Micro-usability TestScript

Micro-Usability Test Script

Preamble

Hi, my name is Sabina,

Thank you for coming. How do you do today? Today we want you to help understand how well the
Doodle.com website offers solutions that save time and effort to find schedules for meetings. This
helps avoid overlapping reservations, and synchronizes calendar appointments automatically. So, we
would like you to do a few tasks using the web and collect your feedback. I'd like to know specifically
what you think about the site, and what works and doesn't work for you. Your suggestions will help
me write a report to improve the features of the site. There are a few things I would like you to
learn before we continue. We're checking the software in the first place but not you. There is
nothing wrong which you can do. This is really why we bring you here today to let us know which
part of the site is not doing a good job. I'm going to tell you what things to do using this website.
Please try to focus on the tasks after you start but I can ask you a couple of questions during the
study. You can also ask me questions, but I may not be able to answer them all, because we are
trying to see what people are doing when there is nobody

As we go along, I'm going to ask you to think aloud, so you're communicating all of your thoughts
while using the app, for example: what you're looking at, what you're trying to do, what you're doing
and thinking, why you're doing and thinking that way. If you can't find a way to complete a task and
believe you're stuck, let me know and you can move on to the next one. Once you think you're
done, tell me “I'm done” for every job that you're asked to do.

Do you have any questions for me before we get started?

Task 1

https://doodle.com/poll/ye76aah6f75fcukg
I'm taking an online course and want to set up a study group meeting at a Second Cup coffee shop
with some other learners in the course. Recently a friend told me that Doodle.com is a perfect way
to set up group meetings, saying "it's much more effective than sending back and forth a bunch of
emails." I visited Doodle.com and was using it to find a time my study group could meet. Here are a
few details regarding setting up the meeting:
• I chose Second Cup Coffee shop at F/11 Markaz
• The email addresses of the other participants are
• muhammadnouman@gmail.com
• ammarasarfraz@gmail.com
• sabinamalik@gmail.com
• The meeting take place on Monday
• The meeting will take place between 5pm and 8pm in the evening.
• If it is possible to do so on Doodle, allow participants to indicate whether a
particular time is good, bad, or acceptable but not preferred.

After scheduling, I received an email to participate in the poll. By filling it out, the available time
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to meet was Monday between 6 to 7 p.m.

Task 2

After the poll was sent out, I received an email inviting people to take part in the poll. I indicated I
would be available ALL of the times, except for:
• Wednesdays I am only available 5-6 (not 6-8)
• I would prefer not to meet onTuesdays, but would be willing to do so if no other
times work for others

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Task 3

After few days has passed, finally I found my meeting times and days:
Monday 6-7p.m
Thursday 7-8p.m
Debrief

I shared the screen with the participants after setting the meeting time, yet I didn't find them
confused or not understanding anything but they really liked the meeting place and timing and were
happy to take part in the meeting. Therefore, I didn't take much of my time and I started with
informal questions first by asking if they are doing well and how is their experience by participating in
the meeting that was organized for them on weekdays and whether it was feasible or not. Of which,
I have received positive feedback, it seems they really want these forms of online meetings to be
held in order to get sound facts, these kinds of activities need to be performed.
Furthermore, I delve deep down the topic by asking more specific questions:

• What is your overall impression of Doodle?

This is an excellent tool for individual and group meeting scheduling (First Participant)
A big time-saver when scheduling meetings (Second Participant)
• Do you think that Doodle would be useful for you, personally? Why or why not?
Arranging / scheduling meetings, appointments and activities can be extremely difficult when involving
multiple individuals. But the brilliant thing about Doodle is it does you the hard work! Here's what I
love the most and how it benefited me personally:-Within a matter of a few moments, you can
create an options poll or meet-time open. I can quickly send a link to teammates, who can access the
poll quickly and easily and start selecting the times that work. What's more, they can see other
chosen times too, and I feel like they're more willing to cooperate. This removes endless text or
email chains going on, and on…until we finally come to the conclusion that there is never a good
time for everyone to get together (after one day wasted). It's totally Free. I couldn't believe it. I'd
think they could make money from this fantastic software with user fees, but no, it's free! It's
intuitive and fairly simple. There aren't many whistles and bells but that's fine. You don't have to have
advanced features. First time usage is easy. It is not exceedingly complex. Once answers come in,
you are told and eventually you get to monitor the timing of the meeting. This is somewhat random,
but the meeting points can be very specific. Would you like to meet by 12:02? Definitely fine. Want
to conclude a meeting at 9:07 am... Doodle are going to do that too. Can link to or access your
contacts via Gmail-fabulous feature! (First Participant)

• If no: who do you think it would be useful for? Why?

