cautioned not to
order from Sun Basket if they had a very serious allergy or intolerance. I think it is a red flag for Sun
Basket that it took my testers so long to find any information at all on dietary restrictions and that
they were frustrated at how difficult it was to find any information on how they could go about
placing an order if they had a serious allergy restriction.
When users first visit SunBasket.com, Ithink they would normally scroll through at least the
home page to get a little idea of what Sun Basket is all about. If users had an allergy or intolerance, I
think they would be scanning for information pertaining to this as they are researching Sun Basket.
Therefore, I decided to place the description that Sun Basket had at the bottom of their “Meal Plan”
page in very small, light gray font on the home page in the section that says “Eating clean the Sun
Basket way.” Istill put the description in smaller font than the rest of the text on the page to
maintain type hierarchy, but I used black font on the lighter background to make it pop more. If
users had a dietary restriction and were looking for information about it then I think they would
notice this description. Below I have posted some screenshots detailing how I would implement
these changes.
The first screenshot shows a before and after of the footer navigation. Iadded “Dietary
Restrictions” to the footer under the “About Sun Basket” section because Ithink users would be

21. most likely to look here when searching for more information about a topic. I debated adding
another tab to the navigation bar at the top of the page, but decided against it due to the simple
layout of Sun Basket’s website. Ithink adding a “Dietary Restrictions” tab to the top menu bar
would make it seem cluttered and would be unrelated to the other menu items. The second
screenshot shows where I would place the description text explaining that people with certain
intolerances such as glucose should not purchase from Sun Basket.
My final image is a wireframe that I developed that shows how the “Dietary Restrictions”
page would be set up. This page would be in a grid format similar to the rest of their website with a
breakdown of the most common allergies and intolerances as headings with subheads of Meal Plans
to Choose, Recipes to Choose, Recipes not to Choose, and Very Severe Allergies and Intolerances.
Under each subhead there would be description pertaining to what users should and shouldn’t eat
and that they shouldn’t order from Sun Basket if they have a very serious allergy or intolerance.
There would be links in each category that would link to the ordering process where users could
complete their order knowing that the meal plan was safe for their specific allergy. This would
improve Sun Basket’s user experience because users looking to accommodate for an allergy would
be able to find information on what they should order easily and would be able to go to the ordering
process with preselected options when they enter through the “Dietary Restrictions” page. Users
would also be more aware that they shouldn’t order from Sun Basket if they have a very serious
allergy because it would be cautioned not to order from Sun Basket if this was the case.
Before: After:
Dietary Restrictions

22. Sun Basket meals are prepared in a facility that handles wheat, and while the Gluten-free meal plan follows a gluten-free diet, due to risk of cross-contamination, meals are not suitable
for people with severe gluten intolerance. Packed in a facility that handles gluten and all major food allergies (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans).