Statistics:

P1 is a male college student with moderate technological capabilities.

P2 is a retired female with very minimal to lesser technological capability.

​

1. Sarah: Hello P1, my name is Sarah. I'm a student at the University of Michigan-Flint, my current major is computer science. I 2.appreciate you being a participant in my study for the Human-computer interaction course. Before we begin the 3.questionnaire, I would like to introduce to you the subject which I will be talking about and how you can help me. In this 4.course, we were told to pick any kind of system which is considered problematic or unorganized, my group and I chose to 5.work on and redesign a website called EVGA. Before we interact with the website, I would like to ask you some questions 6.about your experience with EVGA and other similar shopping websites.

7. P1: alright, sounds good.

8. S: First of all, have you ever heard of EVGA?

9. P1: No, I haven’t.

10. S: So you’ve never bought anything from them before?

11. P1: Nope, never heard of them or bought anything from there, never seen it in any ads or anything of the sort.

12. S: ok so, we’ll instead make these next questions about whatever your preferred shopping website is.

13. P1: It’s usually amazon if I’m having it delivered or Best Buy if I’m doing pick-up.

14. S: So, let’s focus on Amazon since that’s a good parallel to our system. How often do you order from them?

15. P1: I’m not a very frequent purchaser because of delivery costs, those tend to add up, so I’d say about 2 to 3 times a month?

16. S: When was the last time you visited the site? Not necessarily to make a purchase, but just visiting in general?

17. P1: Just visited just about… Five days ago?

18. S: Alright, how was your experience with the site then?

19. P1: Since I’m an Amazon Prime member, I would say on a scale of 1-10 a… 9. Primarily because I’m still paying a monthly fee 20. and I wish I could have all those benefits without having to be a Prime member, but I guess everything comes with a cost. So 21. a solid 9 in my books.

22. S: Ok, so what are some problems you’ve encountered when using the site?

23. P1: Sometimes the things that I order don’t get delivered despite the site saying that they have been. Also a lot of times the 24. things that I’m looking for aren’t available. I think those are the primary ones.

25. S: What are some of your favorite or least favorite things about the site?

26. P1: My favorite things about the site… I like that most of the latest technology is available there, and Prime members get 27.good discounts. There’s also a wide array of choices, that’s definitely a plus. My least favorite things would probably be the 28.fact that sometimes they don’t necessarily have what I’m looking for or a good substitute for it. Not to mention how jacked 29.up the prices can get sometimes. It’s easy to fall victim to scams on Amazon, people who bypass the security measures you 30.know?

31.S: Finally, how do you feel about buying from an online retailer rather than a brick-and-mortar shop like Microcenter or Best 32.Buy?

33. P1: I have had good and bad experiences with them, for Amazon it’s been mostly positive, but from other sites it can be hard 34. to keep track of your purchase, usually because of a lack in tracking information or incorrect information.

35. S: Thank you. We have completed the first part of the study. We are going to move on to the next part which is interacting 36.with the website. You will be given a set of tasks to operate on the website, however, I will not tell you how to do it, we 37.consider you a new user to the website and are free to do whatever you see appropriate. Do not worry if you get confused or 38.don't know how to perform the tasks, the purpose of this study is to locate small issues and make improvements. I also want 39.to remind you that we are not testing you or judging your performance. If you have any questions before or while performing 40.the tasks, do not hesitate to ask. Finally, I would like to ask you to think aloud while performing the tasks. Is that ok? Let’s get 41. started.

42. P1: Ok

43. S: You’re currently on the homepage, I’d like for you to start by looking for a product, perhaps a gaming keyboard for 44.example

45. [P1 scrolls up and down the home page a bit, looking at “trending” products. P1 then scrolls back to the top of the page and 46. clicks on the products tab. They struggle to read the options for a minute before locating the “gaming keyboards” link]

47. S: Now I’d like you to add one to your cart and proceed to the checkout

48. [P1 has no issue with this, placing the item in the cart easily and getting to the login screen. They got confused when they 49.were brought to the login rather than a checkout.]

