
Overview
Time
February - March, 2024
Skills
Heuristic Evaluations, User Interviewing, Data Analysis, Persona Creation
Roles
UX Researcher, Project Lead
Project Summary
For this project, our group chose to evaluate the Goodreads app - an app that allows users to find book recommendations as well as discuss the books they’ve read with other users. Our group was challenged to evaluate a specific app in hopes of uncovering any usability issues that existed and preventing users from having a smooth experience on the app. In order to achieve this goal, our group set out to conduct user surveys. This included both a cognitive walkthrough and heuristic evaluations in order to better understand the tasks on the app as well as to better understand what the possible usability issues might be. Alongside that, We also included a screening process in order to find people who fit the necessary criteria. Finally, once the proper users were selected, we conducted preliminary interviews to get an idea as to what people would expect to see on an app such as Goodreads. This allowed us to compile specific information that was then used to build a foundational understanding of the positives and negatives of the Goodreads app. We then also built dimensions which would then assist us in building personas that would accurately depict possible users of the Goodreads app.
Once those interviews were completed, we worked together to build a detailed script that would then be used to conduct usability walkthroughs. During those walkthroughs, we had the users complete specific tasks and record any thoughts and notes they had about the app. These walkthroughs are immensely important as they exposed multiple usability issues within the app that prevented the individuals from having a pleasant experience on the app.
From those walkthroughs, we discovered that Goodreads has a multitude of usability issues including unclear instructions, a cluttered user interface, and buried features that only a person who has used the app before would be able to recognize or find. Based on these findings, my group proposed several improvements, such as clearing up the interface in order to make certain, more important, sections of the app more eye-catching or understandable, changing the placement of features in order to make them easier to find, and adjusting the hierarchy of the app so that icons don’t go unnoticed
Affinity Mapping
To help ourselves better organize our qualitative data, we decided to utilize
the affinity mapping technique. We each wrote down some of the most
important findings we received from our interviews onto Post-It notes. We
each stuck these Post-It notes onto a white board which allowed us to refine
and group our observations into certain themes. We also identified a few
spectrums in which our users fell into and compared each one of them by
plotting the points to determine if there were any commonalities or
differences among our users.

Dimensions
We created our dimensions for the Goodreads app by pulling out three different categories from the main questions in our interviews. We created three categories, and they were: how interested is the user in discussion, do the users prefer reading digitally or physically, and how open are they to recommendations? Then each of us recorded our interviewers and where we thought they fit best on each line based on their interviews. Then, from here, we were able to see some patterns among some of our participants. As you can see in the image below many participants followed the same pattern meaning they had similar preferences.

Persona Creation
From these dimensions, we utilized the aggregated data and created personas. The two personas we developed accurately visualized the trends and patterns noticed throughout our interviews and allowed us to reference two possible users of the app throughout the rest of our research.


Conclusions
From our extensive testing, my group developed numerous conclusions of the Goodreads application. After testing the key tasks that the app has to offer, we learned that the overall user confidence upon first encountering the app was extremely low.
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Users generally struggled with the app, and when questioned on their satisfaction levels after completely a task, most interviewees responded with a strikingly low score. Most users either took an extended amount of time to complete their tasks, or in some cases, were unable to complete the task at all and needed further instruction from the interviewer in order to continue with the testing.
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Because of these issues, we generated recommendations for each other features tested in order to improve the user experience on the app and allow for a less frustrating exposure to the app.

