Understanding the Importance of Human Factors in Website Design
The human factors in design of the systems has been very critical and understanding the way a website is designed. The main concept that arose in understanding the topic is that we get to convince others of what we have learnt from the study. We have to understand where the designers have done good job in designing the website and even making changes where there are needed. The focus here is based on the process of the design. Special effort has been made to depict human factors design as it actually occurs.
Binglee Website
In understanding the meaning of an interactive system then we have to look in the perspective of what the other authors have seen it to be. Interactive system is kind of an application allowing users in different locations to function with in different varieties. Binglee is an online website that is used for selling products such as the microwaves, fridge’s and freezers, ovens and cooking’s, wearable technology, smart phone, coffee machines, dishwashers, sinks and taps, TVs and many others. How we interact with the system will be determined by the capabilities of the usability features. Some of these factors to be put in to consideration when doing the evaluation are such as the visibility and clarity of the interactive system, look and feel of the graphical interfaces of Binglee, the way the users navigate from one webpage to the other and the way the contents and images have been aligned.
In the research the focus is mainly on the human interaction usability test that will be performed on Binglee site (Jakob, 1999). Binglee has allowed its customers to view a product or products where they can select the product by viewing all the details and if it suits them then they can it to the shopping cart. The report will aim at analyzing the website of Binglee where we will observe the way the way participants will interact with the systems and afterwards have them fill a questionnaire to help in capturing the exact results after the evaluation (JannaDupree, 2014). There will be a room to where we can give our findings and offer recommendations with reference to what has been given out by the participants using the interaction results and the questionnaire results. The following is an outline of the expected research in this Human factors in system design in testing the usability features.
- Explain and understand the type of the organization with a website that we need to do an analysis on and evaluate the usability features where in this case we have chosen Binglee Website.
- Secondly is determining the use case diagram of Binglee, where each and every user is supposed to interact with each use case and help us in rating the design of website.
- The methodology to be used for the evaluation of the usability features of Binglee Website.
- Fourth is illustrations on the results from the evaluation of the tasks performed by the users with reference to the stated use cases in the use case diagram of Binglee website.
- Description of the findings clearly showing the statics of the results in a chart or a graph so that we know where Binglee is in terms of site quality.
- Giving recommendations depending on the interaction and answers from the questionnaire.
- Giving a conclusion which will be like summarizing all of what we would have learnt.
Use case of Binglee.
Binglee Website: An Overview
Binglee is a wholesale and retail international distributor of home appliances gadgets globally. The company have been known to distribute over 10 million products in a day globally (Explorable, 2017). Binglee has retails and wholesales all over the world which acts as the branches for the main company. For Binglee to increase its sales then they have to foster their markets products where they use their website in reaching to their target audience (Lucidchart, 2017). The websites products are classified in to each and every category. Binglee has allowed its customers to view its products even before they are logged in to the system and they will only be asked to login when they have selected their products and added the cart then in need to make payment after they have made an order (UserLytics, 2017). The following use case diagram will show how the user or the participant interacts with the system.
As seen on the Use case, customers will interact with Binglee application in many ways before one is said to have completed the purchase process over the website. Nevertheless, the reason for this report is doing an evaluation test of the usability features in terms of the functionalities and the way we navigate in different webpages (Binglee, 2018). The main idea to be understood by all the participant taking place in the performance of the systems by indicating how the application is easy in interacting with, the way the Graphical user interface is consistent and how visible and clear the website content has been aligned and if they matches with the real world items descriptions and prices.
Evaluation Methodology
The usability test evaluation will follow methods where we will create four scenarios that will help the users who are selected in analyzing the functionalities and the usability features of Binglee (APCRC, 2017). 10 user were selected in doing a face to face interaction in dealing with all the five tasks in each and every scenario where each was given 15 minutes to do all the allocated tasks. All the functionality features in all the tasks were to be observed by the researcher when the users were interacting with the system (Nielsen, 2015). The four scenarios were mainly: Interacting with the homepage of Binglee and indicate what we can understand about the website, Viewing the products and navigating across different products in different categories, Adding products to the shopping cart and checking if the price matches with that of the real world or it is high lastly is interacting with the live chat of Binglee website. It was noted that each and every user was supposed to perform one task at a time.
Testing Usability Features in Binglee Website
The procedure for carrying the user test will be done using the scenarios from one to four.
- User accessing the Binglee websites and understanding what it entails in terms of the content.
- Viewing of products and navigating across different products provided by Binglee Website.
- Selecting products after clearly understanding the content description and adding them to the shopping cart where we state that each and every user should add at least five products in the cart and check if their total price matches with your calculations.
- Interaction with the Live Chat interface and rate the response time the customer service support of Binglee takes to respond to each user.
- All users were required to fill a questionnaire that was based on the experience they had with Binglee Website interaction.
Scenario One
In this case we were supposed to visit the homepage of binglee where our main idea was to see and view the structure of Binglee website. In this case we are supposed to know what Binglee deals with and what are the categories of what they offer and how the links navigates across the website from homepage to when making an order or chatting live with the customer services of Binglee.
Scenario Two
The scenario two major task is to view all the products in the website in all the categories. After viewing then we can be able to understand where the TVs are categorized, where the home appliances are, the Smartphones links are and much more where each and every product that we need is located. The idea here was to test the way the users will interact with the system and much more when navigating across different products in different webpages.
Scenario Three
In this scenario the idea was to select any five items on the website and add them to shopping cart. In adding these products to the website cart then we can be able to add all the product prices and do a comparison with what we have in the real world in terms of price and availability.
Scenario Four
In this one is lapping up with the performance of the system where we check if the live chat interface is interactive and testing whether the responsiveness of the live chat is very fast in terms of offering its customer service support.