50. S: Please act as if you were making an account

51. [P1 does so, only taking a moment to get to the sign-up from the login screen. They got frustrated at the multitude of 52.verification codes and trying to uncheck from the EVGA email newsletter subscription. After completing the signup process 53.otherwise uneventfully, they then had some issue getting back to where they were before, incorrectly assuming a link will take 54.them back to the home page, instead getting sent to a “contact us” page before finding the sign-up link had opened in a 55.new tab]

56. S: Next, I’d like you to act as if you were going to complete your purchase

57. [P1 goes to do this before being informed they must activate their account by a pop-up window. They open the link in the 58. activation email, and it automatically fills in the code to the website. They pick out the free shipping option, but express 59.displeasure with the extra up to $50 for the expedited shipping]

60. P1: Oh! My Honey extension just found some coupons too! There’s one advantage, I guess.

61. [P1 finishes the rest of the simulated purchase without incident]

62. S: alright, that’s as far as you need to go for this step. The last thing I need you to do is go to the discussion forums and look 63.around, perhaps find a thread about your newly purchased product. [said in joking]

64. [P1 easily locates the forum home in the community tab and navigates to a thread about keyboards]

65. S: That’s everything. Thank you for completing the tasks. I have a few more questions to ask you regarding your experience. 66. In general, how was your experience and how did it effect your opinion of the EVGA site?

67. P1: There was a lot of information, but it wasn’t very user friendly. It’s a little bit outdated in their choice of font for the forums 68. or the length of the sign-up with all of the activation codes for example. There also wasn’t a lot of clear direction that stood 69.out clearly. For example, changing the color or font for the sections asking the user to go on to the next step would’ve been 70. useful, but instead it was all the same as the rest of the message, which was like two to three paragraphs. Besides that, I think 71. it was fine, out of 10 I would rate this site a… 6 to 7? Just because of how user un-friendly it is for new users.

72. S: What did you like the most about the site?

73. P1: I liked the home page; the animations were well done, and I liked to see the trending items. It’s just when you go from 74. the home page to like the forum page it’s quite a jarring difference in how it looks, it looks so outdated.

75. S: What did you dislike the most?

76.P1: The signup process was lengthy and confusing, if I was just randomly stumbling across the site and I wanted to buy 77.something, I wouldn’t have sat through it. I’d go looking somewhere else

78. S: Did you get confused at any point?

79. P1: during the signup process I had to send verification codes to my phone three separate times, and once to my email too. 80. It wouldn’t be so bad if they explained it better but as it is it was pretty confusing.

81. S: Since you sort of already answered what you think the website needs to improve, I’ll skip to the last question. Do you think 82. that the website is doing a good job in selling products?

83. P1: Well, I haven’t seen any ads for them or anything, so they’re lacking in that regard, but yes. They seem to have a fairly 84.large community, so I think they’re probably doing a decent job.

85.S: Alright, thank you very much for your time and for being a participant in this study. Your answers and opinion were very 86.helpful in exposing the things that need fixing and showing us what can be improved on this website for our project.

87.P1: No problem

​

1. S: Hello P2, my name is Sarah. I'm a student at the University of Michigan-Flint, my current major is computer science. I 2.appreciate you being a participant in my study for the Human-computer interaction course. Before we begin the 3.questionnaire, I would like to introduce to you the subject which I will be talking about and how you can help me. In this 4.course, we were told to pick any kind of system which is considered problematic or unorganized, my group and I chose to 5.work on and redesign a website called EVGA. Before we interact with the website, I would like to ask you some questions 6.about your experience with EVGA and other similar shopping websites. Have you ever heard of the EVGA website before?

7. P2: I’ve heard of it from my partner, but I haven’t visited it before.

8. S: So, you’ve never bought anything from them yourself then?

9. P2: That’s correct.

10. S: Alright, we’ll make these next few questions about your preferred shopping website then. You prefer to use Amazon if I 11. remember correctly?

