Testing with the help of an ITRAKER completing tasks on the site alget.ru

An example of a report on testing the fulfillment of tasks on the site, performed by the company Ay-tractor . The purpose of this test was to identify the main inconveniences faced by target site visitors - people who came from advertising an online calculator of the cost of repairs.

This report is published with the permission of the customer.

Since the goal was to conduct a qualitative rather than quantitative research, and it was necessary to identify the most significant features and shortcomings, after discussion with the customer, it was decided to limit ourselves to a minimum group of five respondents. A separate wish was to include one interior designer in the group.

Test conditions
The testing of the site alget.ru was carried out using the technology of “tracking”, in which the computer monitors the direction of the gaze of the subjects and registers which parts of the screen people look at at any given time. This allows you to objectively analyze when and on what exactly the attention of site visitors is focused.

Testing was conducted on July 15-16, 2010 on the website alget.ru.
The respondents were men over 30 with an income above the average. Testing was conducted on the territory of the respondents. 5 people took part in testing.

As tasks for testing, respondents were offered 4 tasks:

1. Perception of the main page: respondents should look at the main page of the site and say what this site is about.
2. Search for contact information: respondents were asked to find the address, phone and location map of the real estate repair office on the site.
3. Calculation of the cost of repairs: respondents were asked to set the room parameters similar to the images provided and calculate the cost of repairs using the calculator available on the website.
4. Comments: Respondents were asked to leave comments about the site.

Additional materials

Video reports of testing sessions and attention cards in original resolution are attached to this report.

Summary of results and recommendations

1. The overall design of the site performs the functional load well - the information blocks are highlighted quite well and are noticed by the respondents.
2. The image of the house on the main page is perceived by respondents as an indication that the company is engaged in suburban real estate. It is recommended to change this image, for example, to a collage from a country house, apartment and office.
3. The combination of various elements gives respondents the feeling that the company is engaged in construction. Recommended:
   
   • Change news to less official and more repair related
   • Change the format of the “Building materials” plate - large write “Internet shop” and under it “building materials”.
   • Perhaps change the animation. Existing animation is more associated with construction than with repair.
4. The bottom of the main page does not display correctly in Internet Explorer (the weight of the text is highlighted in bold). For visitors who look there, it can cause negative emotions.
5. On the contact page, it is recommended to add signatures to the depicted objects on the map. For example, “Building materials store”, “Company office”, etc.
6. In the repair calculator, assistant tips crawl out of the browser window (in Internet Explorer)
7. It is necessary to redo the interface for choosing the type and color of material on the first page of the calculator!
8. The button "Calculate cost" overlaps the drop-down lists (in IE, Chrome, FF)
9. It makes sense to automatically detect incorrect input of room sizes and show a tooltip.
10. Many of the terms used are incomprehensible to non-specialists. It makes sense to make a standard tooltip with explanations.
11. It makes sense to increase the distance between the two columns (“cost of work” and “cost of materials”) on the page with the repair estimate.

Task 1: the perception of the main page

When ordering testing, a high level of rejections (leaving the page) of visitors who visited the targeted advertisement “repair cost calculation” was noted. During testing, the following probable causes of this behavior were identified:

1. All respondents (except for a professional interior designer) called “construction and repair of suburban real estate” (with different options - “rural buildings”, etc.) as the purpose of the site. A large image of a suburban home contributes to this perception. We would recommend changing this picture to a collage of images of a country house, office, apartment, etc. Also in the picture it makes sense to focus on the repair, for example, add animation.
2. Most of the respondents mentioned the construction as a site destination. This perception is greatly facilitated by the news on the page dedicated to the "official" events related to construction. Since this news becomes visible even in the process of drawing an animated picture of the “building” house and dice with the main sections of the site, they quickly attract the attention of the user and his perception of the site is largely based on the content of the news block. We would recommend choosing news more related to repair than to construction. You can also recommend using company news instead of “official” news.
3. The die of the main section “Building materials” also attracts noticeable attention of users and causes associations with construction. We would recommend swapping the title and subtitle of this dice: write “Internet shop” large and under it - “Building materials”. Perhaps instead of “Building materials” it is worth writing “Products for repair”.
4. It should be noted that the text at the bottom of the page does not display correctly in Internet Explorer.

In general, the design of the main page is well done: visitors quickly notice the main sections of the site, logo, phone, etc. A certain drawback is the excessive attention that the news section draws, especially in the second design.

