Heuristic Usability Evaluation itunes. Taeho Kim

Transcription

1 Heuristic Usability Evaluation itunes Taeho Kim Psyc 273 Dr. Anthony Andre Dec

2 Table of Contents 1 Executive Summary Introduction Methodology Survey Web review Heuristic Evaluation Global Usability Issues Local Usability Issues Summary and Implications of Evaluation Introduction Objective Product overview Inquiry Methods Survey Methodology Result Takeaways Web Review Overview Methodology Analyzing Takeaway Global Usability Issues Affordance Definition Affordance Violation Example Affordance Violation Example Consistency Definition

3 4.2.2 Consistency Violation Example Consistency Violation Example Proximity Definition Proximity Violation Example Proximity Violation Example 2... Error! Bookmark not defined. 5 Local Usability Issues & Suggestions Top menu bar First glimpse Fullscreen Primary navigation menu Main display MiniPlayer button Contents window Music Playlists Music For You itunes Store Links Account Information Suggestions Implications of Usability Issues Contact Information Appendix Survey Questions First page Second page Survey results Analysis of the web review Other references

4 8.5 Top menu bar error (fixed during revision updates)

5 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Introduction This Heuristic evaluation was performed for itunes version on Mac OS X Yosemite. 1.2 Methodology Two inquiry methods were used to gather the data and information concerning product: survey and web review Survey A short online survey was conducted to gather the demographic information of the users and their experience in using itunes Web review Based on the survey result, a web site search was conducted to gather more detailed reviews and customer feedback regarding the product. 1.3 Heuristic Evaluation Several usability principles were violated by itunes application. The impact of the severity of each principle violation will be stated in three levels as below: 1. High: A crucial issue. Can cause failure of a task 2. Medium: A moderate issue 3. Low: A minor issue.; 5

6 1.3.1 Global Usability Issues Many global usability violations were found in itunes. These issues include: ü Affordance ü Consistency ü Proximity Local Usability Issues Many usability violations were encountered at the local level as well. A combination of different usability issues present on individual screens of the itunes interface will be considered and addressed in this section. ü Affordance ü Consistency ü Proximity ü Length ü Feed-forward 1.4 Summary and Implications of Evaluation Through this heuristic evaluation, a number of usability issues were found throughout the itunes interface. Application designers and developers should use this evaluation to identify areas that are negatively effecting user experience. 6

7 2 Introduction 2.1 Objective The objective of this evaluation is to provide detailed heuristic evaluation of itunes for usability. Version of itunes was used for this evaluation. The evaluation was performed on Mac OS X Yosemite. Any suggestions or implications to improve the itunes application will be discussed within this evaluation. 2.2 Product overview itunes is Apple s flagship multimedia player. It was initially released on January 9, itunes has since become a media player, an online radio broadcaster, and a mobile device management application. It can be used to play media, stream live or recorded radio, purchase or download music and videos, as well as many other tasks. Since then itunes have become a media player, an online radio broadcaster, and a mobile device management application. It can be used to play media, stream live or recorded radio, and purchase or download music, videos, and for many other functions as well. 7

8 3 Inquiry Methods Two usability evaluation inquiry methods were used to obtain information about the usability of itunes. The inquiry methods chosen were a survey and a web review to obtain information about users needs, likes, dislikes, behaviors, et cetera. With Google Form, a simple survey was created and then posted on Facebook. The results were collected over a two day period. In general, participants were men and women between the ages of 20 to 40. Social Network Services (SNS), for example Google Form and Facebook, were utilized to collect survey results because of the accessibility and user population of those services. It was useful for gathering demographic information about the itunes user population. To broaden the view and enhance the collections of the detailed critiques about the product, a web review was conducted. 3.1 Survey Overview In order to gather some basic information about itunes, a survey was created to better understand the target population and their usage of itunes. The results have been summarized and analyzed. 8

9 3.1.1 Methodology The survey was created via Google Forms, a simple survey feature provided by Google, and distributed by Facebook, a well-known SNS. By the nature of the SNS, participants expressed themselves freely and anonymously. The survey was also made in Korean, which accommodated participants who only speak Korean. The survey had 2 pages; Page 1 had only 1 question, and page 2 had 13 questions. Google Form s progress bar functionality was used to indicate the current status, however, it only shows the progress of pages, not the overall progress of questionnaire, which means when one is on 2 nd page it will always say 100% completed, even though one did not answer single question on 2 nd page. All of the responses were automatically summarized to Google Sheets. However, I exported all the data in to a MS Excel to analyze further. 9