In a way, the poll is restricted as options, and if you suggest several dates and times over several
weeks or months, the poll becomes a little complicated and time consuming to construct. (Second
Participant)

• What do you like best about Doodle?

I still loved the simplicity of Doodle the most. I can easily set up a Doodle poll, either by e-mailing
participants or by copying and e-mailing a connection myself. It's simple to compare answers, and it's
user-friendly for participants and colleagues who are not as tech-savvy. (First Participant)

If I'm organizing a meeting, I like using Doodle (whether it's a party, a work event, or even a hangout
afterwork!). It is just as easy to give the connection to everyone with suggested times and they fill it
out, so we find the one where all or most people will attend, rather than going around and asking for
the availability of people that takes so much time and effort and is so inefficient. It also helps to
convert the times when the link is being sent to someone in an unbelievable different time zone.

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Doodle is just as quick and effective to use and I get an incentive to take the lead in coordinating
activities! (Second Participant)

• What do you think needs to be improved?

I think the user interface is pretty simple and may look a little better in terms of design, artwork and
colours. Occasionally, after I have put in my availability, I often find it quite difficult to search for a
case, imagine how chaotic it will be at the same time with lots of Doodles happening. I just wish I
could conveniently store these items in a more organized way, which is easier to find. (First
Participant)

I can't think of anything right now because Doodle does what's needed, maybe I'd suggest creating a
chrome plugin and better integrate it with Google's calendar. (Second Participant)

And finally, a few questions about the participant,to help interpret the results of the test.
• How often do you schedule meetings with other people?
Twice or thrice in a month. (Both the participants)
• How do you usually go about scheduling such meetings?
By sending emails (First Participant)

By calling a person (Second Participant)

• Have you ever used any sites or apps that you think are similar to Doodle?Which
ones, and how much experience have you had with them?
I create a routine whatever I do work on. Blocking times and keeping to the plan for specific
activities. I turn my calendar into blocks, and put those blocks into the activities. I typically use
Calendar App for this to monitor my tasks. But my experience by using the calender app isn't that
good, because it keeps me thinking about my meetings and plans and sometimes I get frustrated.
(First Participant)

Personally I'm a big fan of 30 minute meetings and 10 minute calls. I think 10-minute calls are a great
way to initially connect with someone, or give someone quick advice. If you want to see that person,
instead of just hearing them, you can do a Google Hangout or Skype. The reason the 10 minute calls
work is because people skip BS and get to the point. Give it a try. If you focus on ten minutes, then
it's really a lot of time. On Fridays, when I usually work from home, I'd rather make those calls I am
not happy with that, because on Fridays, the work gets all piled up. (Second Participant)

• How many hours per week would you estimate that you spend online?
10-12 hrs (First Participant)
12-24 hrs (Second Participant)
Wrap-Up
Thank you very much for participating!

Reporting
Basic Results
The overall test went well starting from creating poll to meeting the participants and sharing screen
with them. By moving from general to specific questions, I came to know that before using
Doodle.com, participants were all worked up and they couldn’t get time to complete their tasks in
time and even were unable to manage their time. By observing them made me understand that they
are not having any difficulty except making time for online meeting because they are not very much
prone to schedule meeting online. Mostly, they rely on phone calls or just waiting for emails’ reply
to set time for individual or group meetings. They were just surprised by the fact that it is that easy
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to schedule the meeting in working days of week and really want to do their work in weekdays by
managing all other tasks with it. They also found tasks easy to participate because of just natural go-
conservation and they felt like at ease to talk with them instead of making it more formal. The
questions I put were even very light and relevant to their real life experiences in dealing with the
tasks and providing them such platform is a good-to-go with. Therefore, my overall experience was
good and didn’t find any difficulty to meet the participants except some features of the site were
not free.

