Live More Screen Less

Problem:

LiveMore ScreenLess is a non-profit organization that promotes balanced and intentional use of technology and social media for the digital wellbeing of young people. After interviewing with users on how they use the website, our findings reveal usability conflicts in navigational flow, visualization, and context of how the user experiences the website. 

My Task:

My task was to work in a team and evaluate LiveMore ScreenLess’s website to find what could be improved for better usability. This involves studying what the organization is about and who it serves in addition to how an interested user would find information. After researching the website, creating tasks for the user, and testing them in several Zoom call interviews, we procured findings and recommendations for LiveMore ScreenLess’s website.

Synopsis

 

Client: LiveMore ScreenLess

Role: UX Researcher

Goals:

  • Evaluate the usability of an existing design using a set of pre-defined success criteria

  • Propose relevant methods for evaluating designs/prototypes

  • Gain experience planning and facilitating in-person and remote usability tests

  • Synthesize research findings to identify meaningful insights

  • Visually present design recommendations that support key goals

Methodologies:

  • Usability Research and Review

  • Evaluation Scripting

  • Personal Interviewing

  • Affinity Diagraming

  • Speak-aloud protocol

Tools:

  • Keynote, Figma, Zoom

Meet the Team

Team members picture taken at Prime Digital Academy

Members (UX Designers) - left to right

  • Kevin

  • Sara (me)

  • Colleen

  • Haley

Evaluating the Site

Usability Test Planning

Our first task as a group is to understand the goals and questions we are trying to address about LiveMore ScreenLess’s website. As a team, we each began personally reviewing the website in order to understand three main points of interest:

  • Goals of LiveMore ScreenLess: What the organization is about and who they serve

  • Intent of the Application: How does the website help the user

  • Goals of the User Group: What the user wants from the application and/or how the organization serves them

The Goal of the Organization is to promote digital wellbeing by balancing intentional use of technology and engaging with the community with youths and other individuals.

The Intent of the Application is to provide users with tips, guides, videos, and overall information on how to improve screen time and wellbeing. The website is structured to help users identify which “user-group” they fit (young people, educators, and family&individuals) then offer relevant resources. The application also provides community-based solutions such as joining the YouthCouncil or writing a Blog.

The Goals of the User Group is to quickly find related information and resources on how they can improve their overall screen time, whether it is for themselves or for others such as students or family. Users are categorized into Primary users (Youth leaders, decision makers, Young People, Families) and Secondary users (Government Sectors, Individuals).

We divided the tasks, and my goal was to research the Intent of the Application. Our findings were written on notes and posted in a shared Figma board.

Usability Review

Once our initial research was completed, we individually compiled our own Usability Report. My task was to evaluate the website again using a set of criteria, guidelines, or heuristics, and then perform key tasks that users will try to accomplish.

Details of the review is saved on a Figma board

Here, I used Jakob’s 10 Usability Principles for the heuristics, and I performed 5 key tasks:

  1. Where can you find a video about a youth’s experiences and issues with their screen time?

  2. Where would you find resources about improving your well-being?

  3. How do you join the Youth Council?

  4. How do you write your own blog?

  5. How to view a Team Member’s information?

My results found that the website was lacking in consistency and standardization such as with UI elements and wording, and it was hard to understand what the organization was trying to provide for the user since their user groups are too generalized.

Test Scripting

Based on our individual reviews, we moved onto writing a script for our usability tests. Our team used an evaluation template and decided on some goals that incorporates both of the client and user’s intentions, as well as some roles.

In addition to the person who will interview with the user, we assigned other roles throughout the group: tech admin and note-takers.

We started with a laundry list of tasks and questions to offer the user, then we revised them based on how the task would meet the goals we have set. Afterwards, we tested the script with personal interviews (interviews with people we know) in preparation for the formal interviews (interviews with people that Prime Digital Academy invited) that would occur next day. My personal interviews were held with my mother and my college friend.

The challenge during this phase occurred after the personal interviews. We discovered that the script lacked specific tasks, and instead, involved more opinionated questions on certain webpages. Due to this, the user did not have any specific objective or destination to complete, and their responses became repetitive, causing us to skip several items within our script. This was the biggest challenge of our entire project.

I believe this happened due to several concerns:

  • Fear of “priming” the user - forgetting to “lead” the user.

  • Separating key tasks based on user groups rather than creating scenarios that specifies general audiences.

  • Conflicts between what the client wants versus what the user wants.

Time was short, and we only had a few hours before our formal interviews at Prime Digital Academy would start. We each came up with a quick contingency plan to personalize our scripts. This would help us keep the few tasks we already have in the script while adding and distributing more tasks for the user.

My focus was to make the script sound more linear, adding more specific tasks such as the ones I personally reviewed, and deleting or combining questions that sound repetitive.

Usability Testing

After revising our scripts, it was time for the formal interviews.

Participants

  • 4 in total - each person on the team interviewed 1 person.

  • My participant is a woman in her 40’s who is also a mother.

Methods & Tools

  • Recorded Zoom call

  • 30 minutes max per participant

  • Think-Aloud Protocol: participant will speak their thoughts aloud as they perform tasks

Team Roles

  • Interviewer: conducts the evaluation script with the user

  • Tech Admin: records, sends web-link, and notifies time passed to interviewer

  • Note-takers: records insights on the user’s response

Findings & Recommendations

Once our interviews finished, we each compiled our findings in an Affinity Diagram. This incorporated findings from both our personal and formal interviews.

Themes of concern:

  • Match between systems and real world

  • Content Strategy

  • Chunking / Hierarchy

  • Practical / Call to Action

  • More Quantitative

  • Aesthetics

  • Navigational Flow

  • Who They Serve

  • What they do

  • Credibility

  • Resources

  • Context

I detailed my findings and recommendations in a report seen below. Overall, LiveMore ScreenLess has great potential to be a useful resource for many people who are looking to improve their wellbeing on screen time which continues to be a major activity and concern.

Conclusion

Results

For my first time reviewing an existing website, LiveMore ScreenLess, the overall journey was both arduous and rewarding. The biggest takeaways from this project was collaborating in a team along with researching and finding how the website can be improved. Users had a hard time learning about the organization’s background and what they deliver either due to information being too difficult to find or the webpages being inconsistent. However, many users have the desire to improve their technology usage and wellbeing, and they find some of the tips, guide, and documents very resourceful. Although there is many areas of improvement, I believe this website will shine once some changes are implemented.

What’s Next

  • Implement changes on the website based on Recommendations

  • Improve/Revise Evaluation Script