Considering the above activities if they are successfully done by all the users then they were required to fill the questionnaire which had questions related to what they had done with the website of Binglee. The main aim of the questionnaire was to get all the views that were general to the user application to the E-commerce website of Binglee. All users were also advised to rate the process they had undergone when interacting with the website. The rating was out of 5 from very satisfying not satisfying at all. The methods of evaluation that were preferred as they provided an interaction that is directly and much more touched all the users in that when we observed how they interacted brought about the idea of how genuine their feeling was toward the interaction.
Scenario One: Homepage Navigation
Evaluation of results
There were a number of key issues that were observed based on the four scenarios and the recordings from the questionnaire. The tasks started at the same time where all 10 users each had his or her machine with an internet connection .the above results were observed and recorded from the two major activities that is interaction and the filling of the questionnaire.
Scenario one and two aim was to test how easy it is to understand how the we can navigate across the webpages easily without asking for help. When performing such activitiues we reported that amny were able to interact with the system and moving from one link or page to the other it seemed not to be difficult for any of the ten participants. The figure bellows shows the processes.
|
Users |
Design and alignment of contents (out of 5) |
Necessity of the Process (out of 5) |
Ease of navigation (out of 5) |
Clarity of content (5) |
Visibility of the Content(5) |
Response Rate o |
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1 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
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2 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
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3 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
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4 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
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5 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
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6 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
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7 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
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8 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
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9 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
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10 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
As seen in the table it will be right to say that like all the participants have about 4 out 10 are not contented that the website homepage design and its content is not appealing at all. It is seen that not all agreed to give 5 out of 5 for the necessity of the process. When checking on the ease of navigation we realized that the interaction was easy to navigate across all the other webpages.
The viewing and selecting was easy to many and the way they navigated across different products in different webpages seemed very easy and straight to the point in all manners. The aim of this scenario on viewing and selecting the products of our choice was testing how easy it is when navigating across the webpages when we using the main menu bar and to finding out whether all content that have been navigated shows some relevance and also checking the design consistency webpages that has been visited by the user. All users said that this task was well structured and each rated it 5 out of 5 points as they expressed their satisfaction with the scenario interaction.
The main aim of scenario three is to test if the users can be able to find and select a product in a category within the website, we can view all the products and add all the selected products to the cart ready for one to successful completing an order. In this scenario 8 out of the 10 users who were selected made it possible in adding more than five products to the shopping cart while the two needed some help. Although the majority were able to complete the process of adding at least five items many faced the same challenge when it came to adding the microwaves as the specified size was not easy to track in the features given. Many users had forgotten the exact size they were told to select and they were prompted to clicking the Add to the cart button.
Scenario Two: Viewing and Selecting Products
Even though the challenge was encountered all the participants did not find it an issue and acknowledged it as part of the process in ordering for the right product. The figure below shows how the users added products to the shopping cart.
Last scenario results was testing on the rate of response in the website and how effective the live chat interface was. When we were checking on this neither of the selected users was able to connect with customer service support as shown below.
The error that all the users faced was that “Sorry, we aren’t online at the moment. Please leave a message and your details so we can get back to you”. In this case all the members said that the website in terms of response they hard very poor customer service support. They gave 3 out of 5 in terms of how effective the system was and 2 out of 5 when interacting with the live chat in terms of the response.
As seen from the above scenarios we can deduct that it is very much okay to say that all the selected users were able to perform all the indicated tasks. Binglee Website interactions observations results obtained indicated above 70% were fully satisfied and this can be translated that 7 out of the 10 did the work without any help while three of them needed some help. 30% needed some help when interacting with system in some part which translates to three users. The overall usability test result can be expressed in the below graph.
As seen from the results above we can say that the website of Binglee has an average rating of the usability features. We will explain in to details of the usability features one by one as explained here below.
Consistency
At the look of the overall design of above interface and how the components of the web have been aligned we can say that the users of the Binglee website were not fully satisfied as the average rating of interaction was about 3 out of 5 overall. The two points lacked due to the low response when they asked for customer service support.
Information Visibility and clarity
the content of all webpages were noted to be very relevant and the undersatnding was very easy. The font and color of the textual alignment was visible and matched with the compoanies product. The content was visible and matched with the expectations of the users (NIELSEN, 2013).
Scenario Three: Adding Products to Cart
Ease of use and functionalities
The findings on the use of the functionalties was well expalined in all the four scenarios. In this case we were testing on how easy it was when navigating across the different webpages of the website (point, 2018). The main idea behind this made it possible to analyse and conclude that even the computer illiterate cam navigate easily across the website of Binglee (Binglee, 2018).
Recommendations
The following are some of the recommendations that were made during the interaction with Binglee Website in all manners.
There is need on the improvement of the live chat interface so that it becomes fast in responding and very effective in all times everywhere.Much use of figures and images with no detailed description. We need to add the content for description.The modes of payment in Binglee website should be clear and should offer a variety of them.The content of the webpage should be aligned and use the use of slide sorters.
Conclusion
In conclusion we have to know that for system to be interactive in good way or quality interactive system it will be how it is easy to use the its functions and navigate across its webpages all over the website (www.nngroup.com, 2014). The website content should be appealing to the users and most of it all have all the information or content that is relevant to what Binglee deals with. In understanding the easiest ways we can select and view a product will be based on adding of features such the search engines, filtering features or the sort contents in helping to locate the product very easily in the category. After a good analysis of the usability feature test as shown in the study above we can say the ease of navigation, visibility and clarity of the content, interaction with the functionalities of the website have an average rating with respect to information used and gathered from the interaction and the questioannire. For making it to have a quality website Binglee will need to use the recommendations acknowledged by the researcher.
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