The usability test summary identified several issues users had with understanding pricing and finding shipping costs on SunBasket.com. Both testers struggled to calculate the true weekly cost of meal plans due to unclear pricing displayed as "$11.99 per serving". They also had difficulty locating the cost of future shipping, with one tester unable to find it at all. The biggest problems aligned with the heuristics of consistency and standards in pricing, as well as visibility of system status in clearly displaying shipping fees. Recommendations focused on making all pricing and fees more transparent throughout the ordering process.

1. Rileigh Bates
Dr. Jacquie Lamer
20-303
23 Oct. 2018
Usability Test for SunBasket.com
Test Preparation
To prepare to conduct the usability tests, I took the test myself. The scenario of the test
was “your rich uncle is helping you eat healthy by giving you up to $65 dollars a week for Sun
Basket meals.” The first task asks users to determine the weekly cost of a meal plan and see if
their uncle’s money can cover the cost of that meal plan. I chose the “Chef’s Choice” meal plan
and calculated it to be $71.94 per week, so I would not be able to afford the meal plan from my
uncle’s money alone.
The second task asks users to go through the process of building an order and choose the
meals. I was just able to sign into my Sun Basket account that I made for the previous paper
easily and picked three meals (Glass noodle bowels, Orange Chipotle glazed pork, and SoCal
fish tacos). I had no trouble with completing this task.
The third task was to determine the cost of shipping. On the first order I found that
shipping was free, but I could not find a specific price for shipping anywhere else on the website.
The fourth task was to determine how to place an order that accommodates an allergy.
After looking for a while on the menu tab, I was eventually able to find the answer in the FAQs
section of the website.
Choosing Participants

2. Tester 1: Kristen Edmisten
Kristen is a 21-year-old female student at Northwest Missouri State University studying
psychology. She spends about 35 hours a week browsing the internet, 75% of that on social
media and 25% of that traditional web browsing. She would consider herself a medium-
experience user of the internet. The only experience she has with shopping for food online is
using Hy-Vee’s “Aisles Online” service, which allows customers to order groceries and have
them delivered to their doorstep. Kristen is reasonable because she has ordered food online
before, and she likes to cook. Before this experiment, she had also not heard of Sun Basket,
which makes her a reasonable tester because she can see the site without any bias but still has
some experience with ordering food online.
Environment for Tester 1
 Location of test: Kristen and I conducted the test in her bedroom in her apartment.
We sat on her bed because that is where she always causally browses the internet.
 Physical environment: The room was well lit and quiet. She put her phone away, so
there were no distractions.
 Technical environment: Kristen was testing on the Northwest student laptop, which
is a Windows HP. We were connected to Northwest Wi-Fi during the test. She used
Google Chrome, and there were no browser plug-ins. However, she did have a
bookmark tab with about 10 different websites on it. We did not get any notifications
during the test.
Tester 2: James Bates
James is a 47-year-old male Systems Developer at DST Systems in Kansas City, MO. He
is in charge of two apps in his workplace. James spends about 14 hours a week browsing the

3. internet, 85% being social media and 15% traditional web browsing. He would consider himself
a high-experience user of the internet. James has used Blue Apron in the past and is
knowledgeable of the meal kit industry. Because of this, he is a reasonable tester. Before this
experiment, he was aware of Sun Basket and was interested to learn more about it from this test.
 Location of test: James and I conducted the test in his office, in his home. We chose that
because that’s where his personal desktop computer is and is where he does a lot of his
internet browsing at.
 Physical environment: The room was well lit and quiet. During the test, his two dogs
kept coming up to us to see what we were doing and were asking for attention. They
would distract him from what he was doing on the computer and occasionally changed
his whole train of thought.
 Technical environment: James was using a Dell PC with a wired connection. He used
Microsoft Edge as his browser. He did not have any plug-ins, but he did have bookmark
bar with a few websites at the top of the page. We did not get any notifications during the
test.
Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts
Kristen first described the website as a website that offered “recipes that give a healthier
side of cooking.” She said she thought the layout and pictures were well placed and looked good
on the page. Shortly after, she saw the “Meal Plans” tab at the top and realized that it was just not
a recipe website. After she saw the “Convenient Delivery” module on the front page, she then

4. realized it was a place that delivered food, comparing it to Ipsy, a personalized make-up box that
gets mailed to you monthly.
James first described the website as a weight plan kind of website, like Weight Watchers
or Jenny Craig. The “Healthy cooking made easy” banner at the top of the page confused him
into thinking it was a weight plan. After seeing the “Convenient Delivery” module on the front,
he soon realized it was a meal kit service, “like Blue Apron.” He thought the front page was very
informative, but he did not want to read all the text because “it was too much.”
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 4 4 4
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Highlights
Both testers had issues with understanding the pricing. Both Kristen and James calculated
their meal plan prices in the “Meal Plans” tab. Both testers at first glance thought “$11.99” per
serving was actually per meal and caused both of them to think the meal kit was cheaper than it
actually was. The problem here was that Sun Basket did not do a good job with making their
prices clear on all tabs.

