UI Options User Testing Round 1 Results

Summary

"Edit Appearance" button is hard to for users to locate the first time & re-locate afterwards.
Once the UI Options dialog is opened, users have an easy time making changes, ex: changing font style, size.
It wasn't always clear what it meant to choose or tweak a particular UI Option. For example, it could be clearer what it means to choose "Yes" or "No" to Background images.
Follow-up work needs to be done to determine why (1) UI Options wouldn't load in IE 8 with Zoom Text running, and (2) why using FF3 it stopped working during tasks 5 & 6 with User 1 (see Interaction Notes).

Demographics

User Number	Gender	Age Range	Role	Tech-savvy	Do you own a personal computer?
User 1	F	60+	n/a	Comfortable	Samsung w/ Windows.
User 2	F	35-40	n/a	Somewhat Comfortable	"Yes, I do I don't remember what kind"
User 3
User 4

Do you do any of the following and if so how often?

User	Checking email	Instant message	Shop online	Online banking	Internet research	Take class online	Social networking
User 1	All the time	A few times a month	A few times a month	A few times a month	Hardly Ever	Never	A few times a week
User 2	All the time	Never	Hardly Ever	All the time	Hardly Ever	Never	A few times a week
User 3
User 4
User 5

Do you upload files on the web and if so how often?

User	Pictures	Media	Docs to course site	Docs to soc. ntwkg	File to email
User 1	Hardly Ever	A few times a month	Hardly Ever	A few times a month	Hardly Ever
User 2	Never	Never	NA	NA	All the time
User 3
User 4
User 5

If you use adaptive technologies, please also answer the following:

User	What type of AT do you use? (List technology & version)	Browser (Name & version)	How would you describe your AT skills?	When did you last upgrade your AT?	Do you customize the default settings of your AT?	What level of default setting do you use?
User 1	Zoom Text	Didn't answer	Average	May 2009	3X magnification, don't use the screen reading feature	Didn't answer
User 2	Zoomtext	Didn't answer	Average	About a year ago	No, 2X magnification, don't use the screen reading feature	Didn't answer

Analysis/Discussion of Demographic Data

User 1 & 2: FF3 used - during the time of testing UI Options was not loading properly with IE 7 & Zoom Text; At some points both users tried to use browser features to make changes to the UI of the Webpage.

Interaction Notes

User	Task 1 Find edit appearance link	Task 2 Change "Easier to see" options	Task 3 Make other changes & save	Task 4 Change "Easier to find" options	Task 5 Save changes	Task 6 Make misc. UI changes
User 1	Tries to click "edit site list" link. Tries "edit text" link. Says outloud she's not sure where to click. Tries "page preview". Tries "Tools" link. Locates & clicks "edit appearance" link.	Changes font style to Arial. Says outloud: "I'm looking for Arial Black" (a font style of Zoom Text). Changes text size to 30, saying "for minimum text size I like at least 30"."	Says outloud: "I don't understand what they mean by 'line spacing'. Contrast, I like high contrast." Turns background images off. Altogether user has made changes that increase font size to 30, Arial style, high contrast, linear layout, no background images. Changes some "Easier to find" options - e.g. underline links.	Says outloud: "I like it, it's clear, colour is good, contrast is great." Again can't find edit appearance link. She tries to use Firefox features to edit the appearance.	When user finds edit appearance link and opens UI Options dialog, only parts of the dialog box are visible (the right hand side of the preview window) and she can't pan left to edit her options.	This task was skipped; we were not sure why either Zoom Text or UI Options was not working in Task 5.
User 2	Tries "edit site list" first. Then clicked on "edit appearance".	Adjusts minimum text size to 14. Adjusts font style to serif. As she makes changes she is panning to the right with Zoom Text to preview her changes in the preview window.	User looks for a way to save changes. She's moving her cursor away from the Webpage and into the Firefox menubar and presses the "Back" button. We reload the page and she re-makes the changes she made in Task 2.	Clicks on easier to find. Clicks on bold, underline, & larger options for links. As she makes changes she checks them in the preview window. She saves & closes.	Task accomplished in step 4.	Asks: "Haven't I changed everything I could have changed? I'm not sure what else I'd want to change."
User 3

Analysis/Discussion of Interaction Notes

Post-test Questionnaire Responses

Question	User 1	User 2
How easy or difficult was it for you to find the edit appearance link?	Was looking for "edit appearance" link in clear location, e.g. in a seperate box. Faciliatator's observations: after user changed UI Options to her preferences (30 text size, Arial font, linear layout, high contrast, no background) the appearance of the "edit appearance" link itself changed. This may have contributed to her confusion in trying to find the button - because its styling changed along with the styling of the UI.	Couldn't find the link at first but once I found it, it wasn't hard to find susequently.
How easy or difficult was it for you to change the font size, style, and contrast of the dashboard?	Very easy.	Not hard at all.
Did you notice a way that you could preview your changes?	Yes - she noticed the preview window.	Not immediately. But after awhile I began to notice that the mini display would change.
How easy or difficult was it for you to save changes you made?	Easy.	User describes a situation where she would be able to change the UI of the browser itself.
Where there any preferences you would have liked to change, but couldn't find?	Want the ability to make text appear more bold.	No.
What UI options were helpful to you?	Font Size & Style.	"Being about to change the font size and boldness." Interesting, because "bold" isn't really a UI option, except for links.
Did you enjoy using UI Options? Is there anything you would like to improve?	I wasn't sure what background images was - what did that mean, yes or no to background images? It wasn't clear. Similarly, what did you mean for simplified layout? I see options for Yes and No but I'm not necessarily clear what I'm saying Yes or No to. A linear layout? A gothic layout?	Edit appearance button hard to find.

Analysis/Discussion of Interaction Notes

Potential Design Improvements (based on testing)

Edit appearance button should be findable.
Users may not immediately understand what terms like "background images" mean. How to address this?
Improvement 3...