Jackie Lamer second paper

1. Stephen Merz
Dr. Lamer
Intro to Web Pub
10/12/2021
Paper #2
Test Preparation
Before conducting the tests I decided to do each task myself in order to have a more clear
understanding of test I would be giving. When first opening the website, the home page’s main
color scheme is varying shades of blue which is appeasing to the eye. The only problem I have
with the top of the home page is that the “Contact” and “Donate” tab as well as the links to their
social media are a much darker shade of blue and when the background color is a bright shade of
white it makes it difficult to read. Upon scrolling down LaurenBateman.com’s home page I
noticed that there is a lot of information and text that almost takes up too much room for a home
page. For example, she links her latest lessons on her home page and they take up a full screen
worth of scrolling to get past and on top of being too much, her chord charts are colored blue and
video lessons are linked next to each song which makes it very obvious there is a link. This to me
is unattractive and makes the website seem outdated.
To find how many free lessons Bateman offers, I clicked on the “Lessons” tab on the
homepages and then under it popped up a “Free Guitar Crash Course” tab. Upon clicking the
“Free Guitar Crash Course” tab I was brought to page that allowed me to enroll in Bateman’s
free course. There are eight topics that are covered in Bateman’s free lesson.
To find out what Bateman’s seven step guide was, I started on the home page and
hovered over the “Products” tab then clicked the “Beginner Guitar Course” and scrolled down to
the “Here’s what we’ll cover in detail in the 7 Level Beginner Guitar System” subsection and
determined that those were the 7 levels.
To find how much the 7 Level Beginner Guitar Lesson costs, I navigated the home page
and went under the “Products” tab and clicked on “Beginner Guitar Course”. Scrolling down on
the page reveals information about the Beginner Guitar Course and all it has offer as well as

2. reviews and other helpful diagrams. The course costs $147 dollars for both US residents and non
US residents which seems to me like it’s a little be of overkill to link both when they cost the
same amount of money. After purchasing the course you are given a lifetime access to course
material. This information can be found on the “Beginner Guitar Lesson” tab and scrolling down
to the interactive frequently asked questions diagram.
In order to find the song “fast car” I navigated the course’s home page and hovered over
the “Songs” tab and at first clicked on the “Beginner Guitar Songs” tab and then searched for
“Fast Car” and after not finding it I switched to the “Intermediate Guitar Songs” tab and found it
on there.
After completing all four tasks I have determined that laurenbateman.com provides a
good deal of information and does a great job of having the services needed to satisfy the
specific needs of the customer. There are a few problems that come with laurenbateman.com
when talking about the navigation of the site. The home page contains too much information and
the song’s chord charts are presented in an outdated HTML fashion and the blue color choice
makes the links pop out compared to their song titles. Bateman’s “Beginner Guitar Course” page
contains too much content for a single page. There is a lot of quality content on this page, it’s
just too much to look through. For example, there are two interactive diagrams that answer both
frequently asked questions and five common excuses for not playing the guitar. Each question or
example in the diagram can be clicked on which leads to a drop down tab that answers the
question. It is a very good idea to include that because it is engaging and there is nothing else
like it on the site, so for me using the site this stuck out to me as one of the best parts of the site.
Choosing Participants
Brynn Cooper
Gender Female Male
Age 21 21
Hours browsing / week 40 50
Browsing habits Spends a lot of time browsing social media
Spends most of his time either using social
media or playing video games online.

3. Other observations
Knows how to use a website, possessed
knowledge about CNTRL+F
Computer guru, knows the ins and outs of a
computer as well as what makes a good
website
Tester 1 Details: Brynn Monaghan
Brynn makes a reasonable tester because she uses the internet frequently and has been
browsing websites for almost 13 years so she knows the difference between a well-made website
and a cheap one. Her major is Human Resources so she will be working with her own companies
and excel sheets so she knows her way around a computer. She is 21 years old, full time student
and had never used a website for guitar lessons, making this the first time she has tried to
navigate one. Brynn spends about 40 hours a week on the internet spending about 80% of her
time on social media, 15% on casual browsing and 5% of her time is spent online shopping.
Location of Test
The test was conducted in Brynn’s room at her desk and this location was chosen because
this is where Brynn does a majority of her schoolwork and this was her first choice.
Physical Environment
There was natural lighting in Brynn’s room as well as a ceiling light and there was no
other distractions in the room besides the laptop we were using. I asked her to turn her phone off
and the TV in her room was off as well.
Technical Environment
The test was conducted on a desktop on a cable internet connection using google chrome
with no add-ons. A standard vanilla browser and desktop was used.
Tester 2 Details: Cooper Hope
Cooper makes a good pick for this test because he is well seasoned in internet usage and
knows his way around a computer. He built his own personal computer at the age of 15 and has

