[https://www.bose.

com/explore/music-at-home] Test

[Palmer Peyer]

[September 22, 2023]

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 1
 Introduction
I am running my usability test in Bose’s website. Within their website, they
offer a comprehensive selection of premium audio products, catering to a
diverse range of audio needs. Bose provides top-tier audio solutions, whether
it is home audio systems, headphones, or earbuds. The website also features
an array of accessories, that they ensure are easy to find and explore catering
to their needs. The purpose of this usability test is to find out if that
statement is true.

Executive Summary:
This test took place at my home in Gwinnett County around 5pm. I conducted
this test with one participant. My purpose in conducting this test was to find
out the usability of this website for this participant. We focused on how
efficient the process was, even for a user who has never researched within
Bose’s page. As well, I wanted to gauge the user’s experience within the
website. This is something a business should be very intentional with. It gives
the business an opportunity to have returning customers if the experience
was positive. The participant found that they were able to complete the first
task. In this task, the user found noise cancelling headphones for a price
under $200 and took it to the checkout until they were prompted to enter
card information. The user was very interested in the “look” of the website
with the design elements that were used, however there were some points
that identified some minor problems:

- When exploring the work page, the user found that it was difficult to
locate products amongst all of the graphics and interactions within the
page.
- It was difficult for the user to sort through the pricing given the task that
they had. The pricing was difficult to sort through, or to find options within
many price ranges.

This test lasted 9 minutes and was not necessarily completed based on the
task. Within the two tasks that the user was given, only the second task was
able to be completed. We found that the first task was not able to be
completed based on the price range. However, the user was able to find the
products based on the categories that were presented within the website. The
participant was pleased once she found the sections that all of the products
were sorted in. One suggestion she had, was to make the “work” and “sport”
sections more organized, as she had difficulty navigating those sections.

Methodology
Sessions
Participant: I asked my mom, Deanna to be the participant in this usability
test. I thought that she would be a good candidate, as she usually has trouble
navigating websites to buy product on. We had a short discussion on what a
usability test is, and the purpose of it. She understood why she took part in it,
as she was testing how easy it was to “use” the website as stated in the name

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 2
 of the test. I asked her some general questions to clarify the information I
had generalized about her experience with online platforms. We discussed
how mnay hours she spends online, what kind of online sites she has explored
before, her favorite sites, and the general question if she had explored Bose’s
website prior. After reviewing the website here is some feedback that was
given to me:

- There are a lot of graphics.

- Navigation isn’t easy to locate.
- Feels busy.
- Difficult to understand content with everything going on within the page.

After the user took a look at the website, and played around for a little bit, I
presented the two tasks that were created for this usability task. After this task was
completed, I asked the user to rate the overall satisfaction with the experience on a
1-5 scale, 1 being unsatisfied, and 5 being satisfied.

After this discussion, we then discussed the second scenario. The same scaled
question was asked, to determine satisfaction, and how easy the website was to use.

Evaluation Tasks/Scenarios

For this usability task, I created two scenarios that I presented. These two
scenarios stated:

1. Find a pair of noise cancelling headphones that can be used in a noisy

workplace that are listed under $200.
2. Find a gift for someone who already has a pair of headphones but loves
technology. Keep the gift priced under $150.

Task #1:
- Locate a pair of noise cancelling headphones under the price of $200.
- Add this item to cart.

For the second scenario that I presented to the user, I asked them to
“Find a gift for someone who already has a pair of headphones but loves
technology. Keep the gift priced under $150.”

Task #2:
- Locate a gift that is not a pair of headphones, that is also listed under
$150.
- Add this item to cart.
Participants:
Demographics:
Age: 49
Gender: Female
Hours Online: 3 Hours online for unrelated tasks to work.
Browsing behavior- Finding products to use within job on Amazon, recently looking
to purchase Christmas pajamas.
Visited Bose’s website before- Has not visited before the test was conducted.
Favorite Websites: Amazon.com, Target.com

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 3
 We performed this test on September 22, 2023 around 5pm.

Results
The participant was able to find products for task #1, but not necessarily
complete the task. We determined that this task was unable to be completed due
to the pricing, instead of the website experience. I would give this task a 90%
completion rate.

For task two that the user completed, there was 100% completion rate. This user
took about 3 minutes to search and find a gift for someone who already has
headphones and within the price range. It took longer than the other task to
navigate, as there wasn’t a specific product she was searching for. She was able
to locate a micro-Bluetooth speaker that was on sale for $94.

