User Experience Evaluation for Carphone Warehouse Website - Report Example

USER EXPERIENCE EVALUATION FOR CARPHONE WAREHOUSE WEBSITE Introduction The advancement if technologyhas been increasingly utilised in transforming how business is conducted. Technological advancement has been significant in the development of e-commerce and increased online business. Many organisations have begun undertaking most business functions like marketing through websites, which have proved effective in reaching customers from different locations. Many organisations without global presence have been able to reach the global markets through online business activities. With increased numbers of people using the internet, this has become the easiest method for reaching millions of potential clients. Online payment methods and the use of mobile phone money transfers have further enhanced the capability for conducting business within the internet based business transaction. The utilisation of internet and websites has significantly increased in the 21st century, prompting almost all operations to have an online presence, for global reach. Globalisation of businesses has taken a new trend through the application of internet based applications and resources. Organisations wishing to reach the global markets must have websites which provide information to clients regarding the company products which are available. There number of individuals utilising websites for different activities other than business, has increased immensely. When undertaking marketing strategies through the internet, all internet users become potential clients. This makes the utilisation of internet based business marketing become relatively popular and increasingly attractive among many organisations involved in selling different wares. Background Undertaking online business requires the creation of a website in which the products are presented and which enables customers to interact with the sales personnel. Online businesses commonly take different fronts in the presentation of the information to the customers. The aspect taken by the business seeks to target specific market and customers based on the internet utilisation. Many of the common forms include websites, online stores, blogs and social media accounts. Currently many businesses undertake activities on several of these fronts in order to maximise the number of customers who can be reached by the business online activities. The utilisation of different fronts seeks to ensure that the different customers can reach the business through approaches which they easily understand. Problem statement The utilisation of a website in conduction online business could present several challenges to the customers and the business as well. With many available approaches to undertaking internet trading, many organisations commonly utilise websites because of their stability and the capability to present much functions on a single page. These functions however, sometimes become impediments for customers who might not be familiar with websites. Many individuals commonly rely on information form close friends about websites which can help them get products which they desire. Some individuals, however, encounter difficulties and sometimes require assistance when undertaking transactions through websites. The role of the business therefore remains provision of a user friendly website to enhance usability by their customers. This research will seek to analyse the difficulties which customers might face when purchasing products from the carphone warehouse website. Aims The aims of this study will be To establish the difficulties which customers face when purchasing products from the carphone warehouse website. To determine the user friendliness of the carphone warehouse website. To establish the usability concerns for the customers who utilise carphone warehouse website Analysis The carphone warehouse website presents information regarding different mobile phones which people can purchase online or from the physical stores located in different locations across Europe. The online availability of the business is commonly meant to ease the capability for individuals to search for desired products and make decisions before visiting the stores. The main activities which visitors can undertake on the website are divided into different task which are availed in the website. The online interaction can enable clients to get much of the company information without visiting the stores (Carroll 2000). This has enabled the organisation to have a global reach as customers in locations where the organisation does not have stores can also gain access to the business. Personas These refer to the presentations which are aimed at enhancing user experience when visiting the company website. They are fundamental in enhancing quick manipulation and movement in finding the products or information which the user desires. The carphone warehouse website has seven personas, all of which remain available from the home page. The seven main personas on the home page also contain specific personas which the clients can effectively utilise in getting the desired information regarding products (Möller & Halinen 2000). From the homepage, customers can easily view the personas through placing the mouse pointer on the specific persona. This gives a preview of the persona and the customer can easily select by clicking on the persona. User journey In reaching the potential information the user will generally have to go through three levels of tasks before the final page can be displayed. This number of tasks remains relatively low and the users might find the website easy to use because of the quick access to the final pages with required information. In reaching the terms and conditions for example the user journey would be Home>Help>Terms and Conditions. Task analysis This will be utilised in establishing complexity of the tasks which customers must undertake in performing a single transaction or completing an activity in the carphone warehouse website. The most commonly performed tasks will be analysed through the number of individuals and the time taken to complete the task. Complexity of the tasks will become defined by the ease with which customers perform the different tasks. The number of tasks involves within a single operations become an encouragement for customers to continue utilising the website of consider other options. This also remains essential in the decision making process regarding the possibility of visiting the website another time. Discussion of analysis The analysis of the website remains essential in seeking to identify the various aspects which will be utilised in undertaking the study. The tasks which will be analysed and studied will be determined through the analysis of various activities. In undertaking such an analysis, single aspect like the terms and conditions can be studied, however, in order to present comprehensive finding the individual involved within the research must have first-hand experience through the website and provide their feed back to the researchers. This will effective enable the researchers to analyse the data both qualitatively and make valuable presentations of the collected information from the analysis. Study method The study will be an experimental design in which individuals will be utilised in seeking to establish the experience of customers in regard to the carphone warehouse website. The