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Usability Testing

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

Friday, October 19, 2007
16 years ago4,138 views

I can't think of a better group of people to critique a site than the users of Blogoscoped's forums. So I asked Philipp if he would mind me posting about a site that I am releasing, and he said go ahead.

So, I was hoping that you guys would be willing to go to the following site and give me some reviews on usability. Looks are not as important (except as related to ease of use) because we are going to have a graphics designer polish it up soon since we know it is not very attractive, but comments on the aesthetics are welcome as well. The more you tell me, the better the site will do, so leave nothing out... Thank you soooooo much.

The site : http://www.thecellguru.com

Note : Since most of you guys are not in the US, we can't ship to you... sorry.... so you'll have to stop at the payment information page...

if you don't feel comfortable leaving a review here, you can email it to me at travis at the cell guru dot com.

Thanks again!

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Clicking on the logo after doing a search didn't take me back to the homepage.

Clicking on "Contact Us" didn't take me to a contact page...

I had an empty shopping cart but there was still an update button. Clicking it resulted in the error message "Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /var/www/html/Cart.php on line 58".

The gray area to the left looked like a tab on top, but I don't think it's a tab...

Some product names are all-caps making them harder to read.

The Checkout button on the shopping cart page is to the left, the Continue Shopping is at the right. I suggest using some symbols to differentiate the two and perhaps to switch their positioning. I associate Continue or Checkout with the right-hand position usually...

Anyway, good clean look, seems easy to use!

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

<<Clicking on the logo after doing a search didn't take me back to the homepage.>>
Since we have no real home page, and the site is customized to your phone should this just go to the full accessory list for your phone?

<<Clicking on "Contact Us" didn't take me to a contact page...>>
Whoops... Bug! Thank you! Fixed!

<<I had an empty shopping cart but there was still an update button. Clicking it resulted in the error message "Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /var/www/html/Cart.php on line 58".>>
wow.... a bad bug! Fixed... Thanks again

<<The gray area to the left looked like a tab on top, but I don't think it's a tab...>>
You are right... it was supposed to be stylistic... but if it may confuse users it is not worth it! I just made it a solid header for now. Does that work better?

<<Some product names are all-caps making them harder to read.>>
Yeah, that is horrible, and some are REALLY long. We pull the names from our supplier, and they said they will work on updating those. Thank you again! I could code something to change the case, but this could cause lots of inaccuracies :-/

<<The Checkout button on the shopping cart page is to the left, the Continue Shopping is at the right....perhaps... switch their positioning. I associate Continue or Checkout with the right-hand position usually...>>
Switched um, TY!

<<I suggest using some symbols to differentiate the two>>
We are horrible graphically, so we'll have to find someone to do this.

Philipp, I know I said Thank you already a ton... but I really appreciate this, so Thank you!

George R [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Why are HP and Hewlett-Packard listed separately?

Suresh S [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

My comments are below
http://www.thecellguru.com/index.php?mode=PhoneList&brand_id='

I f you provide single quote to the brand_id parameter it spits this error showing all sql queries.
  

Alexis Brion [PersonRank 1]

16 years ago #

Hi Travis,

In my opinion the most important issue is that is difficult to guess what the site is for until you start navigating it. I would change "Please select the manufacturer of your phone to continue browsing" for something more representative like "Please select the manufacturer of your phone to browse accessories".

I would also include a tag line bellow the logo to give an idea of what you are trying to sell.

Greetings,

Alexis Brion
www.designvsart.com/blog/

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

<<Why are HP and Hewlett-Packard listed separately?>>
Because we harvest our data from other sources. I will put code in to combine them. Thank you!

<<I f you provide single quote to the brand_id parameter it spits this error showing all sql queries.>>
Yeah, that is debug code. I will fix that one potential bug, and also will turn off all debug when the site goes fully live... Thank you!

<<In my opinion the most important issue is that is difficult to guess what the site is for until you start navigating it. I would change "Please select the manufacturer of your phone to continue browsing" for something more representative like "Please select the manufacturer of your phone to browse accessories".

I would also include a tag line bellow the logo to give an idea of what you are trying to sell. >>
Thank you.... this is great... as soon as you said this I felt like .... Duh :)
I'll try to get to this today too.

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

I just get code

Suresh S [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]James : How did u get the code??!!! :)

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

When I clicked on any of the above links, i just got code, didn't save it. It works now.

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

BTW I like the way the site works, very slick. But I don't like the actual style or logo,it's a bit...bare and the logo it kind of old-fashioned IMO. Sorry If I've offended anyone, but you asked for opinions.

Just my 2(euro)cents(or should that be cent?)

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

James,
   Yeah... we are working on it so you may get errors occasionally today. How would you improve the looks? Have enough time to put a mockup together?

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

<<Sorry If I've offended anyone, but you asked for opinions.>>
Good advice never offends me!

Thank you! ;)

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Well, lack of any money has prevented me from buying photoshop...though I still have it if you catch my drift, but I can't use it either so it's a waste of my hard drive:D

I just imagine more of a colourfull site, plenty of good ole Web 2.0 lime green. And bright blue. idk Just it's a bit plain and looks like a scam-site IMHO

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