1. FINAL
Introduction
Interaction Diagram
Personas &
Scenarios
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Evaluation
FINAL
User Survey
SI622: Team Knetwit
April 17, 2009
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
2. FINAL
Introduction
Introduction to Knetwit
Interaction Diagram
• Knetwit.com is a knowledge sharing website that allows users to
Personas &
join classes, share notes with other users, and also provides the
Scenarios
option to create study groups within these classes.
– Find note
Comparative
Evaluation
– Upload note
– Request note
Heuristic
Evaluation
– Store
– Comment
User Survey
– Message
Usability Testing
– Leaderboards
– Study Groups
Findings &
Recommendations
– Flashcards
Incentives & Ethics
• Incentives
– Koin
Strengths
– Knowledge points
Comments – Community points
3. FINAL
Introduction
Interaction Diagram
Personas &
Scenarios
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Methods
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
4. FINAL
Introduction
Interaction Diagram
Interaction Diagram
• Helped provide a high-level understanding of the the systemʼs hierarchy.
Personas &
• Showed the complexity of the siteʼs architecture and all possible pathways
Scenarios
through the system.
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
5. FINAL
Introduction
Personas & Scenarios
Interaction Diagram
• Generated personas & scenarios individually
Personas &
Scenarios
• Target population: college students, registered Knetwit users
Comparative
Evaluation
• Rationalized situations in which Knetwit features could be used by
undergraduate and graduate students
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
6. FINAL
Introduction
Comparative Evaluation
Interaction Diagram
• Compared to 5 knowledge sharing websites and Ctools
Personas &
Scenarios
• Analysis revealed additional insight
Comparative
– Aesthetic design
Evaluation
– Social networking
Heuristic
– Organization
Evaluation
User Survey
• Direct feature comparison
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
7. FINAL
Introduction
Heuristic Evaluation
Interaction Diagram
• Four individual evaluations using Nielsenʼs 10 Usability Heuristics (1994)
• Personas and scenarios as reference for likely interactions on the site
Personas &
Scenarios
• Begin to focus on specific issues related to usability
Comparative
Evaluation
1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
Heuristic
Evaluation
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
User Survey
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
Usability Testing
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
Findings &
Recommendations
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and documentation
Incentives & Ethics
Severity Rating Scale
0= Do not agree that this is a usability problem
Strengths
1= Cosmetic problem, fix only id extra time is available
2= Minor usability problem, low priority
Comments 3= Major usability problem; important to fix
4= Usability catastrophe; imperative to fix
8. FINAL
Introduction
User Survey
Interaction Diagram
• 28 Questions
Personas &
– Demographics
Scenarios
– Usage Patterns
Comparative
– Popular Features
Evaluation
• Knetwit admins sent survey to the user base
Heuristic
• Users volunteered without incentive.
Evaluation
• 65 respondents, 184 abandon
• Resulted in great demographic
User Survey
data, discovery of power users
Usability Testing
and preferences in feature
discrimination
Findings &
• Open-ended questions
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
9. FINAL
Introduction
Usability Testing
Interaction Diagram
• Pilot to debug the test
Personas &
• 5 undergraduate college students of varying ages and majors
Scenarios
• 8 tasks that users would likely attempt on Knetwit
Comparative
• Moderator
Evaluation
• Data Logger
Heuristic
• Users encouraged to verbalize and explain behaviors
Evaluation
• Camtasia screen capture and audio recording
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
10. FINAL
Introduction
Interaction Diagram
Personas &
Scenarios
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Findings and Recommendations
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
11. FINAL
Introduction
Find a Note
Interaction Diagram
Findings:
Personas &
• Main functionality of the site
Scenarios
• Survey shows that 85% of survey participants use the Find Note feature.
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
• 62% of survey users stated that the “Do not upload”
Findings &
Recommendations
• During usability testing 3 of 5 (60%) failed the task to find and download a
note.