5. Kristen was immediately appalled by anything that had any sort of seafood in it, even if
the meal plan had other options. Sun Basket should tell users that there are other meal options
besides fish in all categories.
James kept commenting on how everything looked like “a lot of work” and how he didn’t
want to do certain plans because they might take too long. He ended up choosing the “Quick and
Easy” plan because of this reason. To fix people from being turned off from the website
altogether, Sun Basket should offer some more “Quick and Easy” meals in other plans as well.
Biggest Problem
I think the biggest problem was the issue with the pricing. When Kristen performed the
task, she went straight to the “Meal Plans” tab and looked at all the plans, before choosing the
“Chef’s Choice” meal plan. She saw that it was $11.99 per serving and assumed that was per
meal. She said she “should have plenty of money.” After thinking for a few seconds, she said she
did not like the “serving thing” and thought it was confusing. She was still able to complete the
task, even with some struggle, so she gave it a 4 out of 5.
When James performed the task, he went to the “Meal Plans” tab first too. He looked at
all the meal plans in depth saying that “There’s a lot here!” He also commented that he liked the
way they were set up; by diet. James spent a few minutes trying to figure out the pricing, finally
settling on that it would cost him $35.97 for 3 times a week. He thought pricing was confusing as
well. He decided on getting the “Quick and Easy” plan because it would be less work because
“Blue Apron was a lot of work.”
Alignment to Heuristic: Consistency and Standards
The heuristic Consistency and Standards means that users should not have to wonder
whether different words, situations or actions mean the same thing. This relates to my problem

6. because the pricing is different than what my testers are used to. When shopping on Amazon or
almost any other online relator, consumers see the price right they are supposed to pay right
away. I think that might of confused the testers because they were not planning to have to do
math to figure out their grand total.
Task 2: Go through the process of building an order (customizing a meal plan) and choose the
specific meals you’d like to receive.
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average satisfaction 5 2 3.5
Success Rate 100% 100% 100%
Highlights
Kristen was confused about what some of the food actually was. “A lot of these have
interesting names, I don’t know what some of the ingredients are.” This caused her to take a long
time to pick meals she knew she would like so she was not buying something she did not like.
Both James and Kristen were frustrated about the pricing. Kristen was mad because she
had to buy two servings instead of just one for her. In the end she wanted the website to “be
more clear” when it came to pricing and how much it would cost in the end. James was also very
irritated about the cost of the meal kit. He could not figure out why it cost so much more than he
originally calculated and “wanted to know where [his] money went.”
Another problem James had was with the selection process. When he first went to select
his meals, the website automatically selects the top three meals, and to select other ones you have

7. to deselect the original ones. He was very confused for about thirty seconds as to why he could
not pick any meals.
Biggest Problem
I think the biggest problem for this task again is the pricing, and how the website does not
tell you where your money is going unless you look deeper in the website. For this task, Kristen
signed up for an account using one of her email addresses. She used all her real information.
When it came to picking food, she decided to get simple squash fajitas, southwestern chicken
salad and Ecuadorian chicken stew. It took her a while to decide, because she was trying to get
something she knew she would like. She was surprised when she got to the check-out page and
her meal was significantly more expensive than she originally thought. She thought Sun Basket
should “be more clear” when it came to pricing.
James used a 10 Minute Mail address for this task and used a fake phone number. He
thought all meals “sound good” but had trouble trying to pick certain ones. The website auto
selects the top three recipes and you have to deselect those recipes to pick other ones. This
confused him, and he spent about thirty seconds trying to figure out why he could not pick what
he wanted. He ended up choosing the sloppy joe wraps, the chicken lettuce wraps and a glass
noodle bowl. The order ended up being more money was expected, and James was confused
where his money was going. He spent a while on this screen, using the desktop calculator to
figure out why. “There’s eight dollars and I can figure out it went, it doesn’t explain it to me.”
He was also confused as to why the next shipment would cost more money than the first.
Alignment to Heuristic: Consistency and Standards
This one is very similar to the first task’s problem, therefore aligns most closely to the
same heuristic. James suggested that the website should tell him how much his product costs and

