Nick Ortega, Noah Gary, Yimeng Duan

I300 Fall 2015

USABILITY TESTING: BEST BUY’S WEBSITE AND

MOBILE APP

Process

In this study, we chose Best Buy as the site that we wanted to use, and

also their mobile app. Many people use best buy and buy technology through

them so we wanted to see which platform was easier to buy things. To test this,

our first test subject is a 19 year old male that is averagely tech savvy. He spends

about 40 hours a week online cumulatively on his laptop and phone. Our

second test subject is a 20 year old female that isn’t very tech savvy. She spends

about 20 hours a week online, most of which is for school. The studies each

took about 30 minutes each for a total time of an hour.

Method

Krug’s six stages of usability is the method we used for this. He uses this

to make sure everything flows well and is adequately organized. He starts by

welcoming his subject and explaining to them what he is trying to look for in the

study. This relieves any anxiety the subject may have and allows them to know

how to act.

Krug then begins to ask questions. He wants to get background

information so he knows how to compare them later on when working on the

design. He asks questions such as how long subjects spend online and also the

dispersion of browsing the web and emailing. Krug also likes to know subject’s

favorite sites so he can implement different aspects of those sites into the final

design. In this step, he usually will ask the subjects to view the homepage before

questioning the analysis.

Next, Krug enters the main portion of the test which is asking the subjects

to complete a certain task using the website. He wants the subject to speak out

loud while they are working on the task and narrating their actions. Using this

information, Krug begins to probe, which is when he asks what the subjects

found ineffective or effective about the design of the site. Krug then concludes

the study by thanking the subject for their help and analysis.

Website

To start off the testing, we welcomed the subject by telling him what this

would consist of. We also told them to speak out loud about what they were

thinking. Then, we explained that they could ask questions and we would try to

answer them at the end of the test.

Next, we asked them a couple questions such as occupation and how

many hours they spend online a week. Then, asked what they primarily use the

web for and how many hours they do it.

Then, we opened up the Best Buy website and asked the subjects a few

questions about it such as who owns the site. We then asked them to explain

what they saw and what they could do without any help.

This next part of the test is the biggest part. We explained to our subjects

the task we wanted them to accomplish:

“Your phone broke and you need to order and customize a new phone off of

Best Buy. Find the best fit for you.”

After they completed the task, we found out the site works very well and

is easy to use. Very straight to the point and many options.

When finishing, we asked the subjects what they didn’t like and what they

liked about the site. We also asked them to report any problems and gave them

a chance to ask questions.

Mobile App

To start off the testing, we welcomed the subject again by telling him

what this would consist of. We then asked if there was any questions.

When using the app, we then asked them to explain what they saw and

what they could do without any help.

During the app testing we noticed that when trying to buy something, it

redirects you to the mobile version of the website on the internet. It isn’t very

cohesive and is hard to navigate compared to the app.

This next part of the test is where we explained to our subjects the task

we wanted them to accomplish again:

“Your phone broke and you need to order and customize a new phone off of

Best Buy. Find the best fit for you.”

When finishing, we asked the subjects what they didn’t like and what they

liked about the site. We also asked them to report any problems and gave them

a chance to ask questions.

Background on Company

Best Buy wasn’t always called by its known name. It started off as an

electronics store called Sound of Music, which specialized in high fidelity stereos

in Saint Paul, MN. It made about $1 million in revenue and about $58,000 in

profits its first year. Best Buy was named “Company of the Year” by Forbes

magazine in 2004 and many other awards. It has come a long way!

User interfaces

website

Navigation

Bar

Quick links

Product

description

Customization

options

Refine

Search

Purchase

Product

Search bar

Navigation bar

MOBILE APP

Search bar

Customization

options

Purchase

Product

Note:

The mobile app redirects you to the mobile website when you want to purchase a product

Case study

Subject 1

Website

Step Action Input Feedback

1

Search

for the

product

you

want

2

Choose

the

color

of the

phone

you

want

3

Add the

phone

you

want to

shoppin

g bag

4

Choose

your

phone

plan

5

Choose

your

shipping

method

6

Go to

check

out

7

Enter

your

shipping

address

8

Enter

the

payment

informa

tion

9

Review

the

details

and

place

the

order

Mobile App

Step Action Input feedback

1 Select

Products

2

Select

cell

phones

3

Select

desired

phone

4

Select

desired

phone

model

5

Select

phone to

customize

6 Customize

color

7 Click

“buy”

8 Click

“yes”

9

Click

“upgrade

your

phone”

Enter shipping and

payment info

USER 2

WEBSITE

Step Action Input Feedback

1

Search

for the

product

you

want

2

Choose

the

color

of the

phone

you

want

3

Add the

phone

you

want to

shoppin

g bag

4

Choose

your

phone

plan

5

Choose

your

shipping

method

6

Go to

check

out

7

Enter

your

shipping

address

8

Enter

the

payment

informa

tion

9

Review

the

details

and

place

the

order

MOBILE APP

Step Action Input feedback

1 Search desired

phone

2 Refine search

criteria

3 Select desired

phone

4 Click “buy”

5 Click “yes”

6 Click “upgrade

your phone”

Enter

shipping and

payment info

Preliminary Findings

Through our usability testing with two users using two methods of

completing a task, we found that using the website on a computer proved to be

more useful and provided the users with a faster and overall better experience.

The problem with the mobile application is that purchasing products is not

integrated into the application itself. In order for a transaction to be completed,

the user has to exit the mobile app and be redirected to their mobile device’s

default browser. This created a disconnect and made both of the users

dissatisfied.

Design Recommendations

The mobile app could definitely benefit from some design modifications.

The biggest one is creating a unified experience across the app. This would

include integrating the cart and the purchase page into the app itself instead of

redirecting users to their mobile web browser.

The website is a lot better than the app, but that doesn’t mean that it

couldn’t benefit from some minor changes. For example, the page that shows

all of the products if really cluttered. This is understandable because there are a

lot of products available, but if there was somehow a way to organize the

products into less cluttered sections on the website, this would be ideal.