The Testers
User #1:
Age 29, Human Resources Manager, Brooklyn native
Uses the web for mostly email (personal and work emails are always on)
User #2:
Age 32, female, Social Worker/Therapist, Brooklyn native
Uses the web for light email, most recently for vacation planning, general research
User #3:
Age 33, female, Social Sciences Researcher, PhD Candidate, Professor, new-ish to Brooklyn, by way of NJ and lots of other cities
Rarely uses the web. Uses it primarily for research
What I found
Question: Tell me what you make of this site? What is it? What do you think you can do here?
- The map was a familiar interface. All users wanted to zoom in. They felt the invitation was to explore.
- The first thing everyone noticed was the “add an event” button
- It’s a listing of events and where they are happening
- It’s exciting that they are all happening now or really soon; it felt dynamic
- It’s a social network
Question: It’s 4pm on a weekday. You’re at work and you can’t wait to leave because it’s beautiful outside. You don’t have any plans after work, and you’re not feeling like going straight home like you usually do. Your homegirl just texted you she was feeling the same way and asked if you wanted to hangout. You guys decide to see if there’s something fun or interesting to do after work. That’s not too far. You both work in midtown. See if you find anything interesting you’d want to check out and share this info with your friend.
- see below
Question: You and your sister haven’t seen each other in a while. You made plans to hang out today but didn’t really figure what you guys were going to do. You live in L.E.S. and she lives in the South Bronx. So you guys decide to meet in the middle: somewhere in upper manhattan. Find an event you guys could go to in the neighborhood you plan to meet.
- all users had no problem finding events
- wanted more info before clicking in
- wanted more data on events, like price, categories… and the ability to sort by these things
- everyone clicked on the “source” link and was satisfied that they could get more info there
- had problems getting to the home screen (couldn’t find or didn’t recognize the logo)
- sharing this info was a little clunky
Question: You love staying in the know of affordable fun in NYC. In fact, friends come to you asking if you know of things to do and resources to check. You have your list of sites you regularly check (TimeOut NY, nycgo, SummerStage, even obscure mailing lists). You found an event on another website and feel prompted to share it with the betherenyc visitors. Try adding an event to the site.
- everyone went to the home screen and clicked the button (almost in a chipper ‘yeah-i-know-exactly-where-to-begin-this’ kind of way)
- the prompt to login was unexpected, and confusing
- confused whether they already had an account or not (story was a little unclear here)
- ‘register’ link is tiny – no prompt or invitations around this form
- liked that the registration form was not complicated (no complex passwords)
- confused about having to change their password
- got stuck on this screen
- “I’m starting not to trust the site. I would probably leave at this point. I feel like they are trying to steal my credit card information.”
- on entering the event info, urlslug was not clear
- didn’t know the difference between urlslug and event info link
My Response
- I moved the footer (logo and menu) to the top of the page which is more conventional and less confusing
- I added teaser info to map popups
- Streamlined the event submission process with better prompts and labeling
- no login required for submitting an event. It’ll be more like a wiki
Still To Do
- add more local information like today’s weather and closest train station for events
- figure out a less login-like process for making sure they are real people and can be accounted
- add cost information