10 3.1.2 Result Demographics Total of 44 participants finished their survey in one day. As mentioned above, this survey had two pages. The first page had only one question. The participants were asked whether they ve ever used itunes before. Since Facebook was used to collect the survey result, this was the only way to filter out people who never used itunes previously. Once they answer yes, then they were redirected to page 2 of the survey. Otherwise, the survey will end with thank you note. 10

11 Surprisingly enough, 9 out of 44 participants never had chance to use itunes before, which left me with 35 respondents. Furthermore, out of the 35 respondents, 24 are current users (68.6%) and 11 have used it in the past (31.4%) Gender What is your gender? MALE 25 FEMALE Male (73.5%) Female (26.5%) Age what is your age? ~24 25~34 35~ Under 18 (0%) 18~24 (31.4%) 25~34 (42.9%) 35~44 (25.7%) 45+ (0%) User preference 11

12 To find out the user preference in OS, participants was asked which OS they use most frequently. The ratio of OS was about half & half. Computer o PC (48.6%) o Mac (42.9%) o Both (8.6%) Smart Device o Android (51.4%) o ios (48.6%) Apparently, all of the participants were smartphone owners. Unexpectedly enough, both computers and smart phones OS were well distributed almost by half. It was presumed that OS of computer will affect which phone to buy, or vice versa, however, the OS of computer did not really matter to participants when it came to choosing a mobile phone. 12

13 General Usage analysis Are you satisfied with the way itunes allows you to organize and displays the media in your library? VERY SATISFIED 1 SATISFIED 23 NOT SATISFIED Most people were satisfied by itunes usability. If you look closely, however, majority of participants rarely used itunes, even though they have it installed on their computer. Only 1 participant had been used itunes on a daily basis. With the majority of users stating that they rarely used itunes. How often do you use itunes? RARELY ONCE A WEEK ONCE A MONTH MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK MORE THAN ONCE A MONTH EVERYDAY Everyday 1(2.9%) More than once a week 4(11.4%) Once a week 4(11.4%) More than once a month 3(8.6%) Once a month 9(25.7%) Rarely 14(40%)

14 General Purpose analysis For what purpose do you use itunes? TO TRANSFER MEDIA TO AN IPHONE OR OTHER DEVICES 20 TO PURCHASE AND DOWNLOAD MEDIA TO PLAY MEDIA 6 6 TO ORGANIZE YOUR MEDIA COLLECTION ALL OF THESE EXCEPT TO ORGANIZE MEDIA Of the many functionality of itunes, the majority of participants stated that they mainly use it for transferring files from one device to another General Usability Analysis Do you find using the itunes Store easy to search, download and pay for media? NO 14 UNSURE 9 YES

15 Have you ever experienced any difficulty adding media to the itunes library? OFTEN 14 OCCASIONALLY 4 NEVER 6 ALWAYS Have you ever felt frustrated or confused when using itunes? YES 25 NO By grouping the three questions above, it is clear that participants generally expressed difficulty in interacting with the itunes interface. A majority of users did not like how the itunes library works, despite the fact that they use it to organize their media files Open- ended question 15

16 The survey concluded with an open ended question. It received some great response, which provided helpful feedback. This input provided a great deal of insights to jump-start the next inquiry method used: a web review. The open-ended feedback is provided follow: Usually I just use itunes to play music, which it does a great job of. However, it gets frustrating when I want to transfer music to my phone. The syncing functionality is poor; I often have to readd all my music when I hook my phone up to my computer/itunes. It would be better if itunes has skip forward/backward function, and make shortcut keys for it. These functions and shortcut actually exist, apparently, most people don t even know about it. When I googled it, I can easily found more people with similar problem, or complaining about badly itunes mapped their shortcuts, etc. I even found about this uncommon, not-easy-combo shortcut being same with other application causing some issues. The sync mechanism really bothers me. My playlists got all messed up, because it was trying to sync with other devices automatically. It is really discomforting. Even though itunes trying to create own platform, their lack of usability and own peculiar interfaces make users easily distracted, and keep away to become royal users. Personally, it is better to organize files in folders, not by formats. Usually I store all my related documents, music, and movies in hierarchically ordered folders. The problem lies when itunes automatically put them into one playlist, disregarding file types, or where they are located at, etc. This might have been great when it first came out, but nowadays with thousands, and thousands of files can be stored in one computer due to massive storage units, it is not a good way to list them all in. Of 16