12. P2: Also correct.

13. S: Ok, how often would you say you make purchases from them?

14. P2: About two to three times a month I’d say.

15. S: And when was the last time you visited the site, not necessarily to make a purchase?

16. P2: Today.

17. S: And how was your experience last time?

18. P2: I think they have a pretty good site; it was a good experience.

19. S: What are some problems you’ve encountered while using the site?

20.P2: Sometimes when I’m looking for something, there are so many products that it takes a long time to find what I was 21.actually looking for.

22. S: What’s your favorite thing about the site?

23. P2: You can give the search bar a vague description and it’ll usually come up with something close to what you wanted.

24. S: Lastly, how do you feel about purchasing from an online retailer rather than a brick-and-mortar shop?

25. P2: It’s very convenient, especially with the pandemic going on.

26. S: Thank you. We have completed the first part of the study. We are going to move on to the next part which is interacting 27. with the website. You will be given a set of tasks to operate on the website, however, I will not tell you how to do it, we 28.consider you a new user to the website and are free to do whatever you see appropriate. Do not worry if you get confused or 29. don't know how to perform the tasks, the purpose of this study is to locate small issues and make improvements. I also want 30. to remind you that we are not testing you or judging your performance. If you have any questions before or while performing 31. the tasks, do not hesitate to ask. Finally, I would like to ask you to think aloud while performing the tasks. Is that ok? Let’s get 32. started.

33. P2: Sure.

34. S: you’re now on the home page, I’d like you to search for a product, perhaps a gaming keyboard.

35. [P2 opens the products tab and has difficulty reading the categories due to the font size. They then navigate to a specific 36.product’s page and begin browsing it for information.]

37. P2: Normally on amazon I’d be looking at the description and reviews to see if this was a good keyboard or not, but they 38.don’t have anything like that on here.

39. [P2 has not noticed the button labeled “specs” near the middle of the page, which would’ve brought up more information]

40. S: Now I’d like you to add that to your cart…

41. [P2 does so easily in the middle of S’s sentence]

42. S: … and proceed to checkout…

43. [P2 clicks on the checkout button, but seems confused when brought to the login page]

44. S: …and then go as if you were making an account.

45. [P2 goes through the signup process partially, electing to give false information to only simulate the process. Circumventing 46. the many activation codes.]

47. S: Finally, I’d like you to take a look around the forums, perhaps look at a thread about your new keyboard?

48. [P2 struggles once again to read the small font of the categories, as well as the titles of the various forums, but they 49.eventually make their way to the appropriate threads]

50. S: That’s everything. Thank you for completing the tasks. I have a few more questions to ask you regarding your experience. 51. In general, how was your experience and how did it effect your opinion of the EVGA site?

52. P2: I’m unfamiliar with the products they sell and it was a little bit tricky for me to figure some of it out, but it wasn’t bad.

53. S: What did you like the most?

54. P2: A lot of shopping websites are sort of similar in that… flow of events. You go in, find your item, put it in your cart, and 55.check out. So I guess I liked that it was similar in that way.

56. S: What did you dislike the most?

57. P2: I think their product description page was not very descriptive, they didn’t really give specifications.

58. S: Did you get confused at any point?

59. P2: When you told me to go into the forums, that’s not something I’m used to doing, so it did take me a while to figure out 60. where that was.

61. S: What do you think needs improvement?

62. P2: Better specifications and make it easier to find products. I’m not very tech-savvy so it was hard to find things when you 63. don’t know the lingo necessarily.

64. S: Do you think that the website is doing a good job in selling products?

65. P2: It’s basic, it could be better.

66. S: Thank you very much for your time and for being a participant in this study. Your answers and opinion were very helpful in 67. exposing the things that need fixing and showing us what can be improved on this website for our project.

68. P2: glad to help