Find a book on UX or a UX adjacent topic that is not already in the collection under Books, provide a list of important quotations, in the way you see in the Books section, and write a review of the book — who it is for, what it explains, how well you think it works. When you send me the quotations, I will add your book and your quotations to Books. Post your review on your blog. If you want to practice talking head presenting, you can video record your review and post that to your blog.

Full Book Title: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research

 

Authors: Mike Kuniavsky, Elizabeth Goodman, and Andrea Moed

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Morgan Kaufmann; 2nd edition (September 21, 2012)

ISBN‏ : ‎ 978-0123848697

I came across Observing the User Experience when I first saw it being listed as a required reading book for the ENGL 8122 User-Experience Research & Writing class. The book holds a 4.3 on Amazon. If you’re looking for one book to read to get a solid understanding of user research, this is it. This is a brilliant textbook and reference book as it almost covers all the major subjects in UX full of clear descriptions and useful examples and case studies.

 

1. Who is the book for？

The textbook is suitable for the beginner in UX such as somebody who is interested in UX but not yet working in it or somebody who has just started their career to develop or improve a product in UX but lacks the experience.

Besides, it is also suitable for professionals who want to hone their skills in UX.

The authors point out on the Preface there are 7 types of readers who might be the targeted readers.

• A program manager who wants to know how to prioritize a team’s effort
• A designer who needs to create and refine new ways to interact

with and through digital information

• A marketing manager who wants to know what people find most

valuable in your products

• An information architect who needs to pick an organizational

scheme

• A programmer creating a user interface, trying to interpret an

ambiguous spec

• A consultant trying to make your clients’ products better
• An inventor who wants to make a product people will love

The book is excellent for someone who wants to know how the people who use the product they are making perceive it, what they expect from it, what they need from it, and whether they can use what they have made for them.

 

2. What does the book explain？

This book serves as an indispensable guide for practitioners seeking to enhance their user research skills and create products that truly resonate with their target audience. Divided into three parts, the book covers a comprehensive range of topics with a lot of clear subtitles and bullet points.

1). Part one is about why research is good and how it fits into product development. The first section lays the groundwork by introducing key concepts, such as the importance of user research, a nano-usability test, a micro-usability test, the different roles involved like end users, the company and advertisers, and the overall process. The authors’ clear and concise explanations make these foundational ideas accessible to readers of all backgrounds.

2). Part two is about various user experience research techniques which are really shining in this book.

This is the most substantial section that dives deep into various user research techniques, including research planning, competitive research, recruiting interviews, focus groups, object-based techniques, observational field visits, diary studies, usability tests, surveys, global and cross-cultural research, analyzing qualitative data, usage data and customer feedback. For each method, the writers provide a clear definition of the term including when to conduct the method, what is the method, detailed instructions on how to conduct it effectively, and how to integrate the findings into the product or software development. Even if you are already familiar with the basics, the authors’ clear explanations are a nice refresher. In addition, as someone who learns best from real-world examples, I appreciate all the concrete tips and instructions the authors add in some key terms.

3) Part 3 offers guidance on putting research into action, doing reports, presentations, and workshops and creating a user-centered corporate culture.

 

3. Quotes and reflections

Quote 1

“Just as technology strategist John Shiple said, “Competitive research is one of the first things you should do. It can define your world for you and make your life a whole lot easier” (Page 74).

“Competitive Product Interviews and Observation

One-on-one interviews with users of a competitive product can reveal much about what makes that product functional and where it fails. Watching people use your competition’s product reveals usage” (Page 83).

 

This raises our awareness to conduct interviews with different users of a competitive product and dive deeper into the advantages that the competition’s product gives its users and the hindrances it places in their ways. Competitive research can be done at any point in our product development cycle and it provides useful information as “Great minds think alike”. It can give us some shortcuts to design or improve a product or service if we can draw on the shining points and avoid the shortages of the competition’s product and service.

 

Quote 2

The analyst must determine who the competitors are, what aspects should be compared, and how to compare them. The general sequence of steps resembles those that a financial analyst would follow when surveying the market landscape—but will take a lot less time and cost a lot less money.

