Usability Testing
Paper-Prototypes and Sitemaps
The first sprint to include usability testing will commence with testing of both a sitemap and a low-fidelity paper-prototype of the application in order to assess content and page hierarchy and user flow based on basic functions such as navigating between pages and locating important buttons and commands.
Low-Fidelity Testing
The second sprint will include low-fidelity usability testing where we intend on testing our layout based on our results from sprint one of usability testing by creating wireframes. We will further test the user flow and and medium to test complicated functions such as doing advanced searches, adding favorites and linking social media.
High-Fidelity Testing
The third sprint will include a more complete design and aesthetic design than our low-fidelity phase where major aspects and pages of the website should be functionable with back-end application related coding still in progress. We intend on using users in our target demographic that were already tested in the low-fidelity prototype and new users, in order to better understand our remaining design errors and user-frustrations.
Beta Testing
Beta Testing will be sprint four and the final phase of our usability testing. For this phase we intend on having a full yet preliminary version of the website/application ready. The testing group will be a mixture of professional testers and volunteer users as we will make it open for testing in order to help with marketing and generate interest. Furthermore, it will help us to get a better idea of how different users interact with the application and their frustrations if there are any. Additionally, we will continue to iterate our website as our main goal is to always work on improving the website.