4. been browsing the internet for over 11 years. Cooper is 21 years old and is a full time student at
Northwest. Cooper has never tried to use a website to learn to play guitar so this will be his first
time trying to use one. Cooper spends roughly 50 hours a week on the internet, spending about
60% of his time on social media, 20% shopping, and 20% doing casual browsing.
Location of the Test
The test was conducted in Cooper’s room at his house. Cooper took the test at his
personal desk and this location was chosen because this is where Cooper does a majority of her
schoolwork and other business here.
Physical Environment
The test was conducted at night so the lighting was from Cooper’s desk lamp as well as
his ceiling light. Cooper handed over his phone and there were no other distractions in the room
besides the computer.
Technical Environment
The test was conducted on a desktop on a cable internet connection using google chrome
with no add-ons. A standard vanilla browser and desktop was used.
Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
Tester 1: Initial thoughts included a great choice for the sites color schemes and how it
was an attractive shade of blue. Brynn noted that she enjoyed that the websites mission statement
was right there on the home page which expressed the motivation behind the website, making it
seem more genuine. Brynn said there was an overflow of information on the homepage and said
it could be confusing for a first time user trying to navigate the site.
Tester 2: Initial thoughts were that the website was well structured and well put together.
Cooper commented on the amount of content that was on the home page and how there was a
great description of a lot of what the site had to offer. Cooper noted that by having the sites
mission statement as the top of the home page, it makes the site seem more personable and that
Bateman is a passionate individual who puts in a lot of work for her company.

5. Similarities and Differences: Both Cooper and Brynn agreed that having the company’s
mission statement as the firs thing you see on the home page as a huge plus. They both noted that
this made the site seem more approachable and small businesslike rather than a large corporation
trying to squeeze money out of them. Cooper did think the amount of content on the homepage
was necessary and also adds to the quality of the page whereas Brynn disagreed and thought that
there was on overflow of information. Brynn believed that the songs and their chord charts
should be under the “Songs” tab and that they did not belong on the homepage. It is important to
note that Cooper spent less time observing the home page than Brynn did.
Task 1: You want to understand the complete array of free lesson options at
LaurenBateman.com. For this task, look for information that explains what type of lessons are
free and how many free lessons are offered.
Summary for Both Testers:
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average Satisfaction 2.7 2.7 2.7
Success Rate 50% 50% 50%
Tester 1 Task Completion Process
Brynn started by clicking on the “Free Guitar Training” tab and entered her information
to learn more assuming that this would show her how many lessons are offered. She was shown a
short video giving an introduction to the lesson. Brynn noted that she did not find the
information she was searching for and had to use the back arrow at the top of the browser
because there was no home page on the page she was sent to. She navigated back to the home
page and the “Free Guitar Crash Course” under the “Lessons” tab Brynn then found the
information she originally thought she had found at the beginning. She rated her satisfaction as a
3.5/5 and successfully completed the task.
Tester 2 Completion Process
Cooper started on the home page and started to scroll down and clicked the “Free Guitar
Crash Course” link. The link brought him to a page asking him to “Opt in Now” and Cooper

6. noted that this was off-putting because he initially thought that this was free process and he
doesn’t want to input any information. He scrolled down the page and noted that there was a lot
of content about the course and all that it had to offer. When he scrolled to the bottom of the
page ne noted that once again there was an “Opt in Now” option and he once again stated that
this is off-putting. He determined that there was one free course offered with several different
topics covered in the lesson. He rated his satisfaction 5/5
Biggest Problem
Both Cooper and Brynn noted that the site was misleading when it came to finding where
the information they needed. The biggest problem is that the site has multiple different ways of
getting to the free course, but they give different information on different pages about it. This can
confuse a user because they could get discouraged when they are shown “Opt in Now” buttons
when they aren’t sure on what is even provided in the course.
Alignment to Heuristic: User control and Freedom explains how user’s often accidently
do things on websites to get them lost so there needs to be a clearly labeled “Exit” or “Home”
link. User Control and Freedom applies most to the problems encountered here. For example,
when Brynn was searching for the free lessons she was brought to a screen with no “escape
button” and she had to use the back arrow to get where she wanted to be and this is an issue.