• Identify and profile the competition.
• Define a set of key dimensions for comparison.
• Compare competitors to each other (and to your product).
• Use the comparisons to create recommendations for action.” （Page 75）.

 

This book provides a thorough and systematic approach to making a competitor analysis.

1).  Identifying and profile the competition

• We can start with online searches using various keywords or phrases related to our product’s main functions.
• We should know the description of the product and a profile of its audience. We can get audience details from news, forums, reviews, etc.

2).  Defining Comparison Dimensions

We should limit the scope of the competitive analysis to what our users may consider important and those dimensions relevant to the research questions we need to answer.

We should collect the important features or attributes of the competitive products.

And we should emphasize focusing on user perspectives and priorities instead of just internal assumptions.

Also, we should prioritize based on the areas that mean the most to the product’s functionality, to the company’s success, or to the users’ satisfaction.

3). Competitive Analysis Techniques

We can also conduct user research methods like usability testing about the competitors’ products. In addition, we should have a balanced perspective by looking at the positives of competitors rather than all just negatives.

To do a rapid competitive analysis, we can concentrate on getting the most out of existing sources: industry analysis, whitepapers, newspapers, blogs, user forums, and so on with limited time. The secret is to use comments from real users to drive our lists of features and attributes.

 

Quote 3

“Here is one way of dividing a standard interview process into six phases.

1).  Introduction. All participants introduce themselves. In groups, it’s

important to know that the other people in the group are somewhat like you in order to feel comfortable, so a group introduction emphasizes the similarities between all the

participants, including the interviewer. In contrast, an individual interview introduction establishes the role of the interviewer as a neutral, but sympathetic, entity.

2). Warm-up. The warm-up in any interview is designed to get people to step away from their regular lives and focus on thinking about the product and the work of answering questions.

3). General issues. The initial product-specific round of questions concentrates on experiences with the product, as well as attitudes, expectations, and assumptions about it. Asking these kinds of questions early prevents the assumptions of the product development team from skewing people’s perceptions. Often, the product isn’t even named during this phase.

4). Deep focus. The product, service, or idea is introduced, and people concentrate on the details of what it does, how it works, whether they can use it, and what their immediate experience of it is. For usability testing, this phase makes up the bulk of the interview, but for site visits or exploratory interviews, it may never enter the

discussion.

5). Retrospective. This phase allows people to evaluate the product or idea in a broader light. The discussion is comparable to the “general issues” phase, but the discussion is focused on how the ideas introduced in the “deep focus” phase affect the issues discussed earlier.

6). Wrap-up. This is generally the shortest phase of the interview. It formally completes the interview so that the participants aren’t left hanging after the last question and return to administrative topics” (Page 130).

 

I think this book gives us a great reflection on our interview process. If our interview questions are not logical and ordered correctly, these may contribute to too subjective results. As UX designers, we can think about these questions.

             1). Introduction

• For group interviews, do our introductions highlight similarities of all participants to build rapport? (This is extremely important to build rapport in a group interview with many participants who are not familiar with each other).
• For individual interviews, do our introductions establish the interviewer as a neutral but supportive entity? (We should express our gratitude for the individual’s participation and show their significance in improving the product) 2). Warm-up
• Do our warm-up questions successfully let participants step away from their daily lives and focus on answering questions about a product or the topic? (UX researchers should think about some interesting starters to help interviewees raise their awareness of using this product or service.)   
• 3). General Issues
• Do these general questions effectively explore participants’ experiences, attitudes, expectations, and assumptions first? (We should try to find out their initial attitudes without introducing the name of this particular service or product and get to know if they have biased opinions towards using this type of service and product before asking further detailed questions.)
• 4). Deep Focus
• When the product or service was introduced, do deep focus questions allow concentration on details like what it does, how it works, whether they can use it, what their experience of it is, etc? (If we have usability testing, we can conduct the testing first and then ask interviewees these deep focus questions.)
• 5). Retrospective
• Do participants have the opportunity to re-evaluate the product or service more broadly? (We can ask them to rate the product or service after they consider all the factors.)
• 6). Wrap-up
• Is there a clear conclusion that does not leave participants hanging? (We should end with the shortest phase.)

