Usability Evaluation

iMovie

Author: Monica Tasmin

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Content

Introduction …………………………………………………………………….. 3

Analysis of The System ………………………………………………………. 4

Persona Template ………………………………………………………….……… 4

Re-Designed Interface ……………………………………………………………. 5

Usability Description & Testing ……………………….………………….……… 7

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………..……12

Reference ………………………………………………………………………13

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 Introduction
In designing a web-based or mobile-based application, a developer should truly focus on
di erent sorts of things that are xated on potential users. Along these lines, usability is one of the
most crucial things that should be taken into account. The features should not confuse the users,
otherwise, it will users time to gure out the function of a particular function/feature. Accordingly,
the user interface of the application ought to be not di cult to use. This report will focus more on
Mobile Application Evaluation. We will focus on one of the most popular editing applications,
which is iMovie.

Something can be said to be useful properly if the failure in its use can be eliminated or
minimized as well as providing bene ts and satisfaction to the user. If an application has followed
this principle, it means that the application has implemented Usability.

iMovie is one of the default editing apps from Apple which is quite intuitive and o ers
editing functions and video e ects for a variety of uses and home videos These functions can be
used for simple editing purposes or as part of setting up a nal video project. This application is a
video editor that was created exclusively for Apple devices, which is compatible with Mac OS and
iOS devices. Therefore, it can be accessed by both mobile and computers.

This report will discuss the evaluation of mobile applications, using iMovie as material for
this evaluation. Usability testing is a method used to evaluate the user experience of a product,
be it on the website or application (A airs).Various aspects of this application will be tested based
on usability which will be discussed further in this report. Eventually, the results of the testing
performed will also be presented. A Usability Evaluation will also be carried out. The focus of the
assessment will be on how well users can learn about and use the product to achieve their goals
(Usability Evaluation, 2021). In this case, Personas will be the consumers, as will be addressed
further in this report.

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Analysis of The System
Persona Template

1. Bright Vachirawit

Name: Bright Vachirawit

Age: 22

Occupation: IT Support; Rookie Tech YouTuber and Volga

Devices used: iPhone 12 Pro, MacBook Pro Retina 2019 Touch-bar

(Rakyathaluu,2021)

Background:

• Bright just made a career move from IT Support to Tech reviewer and tutor YouTuber. He
was starting with his main interests and passions about reviewing, testing, and analyzing
new technologies. Therefore, Bright just started his career on his YouTube channel. In
addition, he just bought a new iPhone 12 Pro.
• He was looking over his new phone and he saw iMovie there. In addition, he has never had
prior experiences with devices with iOS.
• Bright was planning to be a Tech YouTuber. In order to attract potential audiences, he
needs to keep updated about the new technologies. Bright did some research and
according to an article found by him that was published by ZDNet toward the end of 2020
Apple products are the most used devices (Kingsley-Hughes, 2020).
• Therefore, he needs to adapt to Apple Operating System quickly, therefore he won’t lose
ground to other Tech YouTubers. One of the things he needs to learn is to use iMovie
features because he also plans to make editing tutorials on his YouTube Channel.
• He wants to be able to do the editing on his phone and MacBook. But, he's going to do
most of the editing on his phone since his MacBook has limited storage.

• Bright read a blog named TrustRadius. It was stated that iMovie was scored 8.5 out of 10
(TrustRadius). It sums up that the vast majority were happy with this application. Yet, most
people feel unsatis ed with some features that require prior learning -they need to get
used to this application.

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 Goals:

• Bright’s main goal is to get acquainted in no time with iMovie (how to edit simple videos,
explore advanced features, importing, exporting)
• Create high-quality and presentable videos for his YouTube channel
• He wants to be able to do most of the editing with his ‘common sense’ -meaning, it
doesn’t require prior learning about the editing materials

Re-Designed Interface

Details:
1.Better User Experience- Rotate the screen to make edits in
horizontal mode. This will give the user a better experience as
editing in vertical mode prohibits the user from viewing all the
features.

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 2.Create editing categories- Add to make new video edits, and
Current project to edit existing projects.

