Striver
Duration: 3 months, Oct-Dec 2019
My role: Product design, UX design, UI design, User research, User testing
Gostriver.com is a Physical Education scheme of work with over 250 PE lessons, all housed in a web-platform, designed for primary school PE teachers. It was first released in September 2019 by 2Simple Software.
Although newly launched with a promising offering, the product's sales did not reflect its potential, and bounce rates were high on the landing page. The objective of this project was to conduct a thorough usability test to identify any usability issues that may affect the performance of the key functionalities, and to recommend improvements and new features for the next phase of development.
Discover stage
Recruiting participants
The target audience, primary school teachers who taught PE, were recruited to do the user testing. 2Simple’s customers (who did not yet use this product) were recruited to participate in the testing. This also supported marketing the product.
Pilot tests were run to in improve the experience and accuracy of the test for the participants- these were immediate contacts (colleagues) who were available.
Testing environment and tools
Testing took place in a quiet room using an eye tracker. Some tests took place at the participants natural setting (their classroom, after class) and others in a third-party location.
Participants were asked to complete a profile questionnaire and a short interview at the beginning of the test. They were then asked to perform 5 tasks, giving immediate feedback on their interaction and then to complete a SUS questionnaire and post-test questionnaire for more specific insights.
An eye tracker was used for detailed insights.
The Common Industry Format for usability reporting was used in this study, which means the task success rate, time on task and number of errors and assists were recorded.
Eye tracker Analysis
The eye tracker results were analyses in detail. Key insights included:
The large and dense amounts of text affected users’ ability to focus
Certain colours affected the noticeability of text
The lack of definition between navigation was confusing for users
The space between elements made information harder to read
Define stage
Personas
The short interviews and profile questionnaires, combined with some existing data we had on our customers, provided insights into our target user demographic, and the information was translated into 3 core personas.
Hierarchical Task Analysis
Based on the information participants provided, a hierarchical task analysis was produced. This illustrates the journey the user would typically go through to plan, conduct, record, and analyse pupil performances. This identifies the touch-points where Striver would provide a solution and support users in reaching their goals. It also highlights areas that may require improvement or additional features to enhance the user experience.
User flow diagram
In the testing, all participants experienced navigational issues. A userflow diagram analysis was produced to gain a better overview of the website structure, which subsequently led to a redesign recommendation.
Summary of findings
All findings were analysed and summarised into a performance data document, per task completed. This included highlights of key observations, useful insights from the eye-tracking analysis, suggestions from the participant, CIF and SUS feedback results.
Redesign Recommendations
Details of the observation, interpretation, and recommendations were provided in a document, which were then reviewed with the product manager to prioritise areas to address.
Develop Stage
Wireframing
Considering the research findings, documented rationale with wireframes was produced to illustrate the suggested redesign recommendations.
High Fidelity Prototype
A high-fidelity prototype was created in Figma for a second round of user testing, using the online testing platform Maze, where participants were able to remotely complete the same tasks. The results validated the design and the file was later utilised for effective communication with developers to implement the design.