 

4. How well does it work?

 

Possible weaknesses:

1). The book is too lengthy which is not suitable for someone who seeks quick answers and avoids repeated ideas. Sometimes the idea is repeated to some extent in some parts of the book. Chapter two and Chapter 11 both cover the topic of the process of conducting usability tests. Although recruiting and interviews may be the backbone of every successful research project which deserves a chapter of their own in Chapter 6, these two are also covered in Chapter 13 as individual topics.

2). This is not suitable for someone who wants to delve into the psychology of users or wants to dive deeper into the subconsciousness of the clients. Readers with academic backgrounds in psychology or social sciences may find some aspects of data analysis lacking in depth.

3）There might be too many qualitative techniques covered in the book. One thing that strikes me is just how qualitative-focused most of the techniques are. Other than surveys, it is almost all interviews, observations, and the like. Is qualitative-focused  the nature of user research? I am wondering if the book is missing some useful quantitative methods.

 

Overall Evaluation:

If I had to confine my review to a star rating system, I would give it a 4.8/5.  In a nutshell, Observing the User Experience is a comprehensive and practical resource for anyone involved in user experience research, from a green hand to a seasoned professional in the field. The authors’ clear and simple writing style, extensive practical examples, and intriguing case studies make this book a must-read for those seeking to create user-centered products and services.

 

 

Brain storm UX projects. Group or individual? If you can’t think of a project, you can take one of the elements of UX research — questionnaires, interviews, observations, usability testing, personas, case studies, or some other element — and provide an in depth report on it consisting of a detailed overview, a bibliography, examples, and links to useful resources. You will share this report with the class via a 1 hour Webex presentation during the last week or two of class (depending on how many of us choose this path).

I will do an individual project for this UX project.

1. Object to analyze

I will analyze a pick-up food website. YiFan is a Chinese food restaurant nestled in the heart of Johns Creek in Atlanta that offers fusion cuisine. It offers a pick-up food ordering service through the website https://qmenu.us/#/yifan/menu/1645135062215.

2. Hypothesis to test

What elements should be improved and changed in this food website?

3. Population (keep in mind you need at least one willing participant from each sector)

I want to include 3 Chinese clients in their 20s, 30s, and 40s and 2 American clients in their 20s and 30s who are Chinese food lovers in my usability tests.

4. Data needed

• I want to record the process of how they order their favorite 5 dishes from the website and conduct face-to-face interviews with them using 15 questions in 20 minutes.
• I also want to examine other food websites’ UX designs like UberEats and write to analyze their similarities and differences.

5. Method(s) for acquiring data

I think that screen recording of usability tests, interviews, competitor analysis, and data analysis will be conducive to my case study. It is also practical for the new UX learner like me to conduct in the next couple of weeks.

6. Personas

I will use Claude.ai to create my personas for the pick-up Chinese food ordering service website and make some improvements.

7. Outline for your case study

• (Completed 3/16) Create and post project outline/schedule.
• 3/23: Create questions for interview& create the personas.
• 3/30: Find 3 interviewees, conduct 3 interviews, and write the analysis of the interviews.
• 4/6: Find 2 interviewees, conduct 2 interviews, and write the analysis of the interviews.
• 4/13: Finish the competitor analysis.
• 4/20: Make design decisions according to the interview and competitor analysis. Publish the wireframe of improved YiFan’s food website.
• 4/22: Post final report.

Homework — Assignment 7

Post a transcript of your interview to your blog. Also post thoughts on the experience, what you would do the same, and what differently next time.

A. What is an interview in UX and why do we conduct interviews?

According to Claude, an interview in UX refers to a qualitative research method where a designer or researcher has a conversation with a user to gain insights about their experiences, perceptions, needs, and behaviors related to a product or service. Here are some key reasons why interviews are an important part of user experience research:

1. To build empathy and make personal connections. Interviews allow designers to have meaningful conversations with users and build rapport. This cultivates empathy for their perspective, making it more likely the final designs will meet their needs. This helps build empathy and uncover insights we may not get from other methods.
2. To identify user goals and motivations. Interviews let us ask open-ended questions to reveal what motivates people, what problems they want to solve, and what goals they have when using a product. This provides valuable context.
3. To uncover new insights. Well-planned interview questions along with follow-up probing questions can reveal insights about a product or domain space that designers didn’t know to ask about previously. Interviews help make users’ implicit knowledge and perspectives explicit.
4. To evaluate designs. Interviews can be used in all stages of design, but are particularly helpful in getting feedback on prototypes and concepts. Asking users open questions as they interact with designs gives crucial insights to iterate upon.
5. To understand behaviors and contexts. Speaking to people directly allows us to get details about their habits, environments, device usage, workflows, and more that surveys cannot convey. Understanding behavior and contexts is key for UX design.