3.Redo feature- In the workspace, we can only

see the Undo feature. To make it more consistent
and helpful with editing, the Redo feature is better
to be provided.

4.More realistic and distinguished icons-

using icons that are di erent from each other
and using 2D images - so that the user will
not misrepresent a feature.

5.Adding a tutorial feature- this must be very

useful for assisting new users in editing videos

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 Usability Description & Testing
An overview
In general, the iMovie interface is made quite simple and uses neutral colors. It also appears that
the iMovie interface is quite plain as shown in this image:

When we open iMovie for the rst time, we'll see the Project section only.
Here, we can conclude that the User Interface presented is somewhat quite
simple and plain. On the other hand, the good thing is to tell the user directly
what will happen when they click the (+) button (this will take them to the
editing interface)

In this report, we'll base the evaluation of the system (iMovie) on some general interaction design
concepts developed by Jakob Nielsen, a web usability consultant and human–computer
interaction researcher, (Nielsen Norman Group 2020).

1. Visibility of system status: The user should be able to know what is going to happen next
after performing a particular action and determine the next action taken by them. There will be
appropriate feedbacks provided to the users. The controls are nice and clear, therefore users
know what each control does.

• Bright is going to start to do his editing. He also tries to save a demo project. These are some
things that he found during the editing process:

(+) The actions taken by the user are described quite clearly. One of the best examples is, when
the users nished selecting what images/videos are they going to use, the users will get a pop up
‘Creating Movie’ feedback - meaning, the system has successfully compiled the chosen media to
the workspace. (screenshots taken by Author)

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 (+) The other similar good feedbacks is when the users have successfully uploaded their videos
to their libraries

(+) It gives the users Error Messages if the application fails to save the project and tells the users
what to do.In this case, Bright tries to share his project on his MacBook and nds this message
useful for him.

•However, there are some things that he found confusing during

the editing process. He needs to get used to the system in order to do things right, such as:

(-) There is no status bar in the workspace will inform users of what they have done, what actions
they have taken recently, or where they are right now. Since there is no status bar anywhere, users
must recall where they are working right now and what action they just took.

(-) There is no sidebar informing to indicate which feature the user is currently using. Unlike
iMovie for MacBook, it has the advantage of this visibility.

(Side-bar in iMovie for MacBook that iPhones don’t have)

- In short, Bright nds it handy to be noti ed that he has successfully done something correctly or
if something went wrong. However, as a new user, he needs more guidance on what he has done
and the e ect on the current state. The sidebar should also be shown rather than hiding them in
the (+) button
2. User control and freedom: Enables users to do some actions such undo their previous
action if they wish not to do a particular action, cancel, skip, and redo.

• During editing, Bright wanted to explore the features available, and here is a list of features that
will allow he to perform as many actions as he wants:

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(+) Users are able to undo their previous action if they happen to delete some media by clicking
this back button

There’s also cancel button to go back to the previous page

(+) Users are able to go to the previous section of the media without scrolling the entire media by
just clicking the back button

(-) Users are not able to go to the next section of the media without scrolling the entire media by
just clicking the back button, unlike ones in iMovie for MacBook

• However, there are some features that he found missing that hinders him to perform several
actions, such as:
(-) There is no Redo button
(-) The Voice-over feature is quite hidden. New users might not be able to nd this function.

• In conclusion, iMovie has general editing features which help it make edits. However, there are
some lack of features that could be added and should be shown more clearly.

3. Aesthetic and minimalist design: The design and look should be minimalist; there should not
be any irrelevant features. The icons of each tool should also be relevant to the actions
performed by them
• After getting used to editing using this application, Bright felt that iMovie's visuals were quite
appealing.
(+) The theme of this application is common (uses Dark-mode). The color scheme used are Black,
white, and Blue
(+) The icons used in this application are mostly easy to understand. Therefore, it won’t confuse
the users
(+) The font and size are consistent, not too big, and the colors are complementary and do not
contrast with the background.

