I’m back with results from round 2 of our “Discovery Cycle“. This lady was certainly a bit more savvy. If you haven’t seen round one, you might want to check that out first. I left the detailed user instructions out of the summary this time, since they’re the same for both users.

Here’s the video, if you’d like to follow along.

Step One – Log in

Notes (time to complete: 0:30)

  • No problems logging in

Step two – Explain what you see

Notes (time to complete: 1:13)

  • 2:05 – “It says ‘Add Real Content’, but I don’t see anywhere I can add, you know… pictures, photos, things like that” commenting on the center column of the welcome screen.
  • 2:28 – “It says Add some widgets – and I don’t know what widgets would be” she says looking at the third column of the welcome screen.
  • 3:18 – Moves on to next step

Step Three – Preview your blog

Notes (time to complete: 1:24)

  • 3:21 – Starts step
  • 3:38 – She found the link easily and clicked “View site”
  • 4:35 – Referring to her header image – “This picture keeps changing which is kind of confusing”

Observations

  • The toolbar “blog” menu (the one on the top left just next to the WP icon) has different dropdown options when you are in the admin vs. when you are on your site. Is there a reason behind that?
  • Maybe we should think about disabling the rotating header photo for new installs? I realize that we are trying to show off what is capable, but for new users, it seems confusing to users.

Step Four – Change your background color

Notes (time to complete: 1:15)

  • 5:06 – started step
  • 5:12 – clicked “Set a background color” link in third column of welcome screen
  • 5:25 – Clicked “Select a color” link
  • 5:48 – “I’m glad that it gives me a preview here” referring to selecting a color
  • 6:08 – “Now how did I preview the color – did I double click on it?” she momontarily gets confused with the color selector
  • 6:21 – Successfully clicked “Save changes” button

Observations

  • Again, it might be nice to try out a couple of different color selector library options

Step Five – Change your site title

Notes (time to complete: 3:03)

  • 6:50 – starts this step
  • 7:02 – “Okay, I’m not sure if I should view it, but I’m going to view it just because” she says as she clicks the “view changes” link in the success message.
  • 7:38 – clicks “dashboard” link in toolbar “what I’m going to do, since I’m new to WP is go back to the dashboard”
  • 8:00 – “I see that there’s a theme – I don’t know…” Goes back up and rereads step instructions
  • 8:09 – Okay, I’m wondering if the theme is what I want to change” – she clicks “choose a new one” link in third column of welcome screen.
  • 8:15 – “No, that’s not it” – clicks back button
  • 8:26 – Scanning welcome screen links – “I’m looking for something that talks about changing the title – I would think that would be under customize” – as she rescans the third column of the welcome screen
  • 8:39 – She reviews welcome screen column two links one by one
  • 8:44 – Clicks “Create an about mepage” link in second column of welcome screen
  • 8:50 – “Okay, I don’t see it there” – clicks back button (back to dashboard)
  • 8:54 – Clicks “My blog” link in toolbar
  • 9:03 – She tries clicking on the blog on her site to see if it takes her somewhere she can change her title – it doesn’t
  • 9:13 – Clicks back button back to her dashboard
  • 9:17 – Clicks “Select tagline and time zone” link from first column in welcome screen. – Okay…
  • 9:40 – Changed the title successfully.
  • 9:53 – scrolls down and clicks “Save changes” link at bottom of page

Observations

  • There appears to be a blur in users minds between what should fall under “Appearance” and what falls under “settings”. Settings did not immediately stand out to this user as the place that she’d change her site title. There may be a recurring theme emerging here.

Step Six – Add your first post

Notes (time to complete: 1:23)

  • 10:10 – Starts this step
  • 10:15 – Clicks “dashboard” link in toolbar
  • 10:21 – Clicks “Write your first post” in second column of welcome screen
  • 10:30 – Adds title and description without any issues
  • 10:55 – Clicks “preview” button – opens up in a new tab – “I do like the feature to be able to preview”
  • 11:04 – Scrolls down and checks out her new post.
  • 11:12 – Clicks “Previous” pagination link thinking it will take her back to her dashboard (which is in another tab)
  • 11:20 – “I went to preview, and I guess I clicked on the wrong thing there”
  • 11:23 – “So… I’m not really sure how to go back.
  • 11:25 – Clicks back button (still on her blog, not the admin)
  • 11:30 – She realized that it had opened up in a new tab and closes the preview tab
  • 11:33 – Clicks “Publish” button

Observations

  • I’m not sure how you guys feel, but my gut says to almost never use “target=blank” in a web app. If a user wants a link to open in a new tab, they can right click and make it happen, or hold down command

Step Seven – Preview your new post

Notes (time to complete: 0:48)

  • 11:02 – Starts step
  • 11:50 – Clicked “preview post” link at top of screen

Step Eight – Publish an image

Notes (time to complete: 4:29)

  • 12:09 – Starts this step
  • 12:30 – Clicks “dashboard” link in toolbar
  • 12:52 – Scrolls over “Posts” in left nav, and clicks “Add new” link
  • 13:03 – Tries to add the image by clicking “HTML” tab in editor and simply pasting “http://bit.ly/w7xFeY” as the content
  • 13:20 – “I’m clicking on preview, and nothing is happening” – as she clicks the preview button
  • 13:37 – “Maybe I should go to add new link” – as she scrolls over “Links” in the left nav and clicks “Add new” (obviously she’s way off target now, but she still feels like she’s on the right course)
  • 13:46 – Adds “My Vacation Photo” as the new link name
  • 13:50 – She pastes the image URL under “Web address”
  • 14:02 – She adds “A beautiful sunset” under “Description”
  • 14:09 – Scrolls down links page – “Now this is getting into advanced settings that I’m just not sure about”
  • 14:20 – Clicks “Add link” button
  • 14:28 – Clicks “View site” link in toolbar to see if the image was added
  • 14:38 – “Okay, I see my first post, but I don’t see the link”
  • 14:56 – Clicks “home” from her blogs top site navigation
  • 15:08 – Clicks on blog menu in toolbar which takes her to her dashboard
  • 15:15 – Clicks “Visit site” link in toolbar – scrolls down – “I don’t see the link”
  • 15:29 – Clicks “dashboard” link from toolbar
  • 15:38 – Opens a new tab, and pastes link to image in it (http://bit.ly/w7xFeY)
  • 15:45 – She right clicks on the image and selects “copy image”
  • 15:55 – Scrolls over “Posts” in left nav, and clicks “Add new” link
  • 16:00 – Adds “My favorite vacation photo!” as title
  • 16:18 – Right clicks on editor and pastes the copied image (it worked)
  • 16:28 – Clicks “Preview”" button
  • 16:38 – Closes preview tab and clicks “Publish”

Observations

  • There is some definite confusion around how one adds a new photo to their blog. Is the “Insert/upload” link too small? Thoughts here?

That’s it for this round.

If you spotted anything else, please share it. :-)