1. + Usability Test Results: HarrisTeeter.com Samantha Tempchin 1

2. + HarrisTeeter.com: Functions Purpose: To make shopping at HT attractive to both existing and potential customers. To make shopping at HT more convenient by making specials, coupons, and promotions available online. Major Functions Tested: Manage e-VIC coupons Browse weekly sale items Major Functions Not tested: Store information (items, location, hours, etc.) Meal planning yourwellness (healthier eating advice, recipes, etc.) Online shopping Pharmacy 2

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4. + HarrisTeeter.com: Users Target Users: Adults who live near a HT store. Tested User Group: Existing store customers Goal: To save money when they go grocery shopping. Untested User Group: Potential store customers Goal: To determine where they should do their grocery shopping. 4

5. + Tasks Task 1 Check what e-VIC coupons are already on your card. Task 2 Add a coupon for Head & Shoulders shampoo to your card. Task 3 Find out which brand(s) of orange juice are on sale this week. *Additional information: Users were given a VIC login username and password to use if/when necessary. 5

6. + Users User A Female in 50s Mozilla Firefox on Windows XP Previously worked in grocery business. User B Male in 50s Mozilla Firefox on Windows XP Currently works in grocery business. User C Female in 50s First attempted to use Safari on iPad, but site did not run properly. Successful attempt was made in Google Chrome on Windows 7. 6

7. + Task 1: Check what e-VIC coupons are already on your card. User 1User 2User 3 Completion Time: 5:011:330:48 Notes: First clicked on large button that said “e-VIC” which was an ad about how to join the program. Used side navigation to “e-VIC coupons” which gave instructions of how to add coupons, but only by using HT email link. Logged in after clicking “Join e-VIC today” User actually completed task after 4:05 but took another 0:56 to decide that she’d come to the right place. Clicked on login page first, but also looked at “Promotions” before actually logging in. Once he found coupons, couldn’t immediately tell which page was all of the coupons and which page was just his coupons. Found “My HT Login” link right away. Took one of the most direct possible routes to find the correct page. 7

8. + Task 2: Add a coupon for Head & Shoulders shampoo to your card. User 1User 2User 3 Completion Time: 2:153:000:44 Notes: Tried to use main site search bar to find “Head & Shoulders” but search did not initiate. Went back to saved coupons page to verify she had successfully added coupon. Navigated to coupons by a different path than in last task & was surprised that the coupon page looked different (new top navigation bar and loss of left side navigation bar from home screen & first coupons page). Was confused that long list of coupons seemed to be labeled “My Saved Coupons”. After finding shampoo, went back to saved coupons page to verify he had successfully added coupon. Knew immediately how to get back to screen w/ all coupons (remembered where it was from Task 1). Frustrated that coupons weren’t arranged by category and she had to scroll through such a long list to find what she wanted. Went back to saved coupons page to verify she had successfully added coupon. 8

9. + Task 3: Find out which brand(s) of orange juice are on sale this week. User 1User 2User 3 Completion Time: 4:072:521:50 Notes: Tried to use “Quick Add” bar in “My Shopping List” section as a search bar to find an orange juice special. Once she found drop-down, knew immediately that OJ would be under Dairy, but also checked beverages, produce, and frozen sections to be sure she didn’t miss any. Found “All Specials” section immediately. Clicked previous and next several times before noticing drop- down menu with category labels. Again frustrated that there was not an obvious way to browse by category—main page of specials was a grab bag of items from different departments. Once she found drop-down, was unsure where orange juice would be. Checked beverages, dairy, and frozen sections. 9

10. + Task Completion Times 10

11. + Results Positive Points All users were eventually able to complete all tasks. Deals are grouped into 2 major categories (coupons and specials) that grocery store patrons are able to easily distinguish. A lot of information is available once you know where to look. Issues Navigation links are smaller and less colorful than everything else on site—MAJOR. Page/section titles are inadequate (too small or missing)—MAJOR Users can access coupons from 2 different locations that look similar but are not exactly the same—Minor Instructions are separate from the actual interface—Minor 11

12. + Recommendation: Make Navigation Easier! Most of the site’s major issues come down to poor navigation. Sometimes there are no tools available to speed up navigation, and sometimes when tools are available, they are not obvious to the user. Ways to fix this: Essential functions should be within 1-2 clicks. Categorization should be apparent. Pages should be labeled consistently, obviously, and correctly. 12

13. + Navigation: 1. Essential Functions First, if you’re looking for a place to manage your e-VIC coupons, where is the first place your eye would be drawn to? 13

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15. + 15 Here? or here?

16. + Navigation: 1. Essential Functions You can eventually get to your e-VIC coupons by clicking on the big red button that says “e-VIC”, but it takes several more clicks and a lot more reading than clicking on the small text link that says “My HT Login”. The link to log in needs to be more obvious, and it needs to be more obvious that logging in is the way to access coupons. 16

17. + Navigation: 2. Categories When searching weekly specials, the first pages users are presented with are “My Specials” and “Best Deals,” which are a “grab bag” of products, not categorized in any way. It is not immediately clear that: More deals exist than the ones presented on this page. There is a way to categorize the items. 17

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20. + Navigation: 2. Categories The prev/next links & the drop-down menu are the only way to change categories OR even see what the categories are—so why are they so small? Even when users were using the prev/next links, they did not immediately notice the drop-down or realize what it was for. User 2 said he would not assume a drop-down menu was for navigation. User 3 was frustrated that the grocery categories were hidden in the drop-down instead of all displayed in something like a side bar (as they were on another grocery website she’d used). I would recommend a side bar for navigation that automatically displays all of the categories, without the user needing to click anything. 20

21. + Navigation: 3. Labeling Consistent, clear, and correct labels will cut down on navigation confusion and make it clear to users that they have found the right page. For example, sometimes the coupons page looks like this: 21

22. + Navigation: 3. Labeling But sometimes it looks like this: 22

23. + Navigation: 3. Labeling It is a problem that there are 2 similar, but not identical, interfaces through which the user interacts with coupons, depending on how they navigated to the coupons. Interface 1 is labeled more clearly than interface 2. However, it is more likely that users would be pushed to interface 2, since that is also the interface for looking at weekly specials. Interface 2 has very misleading green buttons that say “My Saved Coupons” on the all coupons page and “All Coupons” on the saved coupons page. These buttons look like labels, but they are actually navigation— clicking on them brings the user to the opposite page. There is no actual label of what page you’re on, only what page you can go to. The most likely way users will determine what page they’re on is by noticing that one page has >90 coupons on it while the other has <10, and inferring that the smaller number indicates their coupons while the larger number is all coupons. 23

24. + Navigation: 3. Labeling I would recommend: Eliminating interface 1. Even though it is clearer and easier to use than interface 2, there should be only one place to interact with coupons. Since interface 2 is tied to the weekly special functions as well, it will need to stay. Improving interface 2 by: Adding page labels Making the navigation links text rather than buttons, so they do not get confused with page labels. 24

25. + Conclusions The site contains good information that is eventually accessible and useable. However, navigation needs to be majorly streamlined and beautified to make the user experience less laborious and more convenient. Further testing should be done on mobile phone/tablet use. Many of their target users use tablets as their primary computing device, and mobile access is essential to improve convenience. User 3 was unable to use HT site via mobile web on iPad. HT has a mobile app, but it was outside the scope of this project to test apps. 25