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 • However, he had di culties in understanding what some feature does because the icons are not
being made distinctly. This makes him unsure about what will happen if he pressed them.
(-). Some people may have di culty understanding what some icons do and what will happen if
they press them.
1. The Ken Burns icon does not really give users hint on what this feature does

2. These symbols look pretty-much the same. He understands what each feature does, but he
once overlooked Moments. He instead clicked the Albums

•In conclusion, he nd the visual appealing. However, they

might want to use 3D or more realistic icons for that. As we can see, the "Moments" icon
resembles the "Albums" icon.

4. Consistency and standards: The interface should have standard and consistent formats that
o er the same functions.
• Since Bright is still a new user, he needs to get acquainted with this application quickly.
(+) The main features are grouped together in a (+) button -meaning, users can add the media by
using the (+) button.

By clicking this (+) button, a group of media will be shown, and the user can add whatever they
want. It should be easy for him to add media to his video.

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 •However, he thinks that he needs to be guided to do certain actions
since he has no idea about some features, such as:
(-) In iMovie, there are several uncommon terminologies that must be
understood before using the program. Take, for instance, Ken Burns. People who are new to this
application might want to do some research before using this function.

In conclusion, this application has standard editing features that should be easy to understand by
its users. However, there are some uncommon naming for some features that require research
before using this application. It would be handy to give tutorial/demo videos for some categories.
In addition, since iMovie for iPhone is one of the applications developed by Apple, to
support this research, there are some Usability Guidelines for Mobile Application
recommended by Apple Developer (developer.apple.com, 2021)

1. The content layout must t the device screen: To fully display the tab, the user does not
need to scroll horizontally. It has been designed compactly.

2. Hit Targets: The gap between one control and the next should not be too close, so that the
user can correctly click the target button and not the wrong one.

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RESULT:
• In short, iMovie has a user-friendly interface for beginners. In this case, our Persona, Bright, is
able to edit simple videos for his start-up video. However, he nds that it may take some time to
become familiar with the application, but this application has a clear ow. The video creation
process, from choosing the desired video type (Trailer or movie) to saving and uploading,
follows a logical and uni ed structure. However, since it is a mobile version of iMovie, it can lack
certain functionality as compared to the Mac version.
• The usability that was taken from 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design by Nielsen
Norman Group, it helps to evaluate the application. An application might seem ‘ awless’ and
perfect, but as we examine each part of it, there are some features and functionality that could
be improved for better usability. For example, the (+) button should be useful to add media. But
it would be better to make the (+) clearer -more description on what this button does, and what
can you do by accessing this button

Conclusion
iMovie is a video editing application that can produce stunning Hollywood-style trailers
and 4K resolution movies. (iMovie, 2021). In editing videos, besides being required skill and
creativity, a good and quality application will also determine the nal result of video editing. In the
process of editing our video persona, he was happy with this application. Yet, he feels unsatis ed
with some features that require prior learning -they need to get used to this application. Making
some tutorial videos of it to help people understand this application better. In short, this
application needs to make more “general” names for their features, therefore it will ease the users
to use them.

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 Reference
- Kingsley-Hughes, A. (27 December 2020). Hardware 2.0: Most used gadgets on 2020. ZDNet.
accessed 30 April 2021.
- A airs, A., (n.d.). Usability Testing, Usability.gov. accessed 8 May 2021.
- The Interaction Design Foundation. 2021. Usability Evaluation. The Interaction Design
Foundation, accessed 8 May 2021.
- Nielsen Norman Group. (15 November 2020). 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface
Design, Nielsen Norman Group. accessed 30 April 2021.
- developer.apple.com. (2021). UI Design Dos and Don’ts - Apple Developer. accessed 30 April
2021.
- Interaction Design Foundation (2018). What is User Interface (UI) Design? Interaction Design
Foundation, accessed 25 April 2021.
- iMovie, n.d, accessed 30 April 2021.
- Apple (Latin America). 2021. iMovie. Apple, accessed 5 May 2021.
- McCarthy, C., (4 December 2021). Start with Great Video, Then Personalize It With iMovie.
[Blog] TrustRadius, accessed 5 May 2021.
- Rakyathaluu, (March 2021). Bright pas foto edit. [Pinterest post], accessed 7 May 2021.

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