User Study

Overview

Summary: The purpose of this user study is to test the usability of Fooducate app by finishing several tasks and use the result to generate recommendations for improved interface design. During the study, the user W was given four tasks to finish on the Fooducate app. There was also an observer(me) sitting next to her and taking down notes.

Background of Fooducate App: Lose weight and keep it off! Fooducate is a healthy weight loss and calorie counter that allows users to track their calories, macros, and workouts and help them get motivation from the most supportive community in the world.(GooglePlay)

Background of User: User W, female, 25, is a first-year international graduate student majoring in Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She did not have experience in using calorie tracker before the user study.[1][2]

Report

Task 1: "Please set up your Fooducate account"[3]

Procedure: After W downloaded the app, she started from filling out her information and she answered all the sections without skipping. She answered Yes to the question "Are you currently trying to lose weight?", and then typed in her target weight, current weight, and height. Since W is not familiar with ft/in, she spent some time on units conversion on Google. She complained that she had to delete the numbers manually for feet and inch rather than just delete them together. She was also confused about the options for gender(GAL and GUY) that she did not know what GAL means. After she entered her birthday, she answered "somewhat active" to the question "How active are you?". Then she signed up with her email and finished the task. [4]

Observer Note: The first task took a longer time and I think this is understandable because as a new user, W needs time to set everything up. I was a little surprised when W was not sure about GAL and GUY because she has been staying in the US for years[7], but I think this reflects a problem. According to our lecture, the second rule in Heuristic Analysis is match between system and the real world that the system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user and follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order[9]. It is obvious that GAL and GUY are not formal and common expressions for genders. Another thing that shows Fooducate does not match very well between system and real world is that they only provide one option for unit of measurement.

Task 2: "Find a cookie recipe that takes 30 minutes or less to make"[3]

Procedure: After clicking on Community and Diet Tips tabs, W clicked on Recipes tab and the first recipe on the page was "No Bake Breakfast Cookies" which takes 5 minutes to finish.[4]

Observer Note: This task was finished in a super short time because the cookie recipe W was looking for was the first recipe that appeared on the page. And with the important information such as cooking time, number of serving, and calories under the picture, users can easily find the recipes that match their needs without actually click on them. I think this shows great efficiency of use[9]. Also, when I tried to find another recipe at night(the user study was conducted in the morning), I found that recipes were updated and that cookie recipe was not on the top of the page any more. I think this shows that Fooducate has an active community of users.

Task 3: "Add your breakfast, lunch, or dinner of the day to the food tracker"[3]

Procedure: The user study was conducted in the morning, so W decided to add her breakfast(an apple and a banana) to the food tracker. After she spent some time finding the adding icon to add items, she clicked on "+" and explored a little bit on Add Food page. Next, she searched apple and scrolled down for a while and went back to the search box and added "gala" after apple. Then she added Apple, Gala, Large with serving of 1 into her tracker as a snack. And she did the same thing to Banana, Medium. [4]

Observer Note: I found several things that were interesting and surprising.[5][7] First, W spent a long time finding the adding function which was pretty obvious to me. But I think this was probably because the "+" is a little small and it is placed at the bottom of the homepage.[8]Second, I found there isn't much information about size or weight of an item, for example, how large is a large gala apple and how we can definite if a banana is a medium banana. Third, W did not add apple and banana as breakfast[6] and Fooducate automatically marked them as snacks. I think this was probably because W didn't notice that she could actually select meal.[8] I think that function would be more visible if there are more graphics.

Task 4: "Find an alternative to the food item that you scanned"[3]

Procedure: W bought a bag of chips before finishing this task. She first tried scanning the whole bag, and after nothing happened she scanned the bar code on the package. To our surprise[7], this item was not in Fooducate's database and the app asked W if she wanted to help them out by taking 3 pictures: 1.Product front of package; 2. Nutrition label; 3. Ingredients. After W finished taking 3 pictures, the app directed her to an email sending page with subject "Please Add 0720495923775 to Fooducate [Product Image, Nutrition, Ingredients]"At the end, W didn't really send that email to Fooducate.[6][4]

Observer Note: This is a super surprising task because it technically failed but we got a chance to explore more about the app.[7] W didn't successfully find an alternative to the chips she scanned[6], but she learned how to help Fooducate add a food item into their database.[4] One problem that I observed is that W first tried to scan the whole bag, and scanned the bar code since nothing happened. I think this is probably because 1. the shape of the scanning box is a square, I think it is somehow misleading than a rectangle box; 2. Fooducate doesn't provide any tooltip about what should be scanned even though the icon for Food Finder tab in the navigation bar is a bar code[8]. According to Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design[9], a good design should help users prevent errors, and help users recognize rather than recall. That would be great if Fooducate could make the scan box a rectangular and add some instructions such as "Please scan the bar code of your food item".

Redesign Speculations[10]

• Allow users to use their preferred units of measurement.
• Change the current expressions of genders to more formal and common ones such as female and male.
• Add auto-complete or suggestions for searching.
• Provide more information about a food item(size, weight, etc.)
• Make meal selecting function more visible.
• Make scan box in rectangular rather than square.
• Add instructions on Find Food page such as "Please scan the bar code of your food item".