7. Cooper also noted that sometimes it was confusing on navigating back to the “Home” page and
said that he was “easily confused”.
Task 2: You’ve decided that you may eventually want more serious guitar lessons from
Lauren than what is available for free. For this task, learn what Lauren’s 7 Level Beginner Guitar
Lesson is, specifically, what are the 7 levels?
Tester 1 Completion Process
Brynn started on the homepage but struggled to find a starting point to find the seven
levels. She hovered over the “Lessons” tab and then clicked on the “Learn More” tab. Brynn then
scrolled down and found what she thought was the seven levels . Brynn scrolled up and down
several times on the page visibly confused and said out loud she wasn’t sure if she was looking at
the right material. She decided that the seven levels were the items listed under the “Here’s what
we’ll cover in detail in the 7 Level Beginner Guitar System” subsection after clicking the “Buy
Lauren’s Course” link. Brynn concluded that this is what she thought she was looking for but
wasn’t exactly sure because she said the website didn’t make it very clear what exactly the seven
levels were. She failed this task but rated it 3/5 because she wasn’t exactly sure if she was on the
right page.
Tester 2 Completion Process
Cooper started on the homepage and scrolled down, then back up and then hovered over
the “Products” tab and didn’t see what he was looking for. He then hovered over the “Lessons”
tab and once again stopped because he didn’t see what he wanted. At this point Cooper was
visibly confused and scrolled down once again on the homepage. He then clicked onto the “Buy
Lauren’s Course” tab and scrolled down to the subsection entitled “Here’s what we’ll cover in
detail in the 7 Level Beginner Guitar System”. Underneath this subsection are 10 short videos
over guitar basics. Cooper was frustrated and said this is what he thinks it is. Cooper failed this
task and rated his satisfaction as a 1/5 because there was no clear answer.
Biggest Problem
The biggest problem that both testers faced was that there was no clear indication of what
the seven steps actually were. Both testers expressed vocal complaints about how they aren’t

8. sure if this is what they are looking for or not, which is not what you want for your website.
Bateman makes a big point about her seven step program and includes why she made it and how
it will help you, but never directly tells you what the steps are.
Alignment to Heuristic
Consistency and Standards heuristic applies in this scenario because both of my users
were confused as to what they were looking for and what it actually was. For example the
definition of this heuristic says that “Users should not have to wonder whether different words,
situations, or actions mean the same thing.” When in fact both of my tester were confused on if
the words and sections they were looking at were the seven levels of Bateman’s class.
Task 3: Determine how much the 7 Level Beginner Guitar Lesson costs and how long
the user will have access to course materials.
Tester 1 Completion Process
Brynn started on the home page and hovered over the “Lessons” tab and then clicked on
the “More Guitar Lessons” link. She clicked the link and then scrolled and read what the page
had to offer, and when she got to the bottom she clicked the “Learn More” link at the bottom
which brought her to an informative page about Bateman’s story and why she wanted to teach

9. guitar lessons. Upon scrolling down further, Brynn found two different payment options, but
noted that the names of the payment plans are confusing at first. There are the “Silver Payment”
and then just the “Silver” payment options. Brynn noted that this was confusing because she
didn’t know the difference between the two and wondered why they had such similar names.
Brynn determined that these were the payment only payment options offered and that a customer
only had access to the site for a year. Brynn failed this task and rated it a 2/5 because she was
unclear how long you were given access to the content as well as the actual cost of the product.
Tester 2 Completion Process
Cooper started on the homepage and clicked the “Buy Lauren’s Course” Link after
scrolling down to it. He proceeded to click the “Enroll Today” link which lead to a checkout
page asking for his credit card information. After viewing the checkout page Cooper noted that
you have access to Lauren for a year but wasn’t sure how long you kept the actual product. He
scrolled down to customer reviews and saw that most people were talking about being several
months into the program so came to the conclusion that the service lasts longer than a month. He
scrolled back up and saw that the purchase offered a 30 day action plan as part of the bundle and
proceeded to say out loud that he didn’t know and he guessed that you get access for 6 months.
Cooper failed this task and rated his satisfaction as a 2.5/5.
Biggest Problem
The biggest problem is that once again there are too many ways to access the content on
this site which can lead people to different ends of the site, looking for the same information.
Both of my testers started on completely different paths trying to find this information and both
concluded that they didn’t have a definite answer. By organizing the payment section of this site
better, it would make it a lot easier for the user to see what is offered and for how long.

10. Alignment to Heuristic
The recognition rather than recall heuristic is best applied in this scenario because it has
to deal with having the information users are looking for on several pages and have easy access
back to it, so users aren’t going back and forth between interfaces trying to remember what they
just saw. We ran into this problem a lot with task and both Brynn and Cooper untimely decided
that they didn’t know this answer because it was hard to find and not easy to get back to where it
was originally.
Task 4: You’re a fan of Tracy Chapman’s song, “Fast Car”. For this task, determine
whether or not Lauren teaches this song, and if so, is it a song for beginners?
Tester 1 Completion Process
Brynn started on the home page and hovered over the “Songs” tab and then clicked on the
“Beginner Guitar Songs”. She then proceeded to “Control”+ “F” search up the song title. After
not finding the song she once again hovered over the “Songs” tab at the top and then clicked on
the “Intermediate Guitar Songs” tab. She then repeated her process from earlier and found the
song on the Intermediate Guitar Songs page. Brynn determined that this was not a beginner song
and rated her satisfaction as a 5/5 because of how straightforward and organized the song lists
were.

