Project Description
“Usability testing on a new printer selector area of website with home and business buyers”
THE CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH
A world leader in printers asked UniqueView to help them to conduct some user interface and usability testing on a ‘Printer Selector’ section of their China website that they wanted get some feedback home and business printer shoppers who were looking to purchase a new printer. The goal of the study was to improve the usability of the section by gathering feedback from shoppers who were asked to go through a series of common scenarios when shopping for a new printer. The research was done through a series of in-depth interviews with both home and business users.
OVERVIEW
A two-phase Exploratory Protocol was used for this study.
PHASE 1 – Preliminary Research
As a first step, our research consultants prepared conducted some online desk research which helped provide a broader understanding of the market and gather preliminary information of popular printer brands and models, preferences of various respondents types and the distribution channels they would search for information.
PHASE 2: In-depth Interviews
UniqueView recruited 12 participants in Shanghai who are looking to purchase a printer for personal or business use within the next 3 months. Our moderator sat next to the respondent while they were instructed through various common scenarios when shopping for a new printer using their new ‘printer selector’ section on the website and mobile phone. By using Zoom online meeting software, we were able to stream and share the interview with our client, who was viewing from France. This also allowed us to share the screens of both the desktop and mobile interfaces with the client while the participant was using them live.
Participants are asked to go through the journey of the printer selector tool on client’s official website and mobile. During their journey, they were asked to describe their experience of using this site(s).
During the research, some respondents were holding the ideas inside instead of thinking out loud. This made it hard to follow their thinking process when they were using the website. The moderator encouraged respondents to describe their experience at each step of their using the website and they soon got used to this process and expressed more freely.
CONCLUSION
UniqueView’s team helped our client test their new online, printer selector tools for their website. The results determined that respondents found it useful to match the suitable models according to their requirements and needs, however, from the useful, feedback given by the participants, there are also some adjustments required to make the experience more user friendly. Overall, valuable, actionable insights were gained from the usability tests.