Findings and Recommendations

After having short interview, I found that the overall process of meeting went well as it was easy to
use and follow the instructions to start with and is best for the new participant to use the site and
they replied even with positiveness when asked the overall impression of Doodle, P1 found it a
great tool whereas, P2 considered it a timesaver. Moreover, on asking that what’s the best thing
they like about Doodle, P1 liked it because of its simplicity as the even the tech-savvy person can
easily use it and P2 replied that it is just so easy to use and successful that he gets an incentive to
take the lead in organizing activities.
Furthermore, the participants suggested that it can be improved although it is the best tool,
according to P1, occasionally finds it quite difficult to search for a case, imagine how chaotic it will
be at the same time with lots of Doodles happening. Whereas P2 suggested that perhaps he would
suggest that you create a chrome plugin and better integrate it with Google's calendar.
Therefore, they didn’t find anything in particular to be improved except the design, of which P1
suggested that the user interface is quite simple, and in terms of design, artwork and colors might
look a little better.

Self-Reflection
Doodle is a tool that makes scheduling effortless by providing solutions that save time and effort
required to find meeting schedules. It helps avoid conflicting bookings, and automatically
synchronizes calendar appointments. Doodle offers a variety of solutions that simplify the
appointment and scheduling process. There are many free services including a Doodle account,
Doodle mobile, MeetMe and Connect calendars.
Doodle Premium (ad-free) professional version offers theming possibilities and other premium
features for individuals, small-medium companies and large enterprises. Doodle Mobile allows users
to use their mobile devices to access information, and provides a bird-eye view of all polls. Doodle
Mobile also comes with a native iPhone and iPad app. The software allows directly from the
calendar interface to initiate and respond to meeting requests, while MeetMe is the primary contact
center where meetings can be easily coordinated and managed.
Those features motivated me to justify Doodle.com's benefits. I was interested in understanding
whether Doodle's usability is a major contributing factor to online meeting scheduling and
community discussions.
In designing my micro-usability check, I brainstormed five functions that addressed the site's most
basic and widely used features comprehensively: creating polling, inviting participants, sharing
available weekday meetings from Monday to Friday, sharing screen, interviewing 02 participants,
monitoring and providing input. I evaluated two people, one male and one female, first having no
idea of using Doodle and then getting involved to learn input from the users to share the results.
As a moderately active Doodle user, I anticipated that this usability test would be fairly simple and
straightforward for the average user.
First of all, I tested participants by presenting the platform and proceeded to read tasks for them to
work through the various scenarios. For this test, I had both of my subjects using their own laptops
to keep them comfortable with the computer they were using, and I also had them both launch the
test on their Gmail inbox. I still navigate to Doodle from my Gmail inbox and they tried to search
for this feature from their Gmail for the first task of adding a friend to a circle, and they checked
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the meeting hours they were available to meet and I was also available for them to meet and
discuss the items. In addition, we shared the screen and both participants found it easy to use
throughout the study but they needed to change the design. P2 was unable to connect for a very
small period of time due to poor internet connection that had been frustrating for some time. But
then we get to connect and share things that were necessary.
For the participants, the features completing the task of managing time to meet, selecting the area,
time zone, and team meeting were consistent process actions. However, after I've put in my
availability, I also find it quite difficult to look for an event, imagine how messy it will be with so
many Doodles going on simultaneously. I just wish there was an easier way for me to store all the
things in a more organized way, which is easier to find. In general, the ease of use and accessibility
of Doodle outweigh any bugs or lack of features. I can give the polls to many participants without
having to train them on how to respond. It's pretty intuitive, and it lets me collect input from a
large group of people inside and outside my company.
I intend to practice my script loudly before doing an actual test for my own success in potential
usability tests and make sure that the internet connection is good at the test location to limit the
number of external factors that could lead to the test's annoyance.

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