In summary, interviews provide a wealth of qualitative data that allow designers to really understand users and create human-centered products that solve real problems. The insights gained directly from speaking to users are invaluable.

 

B. Participant for my interview.

I invited Kai as the participant for this interview as I think she has very insightful ideas about UX and can provide some interesting ideas about the user-friendliness of the Chinese food ordering website. As Kai is a vegetarian and there are a few vegetarian dishes on the website, I asked her to order 5 dishes for her American family members who are interested in having some Chinese dishes. After that, I conducted this interview as a follow-up.

 

C. Preparation before the interview:

I made a face-to-face appointment with Kai for 1 hour in the Writing Studio this Wednesday. I got her permission to record her interview using Otter.ai. As Kai knows this interview is just for learning in UX class, I did not tell her why I was conducting interviews, how it would be stored and used, and how she could contact me in case she had further questions. I expressed my gratitude for her help before conducting the interview.

D． Interview Questions：

1. How easy is the website to navigate and search?
2. Does each food title make sense?
3. Do you think the Chinese and English fonts are big enough to see?
4. Do you think the main color of the food website is visually appealing?
5. Does the food description help?
6. Is each photo large enough to see?
7. Can you find your family members’ favorite dish quickly？
8. Do you think it is easy for you to put the dishes in the cart and be ready to check out？
9. Could you rate it on a scale from 1 to 10? How much do you like the food delivery website?
10. How much do you dislike the food delivery website?
11. What do you care about most in the food ordering process?
12. Do you think it is well-organized？
13. Do you think it is user-friendly?
14. What challenges do you face in the ordering process? How does this make you feel?
15. Is there any way in which you feel these challenges could be resolved?
16. How do you think the website can be improved in web design and interaction?            

E. Reflections after the interview.

What I would do the same

1. Observe the user’s micro-expression. As the interviewer, I need to make sure the interviewee feels comfortable during the interview. During this interview, I paid close attention to Kai’s micro-expression to predict whether she wanted to say more about the question or not. Just as China Daily writes, “A micro-expression is a brief, involuntary facial expression shown on the face of humans when one is trying to conceal or repress an emotion. They usually occur in high-stakes situations, where people have something to lose or gain. Unlike regular facial expressions, few can fake a micro-expression. They consist of and completely resemble the seven universal emotions: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt. Micro-expressions can occur as fast as 1/25 of a second.” As a person of the personality type of ENFP, I believe I have good intuition about interpreting others’ micro-expressions. Kai is very sweet and patient and did not show any unwillingness to answer any questions. But for the interviewee who may not have so much patience, I will also have empathy with their feelings and move on to the next questions if they are reluctant to express too many personal ideas about some questions.
2. Avoid interrogation (don’t set them up to say what I want to hear). I will avoid leading the interviewees to lean on my own ideas. I will respect the interviewees’ different answers and try to listen actively to learn more by speaking less in the interview.
3. Give feedback. I will not interrupt but when the interviewees stop talking, I will ask for clarification, summarize what they just said, and request confirmation or ask for elaboration. I did a great job when interviewing Kai. When I felt unsure about some answers like “will” or “won’t”, I asked her for clarification. When I asked if she could find her family member’s favorite dishes on this website, I also asked her to tell me more about her family’s favorite dishes to get to know what some Americans love in Chinese meals.

what I would do differently next time

1. Delete Question 14&15 and combine Question 7 with Question. The 25 minutes interview was a little too long with 16 questions. Next time, I will shorten the 16 questions to 13 questions and try to finish the interview in 20 minutes. So this will not take up participant’s too much time and they may have better feelings about the interview. I will delete Question 14&15 because, from Kai’s answer, I find Question 16 can test the user’s opinion about the drawbacks and suggestions of this website without Questions 14 and 15. Kai is very patient and repeats some of her ideas because Questions 14 and 15 may overlap with Question 16. I will also combine Question 7 with Question 1 as they are both about navigation.
2. Reorder some questions. Questions should be from a broader one to a more specific one to be more logical. Therefore, I will move Questions 9 &10&11 forward and put them as the first, the second, and the third questions to test the user’s overall satisfaction and the main expectation about the website. Then I will dig deeper and more concretely to ask ideas about different aspects of the website design.

