[https://www.bose.

com/home] Test

[Ty Smith]

[08-23-23]

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

1
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201
 Introduction
The Usability test that I ran was on Bose’s Website. Their website includes a
lot of various products and prices. Bose provides the best quality of audio
options like at home audio systems, headphones, and earbuds. The website
also includes other accessories and even membership opportunities. The
purpose of this test is to find that users can perform simple usability task.

Executive Summary
[The Executive Summary should describe when and where the usability test
took place. Describe the purpose of the test. Include the number of
participants and the length of the sessions. Provide any additional information
about the test.

Provide a brief overview of the results. Include a glimpse of the overall ease
of use and some of the participant demographic information. Provide a
bulleted list of the problems.

Provide a paragraph describing what is included in the document.]

This test took place at my apartment in Dahlonega at Noon. This test was
conducted with just 1 user. The intent for this was to see usability of the
website and how their users interact. This was also to see how efficient this
website was for first time users but also returning customers. By doing this it
allows us to see the how the company intends to retain their customers. The
participant was able to complete the first task very easy and without any
trouble. During this task, the participant was asked to find a speaker that was
discounted and under $100 dollars, then add it to the cart. The user enjoyed
the way that the website flowed but did have a few minor corrections that
could be fixed:

- On the home page, the participant noted the dislike of the videos
and felt that they were a distraction to the user because of their
location.
- Also on the home page, the participant noted to change the
opening image due to the lack of ability to see the product being
used in it.

The overall test lasted about 11 minutes and all tasks were able to be
completed. Within both task the participant was able to easily locate and
perform the task given. The participant was very pleased with the overall test
and tasked asked to be performed.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

2
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201
 Methodology

Sessions

The Participant asked was my girlfriend, Madison. I asked her to be the

participant due to her lack of use of the website. We talked briefly about the
purpose of the usability test and what we would be doing. I asked her several
questions to get to know more about her use of the internet. These questions
look like how many hours does she spend online, where does she visit the
most and what is her favorite websites? None of these answers consisted of
Bose which was a positive as she was the perfect candite that would give the
best results. Before we begin the task completion, I allowed her to search the
website and give me some feedback:

- Didn’t like use of random video

- Felt there was a couple distraction on the home page
- Liked the use of celebrities
- Liked the layout of the website
- Change opening picture- can’t see product

After the participant looked at the website for some time, I presented the
two tasks that were created for this usability task. After this task was
completed, I asked the Participant to rate the overall satisfaction with the
experience on a 1-5 scale, 1 being unsatisfied, and 5 being satisfied.

After this discussion, we then discussed the second scenario. The same
scaled question was asked, to determine satisfaction, and how easy the
website was to use.

Evaluation Tasks/Scenarios

For this usability task, I created two scenarios that I presented. The
two task asked were:

Task #1

a. Find a speaker that is discounted for under $100 dollars

b. Add to the cart
Task #2
a. Find a set of headphones for under $300 dollars
b. Add to the cart

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

3
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201
 Participants

Age: 21
Gender: Female
Occupation: Student
Hours online: 3 hours- uses during classes throughout the day
Browsing Behavior: Uses for school and sorority stuff
Have they visited this website before and if/so have them tell you about their
experience (why they were on the website). No- other than to conduct this
test.
Favorite Websites: Shein.com and Amazon.com

This test took place on Saturday, September 23, 2023 and with only one
participant.

Results
Task Completion Success Rate
[Explain who recorded the participant’s ability to complete the tasks without
prompting. The task success rate is the number of successes divided by the number of
participants completing the task.

Describe the results by: explaining any task that had 100% completion rates. Follow
this with the tasks that had the next highest completion rates. Then describe the tasks
with the poor completion rates. Display the task completion rates in a table that shows
the participant by task completion rates and the mean rate across task (see example
table).]

The participant was able to perform Task #1 completely without any issues. It
was determined that the task was easy to be located through the menu tabs
and discounted pricing being shown. I would give this task a completion rate
of 100%.

