Goal edit
The goal of this research was to observe people interact with 3 prototypes in randomized order of presentation containing 4 total navigation options for exiting article viewer / returning to home (or root).
- Are users aware that they are at the home screen when they first enter the prototype?
- Is it recognizable as a home page? What do they think of it? What would they want to see on the home page?
- Do users discover the 4 different navigation options for exiting article viewer?
- What is their order of preference, and why?
- Do users understand the function of the icons on the bottom of article viewer? If not, what do they think they mean?
Questions edit
To get started, we asked people a few basic questions first:
- What kind of phone do you use/what OS?
- Do you use a tablet, and if so, what model/OS?
- Do you use a computer, and if so, what model/OS?
- Do you ever use Wikipedia? (Goal of this question is to find out if they know you can edit wikipedia or not.
- If they answer, "Yes, I use Wikipedia", ask "how do you use it?”
- Ask what devices they use to interact with Wikipedia.
- If they describe that they read and don't mention editing, then ask "Do you know that you can edit Wikipedia?”
- Ask if they feel there are any specific blockers to editing.
Process and Protocol Tasks edit
We presented users with an iPhone. They were then prompted to interact with the 3 prototypes on the Flinto app.
- You’re in the Wikipedia app. Where in the app do you think you are right now?
- Explore a bit on this page. See if you find something you might like to learn more about, and check it out. (repeat)
- Now you realize you’ve been jumping around a bit. You want to discover a new topic and decide to go back to home. Show me how you’d get there from here.
- What did you think of the 4 navigation options? Can you list them in order of preference?
- Why do you like/dislike the ones you listed?
- Think back to the home screen and take a look again if you'd like. What do you think of it (looks, content, organization, etc.)?
- (sometime natural during the session) Did you notice that the article page pops up from the bottom? Does this affect your navigation experience and actions?
- (sometime natural during the session) What do you think would happen if you tapped on those icons on the bottom of this article page?
When/Where edit
October 21-22, 2015 Specialty's and around.
Findings: Patterns Observed edit
- W and back options split #1 nav-to-home option 50/50 among the 6 users.
- Order of preferences indicated are as follows:
- w, down, drag, back
- w, back, drag, down
- back, down, drag, w
- back, w, down, drag
- w, back, down, drag
- back, down, w, drag
- Order of preferences indicated are as follows:
- 6 of 6 users did not discover the drag navigation option independently.
- 3 of 6 users did not discover the W navigation option independently.
- 1 of 6 users did not discover the down arrow navigation option independently.
- 5 of 6 users did not notice the directions of the page transition animations.
- 5 of 6 users didn’t realize or feel like they were on the home page of the app.
- See the home page sections of the raw notes for some user ideas about what they’d like to see on the app home page.
- 1 of 6 users partially identified the correct purpose of the ToC button.
- 4 of 6 users correctly identified the purpose of the share button.
- 5 of 6 users correctly identified the purpose of the bookmark button.
- 4 of 6 users correctly identified the purpose of the en button.
Raw Notes edit
Test A edit
- Male (26-35)
- Android, Macbook Pro
- Reads Wikipedia on laptop, not phone. Usually reaches via google search
- Didn't know there was an app
- Has never edited, knows about it. "i’ve never researched something so much that i felt like i could provide more information than what’s already provided"
Navigation:
- 3 (down) goes to the W first. thought it would take me to home page, because it’s the logo, makes sense to me. also clicked back, because it’s habitual. would probably have done back-back, but bc the prompt was to go to the home page he thought to try another option (W).
- 2 (drag) doesn’t discover
- 1 (back-back) wants to click W and back, that time it worked.
- did not discover drag or down
- noticed the page animations (from bottom, from right), but didn’t think about whether it affected navigation
- high to low preference: W, down, drag (it’s too much. it seems clunky. not something i’d think of to do), back (arrow, direction, straightforward… but inefficient)
Home Page:
- home page: thinks he’s in search results initially, then realizes they’re suggestions. this is after i’ve read something, i might be in the middle of a search.
- suggestions is not something i normally associate with homepage. closest thing is like netflix, where it’s part of the home screen sometimes, usually it’s further down. i want to see search featured more prominently. suggestions on the side, not prominent featured on the home page. i’d like to see ‘what’s been popular today’. i’d like to see search more prominent on the home page.
Bottom of article viewer icons:
- toc: options; provides article/photo-related quick links
- share: upload or download article
- bookmark: no idea. later, figures out that it’s for favoriting
- en: change primary language
Test B edit
- Male (15-25)
- Android, no tablet, Macbook Air
- Reads Wikipedia, on laptop and phone (uses browser like chrome)
- Knows about editing, but hasn’t. Not on wiki enough, and usually don’t have add’l information to what is already there
Navigation:
- 2 (drag) first instinct is to click back. does that, but doesn’t get back all the way. looks around for a bit because the back disappeared, then hits W. W makes sense for going to home page. Back-back makes sense too, it disappearing didn’t make sense. best option is to have both.
- 1 (back-back) no hesitation, hits back-back. likes this.
- 3 (down) wants to hit W to go straight back to home. upon prompting further, he tries the toc button. thinks it’s a list of menu options. tries the down button. “interesting, i didn’t expect my place to disappear. can i go back to where i was?” i thought a menu window would pop up when i clicked that arrow. hitting a W and being jumped to the home screen makes sense, but otherwise i feel uncomfortable.
- did not discover drag
- did not notice the page animations (from bottom, from right). doesn’t make me feel like the drag was any more noticeable. maybe if you added something noticeable to make it seem draggable.
- high to low preference: W (similar to other sites/apps for going back to home, back, drag (but I didn’t notice it and i doubt most people would. it looks cool though), down
Home Page:
- home page: realizes he’s on the home page, because the home page icon is blue.