8. tell him where that money is going. Kristen also wanted the website to be clearer when it came to
pricing.
Task 3: Determine the cost of shipping on your first order and all subsequent orders
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average satisfaction 0 3 1.5
Success Rate 0% 100% 50%
Highlights
Kristen had to exit the order window to find the shipping cost for the future, and still
failed the task. Sun Basket should make it more obvious on the checkout page to what shipping
will cost next time.
James was irritated he has to do his own math to find the shipping price. Similar to
Kristen’s issue, Sun Basket should make it more obvious to how much each customer is paying
for shipping on the next order.
Biggest Problem
The biggest problem with this task was the fact Sun Basket did not flat out say how much
shipping would be for the customer’s future orders. Kristen started with seeing that shipping for
the first order was free and ended up leaving the order to go back to the website to try to find the
shipping price. She first went to the “Pricing” tab and read through all the information and still
could not find it. She then went down to the FAQ portion of the Pricing and clicked through all
those tabs, and then clicked on the “Get Started” tab and it ended up being a broken link. That

9. irritated her, getting visibly irritated at the computer. Soon after that, she gave up, saying that it
“was impossible to find.”
James found that shipping was free instantly for the first order. He then saw that the next
order would cost him $11 more than the first, so he assumed that shipping for all future orders
would be $11 a box. He said that “that makes sense to me because the next order is more
expensive, and the text says that price includes shipping.” At this point, there was still a few
dollars in the original price before shipping that he could not figure out where they went. He
wanted to know what exactly he was paying for and what the hidden fees were. He did however,
like how SunBasket.com told him how much the next order is going to charge him.
Alignment to Heuristic: Visibility of system status
Visibility of system status says that the system should always keep users informed about
what is going on. This relates to the biggest problem because nobody could easily find the
shipping price because of the fact SunBasket.com did not plainly show it. If Sun Basket had had
a shipping price on the check-out page, this would have not been a problem for either user.
Task 4: Assume you have a very serious food allergy. Determine how to go about placing an
order that accommodates that allergy.
Tester 1 Tester 2 Average
Average satisfaction 3 3 3
Success Rate 0% 100% 50%
Highlights

10. Kristen had issues finding the page because of a lack of a search feature. She thought that
if the website had a search feature, she would be able to find it.
James had to go back a page in the ordering process to the meal selection page to find a
small disclaimer that talked about food allergies. He thought it should be bigger so people with
actual food allergies would not miss it.
Biggest Problem
The biggest problem with this task was the fact that neither user was able to easily find
the information they were supposed to find. In Kristen’s case, she was never able to find the food
allergy information. She went from the “Meal Plans” tab to the “Menu” tab back to the
homepage and then back to the “Meal Plans” tab. She did find the gluten disclaimer that is on the
bottom on the Meal Plans tab, but she could not find where Sun Basket goes more in-depth about
food allergies. After clicking around in those same tabs for a few minutes, she started looking for
a search feature to help her. While complaining she said, “good websites have search features to
help find things easier.” She ended up finding the ingredients in the recipe itself and saying,
“that’s good enough.”
James had an easier time, but he still had to search around. When asked to find
information on food allergies he immediately went back one page and found the gluten
disclaimer that Kristen found. He assumed that Sun Basket would not be responsible for any
food allergies because of the fact they cannot guarantee 100% gluten products. After that, he
went to the FAQs page and found a topic on the issues. He then said, “It’s clear: if you have food
allergies, don’t use this product.” He also thought it was tedious because “it didn’t stick out, I
had to dig for it.”
Alignment to Heuristic: Help and documentation

11. Help and documentation is the heuristic that says a website should offer help when a user
needs it. This relates to the problem because both users had to search extensively for the answer
to the question they needed answered, with one user not even finishing the task.
Final Site Thoughts
Kristen said she “doesn’t have a huge problem” with the website as a whole. She did,
however, think they should implement a search feature. She also would have liked to see meal
specifics when choosing meals during the check-out process, as well in the “Meal Plan” tab. She
also thought Sun Basket should be clearer on pricing and shipping costs as those were “hard to
find.” She also did not like the fact they did not offer meals for a single person; you had to buy
two servings. She liked how the plans were set up (by diet) and how everything on the homepage
explained what Sun Basket was and what their goal was clearly.
James thought the pictures, meal plans, and menu were all “nice.” He thought the recipes
looked easy to follow and the site was informative and attention-getting. His biggest problem
was the issue with pricing. “I can’t easily find out pricing throughout the entire ordering
process,” and he believed that the way it was worded was confusing. He also had to pull up a
desktop calculator to try to figure out why he was being charged the way he was.
Recommendations to improve user experience
Single problem being fixed
Task 3: users were unable to find out shipping costs for future costs with ease.
Problem Improvement

12. Before After
A big problem the testers had with SunBasket.com was the fact they could not find a
shipping price for future orders and could not find where their money was going when
purchasing an order. An easy fix to this would be to put the shipping price next to the “FREE”
text, then have it slashed out to show that the user got free shipping. By doing this, users will be
able to tell how much shipping cost in the future plus they feel like they are getting a better deal.
I feel like this would be an easy fix for SunBaket.com considering it’s just text and would be
very beneficial for future users.