Task Completion Rates

Participant Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6

1 √ - √ - √ -

2 √ - √ √ √ -

3 √ √ √ √ √ -

4 √ √ √ √ √ -

5 √ - - - √ -

6 √ - - √ √ -

Success 7 2 5 4 6 0

Completion
100% 29% 71% 57% 86% 0%
Rates

Task Ratings
After the completion of each task, participants rated the ease or difficult of
completing the task.

Ease of Use:
• Easy able to find the tab to which a product was found.
• Able to track the location I was on, I did not get lost.
• Each title was named in a simple way that was not overcomplicated.

The 5-point rating scale ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly

agree).

As well the user was asked three scaled questions that helped to determine
her overall satisfaction when she was completing the tasks that were given to
her.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 4
 • How satisfied were you with the website’s interface?
• How satisfied were you with the layout of the tabs within the page?
• How satisfied were you with the time it took you to complete your
task?

Ease in Finding Information

The participant found it easy to complete the task, despite having difficult
with the price point given to her. She said that is the task was altered a little
bit, that she would have a very easy time locating what she needed to shop
within the site. She gave a ‘4’ for her first task and a ‘5’ for her second task.
Overall, the participant was satisfied with her experience in using the site.

Time on Task
The first task took approximately 5 minutes, as she was finding it difficult to
find a product within her price range based on the task. Because of this, she
wasn’t able to streamline down to one tab, but was searching all around the
site. The second task was completed in roughly 4 minutes. She successfully
completed the task. The total time spent between both tasks were a total of 9
minutes.

Task #1:
- Locate a pair of noise cancelling headphones under the price of $200.
- Add this item to cart.

For the second scenario that I presented to the user, I asked them to
“Find a gift for someone who already has a pair of headphones but loves
technology. Keep the gift priced under $150.”

Task #2:
- Locate a gift that is not a pair of headphones, that is also listed under
$150.
- Add this item to cart.

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 Avg. TOT*
Task 1 65 95 61 310 210 71 50 123.1

Task 2 130 370 50 200 110 55 390 186.4

Task 3 20 215 15 80 120 30 35 73.6

Task 4 150 65 55 150 180 67 240 129.6

Task 5 43 127 29 60 79 30 115 69.0

Task 6 146 110 120 465 130 175 325 210.1

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 5
 Overall Metrics

The two metrics that were observed within this usability test were:
- Overall ease of use
- Overall Satisfaction

When we reviewed the questions to observe these two metrics, she rated task one as
a ‘4’ and tasks two as a ‘5’. Overall, she had great satisfaction.

Overall Ratings

Post-Task Overall Questionnaire

Strongly Strongly Mean Percent

Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree Rating Agree

Thought Website
1 12 3.9 92%
was easy to use
Would use website
2 6 5 4.2 85%
frequently
Found it difficult to
keep track of
3 6 3 1 2.1 8%
where they were in
website
Thought most
people would learn
5 8 3.6 62%
to use website
quickly
Can get
1 2 8 2 3.9 77%
information quickly
Homepage’s
content makes me
1 5 2 5 3.9 54%
want to explore
site
Site’s content
would keep me 2 6 5 4.2 85%
coming back
Website is well
5 6 2 3.8 62%
organized
*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

Liked Most
“ I liked that the website involved many creative elements.”

Liked Least
“ I did not enjoy the process it took to find products that were not in a
“specific category”

Recommendations for Improvement

“If I were to recommend something, I would say to make their website less
busy, it may make it easier for users to operate in.”

Recommendations
The recommendations section provides recommended changes and
justifications driven by the participant success rate, behaviors, and

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 6
 comments. Each recommendation includes a severity rating. The following
recommendations will improve the overall ease of use and address the areas
where participants experienced problems or found the interface/information
architecture unclear.

Change Justification Severity

• Tone down all of the imagery Participant spent a lot of time sorting through all Low
that is presented within of the graphics to find particular products that
the website. she was looking for.
Participant acknowledged that while there were
products located in “categories” they were often
hard to find based on the clutter within the
website.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the user was very satisfied with the overall experience that she
had. As stated in the introduction, Bose prides themselves in their usability of
their website. They share that they want to make their buying processes
seamless for their customers. Being the one to conduct this usability report, I
feel that we fulfilled the task that was assigned. We received good feedback
for those who may have a different outlook on the website than others may
have. I think that the time spent completing the tasks were very doable
based on the traffic that the user spends within the site, this being very low. I
believe that by tracking the usability of a site within a large range of
customers, it can provide some very valuable information that can increase
the traffic to the website, just by implementing some small changes.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201 7