An independent, informational website about herbal teas. The site provides reliable and comprehensive information about herbal teas: what they are, types of teas, health benefits, how to choose, brew, places to purchase, etc.
The project showcases the process from concept to interactive prototype to a coded website, including a UX testing plan and results.
Primary target audience is people between ages 30-50, yoga and healthful lifestyle oriented. They are interested in learning about alternatives to regular coffee and tea.
Secondary audience is people 30-50 who are encountering various health issues as they get older, and are looking for ways to supplement their medical diets with healthy drinks, and bring in variety.
Desktop website, tablet and mobile phone
This site provides some information on different brands of herbal tea. There is a bit of information on botanicals and tea FAQs. However, this site is selling the tea, and there is no information on why they chose one particular brand over another. The user is not sure how reliable the quality of tea is, and there aren’t any customer reviews.
This is just one particular brand’s website, but it contains a lot of useful information about their own teas. They make tea fun by informing the user well about what their tea is all about, and integrating recipes for iced tea, and even selling sipware, and more.
A beautifully designed site (but also for just one particular brand of tea) that has abundance of information on all their teas, steeping process, pairing notes, tasting notes, etc. They also sell tea related products like sipware and things to add to tea. The site is "spacious" and well organized.
Last week someone told Samantha about Green Rooibos tea. She has never heard about it before, and apparently it has numerous health benefits. She goes on Herbal Central site to learn more about this type of tea.
Today Jason visits Herbal Central site to look for something that will help him boost his energy, as he is in a caffeine withdrawal.
Samantha likes Herbal Central, and has been using it for a few weeks now. She notices there is no information on a certain rare tea she is interested in. Since she trusts the site, she wants to contact them about possibly adding this information. She goes to the Contact page to submit an inquiry.
The main tasks that the website prototype was designed to support are:
With that in mind, I decided to focus on two major usability goals:
The sessions will be completed with 3 participants total, in 3 separate one-on-one sessions.
For each question, please check one box that applies.
The testing will have 3 participants. The site prototype will be tested on an Android phone (Pixel) and a Desktop computer. First impressions, demographic data, satisfaction assessment and suggestions for improvement will be collected via questions, tasks, and a questionnaire.
There will be one facilitator, myself. I will also be taking notes. After the brief introduction and an ice-breaker, I will ask the participants to carry out the “first impression“ part of the testing. We will then proceed to the task completion. After the tasks, I will ask them to fill out a brief electronic questionnaire form.
The testing will have 3 participants. They were recruited from the pool of friends and family, due to budget constraints. Since most of my friends and family love tea, it wasn’t hard to find ones that fit the personas from my market research.
A single female in her early 30s, who is a yoga instructor. She loves herbal teas and is always interested in learning about new types of teas. She is also interested in having a website to refer her students to.
A male in his early 30s, working in the tech industry, mid to high income. He has a wife and a young child. He is a power Internet user, and is always busy with work. The participant has been recently looking for ways to reduce caffeine in his diet. He is decisive, and doesn’t plan to spend too much time browsing the net for this type of information.
A female in her 50s who loves doing yoga. She has recently been required to go on a medical diet that excludes caffeine. She is interested in learning more about herbal teas.
A completion rate of 100% has been achieved for every task, which meets the established goal of 100%.
100% critical error-free rate - meets the established goal of 100%
90% non-critical error rate - exceeds the established goal of 80%
12 seconds was the average task completion rate, ranging from 10 seconds to 20 seconds. One of the participants had only limited experience in using the web, the second one was an average proficiency user, and the third was a power user.
Will be summarized in the questionnaire results.
Participants were all asked to take an initial look at the Home page and tell what the site was about, and what tasks they could perform.
While participants got an idea that the site was about teas, they were not sure what the site was exactly about, without having to go to the About page.
The tasks that they thought they could perform on the site were as follows:
Summary: Overall, participants had no difficulty recognizing the brand and the purpose of the site in general. However, they struggled with understanding what teas exactly it was about, and what kind of information it provided, just from looking at the Home page. It was not immediately clear where they were exactly.
Improvements will be suggested.
This task was completed error-free, completion rate 100%. All participants were able to navigate to the Teas page and view the gallery, using the main navigation menu. Average time spent on task was 10 seconds.
Summary: Overall, this was an easy task, and all users completed it efficiently.
The task was completed error-free, completion rate 100%. Average time spent on task was 10 seconds (including some reading to make sure this is the right page).
One participant had mild difficulties with finding the information, because the details page didn’t display a lot of content, so they weren’t sure if there was a different content page available with more information.
Summary: Despite the 100% completion rate, this task uncovered a potential problematic area. Improvements will be suggested.
The task was completed error-free, completion rate 100%. Average time spent on task was 15 seconds.
This task revealed a concern. While the details page displayed the information regarding the tea brand, there were no links to where the tea could be purchased. Participants expressed the need for that information.
Summary: Despite the 100% completion rate, this task uncovered some potential problematic areas with information availability. Improvements will be suggested.
The task was completed error-free, completion rate 100%. Average time spent on task was 20 seconds.
All participants were able to find the Contact page with ease. However, they were initially looking for a special feature for that - maybe a “Request to Add Tea” item in the navigation menu. The contact page didn’t state that the form can be used for that particular purpose.
Summary: Despite the 100% completion rate, this task uncovered some potential problematic areas with information availability. Improvements will be suggested.
Based on the task completion data, and the questionnaire, here are some improvements that would take the site from good to, hopefully, great:
On Details page for each tea, add more information, such as links to sellers, photos of the tea in dry and brewed form, add tasting and paring notes, and recipes.
Improve Home page by adding a tagline that will clarify, at a glance, that the site provides information about herbal teas. Make “Start Exploring“ button red.
On Contact page, on form button, change “Contact“ to “Submit“.