- on en.wiki home screen, you can see articles that are relevant to the week or something that’s going on. there will be different topics every day in addition to what’s going on articles. if i saw this by itself, i would think i were at the home page. has search on top. it just has articles you can explore, which is pretty typical for apps that deliver news/information. would want to see some of the things listed on the website home page (news, recently relevant topics, and the random features). curious what the more icon would be. are there preferences in there? can i set preferences for customizing my home screen on this app? customize updates.
Bottom of article viewer icons:
- toc: a list of page options. might allow me to go back and have other settings and options for the page
- share: send this article via email or social media
- bookmark: favorite it
- en: see the article in different language
Test C edit
- Male (15-25)
- iPhone, Macbook Pro
- Reads Wikipedia, on laptop and phone (googles on safari).
- Edited twice (play by aristophanes and a revert)
Navigation:
- 1 (back-back) no hesitation. “natural. intuitive based on my other experiences in apps"
- 3 (down) first thought was that it’d send me to the bottom of the page. it’s alright. i would normally just hit back, but sometimes hitting back a lot of times isn’t great, so jumping back in one step is good.
- 2 (drag) clicked toc for navigation options.
- did not discover drag nor W
- did not notice the page animations (from bottom, from right)
- high to low preference: back, down, drag (something that needs to be learned and possibly hinted at), W (counterintuitive)
Home Page:
- home page: didn’t think of it as a home screen. thought he was at a suggestions page (looked up frida kahlo, this is a suggestions page that one could click to from frida kahlo page, with a scrolling list of suggestions)
- likes apps that give you suggestions, you get to pick categories that you like. w wiki, i like to cruise sometimes. it should be smaller sections. recently suggestions, because you read X, etc, and you see lists as a secondary page off of the home page. boxes, horizontal, netflix bars, see all on diff sections. like the photos on these article boxes. maybe you can have them like on netflix and you can scroll through pics/articles. because you read haruki murakami… you can see a bunch of magical surrealist authors.
Bottom of article viewer icons:
- toc: menu options? thinks it’ll give options to navigate back and see a history of articles i’ve read, and i could choose one to jump back to. that’d be cool, it wouldn’t even just be a jump to home or origin, i could choose the one i want to jump back to.
- share: jump to top of page
- bookmark: favorite
- en: choose different language page
Test D edit
- Female (15-25)
- iPhone, Android tablet (not used much), Macbook Pro
- Reads Wikipedia, on laptop and phone. doesn’t have the app, but has seen it in app store
- Has never edited, knows about it. “haven’t gotten to it"
Navigation:
- 1 (back-back) no hesitation. “what i normally do"
- 2 (drag) tries to button, thinks it’ll give her options to go back. tries swiping to the right.
- 3 (down) kind of makes sense. clicked on it because it would maybe move the page down and away.
- did not discover drag nor W
- did not notice the page animations (from bottom, from right)
- high to low preference: back, W, down, drag
Home Page:
- home page: didn’t think of it as a home screen.
- would want to see the newest updated information/articles. stuff people are reading a lot today, what’s trending.
Bottom of article viewer icons:
- toc: menu options? thinks it’ll give options to navigate back, see subjects of the article, option to exit the app
- share: sent article via email or message
- bookmark: shrinks the page and you can see all of the pages together (like in android)
- en: more information
Test E edit
- Female (36-45)
- iPhone, iPad, Sony Vaio
- Reads Wikipedia, mostly on laptop. credits wiki for helping her get grad degree
- Has never edited, knows about it. “everything i look up is something i don’t know about, so i haven’t edited"
Navigation:
- 3 (down) no hesitation
- 1 (back-back) no hesitation. prefers this over down arrow. symbol of going back makes sense, the top or down arrow doesn’t denote ‘going back’
- 2 (drag)
- did not discover drag nor W
- did not notice the page animations (from bottom, from right)
- high to low preference: W (even though she didn’t discover), back (not practical, but you can see where you’ve been), down, drag (did not make sense at all. “isn’t that where the phone settings are?”)
Home Page:
- home page: first reaction was that she thought she was in pinterest. not sure where she is.
- would want to see articles last viewed. last searched. guide on how to use and navigate wikipedia.
Bottom of article viewer icons:
- toc: menu options? maybe go back or edit is here, maybe save page
- share: sent article via email or something
- bookmark: put in fav and save for later
- en: option for article in other languages
Test F edit
- Female (36-45)
- iPhone, no tablet, 17” Macbook Pro
- Reads Wikipedia on phone with google search/chrome. doesn’t do much research on computer because it’s too bulky
- doesn’t use wiki for deep research, just quick names, concepts, etc.
- Reads Wikipedia on laptop, not phone. Usually reaches via google search
- Has never edited, knows about it. “you should really know what you’re writing about if you edit, and i’m not sure i can do that for most subjects i read about"
Navigation:
- 1 (back-back) no hesitation, easy
- 3 (down) wanted to hit back again. upon prompting, tried the down arrow. prefer back “want to see where i’ve been"
- 2 (drag) clicked W after some hesitation. mentions again how she wanted to hit back button
- did not discover drag
- did not notice the page animations (from bottom, from right)
- high to low preference: back, down, W, drag
Home Page:
- home page: thought she was in the midst of frida kahlo research, didn’t speak to her as a home page
- I like the suggestions, but I don’t like it for the home screen. Small squares with recently viewed, maybe the suggestions in a small squares. More images than words. Don’t suggest silly stuff, unless the research for suggestions is actually somewhat accurate. Eg doesn’t like Netflix suggestions bc totally off.
Bottom of article viewer icons:
- toc: settings menu for navigating article, seeing previously viewed articles
- share: copy or send/email link
- bookmark: preferred/fav articles
- en: language chooser