 F. Updated Versions of Questions:

1. Could you rate it on a scale from 1 to 10? How much do you like the food delivery website?
2. How much do you dislike the food delivery website?
3. What do you care about most in the food ordering process?
4. How easy is the website to navigate and search? Can you find your family members’ favorite dish quickly？
5. Does each food title make sense?
6. Do you think the Chinese and English fonts are big enough to see?
7. Do you think the main color of the food website is visually appealing?
8. Does the food description help?
9. Is each photo large enough to see?
10. Do you think it is easy for you to put the dishes in the cart and be ready to check out？
11. Do you think it is well-organized？
12. Do you think it is user-friendly?
13. How do you think the website can be improved in web design and interaction?

(Dr. Pullman, do you have any suggestions about my new versions of questions?)

G.Transcript of the interview：

Tingyu Zhang 0:01

How easy is the website to navigate and search？

 

Kai 0:07

The website wasn’t that easy. The categories are really random. We’ll have to scroll all the way down to get to what you want. And even in the feature items, it’s really random and like you can have dinner or rice. You’re not able to click to get to a shortcut like click to go to seafood, click to go to meat, or click to go to vegetarian options. Also, it’s not a search function. The only thing you can do is like pick the location of where the menu is or what the menu is. The cart was okay. The navigation for that was pretty easy. But besides that…

 

Tingyu Zhang 1:22

Okay, thank you. So the second question is, does each food title make sense? No.

 

Kai 1:29

The translations are awful.

 

Tingyu Zhang 1:33

Give some examples.

 

Kai 1:35

Be-For-Time shrimp. It’s also not localization. So on top of it, not being like a good English translation. It also is not a good translation for Americans. So you could use words like dynamite Trump, which is used in America. And stuff those words but I wouldn’t know what that is. What else？ A few I’m trying to find… Stewed Beef Shank

 

Tingyu Zhang 2:30

Stewed beef shank is weird, right?

 

Kai 2:33

I know what stewed beef is but shanks are really strange. Nan Jiang Salt Water Duck. I don’t know whether Nan Jing or house salt water deals is related to the duck.

 

Tingyu Zhang 2:59

Okay! The salt water just means it is savory. The flavor is savory. It is a little bit salty. Nanjing is just a Chinese city name.

 

Kai 3:12

Yeah, an Americanized person that’s already in Chinese knows that.

 

Tingyu Zhang 3:15

Yes, salt water is very strange, right? So maybe savory duck?

 

Kai 3:25

Yes, savory duck. Also Nanjing, they wouldn’t know what that is. Okay. Tofu skin rolls.  Skin roll is weird.

 

Tingyu Zhang 3:41

I think this is vegetarian. it is yes because the character”素” su means vegetarian.

 

Kai 3:47

The translation doesn’t make sense because tofu you know vegetarian, but skin rolls make me think there’s like meat skin. Oh,

 

Tingyu Zhang 3:56

oh, really? Oh, I got it. Maybe delete skin.

 

Kai 4:25

“Cabbage with mushroom and vermicelli”. I know what this is, but some people may not know what that specific noodle is. Vermicelli.

 

Tingyu Zhang 4:35

I don’t know what vermicelli is.

 

Kai 4:37

It’s a type of noodle. Okay.

 

Tingyu Zhang 4:38

It is Japanese, right?

 

Kai 4:41

I think it’s Vietnamese. so maybe saying the noodles are thin noodles that would be easier for an American audience or something that’s ordering Chinese.