17 course one can fix this by making additional playlists, but that s whole another story to begin with. itunes has been around since first release in 2001, however, many people still don t know about the existing shortcuts, and on top of that they have been complaining about itunes bad mapped shortcuts that have been unchanged for the last 14 years Takeaways In general, participants had a satisfactory experience with itunes, however upon closer look, it is clear that a majority of users are using itunes to transfer file from one device to another. Users are essentially using itunes as nothing more than a file transfer protocol(ftp). Participants expressed frustration regarding itunes bad usability and non user-friendly functions. 17

18 3.2 Web Review Overview To broaden the view and enhance the collections of the detailed critiques about the product, a web review was conducted. With both the professional reviews as well as the common user reviews, a variety of useful insights were gathered Methodology Google After reviewing the answers of the survey, Google was used to perform a web literature review. The search was conducted on the various blogs or the articles that reviewed itunes with the keywords, such as itunes, sucks, terrible, bad usability, and/or problem, as well as the feedbacks from the survey above. 18

19 CNet (Download.com) CNet publishes many decent reviews, news, articles about itunes. Each article has own color of criticism due to different writer s point of view; like this article why I ditched apple music for Spotify. A short article about why a user will choose over to Spotify over itunes. As a part of CNet, there is a domain called Download.com, which distributes the software, music, games, and many more. Users can easily find and download any application, and leave feedbacks or reviews to the downloaded applications. 19

20 Apple Support Communities The Apple Support Communities are one of the biggest, and most active Apple communities which is owned by Apple Inc. This community shares the information and/or discussions about Apple s products. Many members use this discussion community to share their feedbacks and questions about the Apple products MacRumors MacRumors is a website for Apple and Mac focused on Apple related news, rumors, and reports. MacRumors is not owned or controlled by Apple. Their user forum contains interesting rumors 20

21 and the latest news regarding Mac and Apple products and solutions. It is very active forum with lots of interesting feedbacks and commentaries Analyzing Based on reviews from all three sites, total of 20 reviews were gathered and analyzed into 6 categories; 5 negatives and 1 neutral. Category # % Bad user experience 14 70% Update makes it worse 11 55% Hard to operate/navigate 11 55% Bad UI 5 25% No such function 2 10% Easy to use, for non-heavy users 4 20% Chart Title BAD USER EXPERIENCE UPDATE MAKES IT WORSE HARD TO OPERATE/NAVIGATE BAD UI NO SUCH FUNCTION EASY TO USE, FOR NON- HEAVY USERS ü 70% of reviews said Bad user experience ü 55% of reviews said Update makes it worse ü 55% of reviews said Hard to operate/navigate ü 25% of reviews said Bad UI ü 10% of reviews said No such function 21

22 ü 20% of reviews said Easy to use, for non-heavy users Combining user reviews from the outside and the inside of Apple communities, we can easily conclude many users have been experiencing the hardship of adjusting into new itunes. The most common problem area of itunes 12 was elimination of the sidebar Takeaway There were many royal users who have been using itunes for years. However, whenever the new update came out with new features, functions, and UI, the majority of these users had a difficult time adjusting to the new version. And some of these loyal users decided to switch over to different product because they were so disappointed and frustrated with the latest update of the product. One of the user left a review with title called Apple hates it s users. Within this review, he claims that he has been a big fan of itunes until the latest installment. He wrote that it s so terrible that it made him want to cry. 22

23 4 Global Usability Issues Global usability principles must be considered to have an effective design. Failure to deliver will decrease user experience, user satisfaction, user performance, and many others. Furthermore, violation of any principles will lead to a serious injury. 4.1 Affordance Definition The principle of Affordance refers to the physical attributes of the product that speak to the user and indicate how the user should interact with the device Affordance Violation Example 1 When users execute any application for the first time in their life, a chance of them knowing what to do with the application is really low. Therefore, it is safe to assume that for more sophisticated applications like itunes will require additional information to operate. However, for some reason, itunes decided to show a tutorial from the second launch and thereafter. 23

24 Impact A first time user will get lost and lose the interest towards itunes fairly quickly. They will struggle throughout the application, and try to figure out what to do Recommendation If the application is install for the first time and launched for the first time, itunes should have started with basic tutorial that can be skipped. At least this case, new user may be able choose to learn beforehand Affordance Violation Example 2 The application should clearly indicate the purpose of the current state. When a user cannot find the information they want, they may wonder around and try to find the answer Impact This is a screenshot of MiniPlayer. If users are not familiar with MiniPlayer, they might assume this as a photo gallery Recommendation MiniPlayer has an automatic hide navigation menu. The main focus of the MiniPlayer is playing music other than showing the clip art, or the album cover. Therefore, it should not automatically hide the navigation menu. 24

