Usability Evaluation Of Ace Hardware Interactive System – Report

Functionality Study of Ace Hardware

Ace hardware is one of the global online selling website that has been known for selling of hardware equipment’s all over the world at a cost that is friendly. Ace hardware is known for selling products such cabinet knobs, finishing touches in a house, building materials and supplies, chains, doors and windows, hand trucks, ladders and locks, the key rings   and many more.  The main concept that is tried to be brought across by Ace Hardware is to reach a large market and sell more products to its target globally. The idea is to offer provision for a platform that is online that will allow people with smartphones or even other devices that can access the internet to purchase hardware’s online depending on their choice. Customers can view a lot of varieties of products as provided by Ace hardware with reference to the latest arrival, new in the market, cheapest in price, best quality and many more. For one to qualify for placement of an order one must register with the website which has made Ace hardware to act as an interface between the customers and the manufacturers or companies which provides them with the supplies.   Just like any other simple website Ace hardware has two ends that is the back and front which work hand in hand for the admin side and the customer side. Front end side is the customer interaction end that he or she uses while interacting with it to view the products and make orders. The backend is the administration side which he uses in managing the products and the account details of the customers.

The main aim of performing this report is analyzing some of the feasibility study on the on the usability features of Ace hardware system. This study on the report comprises on the functionality study of Ace Hardware, responsiveness, clarity and visibility, how effective ace hardware is and how easy it is to navigate across the webpages of Ace hardware.  All of the above stated area of studies will be based on the user direct interactions with the Ace hardware website and also filling a questionnaire that will be based on what he encountered during interaction. After we are done with this, we will do an evaluation methodology followed by the results evaluation which will help to give us the findings so that we give recommendations to what Ace hardware need to do so that they can improve their website usability features.         

Methodology

Many are times we look for an explanation in terms of diagram to how we can explain the look and feel of a given website. In Ace hardware the products stored can be viewed by the customers in many ways which may help in boosting the number of sales. In this the system has been known for performing the must and compulsory functionalities that cannot be avoided in any way by the customers. Some off this functionalities are as explained in the diagrams.

• Creating an account (Sign up)
• Login in (Login)
• View items
• Select items
• Add to the shopping cart
• Select the payment option method
• Make an order
• Sign out

Ace hardware is known for giving specific and detailed information about a given product which helps the user to select the product he or she needs. The given description helps one to make a wise decision as the description given meets the user requirements. For one to successfully purchase a product then the customer must be logged in using his details. When one is logged in one can be able to view the status of his accounts in all angles. The payment option is the PayPal and the use of credit cards. When one places an order of the items of one choice then he can pay to either of the provided payment methods. As explained in the diagram above that is how the customer relates and interacts with the Ace hardware website when making a purchase.

Using all the use cases in the use case diagram shows that there are so many ways in which we interact with Ace hardware webpages and that is termed as navigating across the ace hardware website. If we were to perform all the functions then it might take us some time but our main idea here is checking the usability of Ace hardware. For this reason and the resources required we need to follow some guidelines in capturing some of the important functions of Ace hardware.  In this case we will consider some participants who will perform the following functionalities.

1. Creating an account (Sign Up)
2. Login
3. Select and add an item to the Shopping cart
4. Make an order
5. Make payment and checkout.

In evaluating the methodology applied we were able to have 6 participants who had not interacted with Ace hardware there before. The selected participants represented both sex and they were literate in computer using. To easy doing of the analysis we used the observation and the questionnaires as the primary methods of data gathering. The following evaluation was on the basis of the above functionalities (tasks) which were allocated for about 30 minutes and the questionnaire about 15minutes for each and every participant. The work of the researcher in observation is checking if the gesture and interaction of the participant with the Ace hardware website is easy and if he or she is able to navigate across the webpages.  The following discussion explains the five tasks and the way the user were supposed to do.

Results

In this case the first task was visiting the site of Ace hardware www.acehardware.com. In this case the participant was supposed to create an account where he or she was supposed to add the personal details as asked which may include email, first name and last name and the state one is. When one has successfully registered then he or she can check the link sent to him or her in the email.

After checking in the email that you used in registering in the task one. Click on the link sent to you by Ace hardware to help you login to the website. In login in to the website one must use the information one used when creating the account and that is the email and the password. After login one now can be able to access the website enabling one to view products in all ranges and categories in the website of Ace hardware.

In task number three one is required to look at the items in terms of descriptions and details and choose which one want. In this case the procedure was to choose two items on electrical category and two other in the garden category.  After they have selected their choice then they have to add the already selected items in the shopping cart.

One they are done adding the selected products of their choice to the shopping cart they can be able now to place an order. Ann order is said to be successfully complete when we make payment and the website gives a notification that they have received your payment and that your order is in process. In this situation after one makes an order he has to specify the mode of payment and in this case we have only two of them and that is the PayPal or the credit cards.

If the above tasks were to be explained in details even a novice of computer will understand very fast. The main reason for performing them is to offer provision of guidelines of how the user should interact with the online application in testing the usability features. Using all the four task procedure that were to be performed by each and every participant with a duration of about 30 minutes to make it easy in analyzing one’s ability in navigating across the Ace Hardware. When they were done with the four tasks all the participants were required to fill a questionnaire, each indicating what they had observed and learnt when they interacted with Ace hardware. The reason of the hardware is giving the concerns of what they encountered when they were interacting with the system and the recommendations they would suggest to be considered by Ace hardware web designers to help in improving the website by being able to provide a good look and feel and much more quality service delivery.