 

Tingyu Zhang 4:57

Maybe just…

 

Kai 4:59

so based on like the thickness or hardness like as a crispy. Crispy noodles. Yeah, that’s crispy. Okay, how big it is like. Is it a thinner noodle or a thicker noodle?  Flour food is one of the categories.

 

Tingyu

Flower food is strange. Maybe we just call pastries.

 

Kai

Okay, for the American Yes!  “Fried lotus root box”. What is that? Oh,

 

Tingyu Zhang 5:46

the Lotus actually means that is made from the lotus root. It’s a kind of Chinese vegetable.  The box just means shape like a box?

 

Kai 6:06

The box I get like you know, a big combination of food. The fried lotus root just throws me off just because I’ve never heard of that as a dish.

 

Tingyu

Oh really?  I got it.  I think, in the United States it is a typical Chinese food.

 

Kai

Yeah, I’ve never seen it in a Chinese restaurant before. Like an Americanized one.

 

Tingyu Zhang 6:33

I got it! Have you ever seen this(showing the picture of “lotus root” on Google)?

 

Kai 6:43

No, we don’t eat.

 

Tingyu Zhang 6:47

This is a Chinese vegetable. Yeah. Okay, forget about it.

 

Kai 6:56

Maybe more description of what it is description. Yeah, cuz then it’d be like what is that but then the description would help you.

 

Tingyu Zhang 7:05

This is unique Chinese food.

 

Kai 7:09

Yeah. Well, the description like what it is or how it’s cooked.  Fried steamed twisted rolls, are those croissants?

 

Tingyu Zhang 7:28

They are like croissants, but uh, a Chinese style. Yeah, so maybe Chinese-style croissants? Yeah.

 

Kai 7:50

Yangzhou Ham and Egg Fried Rice.

 

Tingyu Zhang 7:51

Yeah. Yangzhou扬州 is a Chinese city name. Yeah.

 

Kai 7:57

The names of where it came from would be harder for people like an Americanized Chinese audience or something because they may not think of those places.

 

Tingyu Zhang 8:09

Yeah,  Delete the word Yangzhou. Just Ham and Egg Fried Rice right? This makes sense, right?

 

Kai 8:35

Yeah! And Goji Black Sugar Ginger Dates Jam. Goji?

 

Tingyu Zhang 8:39

Goji is a Chinese pinyin. I will search this for you(Show the Goji vegetable picture on the internet). Have you ever seen this before?

 

Kai

I think I have.

 

Tingyu

So do you have this vegetable in the United States?

 

Kai 9:08

I’m guessing you could import it, but I’ve never seen it. Maybe more of an exotic food to us.

 

Tingyu Zhang 9:18

Maybe Goji can be translated into “Chinese berries”. Maybe Chinese Berry Black Sugar Ginger Dates Jam. Better?

 

Kai 9:32

Maybe Black Sugar Ginger Dates Jam and then put the ingredients in the description. So it’s not like a long title.

 

Tingyu Zhang 9:40

Okay, got it！

 

Kai 9:57

Durian Cake. Durian is a fruit, right？

 

Tingyu Zhang 9:59

During Yeah. The fruit. Yeah. Do you have Durain in the United States?

 

Kai 10:06

We have. I don’t think many people eat Durain though.

 

Tingyu Zhang 10:11

Okay, this actually is not a cake. It’s just like a pastry.

 

Kai 10:22

And it doesn’t give me a clear picture of what the cake looks because it’s a package.

 

Tingyu Zhang 10:35

This is a pastry I think.

 

Kai 10:39

Organic Pineapple Cake but it doesn’t let me see what the pineapple cake looks like.

 

Tingyu Zhang 10:48

Maybe show the snack itself?

 

Kai 10:51

Yeah, the whole thing, not the package! The Food shouldn’t be obstructed by something. You should be able to see it for them. This one’s not even translated. (咸蛋黄肉松雪花酥)

 

Tingyu Zhang 11:04

Okay, got it. Yeah, it’s not friendly to you know, to Americans.

 

Kai 11:31

“Simply yogurt”, I still don’t know if it’s original because they could just say simply yogurt and then put in like parentheses original.

 

Tingyu Zhang 11:46

Yeah, just original yogurt.