For task two that the participant completed it was also a 100% completion
rate. The user took about a 2 to 3 minutes to complete this task. The task
was simple and easily completable seen by the completion rate.

Task Completion Rates

Participant Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6

1 √ - √ - √ -

2 √ - √ √ √ -

3 √ √ √ √ √ -

4 √ √ √ √ √ -

5 √ - - - √ -

6 √ - - √ √ -

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

4
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201
 Participant Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6

Success 7 2 5 4 6 0

Completion
100% 29% 71% 57% 86% 0%
Rates

Task Ratings
After the completion of each task, participants rated the ease or difficult of
completing the task for three factors:
 It was easy to find my way to this information from the homepage.
 As I was searching for this information, I was able to keep track of
where I was in the website.
 I was able to accurately predict which section of the website
contained this information.

The 5-point rating scale ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly

agree).

The participant was asked three scaled questions to the see the overall
satisfaction she felt after completing the task asked of her.

 How satisfied were you with the homepage?

 How satisfied were you with the layout of the tabs within the page?
 How satisfied were you with how easy to was to complete your task?

Ease in Finding Information

The Participant found it very easy to complete the task asked of her. She
stated that there were no changes that needed to be made to the task as she
felt that that they were simple and was for any person. The participant gave
the first task a “5” and a “5” for the second task as well. I would say that that
the participant was very satisfied with the site.

Time on Task
The first task took her about 4 minutes to complete and there were many
speaker options. While the second task, only took her about 3 minutes to
complete as the headphones were easily located. The task only took about 7
Minutes to complete overall.

For example:
Time on Task
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 Avg. TOT*
Task 1 65 95 61 310 210 71 50 123.1

Task 2 130 370 50 200 110 55 390 186.4

Task 3 20 215 15 80 120 30 35 73.6

Task 4 150 65 55 150 180 67 240 129.6

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

5
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201
 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 Avg. TOT*
Task 5 43 127 29 60 79 30 115 69.0

Task 6 146 110 120 465 130 175 325 210.1

Overall Metrics

The overall metrics were used by the test to determine the participants:

-Ease of use
-Overall satisfaction

Post-Task Overall Questionnaire

Strongly Strongly Mean Percent

Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree Rating Agree

Thought Website
1 12 3.9 92%
was easy to use
Would use website
2 6 5 4.2 85%
frequently
Found it difficult to
keep track of
3 6 3 1 2.1 8%
where they were in
website
Thought most
people would learn
5 8 3.6 62%
to use website
quickly
Can get
1 2 8 2 3.9 77%
information quickly
Homepage’s
content makes me
1 5 2 5 3.9 54%
want to explore
site
Site’s content
would keep me 2 6 5 4.2 85%
coming back
Website is well
5 6 2 3.8 62%
organized
*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

4.6.2 Likes, Dislikes, Participant Recommendations

Liked Most:
“I really like the use of celebrities to help sell the products but also how
simple and easy the website is to use.”

Liked Least:
I didn’t like the image on the home page because it didn’t focus enough on
the product.”

Recommendations for Improvement:

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

6
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201
 “ I recommend to remove the video in the middle of the homepage as it can
be a distraction to the rest of the page.”
Recommendations
The recommendations section provides recommended changes and
justifications driven by the participant success rate, behaviors, and
comments. Each recommendation includes a severity rating. The following
recommendations will improve the overall ease of use and address the areas
where participants experienced problems or found the interface/information
architecture unclear.

Change Justification Severity

 Change the opening image Participant stated that the image did not Low
on the home page. showcase the product and felt that it was focused
on the person more than the product.
Participant did like the thought behind the image
but felt it could be showcased in a better way.

Conclusion

Overall, the participant was pleased with the usability of Bose and their
website. The participant had never visited the website before and stated that
if she had to, that she was confident she could find what she was looking for
because of its simplicity. The participant completed all task with no trouble,
and this shows that the website has a very high usability rate and is easy for
first time visitors but also all returning customers. With some minor changes
Bose would be a great model website for any business struggling with there
website usability.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200

7
Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201