Recommendations

The methodologies that were used for evaluating the system were good as they offered provision of an understanding that is very clear in all ways as when we looked at the usability features such as the visibility & clarity, responsiveness, ease of navigation and how effective it is to support the webpage content we were able to see that they were all of good quality. The mentioned features are very significant when doing an analysis of usability of a website as they help in dictating the way the users and the application or the website interacts with each other when the user is performing various activities. We used a questionnaire that used both structures that is close and open questions. The reason for using this approach is helping the users to give out their ideas in ways that are open and not limited in any way. It also helped the participant to give a genuine a answer or feedback considering they had already interacted with the system and hence reducing the situations where information could be withheld and this ensured that the usability information collected from the tasks 1 to 5 was of good quality and that it was good in terms of evaluation process.

This area highlights some of the results that were observed and recorded as the users interacted with Ace hardware website following the guideline of the four tasks. The results was on the basis of the filling of the questionnaire and the interaction of the system. This part of the research provides an in-depth of all the tasks performed and how each and every participant related with the system.

The main reason for performing task one is to check if the user can be able to do the first assignment. The task was to create an account with Ace hardware. In this case based on the observation many noted that they were able to create accounts without having problems. The main idea here was to provide an email address and the password account one will be willing to use when login in to the system all the time.  The information required when creating an account will be used when logging in and much more when locating the details for shipping and payment each and every time one is making an order. The screenshot below explains the webpage of creating an account with Ace hardware.

Figure 1 homepage

Figure 2creating an account

In this case just like the experience in the first task the users did not have problem to login and said the experience in task one made the task two more easy and much more very friendly in all manners. Just by clicking the link of login we could be able to input our login details and access the website products in a way that is not limited in any manner. The figure below is a screenshot of login page.

Table 1 login page

As seen from above the two tasks are underjoined and that they work hand in hand in meeting the user needs.  This has shown that the two tasks and functionalities are well structured and that they provide a platform whereby they are easy to use and they are very effective in interacting with. The response for getting the link in our email is very fast actually immediately after one creates an account. All of the participants took these serious and recommended that this was very crucial and that it provided a forum that made all the other tasks possible and easy to perform them without any problems. I

In task three the idea behind here was to view the details of the products in the electrical and garden categories respectively. All of the six participants were able to view and add products to the shopping cart without any help. The following screenshots explains how they were supposed to would have done.

Figure 3 adding products to the shopping cart

This task is the final one where the participant were able to make an order. Out of the 6 five of the participant were able to make an order successfully using all the payment method. The person who didn’t complete to make an order was because he did not have a credit card nor a PayPal account and hence this made him to be helped by observing the others doing it. After adding the four items to the shopping cart we proceed to secure checkout as shown below.

Figure 4 Billing webpage

In easy descriptions from the observations from the four tasks we can say that all the participants show it easy for the four tasks were necessary to perform them in one way or another.

Out of the 6 in the questionnaire all of them show that Ace hardware is easy to use and navigating across the webpages in it is very easy. The information in terms of visibility and clarity is in a way that is well-structured and that the participants can understand what each and every page entails and comprises of in all ways.  When we consider the physical design almost all of them were satisfied with the look and feel of Ace hardware.5 out of 6 said that the response of the site interaction was very fast and that the delays were minimal and those experienced were the one that were experienced due to the internet problems.

Based on the results as described and explained there above 90% of all the participants were satisfied with way people interacted with the system. 10 % were not able to interact with the system in that they needed help in some areas. The findings were recorded as explained below.

90% were able to interact with the website easily

100% navigated very across all the websites.

100% said that the content in the website was easy to navigate across in that Dbs. and the function in Ace hardware. The following summary gives an overview of all what the above entails in specifics.

Table 2 Overall results

From the table above it is evident that Ace hardware website is convincing and satisfying to almost all the participants who participated in the evaluation process. Many participants seeing it satisfying this makes it a good progress and feature in that the websites meets the needs and the requirement of a quality web design. The above results are expressed in the following chart below.

Table 3 pie chart for overall results

In improving the design factors of any human interactions with the system in Ace hardware website we may think of making some recommendations that are gained when the users filled the questionnaires and the knowledge acquired during the participant interaction with the websites.

• The designer of the website and the management of Ace hardware should provide many other modes of payment like the use of bit coins, debit cards, direct bank transfers and other ways of making payments.
• Providing other mode of currencies and an ad to act as a converter for global currencies.
• The other recommendation is that we need to make the website homepage to be more appealing and descent to the eyes of the users. This can be achieved by applying slide sorter features and transitions of products in a way that it is easy to understand the concept.
• Last recommendations the user should use more icons in terms of images other than the already existing much contents in text. Should explain more on the concept of graphical user interface.

Conclusion

When we follow the above approach from identifying the website of e-commerce, to identifying the use case , performing all the tasks and giving the results of the evaluation helped in giving the analysis of the system usability in terms of features interacted with. The main ideas that were used to check the usability features were such as the look and feel of the website, the other one was the content visibility and clarity of the website, the effectiveness and how easy it was when navigating with the webpages.  From the results acquired we conclude that it was easy to interact with the website making it a quality website and that meets the need of the users.

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