fundamental purpose for utilising this research design remains the capability to control some of the study factors in order to maximise the available time(Anastas 2013). The findings of experimental researches cannot be utilised in generalising other factors within similar setting. This will be applied because the fundamental focus of the research is on a specific website and all websites are constructed differently. The findings of the research will only be beneficial to individuals utilising this website, or who have utilised it in the past. This study design enables researchers to gain relatively high level of evidence in the kind of study being performed. Participants The participants will be individuals selected on the basis of availability and desire to participate in the research. The research will include approximately 30 participants who will be selected randomly. The participants who shall be included within the research must be individuals who are 20 years old and above and who have knowledge of internet usage. The participants will not be trained on the utilisations of the website since they will have previous experience of internet usage. Tasks The participants will be required to sign consent forms for acceptance to participate within the research. This will be followed by the provision of the instructions regarding how the research will be conducted and the activities which the participant will engage in. the participants will then be provided with a computer in with which they will visit the carphone warehouse website and try to undertake a transaction. The participant s will each be allowed 30 minutes to undertake various activities on the website. After the expiry of this time duration the participants will be required to fill the questionnaire which will be provided to them in seeking to establish their experience through the website. This series of tasks will be expected to take approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. Materials The study will not have any special equipment materials which will be utilised. The materials which will be availed to the participants include the following. Research questionnaire Pen Internet connected computer The participants will be required to access the website through the address provided by the researcher and undertake several activities using the internet enabled computer. They shall then fill the questionnaires using the provide pen following the internet experience from the website. Procedure The researcher will explain the various activities which the participants should perform on the website and provide the participant with an internet enable computer for them to perform these actions. The participants will then fill a questionnaire in which the fundamental focus remains their experience on the carphone warehouse website, which they will have visited. The information contained within the questionnaire will be analysed by the researcher to establish the user experience on the website. Expected results The researcher will seeks to establish the difficulties which the customers experience in undertaking different activities on the carphone warehouse website. The participant demographics will be based on the number of years which individuals have been using the internet, the purposes for which they use internet, their age and experience in purchasing items using online business websites. The user perceptions of the internet are expected to be defined by their experience and age; hence these remain fundamental determinants of the findings. Evaluation results The finding s of the research will be analysed qualitatively through different segmentation of the customers. Segmentation will be undertaken on different aspects, which will include Age of participants Number of years which individuals have been using the internet Frequency of internet usage The results will be tabulated and different problems which the customers experienced presented, based on the different segmentations for effective evaluation. Tabulation of the data collected will enable individuals to easily comprehend the findings of the research. The difficulties which the users experience will also the categorised and presented in a generalised manner. This will be done because the user experience remains different for each individual and the information can only become validated through generalisation of the problems. The nature of challenges experienced will be categorised according to the following dimensions, which the participants will provide a value mark on arrange of 0-10 Ease in finding desired information Appearance of the website Relevance of information contained in the website Customer satisfaction with the website These evaluations and participant segmentation will be utilised in making recommendations regarding essential changes in improving the user experience. Evaluation discussion The research expects to effectively analyse the carphone warehouse website through undertaking the research described above. The fundamental aspect for undertaking the research remains seeking to identify the user experience in utilising the website to undertake different activities. Since the utilisation of online business has become a common trend, it remains essential to understand the experiences of the customers who visit the websites. The perceptions of the customers remain essential in seeking to understand the aspects of the websites which might require changes in order to enhance the user experience. This becomes essential in maximising the profitability of online business and effectively ensuring the online businesses have the capacity to compete with other businesses. The research will be utilised in making recommendations regarding customer experiences with online businesses. These experiences remain fundamental determinants of the feasibility of running online businesses concurrently with other stores. While they might appear to be a common trend, the online businesses might not be profitable to organisations that run other physical businesses, since individuals not perceive the online businesses as genuine. With increased cases of cyber-crime, many individuals purchasing products online remain extremely careful in regard to undertaking online purchasing. Conclusion Online business remains a common trend which has been adopted by many business entities. While providing efficiency in reaching the global market, several challenges regarding online user experience might be detrimental to the profitability of online business. The user experience remains the fundamental aspect which can be effectively utilised to ensure repeat customers for online businesses. Undertaking a research regarding use experience on the website of an online business could potentially provide the essential information regarding improvements which could be implemented. This will provide the business owners with an understanding of the customer requirements based on the difficulties identified. These will be fundamental determinants of the changes which will be initiated to improve the customer experience. References Anastas, J.W., 2013. Research Design for Social Work and the Human Services 2nd ed., New York: Columbia University Press. Carroll, J.M., 2000. Making use: scenario-based design of human-computer interactions, Boston: MIT Press. Möller, K. & Halinen, A., 2000. Relationship marketing theory: its roots and direction. Journal of Marketing Management, 16(1-3), pp.29–54.  Read More