25 4.2 Consistency Definition The principle of Consistency yields to the usability of a system is improved when similar parts are expressed in similar ways. Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions means the same things Consistency Violation Example 1 It is very common to everyone that x button usually stands for closing or exiting the application. Instead, this will x button switch the mode of the itunes window from MiniPlayer to default player Impact User now must realize the different functionality of the same looking button within itunes, and differentiate them in order to not close when they want to switch mode, or not switch mode when they want to close the itunes application. 25

26 Recommendation Make it consistent throughout the whole application. The design scheme should be consistent with their functionalities and features regardless of which mode they are in Consistency Violation Example 2 Many applications support different view to sort or display files. In itunes, there are 5 modes to do so. The problem is it is 5 distinct modes to display a single item Impact When a user wants to find a name of the author, he/she must look for it awhile to find the right information. The worst case is when the user might not find it in current mode and force to go into different mode for such information Recommendation Each mode needs to be reorganized into a uniform view to accommodate different modes. An additional research on most common information that users want in different mode may needs to be performed to find the right amount of optimized uniformed view. 26

27 4.3 Proximity Definition The principle of Proximity yields to Elements that are close together are perceived to be more related than elements that are further apart Proximity Violation Example 1 When itunes is not in the fullscreen mode, it s top menu bar will be apart from the application. It may be general ways to do it in Mac OS, however, when the users have more than one applications launched then it will start confuse them. Impact Users will no longer realize there is a menu bar, and start to lose some provided functionalities 27

28 5 Local Usability Issues & Suggestions Local usability issues help with the focused effort to redesign the product in question. In this section, more detailed and specific problems will be covered in different parts of the product. The first problem of itunes was a failure to accommodate first time users. Oddly enough, itunes will display the welcome page, a quick tour, and description of itunes on its second launch. First time launched Second time and thereafter Failure to present initial instructions or tutorials can lead users to get lost and have hard time using the product. 28

29 comments Recommendation Impact First time user will get lost without A tutorial should be displayed on very Medium tutorial. first launch of the itunes 29

30 In order to organize the local usability evaluation, the main display of itunes will be split into separate sections as shown below. 1. Top menu bar 2. Primary navigation menu 3. Contents window 30

31 5.1 Top menu bar First glimpse When the application is launched for the first time, it opens with a simple image as shown below. If you are a first time user and new to Mac, this might not be too obvious. However, there is something missing here. What would that be? The top menu bar is hanging at the top edge of the screen which doesn t look like it belongs to itunes. Proximity Elements that are close together are perceived to be more related than elements that are further apart. 31

32 If you don t see why or how this can be a problem, let me show an example. When the users have a big screen monitor, e.g. 27 inch or bigger, they will likely not notice the menu bar on top. 32

33 It gets worse if users have more than one application launched and running. The proximity, again, is defined as elements that are close together are perceived to be more related than elements that are further apart, was violated, and users have to actually look at far left top corner of monitor to manipulate the menu bar of itunes. comments Recommendation Impact Top menu bar is always fixed to the top edge of the screen. Considering fixed top menu bar as Apple s default UI I recommend separate menu bar within the itunes application, or Low 33

34 5.1.2 Fullscreen When you go to fullscreen mode, the following will appear. Again, not really sure what to look for? This time there is no top menu bar. It is automatically hidden. As you hover over to the top edge of the screen, then the menu bar will appear. But at the same time it top menu bar will overlap the Top navigation menu. 34

35 Consistency The usability of a system is improved when similar parts are expressed in similar ways. Visibility The usability of a system is improved when its status and methods of use are clearly visible. This violates the consistency principle, because this is the only place for auto-hide function at the top menu bar. And also this violates the visibility principle, because users will not notice the existence of top menu bar without hovering over it. And it can confuse users because when the top menu appears, it will hide the top navigation menu which has main functions of the application. comments Recommendation Impact Auto-hide of top menu bar will violate the consistency of the navigation bar. Sometimes simplicity is not always a good option. Leave the top menu bar when it is full screen mode, or resize the itunes when the mouse is hover over the top edge of the screen. Medium (There was an error on this top menu bar at the initial state of the heuristic evaluation, but later it was updated. Since it is not part of the evaluation it is noted at the Appendix for the further information.) 35

