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User Study

Anchor 1

Objective

 

Using the criteria/limitations listed below I will analyze the user's interaction with a website and give some suggestions on how to improve the site. The website that I will be analyzing is GitHubs' feature page. You can find the feature page here!

1) Anonymize User


In this study, I will refer to my user with they/them gender pronouns. I will also be referring to them under the pseudonym Godspeed

Criteria

 

1) Anonymize User

2) Background of User

3) Details of Tasks

4) What they did

5) What is interesting

6) What they didn't do

7) What was surprising to you

8) Reason Analysis

9) Redesign Speculations

2) Background of User


Godspeed is a library and information science student studying to be a youth librarian in public libraries in Chicago.  
They are not familiar at all with GitHub.
They have a history of conducting user tests, so they are familiar with the structure related to the tasks in this study

3) Details of Tasks

 

First: You are in an introduction to python class, and you have been assigned a group assignment. Your professor asks you to use GitHub as space where you and your teammates share different code that Y'all come up with over the duration of the task. For the Thanksgiving break, you and your team decide you are going to be productive and do work for your final, but you all are going home for break, which happens to be in different cities. Using the Features page on GitHub website, find information on how you and your teammates can update each other on you all assignment over Thanksgiving break.


Second: You are taking your first coding class this semester, and you are excited to learn how to code. You decide that you want to follow GitHub on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube so that you get updates on things in the coding world involving GitHub. Using the Features page on the GitHub website, find all three social media platforms listed above.

4) What they did


Task 1: (10 mins)

  1. Type GitHub in the address bar

  2. Clicked on the first link

  3. Started scrolling down the page

  4. Expressed they couldn't find the feature page

  5. They converted computer screen from half screen to full screen

  6. Sees features icon in the top right-hand corner

  7. Instead of clicking on images at the top page they scroll

  8. Express that page is “so” long

  9. Finds it hard to find information

  10. Scrolls all the way to the bottom for help button

  11. Can’t find it

  12. Does ctrl f and types in the update

  13. Sees a heading that says social coding

Reads and finds information


Task 2: (3 mins)

  1. Stayed on the Features page

  2. Used ctrl shift f

  3. Typed in each word, nothing came up

  4. They went to the bottom of the page

  5. Clicked on icons in the bottom left-hand corner.

5) What is interesting


I thought the most exciting thing that happened is that they used the ctrl f method to complete task 1 when they were stressed out about finding something. I resonated with the frustration because I often times use ctrl f to find information. You can tell that they felt the most comfortable using that command to complete teh task than any other. This may be because they felt like they were being tested and didn’t want to mess up or get "the answer wrong". I had to remind them that there were no wrong answers and any problems they had could be blamed on the interface. 

6) What they didn't do


One thing is that in neither of these examples did they notice the bar at the top that directs you to the correct elements on the page. They did note that it was aesthetically appealing but never did they think to click on them.

7) What was surprising to you


The thing that I found surprising was how little time it took them to see social media element. I assumed because it took a long time for me to find when i did my analysis of the site that it would take them long as well, but it didn’t. They did have a few troubles with it as well! 

8) Reason Analysis


One reason why they didn’t use the icon bar at the top is that there weren’t any noticeable physical changes when they scrolled down the page. I think the continuous use of ctrl f was because when websites are so hard to understand and are generally really long, it is more efficient for you to type in what it is that you want instead of figuring out how to use all the elements on the page.

9) Redesign Speculations


The issues that I will be redesigning is the icon bar at the top of the page and the social media elements at the bottom of the page.

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