11. Tester 2 Completion Process
Cooper started on the home screen and scrolled down to the songs listed on the
homepage. He didn’t see Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” on there so he scrolled back up to the top
of the home page and hovered over the “Songs” tab and clicked the link on the “Beginner Guitar
Songs” tab. He then “Control”+ “”F” searched for the song, didn’t find it and proceeded to scroll
back to the top and hover over the “Songs” tab and then click on the “Intermediate Guitar Songs”
tab and do the same process he did early of “Control”+ “F” search for the song. After finding the
song Cooper determined that the song was an intermediate level song and not a beginner’s one.
Cooper rated his satisfaction as a 5/5 for the ease of access.
Biggest Problem
The biggest problem is that the user has to “Control”+ “F” to search for something, then
the website is doing something wrong. Although it was simple and effective, including a search
bar at the top of both the “Beginner Guitar Songs” page as well as the “Intermediate Guitar
Songs” page. This would cut down the amount of outside knowledge required to use Bateman’s
site which would make the site easier to use.
Alignment to Heuristics

12. The Flexibility and Efficiency heuristic applies in this case. The Flexibility and
Efficiency heuristic explains how users want to get their information as fast as possible so having
shortcuts implemented into your site will help the user do this. For example, both of my testers
knew how to search up specific words on a web page, but for an older user they may not know
that. So by having a search bar right at the top of the song list will allow users to easily and
conveniently look up what song they want without any previous computer knowledge.
Final Site Thoughts
Tester 1: A lot of detail and information was put into this site. Brynn noted that she
could tell that Lauren Bateman is passionate about her work and cares about what she puts out.
The biggest con Brynn mentioned was that there wasn’t a very clear way of paying for the
services provided and that she found different payment plans in the site which confused her.
Brynn also mentioned how the website title is kind of misleading and the common user will just
look up “guitar lessons” into the search bar and not look for Bateman’s website in particular.
Tester 2: Cooper explained that the website serves its purpose of supplying the user with
guitar lessons and chord charts and had a surplus of information about not only about guitar
lessons but her reasoning behind deciding to pursue teaching. Cooper enjoyed the inviting nature
of the website noting that he felt as if were helping out a friend’s business and not giving money
to a stranger which is a huge plus in the business world. Cooper said his biggest problem with
the site is sometimes there is too much information spread out over the site and that the
information should be more condensed so you can find the content easier.
Similarities and Differences
Cooper and Brynn both agreed that the website was appealing and inviting saying that it a
website they would be comfortable giving their money to. Both noted that there was a lot of
information about the products and services provided but it was spread out and sometimes
difficult to narrow down. For example both Brynn and Cooper were confused on what the
payment plans were and how long the services lasted. While Cooper claimed that the over rate of
the sight was a 4/5, Brynn believed there was more work to be done and rated it a 3/5. She
justified her reasons by stating it has a good message but sometimes it fails to get its point across

13. because sometimes it has too much information, not enough substance. Cooper believed the
information was necessary, but it just needed to put in a different spot.
Recommendations to improve user experience
Single Problem Being Fixed
Task 3 users couldn’t give a definite answer on what they thought the total price was and
how long the services lasted. Both Brynn and Cooper were deciding between it being a monthly
service or yearly. The website scatters out the payment information across its website making it
difficult for users to determine what they are actually receiving, how much it costs and how long
the services are available. By fixing this problem, the website will be clearer and more concise
about what it is trying to sell.
Problem Improvement
I would improve the tabs that are on the top of the homepage. I believe by changing them
from “Products”, “Lessons”, “Songs”, “Testimonials”, “Meet Lauren” and “Member Login” tabs
to “Free lessons”, “Paid Lessons”, “Songs”, “Payment”, “Meet Lauren” and “Member Login”
tabs.
The “Free Lessons” tab will help the first time users who are just looking to obtain a free
guitar service so they will not have to search for the free content. The “Paid Lessons” tab will

14. contain all of the content that Bateman wants the users to pay for. This will once again bring
clarity to the idea of what needs to be paid for and what is legitimately free. The “Songs” tab
would organize all the free songs and chord charts so the user can find the free songs. The
biggest improvement I will make to the site would be to label a “payment” tab on the home page
which would direct the users straight to the point and ask for billing info according to the
different packages offered, which would include what each payment plan includes. The other
two tabs I would keep as they originally are because I think they serve a purpose and are straight
up with what they are offering.