Working Title: Racket Sensei

Report Author: Sunny J. Kim

Date: 08/11/2010

Subjects: Three Seaside Rackets employees participated in pilot testing. Two testers, aged 62 (RF) and 67 (DO), primarily serve customers on the phone or in the store. Both wore their reading glasses during the test of the site. The remaining user (BC) is 39 and strings rackets. Only RF uses an office computer to ship orders during her shift. BC and DO work with retail customers.

Think Aloud Task: First I demonstrated the think aloud procedure while looking up the weight of the S-Fit 5 tennis racket on the Yonex website. I then asked each user to look through Racket Sensei to find the headsize of Elena Dementieva’s racket. The task required reading information on the Index page and either the Pros or the Rackets pages.

Summary of Think Aloud: Two of the users recognized Dementieva’s photo. BC identified her racket from the homepage. BC then quickly clicked ahead to the Rackets page to find the data on the Selection Guide. RF suggested that there was too much text on the Index page. DO was able to read the

Summary of Post-test Interviews: Each user disliked the grey font color of the text.  BC and RF wanted fewer words throughout the site. Each user had previously read the content on the Rackets page that was developed for an EDTEC 540 Job Aid. BC and RF felt that the printed Job Aid was easier to read and more accessible than the on-screen copy. BC and RF thought the FAQ page should display current specials with pictures of the monthly promotional items, starting in September 2010, so that employees could look up the best deals for retail racket purchases.

Findings to be Implemented:

As a result of the pilot test, l  made the following changes:
·      Changed body font color from light grey to black
·      Reduced amount of text on Index page
·      Removed FAQ page
·      Added a Specials page that describes f in-store promotions.

Findings that will not be Implemented:

DO’s request for heading-size body text will not be implemented. 

That the printed Job Aid is more readable does not mean that there should not also be a soft copy online.

Due to the costs of photo printing, the Job Aid (Racket Selection Guides) will become more costly to produce in paper format. Also, if the site is used by non-Seaside Rackets’ staff (e.g. customers researching rackets to buy), then web-based racket guides will be more efficient to maintain and easier to update.