Graduate school

Formative Usability Report – Verizon

Overview

Our team of four researchers conducted a formative usability study of the verizonwireless.com mobile website. The site was tested to assess core customer interest areas including, Kids Plans, Verizon locations, Trade-ins, and International costs. To achieve this, We identify completion rates, pain points, and errors based on a series of tasks and questions. We provide actionable recommendations to improve the usability of the Verizon Wireless mobile website.

Date

March 2020

Client

Graduate school coursework

Role

Team members: Shad Pionek, Ricardo Garza, Demetrios Roumbos

Task

Powerpoint Layout, Executive Summary, Introduction, Findings, user interviews

Deliverables

Test Plan

Objectives
Stimuli
Participants
Procedure
Measures
Study Logistics

Moderator Guide

Script Introduction
Background Questions
Tasks
Follow-up Question
Notes
Consent Form

Screener

Contact Information
Research Objective
Recruitment Criteria & Quotas
Script for Screening
Questions
Time Availability

Final Report

Moderator Guide
Screener
Presentation
Any other information used

Methodology – Participants

N = 8

Gender: Mix

Ethnicity: Mix

Age: 18-51

Phone Provider: T-Mobile (4), Google Fi (1), AT&T(3)

Length of time with Phone carrier: 1 year – 17 years

Frequency of mobile phone usage for online browsing: Daily – Weekly

Frequency of checking mobile phone carrier site: Never – Monthly

Methodology – Materials

Mobile phone with Chrome browser
Verizon.com mobile site

Methodology – Procedure

Methodology:

30-minute task-based moderated usability study using a think-out-loud protocol
Within-subject testing

Qualitative Measures

Usability issues observed
User comments

Quantitative Measures

Success/fail
- Success – completion of task without assistance or encountering any critical issues
- Fail – failed to complete the task or incorrectly identified information
Ease-of-use ratings
- At the end of each task, users were asked to rate the ease of use for each task using a scale ranging from 1 = very difficult to 7 = Very easy.
Overall ease – of use rating
- After all 4 tasks, the user was asked to rate their overall experience using Verizon.com mobile site using a scale from 1 = Very difficult to 7 == Very easy.

Findings

Positive Findings

All participants who located the international plan page could correctly identify the cost of the plan. Participants also pointed out that the carousel was noticeable because of the arrow on the right and the line on the bottom

Task 1: Find the Price Kids Plan ($35)

Task Description: Your daughter is getting her first cell phone and you heard a few friends mention Verizon offers a service that allows parents to limit their children’s digital access. If you were interested in finding the cost of this service. How would you do that from here?

Severity: High

Finding: All of the participants found the “Price kids Plan” landing page but with difficulties. When it came to adding another line, participants had a hard time figuring out what to do. One participant got so frustrated, trying to find where to add another line that they eventually gave up.

Problem: 3 of 8 participants didn’t notice at first that they had to swipe the carousel to the last card to find the “Kids plan,” but eventually figured it out. 5 out of 8 failed to notice the quantity input button to add or subtract a service line.

“I knew how to get to the screen but couldn’t figure out how to change the number of service lines. I just gave up.”

Recommendation:

Add the “How many lines do you need?” quantity input button on the Just Kid plan card.
On the carousel (slider), make the Just Kids plan card be the first one the user sees on the Kids plan page. Then the user won’t have to scroll to the last card to find the Kids plan.