 

Kai 11:48

So you know what flavor it is. You’ll find Yifan Special Made XO sauce.

 

Tingyu

Yifan is the restaurant’s name. So it’s strange, right?

 

Kai

Yeah.

 

Tingyu

XO is strange, right? Because it makes you think about the wine?

 

Kai 12:15

Not for us. it’s just strange for us.

 

Tingyu 12:21

Maybe just say “Special Made Sauce”. Delete Yifan, right?

 

Kai

Yeah. Because you already know but that’s in the restaurant.

 

Tingyu Zhang 12:32

Okay!

 

Kai 12:46

Just put Chili Oil instead of Yifan Secret Chili Oil.  Most restaurants aren’t going to give you their recipes anyway. I don’t know why they put secret.

 

Tingyu Zhang 13:01

Okay. Oh, I got it because they will not give you the recipes.

 

Kai 13:05

Yeah, most restaurants will give you the recipe.

 

Tingyu

Most restaurants will give you the recipe, right? (Asking for clarification.)

 

Kai:

No, most restaurants won’t give the recipe. So it seems redundant.

 

Tingyu Zhang 13:16

Okay, delete “secret” right? Okay. Thank you so much. So do you think the Chinese English fonts are big enough to see?

 

Kai 13:39

From what I saw, the title fonts were perfectly fine. It’s just the descriptions I would want them larger and maybe a different color to distinguish the title from the description.

 

Tingyu Zhang 13:56

Okay, the fourth question, do you think the main color of the food website is visually appealing?

 

Kai 14:11

It’s fine, but it’s kind of bland, like a more plain style. I’m more neutral about that.

 

Tingyu Zhang 14:24

So do you have some good suggestions for the color choice? The main color choice.

 

Kai 14:40

So for like the website itself. I would want the background to maybe be an off-white or more of a tan-beige color, just so it’s easier on the eyes. And I’d want the accent color to be maybe a more bold, orange. It currently is really dull looking like a muted orange right now. So maybe a little bit more vibrant. It’s not super eye-catching but a nice color.

 

Tingyu Zhang 15:29

Thank you so much. The fifth question is, does the food description help?

 

Kai 15:48

I can’t read this description.

 

Tingyu Zhang 15:53

No English, right?

 

Kai 15:54

Yeah, there really isn’t English. Okay, I can’t guess, because that’s not Japanese.

 

Tingyu

I got it.

 

Kai

Some will help a little bit. But it’s not “that” helpful because they basically say the same thing. Right now, for this example, it’s radish soup with ribs. The description is pork ribs soup of radish. That’s kind of the same thing.

 

Tingyu Zhang 16:29

Exactly, that’s it. This one？

 

Kai 16:38

that one’s okay. Yeah, it just illustrates the ingredients which is good.

 

Tingyu Zhang 16:43

“Stirred three veggies”, eggplant, potato, red and green pepper. Okay. So, um, is the each photo is large enough to see?

 

Kai 16:58

When you click on it, it’s good. As for when you’re scrolling, I would want it more consistent because some of them are in the middle while some are on the left. I want to set area so that when I scroll, the food is on the same side.

 

Tingyu Zhang 17:22

Yeah, the size is okay, right?

 

Kai 17:28

Maybe a little bit bigger. But if you were to redesign like this specific site, you can make the photo like the same as the borders. So it goes all the way down and fill that all side. So it’d be pretty big and it would have a consistent area so as you scroll, you know exactly what the photo will be.

 

Tingyu Zhang 17:54

Thank you so much. The seventh question. Can you find your family’s favorite Chinese dish quickly?

 

Kai 18:03

No. It doesn’t let you do shortcuts. Actually, I would want categories to get to or like tags. So if you want to do dinner you can go that category. If you wanted to do something that was like vegetarian or something that’s listed as family size or like large portion.

 

Tingyu Zhang 18:34

So can you tell me what’s your family’s favorite Chinese dish?

 

Kai 18:41

Um, well, they like PF Changs like an Americanized Chinese food? Um, there would probably be like chickens. Not like a specific one, but one of those flavors they put on it, because there are a few different types on there.

 

Tingyu Zhang 19:08

Fried Chickens or not?