36 5.2 Primary navigation menu Main display The main display of primary navigation menu has hidden features. In order to see the hidden features, you need to hover over it to find out. This is a violation of visibility No content selected Normal view Hover view Contents selected Normal view Hover view comments Recommendation Impact It may look less clutter and better, but it Make separate icon, or don t use autohide. Low looses visibility of features. 36

37 5.2.2 MiniPlayer button As part of main menu, a MiniPlayer button will appear on the left side when the mouse is hovered over. The problem is when you want to go back to original view, you have to press x button at the top left. This is the violation of the consistency principle, because in most cases x button yields to closing the application. 37

38 The bigger problem rises when a user selects the MiniPlayer from the top menu bar. It will then launch both MiniPlayer and default player, and this time x button will actually kill the MiniPlayer. Secondly, the MiniPlayer automatically hides the navigation menu and display only picture. Normal view (Mouse) Hover view This is the violation of the visibility principle. The Normal view looks like it is just a photo viewer application. 38

39 comments Recommendation Impact X button operates differently than Make it consistence. Medium others, even for the same MiniPlayer. Auto-hide is not always a good. Remove auto-hide. Medium 39

40 5.3 Contents window Music Playlists On Playlists of Music, users can change the view of the list of music by songs, albums, artists, composers, and genres. itunes has 5 totally distinct looks for these views. This is the violation of consistency principle. comments Recommendation Impact View should be consistence. Instead of having 5 distinct views for different set of view try to be more concise Low 40

41 5.3.2 Music For You 1033 x 5270 For you tab of Music automatically suggest some music based on the preference of genre or artists of a user. It seems that itunes will let you follow artists that you like and get update 41

42 automatically. However, as user expanses their interest, it starts to grow. The image on the right shows you how long this suggestion can be. comments Recommendation Impact Making suggestions based on automatic learning system is good, however, it gets bigger as the user preference Limit the suggestion Medium changes or expands. User can get lost when there are too many choices itunes Store itunes store page also has length problem. In addition to that, it has many links at the bottom of page that will open up a new browser window, instead of showing information within itunes. 42

43 This creates problem because when the new window is opened from the application it does not convey user s information to it. This is the violation of FeedForward. FeedForward - interface elements buttons, links, tools, etc. should always indicate the implication of their actions before a user commits to execution 1. itunes wants you to login to access your account information. 2. You are in and now you want to modify your Apple ID information. 3. Now itunes wants you to type in your ID and password again to access your information. 43

44 comments Recommendation Impact The feedforward principle is violated Either the website should be integrated into itunes or user information should be conveyed to the web browser. Low Links 44

45 Depends on which pages you are in, bottom links get rearranged. This is not a serious issue, however, it is the violation of consistency principle. comments Recommendation Impact Link view should be consistence. Rearrange the links to either way and make them consistence throughout the itunes. Low 45

46 5.3.5 Account Information This is the sample of account information page. When the user go into edit menu, it will have different looks for each one of them. As you can see the cancel and save button look different in each modification. Some modification does even have cancel button. In this case, one has to press back button or force to 46

47 accept the modification. Worst part is when users use back button to go back they will most likely redirect itunes store instead of back to account information page. comments Recommendation Impact Make them consistence to feel like they Maybe because not so many uses these are from the account information page. setting page, there are many design Medium Don t let users to memorize where they flaws in it. were from. 47

48 6 Suggestions 6.1 Implications of Usability Issues Fortunately, there was no serious major design flaws, but still there were many small minor usability issues throughout the application. When the usability principle is violated, user will be lost and have a hard time figuring out what to do with the product in terms of accessing its capabilities. This will lead to lose of interest or desirability of the product. 48

49 7 Contact Information 4500 The Woods Dr. Apt# 1802 San Jose, CA Mobile: 669)

50 8 Appendix 8.1 Survey Questions First page 50

51 8.1.2 Second page 51

52 8.2 Survey results 8.3 Analysis of the web review Web review.pdf Category # % Bad user experience 14 70% Update makes it worse 11 55% Hard to operate/navigate 11 55% Bad UI 5 25% No such function 2 10% Easy to use, for non-heavy users 4 20% 52

53 8.4 Other references designed-for-os-x-el-capitan 53

54 8.5 Top menu bar error (fixed during revision updates) As you can see, only half of the top menu bar is appeared when the mouse is hover over. 54