Design 1
Fog mask for the first 10 seconds of viewing by the number of views	Fog mask for the first 10 seconds of viewing by percentage of time
The heatmap for the entire time of viewing by the number of views	Heatmap for all time of viewing as a percentage of time
Design 2
Fog mask for the first 10 seconds of viewing by the number of views	Fog mask for the first 10 seconds of viewing by percentage of time
The heatmap for the entire time of viewing by the number of views	Heatmap for all time of viewing as a percentage of time

Task 2: search for contact information

Search for a link on the main page

Search for the “Contacts” link on the main page of the site did not cause any difficulties for any of the respondents. Two found the link in less than 5 seconds, two more took 10 to 15 seconds, and two more spent 30 to 35 seconds. The scatter of time is associated not with the difficulty of finding the link, but with the fact that the respondents were distracted by viewing the image of the house and reading phone numbers.
It is worth noting that none of the respondents paid attention to the top navigation block with icons.
The attention cards of the main page during the second task are presented below:

Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time	Heatmap by the percentage of time spent for the entire viewing time
Views map for the first 5 seconds of viewing	Fog mask by the percentage of time spent for the entire time of viewing

Searching for contact information on the Contact page

All respondents were able to find the address they wanted, although some first confused the addresses of the stores and the repair office. The driving directions caused much greater difficulties - the aerial photographs on the page are uninformative - they do not have signatures about what exactly is shown there. Three respondents opened a google maps map to view the location of the repair office.
This problem is not critical, as visitors interested in the services of the company, anyway, they will pre-call or write off by e-mail.
The attention cards of the Contact page are shown below:

Heatmap by the number of views in the first 5 seconds	Heatmap by the number of views in the first 10 seconds
Heatmap by the number of views in the first 15 seconds	All time views heatmap

Task 3: calculation of the cost of repairs

Home

Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time

Heatmap by the percentage of time spent for the entire viewing time

The search for a link to the repair calculator on the main page of the respondents did not cause difficulties, despite the fact that the word “calculator” was not in the wording of the assignment. The average search time for a link was about 15 seconds. The long search time for the link is due to the fact that the respondents simultaneously reviewed the materials for the assignment.

The first page of the calculator

Heatmap by the number of views in the first 10 seconds

Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time

Completing this page took respondents from one and a half to 6 minutes. Key notes on this page:

1. The choice of the shape of the room is quickly noticed by all respondents; it does not cause problems.
2. Only one respondent noticed the ability to rotate the room, by and large by chance.
3. All respondents clicked on the field headings in the material selection table, suggesting that something would appear there. You can hang some additional functionality (for example, tooltips) in these areas without danger of overloading the interface.
4. Only one respondent drew attention to the "assistant".
5. In Internet Explorer, an assistant tooltip pops out of the browser.
6. A lot of complaints were caused by drop-down menus with a choice of the type and color of materials. This interface element needs to be redone! Respondents cannot understand the logic of work, do not guess what type of material will be selected, do not notice the inscription about the selected type of material, etc.
7. The button "Calculate the cost" is on top of the drop-down lists with the choice of material and color, interfering with the choice.
8. The name of the button “Calculate the cost” does not correspond to the functionality, it leads to the next page with data entry. It is better to sign the name of the next step on the button, for example, "Go to the size indication".

Second page of calculator

Heatmap by the number of views in the first 10 seconds

Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time

Respondents successfully completed the task. Some initially indicated dimensions in meters or centimeters, but noticed an error before entering. Perhaps it makes sense to provide for automatic dimension determination or tooltips during the input process (in case of loss of focus by the corresponding field).
Indication of window sizes caused some difficulty: after entering the sizes, some of the respondents clicked on the plus and then tried to remove the field that appeared to enter the second window.

The third page of the calculator

Heatmap by the number of views in the first 10 seconds

Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time

All respondents successfully completed the task. Three of them forgot to indicate the method of surface preparation, but after the reminder appeared, they successfully indicated it.
When fulfilling the operator’s request to add “screed plywood”, some of the respondents chose “crate plywood” instead, but quickly corrected their mistake.
Nobody found information about what “plywood for screed” is, although almost everyone found help on what plywood is. Since the site is designed for use by non-professionals, it would make sense to add tips about all the terms and materials used. Instead of (or in addition to) the “assistant” used on the site, we would recommend adding standard icons with a question mark and a pop-up window with brief information about the term. In these tips, you can add links to some additional articles or FAQ sections.

The fourth page of the calculator

Heatmap by the number of views in the first 10 seconds

Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time

Filling out this page did not cause a problem for any respondent. The only question was from the interface designer - do you mean the number of pieces or the number of types of decorative elements.

Fifth page of the calculator (estimate)

Heatmap by the number of views in the first 10 seconds	Heat map by percentage of time spent in the first 10 seconds
Heatmap by the number of views for the entire viewing time	Heatmap by the percentage of time spent for the entire viewing time

When viewing the estimates, only one comment was made on the design: the columns “cost of work” and “cost of materials” are poorly divided. At the first viewing, the estimate is read not in columns, but in rows.

Assignment 4: respondents' comments.

Pluses:
1. Good color gamut
2. Availability of a calculator
3. Easy to find contact information
Cons:
1. Lack of prompts “on the fly” when entering incorrect sizes
2. Inconvenient choice of decoration material and colors
3. News is too “fanciful” ”, Distracted
Additional comments can be heard when viewing session records.


Applications

Dynamic fog mask of the main page during initial viewing:


Recording a respondent's session during the first task:


Recording a respondent's session during the second task:


Recording a respondent’s session during the third task (part 1):


Recording a respondent's session during the third task (part 2):


Recording a respondent's session during the third task (part 3):


Recording a respondent's session during the third task (part 4):


Recording a respondent's session during the third task (part 5):


Recording a respondent's session during the third task (part 6):


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