Usability Testing: Nuovo

Description:

Nuovo is an app designed to reimagine the news-reading experience by breaking people out of their individualistic habits and placing meaningful discussions at the forefront of everyday interactions. Today, we set out to test the core assumptions of our platform through usability tests, aiming to understand how users interpret and engage with the news-sharing, social aspects, and chat features of Nuovo in its initial implementation. We’re also keen to gain insights into how users navigate and utilize the app’s customizable features to tailor their news consumption experience. Our interactive prototype will provide a window into user behaviors, revealing the most promising aspects of Nuovo that resonate with our target audience and areas that may require refinement. These valuable insights will guide us in creating an app that not only informs but also fosters meaningful connections and discussions around the news that matters most to our users. In an era where staying well-informed is more crucial than ever, Nuovo aims to make the process of consuming and engaging with news not only easy but also enjoyable and socially rewarding.

Usability Testing Script

Hey we are the Naked Mole Rats, we are looking to get feedback on a socialized news app we are developing. We have a prototype of one of the ideas to show you in its early stages to get your initial impressions and we will give you some tasks to try out. As we go through the task I want to encourage you to think out loud, and if anything is confusing or you don’t like it, don’t hesitate to let me know. I didn’t design this product, so you won’t hurt my feelings. My only goal today is to get your feedback on what does and doesn’t work for you.

Can we get your permission to record this interview?

Before we begin going through the prototype, we would love to ask some background questions in order to help us understand you better as you walk through our demo.

Background Questions:

• What is your social life on campus?
• How often do you read the news?
• Why do you read the news?
• What do you like about reading the news? 
• How often do you randomly send things to your friends?
• Do you discuss the news with your friends? If so, how often?
• What do you like to read for enjoyment?

Scenarios and Prompts:

Today we want to focus in on three main tasks:

1. Navigate the different articles at your disposal and read through content that you find interesting.
   1. Imagine that you were interested in what other people were reading, how would you go about doing so?
   2. If you were too busy to read an article at a given time, what might you do?
   3. Let’s say you wanted to check in on some articles that you had saved for later. What would be your instinct about how to do so?
   4. Let’s say that you just wanted to get the gist of what an article was about. How would you do so?
   5. What kind of things can you learn about what other people are reading?
   6. How might knowing what and how other people are reading make you feel?
2. Share an article with a friend and chat about it.
   1. Suppose you wanted to share an article with a friend, how might you go about doing so?
   2. Imagine a friend had sent you an article via this application. You check to see what they are reading and open it up for the first time. What are your initial impressions?
   3. Imagine if you wanted to chat with a friend about something. How might you go about doing so?
   4. How might you want to engage with something that someone had sent you?
   5. In what other ways do you see yourself engaging with others on this platform?
3. Change your preferences about how you like to enjoy the news. 
   1. How might you think to learn about your news reading profile?
   2. Imagine that you wanted to change your daily digest routine, how would you go about doing so?
   3. If you wanted to change your “subscription” how might you think to do so?
   4. Let’s say you wanted to change your profile photo. What would be your instinct about how to do so?
   5. Does the separation of the profile and settings pages make sense to you?

Closing:

We would like to thank you for taking the time to engage with this prototype demonstration with our team. You are one of the first people to ever see our application and your feedback is absolutely critical to the future direction of our platform. Whether you know it or not, your time today has been extremely valuable in helping us understand our own work better. Before we end, we would love to ask a few follow-up questions about your experience.

Follow-Up Questions:

• Can you please describe your initial impressions of the application?
• Based off of the initial description, how did the app compare with what you were expecting?
• What were the most intriguing features that you engaged with?
• Can you describe a point during the demo where you found yourself acutely frustrated?
• Was there anything that you found surprising about the app?
• What were some things that you found intuitive about the experience?
• How might this compare to your current reading experience?
• What are some things that you would change about the current experience?
• Would you recommend this app to a friend or family member?

Final Remarks:

That’s all for today! We want to thank you again for taking the time to walk through this experience with us. We hope that this was as fun for you as it was for us. If it is alright with you, we would love to keep in touch as we continue making progress on our app. As a reminder, this is just the very beginning of what we are trying to accomplish. We cannot wait to show you what is next!

Prototype Link