Introduction
Maintaining friendships after college can be challenging as people transition into new environments, careers, and lifestyles. Our app is designed to help post-graduates stay connected with their friends by visualizing relationships as plants that need care and attention. Each plant represents a friendship, and its health reflects how frequently users interact with that friend. Through Tend, users can add new friendships (plants), check on the health and needs of each plant, and log interactions to nurture their relationships. For our usability test, we aim to evaluate how intuitive the process of adding a new friend (plant), checking the plant’s health and needs, and logging interactions is for new users. By observing participants’ interactions and gathering feedback, we hope to refine our interface and ensure Tend effectively encourages meaningful social connections beyond the structured college experience.
Usability Testing Script
Introduction
Hi, [participant’s name]. My name is [your name], and I’ll be walking you through this usability session today.
Before we begin, I want to emphasize that we are testing the app, not you. There are no right or wrong answers, and you can’t do anything wrong here. We’re just trying to see how people interact with the app so we can improve it.
As you use the app, please try to think out loud—tell us what you’re looking at, what you’re trying to do, and what you expect to happen. Your feedback is incredibly valuable, and we want to hear your honest thoughts.
If you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask. I may not be able to answer them right away because we’re interested in seeing how users naturally navigate the app. But I’ll be happy to discuss them afterward.
With your permission, we’d like to record this session for internal review. The recording will only be used to help us improve the app and will not be shared outside our team.
(Hand participant the recording permission form to sign, if applicable.)
Background Questions
Before we dive in, I’d like to ask you a few quick questions:
- What’s your occupation?
- How do you usually stay in touch with friends outside of work or school?
- Do you use any apps or tools to help you maintain friendships?
- How do you feel about maintaining friendships after leaving a structured environment like college?
Usability Tasks
I’ll now ask you to complete a few tasks. Please do these as you naturally would, and remember to think out loud.
Task 1: Add a New Plant for a Friend
- Imagine you want to stay connected with a new friend. Try adding a plant that represents them.
- Set a reminder for how often you’d like to stay in touch.
- Adjust any filters or preferences for this friendship.
Follow-up Questions:
- How easy or difficult was it to add a plant?
- What did you expect to happen at each step?
- Were there any parts that confused you?
Task 2: Check Plant Health & Needs
- Navigate to your garden and check the status of your plants.
- Find a plant that needs attention and interpret what it means.
- Identify any cues or indicators that help you understand what the plant needs.
Follow-up Questions:
- How easy was it to understand the status of your friendships?
- What do you think the app is encouraging you to do?
- Did the plant health indicators make sense?
Task 3: Log an Encounter with a Friend
- Imagine you just caught up with a friend. Try logging this encounter in the app.
- Notice how this updates the plant’s status.
Follow-up Questions:
- How did you expect to log an encounter?
- Did the plant update in a way that made sense to you?
- What could make this process clearer?
Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts
We’re almost done! Here are a few final questions:
- Overall, how would you describe your experience using this app?
- What did you like most?
- What was the most confusing part?
- Would you use this app in real life? Why or why not?
- Do you have any suggestions to improve the app?
(Thank the participant and stop recording.)
Clickable Prototype Link Here
