1. Locate other books by a specific author. Delores just finished reading a Janet Evanovich novel and wants to know if there are more books by the same novelist. From the main page she types “Evanovich” and receives a list of other books.
2. Use a gift certificate towards a purchase. Dexter wants to purchase a gift certificate for a friend. After scanning the main page for any information, he decides to click on the “help” link at the top. He is given a list of topics to choose from, none of which address gift certificates. He gives up and chooses another online retailer.
3. Compare prices for a used book. Peggy enters the book title in the search box on the main page. She notices the “sort by” drop down menu at the top of her results, and changes “Top-Selling” to “Price.”
4. Try to obtain a refund for a bad order. Jimmie Dean received a used book a month late and in poor condition. He first scrolls down the main page and sees “money back guarantee” in the left column. He follows the four-step process described on this page.
5. Locate an out-of-print book. Ned wants to find a first edition copy of John Crowley’s Little, Big. He goes to the Alibris homepage and clicks on the “books” tab, and then realizes that the books tab is the same as the homepage. He clicks “rare books” under the books tab, types “Little, Big” in the search box, and clicks on the button “first edition.” He sees that his search resulted in 500 titles, and the first page of results do not include Little, Big. He sees that the search box offers to narrow the search by author. He types “Crowley, John” and clicks the search button. This time he gets the results he was looking for.
Washington State Department of Transporation — Summary page
1. Check for pass conditions. Nate wants to go to Yakima for the weekend. At the WSDOT homepage, he sees “Snoqualmie Pass” in a Most Requested box near the top left of the page. This takes him directly to a page listing pass conditions and a live camera of the pass.
2. Look for information on nearby construction project. Nelly wants to find out how long the construction will last near his house in Everett. He clicks on “Project” in the global navigation bar, and then clicks on the interactive map of Washington State. He then scrolls down a list of projects to “I-5, Everett” to find an update on the current construction project.
3. Find weekend ferry times. Mal want to go to Friday Harbor from Anacortes. He scrolls down the main page to find a Ferries category. He clicks on “Schedules” and then sees a link for “Anacortes/San Juan Islands.”
4. Learn about proposals regarding a potential project. Lief wants to learn more about potential changes to the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Just before he clicks on “Projects” in the navigation bar, he sees a Projects category farther down the page. One of the links in this category is the Alaskan Way Vidaduct.
5. Get an update on traffic. Preston is leaving downtown for Kirkland. He wants to know how bad the traffic is over the 520 bridge. From the main page, he clicks on “Traffic & Roads” in the navigation bar. On an interactive map of the state, he moves a box over the Seattle area and clicks. He receives a close up map of the area — including the 520 bridge — that shows there is no traffic by way of color-coded lines.
Blitzen Trapper — Summary page
1. Find a nearby location where the band is performing. Carissa hears about Blitzen Trapper from a friend, and goes to the Website to see if the band is coming to her town. A list of upcoming shows are featured on the main page.
2. Learn how to buy tickets at that location. Carissa sees that the band is playing in her town. She clicks on the name of the venue, but realizes that it is not a link. She then has to leave the site and find the venue website through a search engine.
3. Find out if there is any new material coming out. Carissa wants to know if any new songs will be released. She looks for “news” or “updates” in the navigation at the top, but settles for “Records.” She then clicks on a Myspace link, hoping for more information.
4. Find biographical information for a specific band member. Carissa thinks the lead singer is dreamy and wants to learn more about him. She clicks on the “About” link on the main page, to find a short paragraph on the the entire band. She sees a link “Who is this clan of which you speak” and upon clicking it performs a google search for Blitzen Trapper.
5. Leave a message for the band. She wants to leave a message for the lead singer. She clicks on “Contact” and receives a list of promotional agents and management. Again, she is directed to Myspace to leave a message.
1. Leave a comment on a friend’s page. Taylor notices that her coworker has been listening to Milli Vanilli. On the person’s profile page, Taylor types a snarky message in the “Shoutbox” on the right side of the page and posts the message.
2. Check for free mp3 downloads. Taylor’s coworker tells her that she can download mp3s from the site. At the main page, she sees “Download” in the navigation bar, but this takes her to a page on downloading the Last.fm widget software. She eventually realized that she could search for downloadable mp3s on specific artists’ pages, but could not simply search all available mp3 in one list.
3. Write in the forums about the latest pop star in rehab. Wes is passionate about the latest news regarding his favorite artist and wants to share her opinions on the matter. On the main page, he clicks “Users” because it seemed the most appropriate. He then clicks on the forums folder and then clicks on General Discussion. He then clicks the “Start a new thread” button.
4. Find users with similar tastes in music. Taylor decides to join a Radiohead group. Under “Users” she clicks on Group and types in Radiohead. She is given a list of dozens of Radiohead groups, but no information on the size of the group or other specifics. She clicks through a handful of groups and then makes a decision.
5. Watch a music video. Wes is looking for a specific video. From the main page (Users) he clicks on “Videos” and receives a handful of recommended videos, but no video search capability. He decides to search by artist first, and chooses the video option from within the artist’s page.
1. Find a video preview of an upcoming movie. Jack wants to see a trailer for “The Bourne Ultimatum.” At the main page, he enters the title in the search box, and receives a list of results, from video games to soundtracks. He sees the movie and selects “video” underneath the title. He then clicks “trailer.”
2. Read a review of last night’s episode of Lost. Meg selects the “Reviews” link in the left column, and sees a long list of items from every medium, organized by date. She decides to click “Title” and reorganizes the list alphabetically. She then scrolls down to “L” and finds the review.
3. Look for release dates for upcoming video games. Jack wants to see what games are coming out in March. He scans the lists in the left sidebar but sees no appropriate choice. He then scrolls down the main page and finds an upcoming releases category, but only sees titles coming out next week. He clicks on the title but discovers it is not a link. He decides to search by platform title, clicking on PS3, and sees a “Release Dates” link in the sidebar.
4. Write a blog post. Jack had created a blog page a month ago and wants to write a post. from the main page he looks for a “Blog” link in the top bar, and then sees the MY BLOG link under the login box.
5. Read liveblogs from industry events. Meg wans to get the latest update from Bill Gates’ keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show. She sees a thumbnail picture of Bill in the scrolling image box in the center of the page. He clicks on the thumbnail, which puts the image in the main viewing window. She clicks it again. and is sent to a CES hub page. She then clicks on a Bill Gates keynote liveblog link.
February 12, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I have quickly learned how important the Washington DOT site can be and was thoroughly impressed when I used it often over Thanksgiving break. There is a lot of data on there and for the most part, it is pretty accessible. The pass information is so crucial when embarking on a journey this time of year and they seem to do a good job making it available.
February 12, 2008 at 7:30 pm
In task number 5 for the Alibris site and task 1 for IGN I noticed that both searches did not pull up the information the user was searching for right away. At Alibris the search had to be performed with different search criteria and on IGN the user had to scroll through the results to find the video.
It seems as if Google has perfected the search, I am curious to know if these sites use a Google powered search or if they created their own search function. If they created their own, it might be helpful for them to create a list of user hints such as “search by author last name, first name” or “search by media type, media name” so the user would get better results and would prevent user frustration.