User Experience
We need help doing user experience testing! This means users testing our software, observing what does and doesn't work for them, and recording that.
If you're here to help (HOORAY!) go to the testing instance set up by Caleb Davis: http://omgmg.dyndns.org:6543/ [EDIT: This link has been down since 2011 something]
Sign up for an account*, add some pictures** and play around. Take some notes and then either set up an account on this wiki and add your thoughts to this page or email them to press@mediagoblin.org. Please include your operating system and what browser you're using.
* Your email validation link may be in your spam folder!
** NOTHING ON THIS INSTANCE IS PERMANENT. This is for user experience testing only... your pics will be wiped!
You'll be able to give us the best feedback if you don't look at anyone else's notes before you start. Thanks for helping us with usability!! We really appreciate it!
User notes go in this section
From Jenny on Google Chrome 13.0.782.220 in Mac OSX 10.6.8
- login ok, uploading file ok.
- can enter profile description but it doesn't seem to show up anywhere?
- no crash after attemping to upload a non-image and then uploading a real image (jpg)
- uploaded a sideways image and there is no way to rotate it.
From Jenny on Safari 5.1 in Mac OSX 10.6.8
- login ok, uploading ok
- same problem with profile description - it's filled in but doesn't appear in the profile.
- everything seems to work ok.
From Deb using Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx (Netbook remix version on an Aspire One) with Firefox version 3.6.18 for Ubuntu on 9.8.2011
- could still use a little note explaining how tags work
- submission is easy
- seems odd that I can't add a picture of myself to my profile on a picture site
- will people be able to search by pic tags? or search for users?
- will people be able to group pics into albums?
- maybe we could have something that is more obviously a dashboard than clicking on the username
From Jenny on Google Chrome 14.0.835.124 beta-m in Windows XP Professional
- Log in ok, comments ok, deleting files works now.
- Profile info only shows up if the website is filled in.
- Adding a .bmp crashes chrome.
- Other image types seem to work - tif, gif, png, jpg.
- Adding other non-images give a message that it is not an image (txt, pdf, mdi).
- The <- -> buttons say 'Temporary button holder' beneath them.
- The .tif image doesn't display when browsing individual photos, just in the overall view.
From Jenny on IE7 in Windows XP Professional
- Log in ok, comments ok, editing and deleting ok, uploading ok.
- Display - the profile website runs into the photos. The photos line up exactly with no space between them. Everything is top-justified rather than centered.
- The tif image doesn't display on the page for that image (where you can comment on it) - it does display on all other pages though.
- The save changes button is cut off so you only see the letters 'SAVE CHA'.
- The "Profile Edited" or "Posted Comment" comment dialog box displays over the username and logout buttons, as does the <- -> arrows. These also say 'Temporary button holder' which seems wrong.
Past notes
Are here, http://wiki.mediagoblin.org/User_Experience_Past_Notes
General thoughts on running a user experience test
Could someone with experience with this fill in info here? ;)
I (Jan-Christoph Borchardt) write a thesis at the moment on Coordinating low-cost usability testing in independent free & open source software projects
There are many small tips and recipes on how to do your own testing. Especially look into the Methods part.
Please let me know if you have any other experiences with testing, I intend on regularly updating that document and release the full version freely licensed once it’s done as well as some kind of a quick start guide.