i did a quick usability test on the initial use of the web UI... detailed notes & quotes at the bottom
CONCLUSIONS I got this much in a quick, partial test - there's plenty more to learn - a straight-out-of-the-box test is needed. A poweruser will have problems but they can figure them out; the UI badly needs attention for the consumer market. I saw clear evidence of the denguru reviewer's difficulty in starting out with playing songs. The UI is based on how the tech works; it needs to be based on what the user wants to achieve. RECOMMENDATIONS A big link for new users on slimdevices.com home page An initial wizard in the slimserver web interface - tests all configs are ok - informs user about scanning process and gives a status (refreshed automatically) - tells user what to do next (ideally leads them through core actions like creating a playlist) - optionally, walks user through some basic settings - explain how the server will run whenever the computer is running; you can close window; etc Re-tag the Play and Add icon buttons in the lists to make them less confusing and hard to understand Make clickable links look clickable Give better indication of where you are in albums/artists/etc Rationalise the settings pages & make them fit in a window, etc etc (lots to do here) Add a Random button to the player UI that plays a random selection from the playlist (or change the default setting...?) The sbox UI should read "Press right to select Slimserver" not "Select slimserver" Try a UI closer to itunes, with a list of playlists on the left and an easy browsing area on the right. TEST SET-UP The guinea-pig is in their mid-20s, plays music extensively from an ipod, has a BSc in Computer Systems and works as an account manager in a technical company; has never used a squeezebox or slimserver but knows what they do and understands the underlying concepts. I physically set up a squeezebox 2; the user had a computer with itunes and a library of mp3s. RESULTS I told the user to "go to slimdevices.com and install the slimserver" User went to slim home page; couldn't find the slimserver; went to support tab and found download button. Installed slimserver easily and selected location of music files ok [user is familiar with windows installers]. Used Start button > all progs > slimserver to bring up slimserver browser. User paused here - not sure what to do - then saw "still scanning" text: "i need to wait. Does the size of the folder matter?" [Note that this page doesn't refresh itself, so you wouldn't know when scanning had stopped] "i have no idea what to do now" - user looking at the slimserver home page. [the squeezebox which i'd set up earlier was stuck at "can't find slimserver"] user clicked Help > Getting started and slowly figured out how to get the squeezebox to find the slimserver: "is that the right right button?" [on the remote control] back to the slimserver UI: user clicked the current playlist's Download button to get something to happen. Then clicked Browse Albums, drilled all the way down to a song page (left pane), and clicked "Play" on the Music Player (right pane) - no effect - then "play this song" link on the song page On the song page: "How do i get back to my album?" Clicked on the genre listed on the song page and got a long list of albums User then held mouse over play and add icons next to the albums: "What does this button do?" - figured out first that the add button "saves the song for later on the playlist" and play button "plays the song just for now". With some experimentation, user figured out the difference. User then tried to stack up some songs to play. After some clicking around: "i can have all album or none at all", "they're individual songs, oh no just albums", "you can only select individual tracks if you go to albums, not artists", "That's really strange". User finally realised that "unless i hover over an album i don't know it's a link, it just looks like text like all the rest" "That's a bit crap" when saw track names had track numbers added in front [the default setting] "Do you think random and shuffle are different?" - user wants to play random songs from the play list all night but figured out by experimenting that Shuffle just loops the same track order. I told user "There is a setting for this" - user found Player Settings, searched (didn't like scrolling down the settings pages). "If you told me there was a setting i'd tell you you were lying". Finally tried Server Settings, then tried Behaviour and found the setting quickly. "There should be a random button on the player" "I don't know difference between server and player settings" [from someone who project-manages server installations for small businesses] "will the music stop when i close the window?" [from someone who knows what a Windows Service is] i asked whether the user preferred the slim UI or itunes: itunes, because you have a list of playlists and you simply drag and drop the tunes into it; browsing the tunes is easy ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
