Cheerios Test

Stephy Ortiz

February 8, 2024
Introduction
The Cheerios website serves as a place for information, resources, and
engagement related to the popular cereal brand. It includes sections like
product information, nutritional facts, recipes, promotions, and a shopping
option. The purpose of this site is to provide customers or future customers
with easy access to information about Cheerios products, promote brand
loyalty, expose customers to online resources and engagement through many
online activities. It also serves as a platform for communicating its brands
value, which is promoting healthy living.

A usability test is intended to determine the extent an interface facilitates a

user’s ability to complete routine tasks. Typically the test is conducted with a
group of potential users either in a usability lab, remotely (using e-meeting
software and telephone connection), or on-site with portable equipment.
Users are asked to complete a series of routine tasks. Sessions are recorded
and analyzed to identify potential areas for improvement to the web site.

The Cheerios consumer brand group conducted a usability test by

interviewing and using a brief questionnaire. A mobile phone and a laptop
were used to instruct the participant on what to do and take notes on their
experience. The session captured the participants task completion comments,
overall satisfaction ratings, effectiveness, and efficiency.

Executive Summary
The Cheerios consumer brand group conducted an interview usability test
through video call on February 8th, 2023. The purpose of the test was to
assess the usability of the website and test the accessibility of certain
features on the website. One person participated in said interview that lasted
approximately 45 minutes.

The participant found the Cheerios website to be clear, straightforward, and

offered many options.

The test identified only a few minor problems including:

 The lack of differentiated fonts
 The lack of visually appealing fonts
 The lack of clear options for personalized cereal boxes
 The lack of quick special offer signup

This document contains the participant feedback, satisfactions ratings, task

completion rates, ease or difficulty of completion ratings, time on task, errors,
and recommendations for improvements.
Methodology
Sessions

The test administrator contacted and recruited the participant via phone
number from the test administrators contact list. The test administrator sent
a text message to the participant informing them of the test instructions and
requesting their availability and participation. Participant responded with an
appropriate date and time and the interview lasted approximately 45 mins.
During the interview, the test administrator explained the interview session
and asked the participant to answer a brief questionnaire. Participant then
read the task scenarios and tried to find the information on the website.

After each task, the administrator asked the participant to rate the website on
a 5-point scale with measures ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
Agree. Post task scenario subjective measures included:

 How easy it was to find the information from the home page
 Ability to sign up for special offers quickly
 Ability to complete a personalized order

After the last task was completed, the test administrator asked the participant
to rate the website overall by using a 5-point scale (Extremely Easy to
Extremely Difficult) for six subjective measures including:
 Ease of use
 How clear it was to purchase the personalized cereal box
 How clear it was to sign up for special offers
 How clear it was to find the sign up section
 How clear it was to find the personalized cereal box option
 Overall difficulty of completing the task

The test administrator asked the participant to rate the satisfaction of the
website overall by using a 5-point scale (Not likely to very likely) for two
subjective measures including:
 Overall experience with the site
 How likely to recommend to friends and family

In addition, the test administrator asked the participants the following overall
website questions:
 What the participant liked most.
 What the participant liked least.
 Recommendations for improvement.

Participants

The participant was scheduled the same day as being asked to participate.
The interview occurred on February 8th , 2023. The participant is a 22 year old
male.
 The participant works as a foreman at Lufthansa Cargo ensuring pallets are
correct for the flights and ensuring flight safety. The participant spends
roughly 20 hours a week using the internet with their company website and
email being the top websites.

Role
Lufthansa
Cargo
Foreman
1

Evaluation Tasks/Scenarios
Test participants attempted the completion of the following tasks:
 Find the option to purchase a personalized cereal box and check out
 Find the sign-up section on the website and signup for special offers

Results
Task Completion Success Rate

The participant successfully completed Task 1 (purchase personalized

cereal box) and Task 2 (sign-up for special offers).

Task Completion Rates

Participant Task 1 Task 2

1 √ √

Success 1 1

Completion
100% 100%
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) and 1 (Least Likely) . Agree ratings are the agree and strongly agree
ratings combined with a mean agreement ratings of > 4.0 considered as the
 user agrees that the information was easy to find, that they could keep track
of their location and predict the section to find the information.

Ease in Finding Information

The participant agreed it was somewhat easy to purchase the customized

cereal box (mean agreement rating = 4) and the participant also found it
easy to sign-up for special offers with their email (mean agreement = 5). The
participant found it clear to find both tasks (mean agreement = 4.5) and the
participant found it easy to complete each task (mean agreement = 5).