 

Kai 19:10

I’m trying to think it’s spicy chicken. One of those Okay, I got it like they’re super picky about the chicken. They just like chicken a lot.

 

Tingyu

Okay, I got it.

 

Kai

Mongolian beef. Oh, Mongolian…

 

Tingyu Zhang 19:26

beef.

 

Kai 19:27

Yeah,

 

Tingyu

Okay. Because you are familiar with Mongolian, this the place name’s okay, right?

 

Kai

Yeah, that’s one of the ones that Americans would know. Oh, I got it is really constantly American Chinese restaurants.

 

Tingyu Zhang 19:49

Okay. The eighth question do you think it is easy for you to put the dishes in a cart and be ready to checkout?

 

Kai 19:58

Yeah, that’s pretty easy. Okay.

 

Tingyu Zhang 19:59

So the next question, to rate it on a scale of one to 10 How much do you like the food delivery website?

 

Kai 21:00

I think I’ll give it a seven. It’s not horrific. I’m using it more if I’m getting a bit more familiar with what’s going on. But I wouldn’t give it eight because it did take a little bit as we’re doing this interview for me to kind of figure a little bit out. But I can see that if you improved it, it could be very well done. Just the main concern is like navigation. And for someone like me, to be able to know if I could eat or not.

 

Tingyu

Okay, maybe add some descriptions and texts. Yeah, about vegetarian food or not, right?

 

Kai

Yes.

 

Tingyu

Or something allergic.

 

Kai

Yeah. Someone who has a gluten allergy. Or like peanuts. That’s another one.

 

Tingyu Zhang 21:08

Okay, thank you so much. So the 10th question, how much do you dislike the food delivery website?

 

Kai 21:20

Because the three out of 10 for that one. To have a complete score. Three. The thing that knocks it down to seven out of 10 is again like the navigation. It can be a bit more visually appealing. But mostly navigation just.

 

Tingyu Zhang 21:46

thank you so much.

 

Kai 21:48

Because you don’t want your customer to have to try to find everything and scroll through everything.

 

Tingyu Zhang 22:00

Okay, so the eleventh question. What do you care about most in the food ordering process?

 

Kai 22:09

The descriptions. That’s how I can tell. Or if there’s a symbol that helps me determine if it’s vegetarian or vegan.

 

Tingyu Zhang 22:20

Okay, got it. So, the twelfth question. Do you think it is well organized?

 

Kai 22:32

Because I have issues with navigation and the orders kind of off I would say it’s not terrible, but it could use some improvements. Like maybe have more sides because it looks kind of randomly placed things that would consider sides and different categories. So like combining those or like the pastries with the desserts. And having things be like this is an appetizer, this is what’s listed for dinner. This is dessert and these are sides, like a more logical ordering of categories.

 

Tingyu Zhang 23:14

 Thank you! So the 13th question, do you think it is user-friendly?

 

Kai 23:28

I think it’s fine for what it’s doing. But I think like an English speaker. Like someone does not know any Chinese would have trouble. They’d be able to guess based on some of the visuals and they could use a translator. But I think for it to be user-friendly in the United States, the English translations would have to be better and consistent.

 

Tingyu Zhang 24:01

Great, thank you. Okay, so the 14th question. What challenges do you face in the ordering process? How does this make you feel?

 

Kai 24:18

About the size of things were like, what was a tray? And again, being able to distinguish what’s in a dish like can I eat it or not? Or am I just I only can order for my family at this restaurant? Like, am I going to be able to eat or is it just my family’s going to be able to eat？

 

Tingyu Zhang 24:49

Okay, I got it. So this makes you feel a little bit frustrated or it’s not very convenient, right?

 

Kai 24:57

Yeah, it’s not convenient.

 

Tingyu Zhang 25:00

The 15 question, is there any way in which you feel the challenges could be resolved?

 

Kai 25:04

Just in the description or having a symbol that shows if something’s vegetarian or vegan.

 

Tingyu Zhang 25:16

That’s it. The last question. So how do you think the website can be improved in website design interaction?

 

Kai 25:24

Better translations, better navigation, consistency, and how you know the photos are shown and tweaking like the titles.

 

Tingyu Zhang 25:46

Okay, thank you so much. That’s over!