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
12. FINAL
Introduction
Find a Note
Interaction Diagram
Findings:
Personas &
• Searching Capability
Scenarios
– No control of freedom (#3)
– Search renders a broad range of
Comparative
Evaluation
results that do not closely match the
original search criteria
Heuristic
Evaluation
• Join a Course
– No control of freedom (#3)
User Survey
– Lacks flexibility and efficiency of use
Usability Testing
(#7)
– Users are required to join courses in
Findings &
order to view course notes.
Recommendations
– Difficult to select a course section if
a user does not know the exact year
Incentives & Ethics
and term that the course was
offered
Strengths
Comments
13. FINAL
Introduction
Find a Note
Interaction Diagram
Recommendations:
Personas &
• Standardize the database to pull course lists from universities. This will
Scenarios
enhance the usability of the “Find a Note” feature.
Comparative
– Minimize user confusion and frustration
Evaluation
– Avoid inconsistent naming conventions
– Prevent course duplication
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
14. FINAL
Introduction
Upload a Note
Interaction Diagram
Finding:
Personas &
• Slight error rate
Scenarios
– 1 of 5 users failed the task
Comparative
Evaluation
• Large task time range
Heuristic
– 40 – 320 seconds (4 minute 40 second range)
Evaluation
User Survey
• Users noticed lack of organization in course list
– No standard course names
Usability Testing
– Confusing pagination
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
15. FINAL
Introduction
Upload a Note
Interaction Diagram
Recommendation:
Personas &
• Use a scrollable menu for course lists
Scenarios
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
• Use AJAX or similar technology to generate contextual course lists
Usability Testing
– Reduces guesswork and confusion
Findings &
Recommendations
• Organize course list by subject
Incentives & Ethics
• Remove “Join” before course names
Strengths
Comments
16. FINAL
Introduction
Aesthetics and Layout
Interaction Diagram
Finding:
Personas &
• 4 of 5 users tested found the layout to be “busy” or “cluttered”
Scenarios
• Aesthetics affects usability because the visual design promotes or hinders
Comparative
successful completion of a task
Evaluation
• Users like color scheme and tabbed navigation at the top of the screen
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
17. FINAL
Introduction
Aesthetics and Layout
Interaction Diagram
Recommendation:
Personas &
• Apply the tabbed navigation design to user profile page
Scenarios
• Move the 8 tabbed boxes to the top of user dashboard
Comparative
• Allow for same functionality with less visual noise
Evaluation
• Keep the color scheme and graphics.
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
19. FINAL
Introduction
Social Networking
Interaction Diagram
Recommendations:
Personas &
• Add features that allow students to rate courses or professors or ask
Scenarios
course questions.
Comparative
• Add a calendar feature that allows students to add events related to
Evaluation
specific courses (ex. Test, study groups meetings, etc)
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
20. FINAL
Introduction
Incentives & Ethics
Interaction Diagram
Findings
Personas &
• Survey showed that Koin is an incentive (75%); 67% plan to redeem Koin
Scenarios
at store
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
• Survey showed gap between people taking notes by hand (74%) and
likelihood of transcription (27%)
Incentives & Ethics
• One user in user testing had problems with the ethics of Knetwit
Strengths
Comments
21. FINAL
Introduction
Incentives & Ethics
Interaction Diagram
Recommendations:
Personas &
• More research into ethics and incentives
Scenarios
• Add more information about ethics in the FAQ and keep the site as
Comparative
academic and transparent as possible
Evaluation
• Better incentivize note transcription
• Better incentivize adding friends from Facebook
Heuristic
Evaluation
• Be sure that incentives are on par with other websites
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
22. FINAL
Introduction
Strengths
Interaction Diagram
• Generally, users liked the idea of the being able to share and
Personas &
collaborate with students online.
Scenarios
• Knetwit offers a wide range of functionality that provides college
students collaborative learning tools.
Comparative
Evaluation
• Knetwit developers are quick to implement new features.
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Quote:
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
23. FINAL
Introduction
Comments
Interaction Diagram
• Questions/ Comments?
Personas &
Scenarios
Comparative
Evaluation
Heuristic
Evaluation
User Survey
Usability Testing
Findings &
Recommendations
Incentives & Ethics
Strengths
Comments