Keeping Track of Location in Site

The participant found it easy to keep track of their location in the site while
completing both tasks (mean agreement = 5) and finding the sign up section
for special offers. In addition, the participant found it easy to keep track of
their location in the site while signing up for the special offer. However, the
participant agreed it was somewhat easy to keep their location on the site
while trying to purchase the customized cereal box (mean agreement rating =
4) and finding the option to purchase said cereal box (mean agreement rating
= 4).

Predicting Information Section

The participant agreed it was easy to predict where to find the option to sign-
up for special offers with their email (mean agreement rating = 5) and where
to find the option to purchase the customized cereal box (mean agreement
rating = 4).

Test 1 – Mean Task Ratings & Percent Agree

Ease – Location in Predict
Task Overall
Finding Info Site Section
1 – Purchase
4.0 (86%) 4.0 (86%) 4.0 (86%) 4.0
customized Box
2 – Sign up for special
5.0 (100%) 5.0 (100%) 5.0 (100%) 5.0
offers
3 – Find sign-up section 5.0 (100%) 5.0 (100%) 5.0 (100%) 5.0
4 – Find option for
4.0 (86%) 4.0 (86%) 4.0 (86%) 4.0
customized box
5 – Completing each
5.0 (100%) 5.0 (100%) 5.0 (86%) 5.0
task
*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

Time on Task
The testing software recorded the time on task for each participant. Some
tasks were inherently more difficult to complete than others and is reflected
by the average time on task.

Task 1 required the participant to navigate through the page to find the
option to purchase a customized cereal box and checkout till they reach the
 payment option and took the longest time to complete (mean = three
minutes and 46 seconds). Task 2 required the participant to navigate through
the page and find the section to sign up for special offers (mean = one
minute thirty seconds)

Time on Task
P1
Task 1 226

Task 2 90

Overall Metrics
Overall Ratings
After task session completion, participants rated the site for three overall
measures (1 being poor and 5 being excellent and 1 being not likely and 5
being very likely). These measures include:
 Overall rating for the Cheerios site
 How satisfied with the overall experience of the Cheerios Website
 How likely would you be to recommend Cheerios to family and friends

See table below

Post-Task Overall Questionnaire

Somewha
Some what t Poor/ Mean
Excellent/ Neutra Percen
excellent/agre poor/Not Not Ratin
Very likely l t Agree
e very likely g
likely
Overall rating
for the Cheerios 1 100%
site
Satisfaction with
overall 1 100%
experience
Recommendatio
n to family and 1 50%
friends
*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

4.6.2 Likes, Dislikes, Participant Recommendations

Upon completion of the tasks, participants provided feedback for what they
liked most and least about the website, and recommendations for improving
the website.

Liked Most
The following comments capture what the participants liked most:
Liked the way they have many options of flavors on their website, not like the
stores. Also liked the many food options they have besides cereal, like the
bars. The participant liked that they had recipe options on the website.

Liked Least
 The following comments capture what the participants liked the least:
The thing the participant liked least was the font and the font size. The
participant also thought that the images and style for the tasks were not very
appealing.

Recommendations for Improvement

If Cheerios wants to make the option to purchase a customized box a priority, they
should put said option where the customers can see it first. This task was the longest
to complete, another problem was on step 2 because the participant said that the
wording for both options were confusing. The wording should be clear and
straightforward and the font for the “personalize here” should also be bigger. When
arriving on the front page the option for this task is in mid fold, it does not have a
clear CTA button to purchase said task and is more timely. Adding a CTA button can
make the users purchase time shorter.
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.

Find option to purchase customized box (Task 1)

Task 1 required participants to navigate through the page and find option to purchase customized
box

Change Justification Severity

 Add CTA button
 Clear/straightforward
wording
 Placement of the option
Participant rated the ease of finding funding High
information with 4.0 (out of 5) and somewhat
agreed that it was easy to find the option to
purchase the customized box and actually going
through with the purchase.
Navigating through the whole site to find this
option can be timely, if it is above the fold it
would be easier to follow such task.
Adding a CTA button can make the process to
find the option easier. It will take you straight to
the purchasing page where you put down all your
information.
Participant comments also included making the
font bolder and bigger as well as making the
wording more clear and straight forward.

Conclusion
The participant found Cheerios.com to be straightforward, well organized,
filled with many options, useful, and easy to use. Having a well-organized and
clear site to find information and purchase orders easily is key to the
participant. Implementing the recommendations and continuing to work with
users will ensure a continued organized and easy to use website.