Aurora velasco

Working title: Ballroom and Latin Dance Information
Author: Aurora Velasco
Date: April 23, 2009

Subjects
I interviewed 3 people for this usability test. One was a peer from EDTEC 541 who did express interest in learning how to dance. Another was a friend who does not have ballroom dance experience but is an avid belly dancer, so I felt she might have useful insights since she is a dancer of some sort. The third was a friend who does not have a big desire to learn how to dance but is very well versed in using websites and navigating so I knew her insights would be very beneficial in these areas.

Think Aloud Task
Can you find information about the different types of ballroom dances and then determine what a Viennese Waltz looks like. Summary of Think Aloud All three users were able to find the Viennese Waltz video eventually. Two of the three users did go to the About page first as I had intended them to as I first asked about obtaining more information. They said it was pretty straightforward that the About page would have this information. From there they noticed the link to Viennese Waltz, which took them to the Gallery page and that dance’s video. The third user went straight to the Gallery page instead of About as she jumped immediately to the task of “what a Viennese Waltz looks like”. She said that indicated to her the Gallery would be the best option to get “visuals”. One of the users who had gone to the About page first commented that she would like to see more links for each dance so she could see what they ALL look like.

Summary of Post Test Interview
After clicking through most of the pages, all three users mentioned they would like to see each individual dance on the About page have it’s own link to a video or something that would let them know what it looked like when people were dancing it. One user said that on the Lessons page she wanted to see pictures of actual lessons so she would know what most people tend to wear. I pointed her to the Attire page, which does have such a picture, and she said it’s good on the Attire page of course but she wanted to see more pictures.

Another user mentioned the spacing in between the different ballroom studios, shoe stores, etc., was a little too squished together and needed to be spaced out a little more. He also mentioned that on the Gallery page each video should have some text next to it that said what kind of dance it was. There was no text letting him know which dance was being danced.

Another user said that on the attire page she wanted to see more information about the fancy dresses that ballroom dancers wear. She was the belly dancer and wears costumes for that so she said she would like this type of information for ballroom dancing. She liked that there was a cost area in the Lessons page, but would like to see more prices listed.

Findings to be Implemented

As a result of the alpha test, I will make the following changes:

• Add text detailing the type of dance next to each video
• Include more pictures in the Lessons page of what people wear to said lessons
• Space out listings of studios and dance shops so they are visually more appealing
• Work on having more videos/visuals for the dances on the About page. It is quite a bit of work to have more videos, so this will probably end up being a work in progress.

Findings Not to be Implemented

• I will not include the fancier ball gown/latin costumes on the Attire page. Since this site is meant to be for beginners and people just getting their feet wet, costumes are not going to be involved for a while.
• I will not include more specific pricing under Lessons, Attire, nor Competitions. Unless there is an across the board flat rate, prices will vary so it’s best for the user to contact the business or organization directly for more specific prices.