WordCounter. Net
Evernote
Mobile application usability evaluation
Overview
Evernote is a note taking application which can also be used to keep achecklist, set reminders and allows adding images and links of webpages to notes. The users can create several notebooks, and also share entire notebook or a specific note with other users. User group comprises of students, professionals and individual making personal use of the application for daily activities like journaling and setting reminders.
This case study covers the process and findings of the usability testing done for the mobile version of the application.
Team : 2 Researchers
Duration : 3 Weeks
Research Methods : Qualitative and Quantitative
Version : Mobile 8.13.1
Objective
The objective was to
● Evaluate the learnability and memorability
● Evaluate effectiveness and efficiency of interface
● Identify user’s pain points
● Make recommendations if necessary based on the findings.
Process
Inquiry
This phase focussed on learning about the user’s expectations with tools for organizing.
This process used survey (25 participants between the age of 18-50).
The objective was to learn user’s expectations, preferred tools, and about the user demographic & general attitudes.
Insights :
Majority (more than 60% +) of users identified them as organized and dependent on
organizing tools.
● 65%+ users used digital tools to stay organized.
● The main concerns and expectations identified in relation to organizing tools were -
Privacy , Ease of use and Always accessibile.
Inspection
This phase focussed on learning about the existing interface.
The objective was to identify existing pain points and evaluate the usability.
This was done by conducting a Heuristic Evaluation.
Insights :
● The learnability was found to be low.
● The memorability of the interface was found to be low.
● The efficiency was found to be average.
Further user testing were required to test the true nature of these findings.
Testing
This phase focussed on learning about the usability of interface in hands of real users.
The objective was to test the hypotheses built from heuristic evaluations and uncover unidentified user’s pain points.
This was done by conducting a Usability Testing.
User tasks were identified, a test plan drafted and submitted, and the participants were recruited.
Testing Methods :
Remote testing
Participants :
There were 5 participants, who were in between the age of 18-35, with no previous experience with the app.
Procedure
Four tasks were given to the participants, and each
task was followed up with a questionnaire. Once, all four tasks were completed, participants were interviewed for a feedback on user-satisfaction levels and other qualitative feedback on the interface.
Setup
Testing was conducted remotely with a live video feed of participants performing the task on their respective smartphones.
Participants were asked to speak- out what they were doing or thinking.
Scenario
The task scenario is of 5 students who will be working on a group project, need to share their ideas with each other on Evernote. They will be keeping note of their personal notes as well create a shared note and put up tasks and
reminders using the Evernote application to keep track of their group project. In total there will be 4 tasks under the mentioned scenario, with each task expected to not take
more than 5 minutes. The participant can move on to next
task, only after completion of previous task.
Tasks
There were four tasks:
Task1: Make a notebook, & add twonotes under it. Add an image to a note.
Task2: Make a new notebook, and make a checklist.
Task 3: Make a new notebook, and make 3 notes under it. Make checklist under two of the notes. Share this notebook with a specified other user.
Task 4: Set a reminder. Visit the note from task#2 , and check off two items from the checklist there. Visit the note made under Task#3 and highlight/strikethrough one item, in that note.
Metrics, Feedback and Result
Success rate metric:
-
error free task completion
-
task completion in time
Unsuccessful navigation was accounted as an error.
Feedback
The qualitative feedback for satisfaction was recorded as expressed by the users during the tasks and post- task interview.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Conclusion
-
Application is efficient in taking notes quickly.
-
Learnability is average.
-
Understandability is low.
-
User-friendliness is low.
Recommendations
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The landing page of the interface should have the option to select a notebook or create a notebook directly. This will increase the efficiency in organizing notes and navigating easily.
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Icons are redesigned with better contrast, size, and universal recognisability.
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Deleting a notebook should be faster. the number of steps should be reduced from 5 to at least 3, for efficiency.
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The checklist box is under the formatting icon , which makes it go unnoticed by new users. It should be directly accessible like the tagging or add reminder option.
