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Measuring User Experience: Motorola RAZR2 Cross-Carrier Evaluation
Overview
With the advent of all four carriers carrying the Motorola RAZR2, it provided an opportunity to closely review the UIs of each carrier while keeping the hardware variable as constant as you could hope for. As part of a usability evaluation, I conducted a heuristic evaluation on each of the four handsets. When compared to the usability studies performed by other members of the team, analysis showed that I was able to identify approximately 80% of the commonly experienced usability issues. Identifying other CDMA v. GSM trends across the handsets was also part of my review.
Research Design
The research project in total included:
- Heuristic evaluation on each of the 4 handsets. Rather than conduct a complete evaluation, the handsets were evaluated mainly on the tasks that were to be included in the usability studies. Other aspects of the handsets were also evaluated, including the information architecture. The purpose of the evaluation was three fold:
- Understand what types of measures and or behaviors to keep track of during usability testing, other than those considered standard
- Compare the impact of the usability issues on each handset
- Continue to validate the heuristic evaluation method and process
- Usability testing on each of the 4 handsets
- Data synthesis. The research team reported on the user behavior and usability issues. My work included determining what parts of the design were likely causing the usability and user experience issues, and in the case of Sprint, to provide recommendations for improving the UI.
Accomplishments
- Results showed that heuristic evaluation scored the handsets in the same order as the usability study participants (between groups design). An example of the results of the evaluation are shown here with their data altered from the actual findings.
- One particular finding indicates that while Verizon made several claims about the improvement of it's wireless web , both the heuristic evaluation and usability study indicated clear difficulties with the Verizon web experience.
Building on That
As the capstone of the project, we met with the Sprint Motorola team to review the findings and pass along redesign recommendations.
Skills
- Heuristic evaluation
- Identifying behaviors and measures important to track during usability testing
- Data synthesis: Translating usability issues into likely reasons for the issue
- Team collaboration on larger projects
- Work independently
- Presenting to large groups
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