Initial Setup User Testing
Tests held in London, July 2013.
Participant 1
Language selection
Cursor is initially over one of the list rows, causing it to be highlighted. This threw off the participant: “United Kingdom has a tick next to it, but Espanol is highlighted, and I’m not sure if I should move it up.” Tries to use the keyboard to move the selection. Notices the focus ring (“you can barely see it!”). Then uses the pointer to click. Tries to press return to go Next - doesn’t work. Input sources
“Input sources… it means nothing to me, but I would still go for English (UK).”
Network
The authentication dialog has obvious issues here - it’s too technical. Need to look at rewriting the text here.
Login
“The terminology isn’t very straightforward.” “It says login, but I’m not sure what I’m logging in to.” Realises that she can change the username. Doesn’t like the negative feedback for password strength (“not good enough”).
Location
Understands that the location is already selected. Doesn’t really understand why location is needed though.
Online Accounts
“Not interested. I don’t use them.”
General response - “it was straightforward, but I didn’t like some of the language. Passphrase has stuck in my head, because that is unfamiliar. That did concern me.”
Participant 2
Language
Jumped through with no problem.
Input Sources
Sees “English (UK)” selected and immediately jumps through without really inspecting the panel.
Network
It’s already connected, so she clicks through.
Login
No problems entering full name. Doesn’t seem interested in the user name.
Password - ignores “Strength: Weak” and the error icon and goes to next (which is sensitive).
“I always use the same password for everything. It still says weak, but I’d still use it because that’s the password I can remember.”
Changes a character to upper case. “It still says weak.”
“When you have a million different devices, you don’t want a million different passwords.”
Location
“It’s already chosen it for me.”
Clicks next.
Online Accounts
“I’ve heard of something cloud before…”
Compares it to iCloud, but she’s not really sure what it does or how it works. “I’d have to look it up to find out what the cloud is, because this isn’t telling me what it does.”
Clicks next.
Participant 3
Language
no problems.
Input sources
selects “English (UK)” - doesn’t realise that it’s an add/remove list rather than a simple choice. Clicks through without thinking about it too much.
Network
already connected, so clicks through. Understands what the panel is for.
Login
Enters name. Doesn’t really engage with the username.
Enters a password - “Not good enough”. Notices the text below the password entry - “oh, I didn’t read that, did I?” Adds some upper case letters and a number after reading it.
No real problems.
Location
Already set to London. “The location is right.” Clicks next.
Assumes that it used GPS to set the location.
Online Accounts
She’s unsure. Carefully reads the text over… “I’m not sure exactly what I would be adding.”
After being prompted, she tries Add Account. “Because I’m on gmail, I would probably click on google.” Tries this.
“I don’t know what GNOME is, so i’m not quite sure what that means. I’d probably sign out now” - points to the Sign Out button in the web page.
Clicks on the “GNOME” drop down in the web authentication page. This displays a personal email address (of a GNOME developer).
aday: additional advice above the web view would help here - eg. “Log into your Google account to add this account”.
Participant 4
Language
participant is very confident; immediately clicks next.
Input sources
selects the “English (UK)” item and clicks next (doesn’t realise that it’s an add/remove list).
Network
system is already connected. Immediately knows what it means though.
Login
sets straight about filling in her name. Ignores the user name.
Enters a password. The strength indicator reads “too short, then “not good enough”. “It doesn’t need to be a good password, does it?!”
“Will it not let me [go forward] if it’s not good enough? I’m guessing that it won’t because it has a warning sign.”
Tries another password. It still says weak, but clicks next anyway.
Location
Isn’t sure why it needs to know the location (when asked). Doesn’t notice that London is already selected. Searches for “london” and gets a bunch of airports. Doesn’t think this is correct, so searches for “United Kingdom”.
“Can you put postcodes in here?” Tries her post code and clicks next. Didn’t realise that the search hasn’t returned any results (since it doesn’t give any feedback).
Online accounts
Pauses for the first time during the text. Reads the explanation, then says “I don’t want to add my existing data, do I?”
Participant 5
Language
another user that is confused by the hover state. Sees that one of the rows is highlighted and asks “how do I go up?” Moves the pointer and realises what’s happened.
No problem after that.
Input sources
“Huh? OK? I have no idea what that means.”
Clicks on English (UK) because it seems like the right thing to do (doesn’t realise that it’s an add/remove list).
Network
A bit unsure what this is (an explanatory text, or different heading would help here). Was looking for the word “internet”.
Clicks next.
Login
reads through the instructions - “this will be used to name your home folder and can’t be changed… huuuh???”. - seems baffled by the instruction (probably unfamiliar with the term “home folder”). “Can’t be changed - that’s weird.”
Enters her full name. Is then drawn to the user name suggestion drop down. Clicks on it. “Oh I can select one rather than having to do it myself.”
Gets to the password part. Carefully reads the instruction below. “This is the bit that I always hate, because they always make it complex and I never remember.”
“I get confused when it says weak, because it means that someone can get into it.”
Manages to enter a password and clicks next.
Online accounts
reads the description. “What?!” Confused. “It’s like a folder where you store everything. I hate doing this…. add an account… OK, so mail and contacts… but this is a laptop…” presses the add button and sees the list of account types “ooooh, OK.”
Why do you hate doing this? Has several email accounts, one for business and one for personal. “My Yahoo is so easy… I can access it from anywhere… but my mail account is so frustration [it’s a mail.com account]”.
Participant 6
Language
sees that English is preselected, goes to next with no problem.
Input sources
selects “English (UK)” from the list. Not entirely sure what it’s for, but clicks next anyway.
Network
no problems.
Login
“I think this is probably if you are sharing the computer. So you can get your documents…”. Fills in his real name, sees that the username has been prefilled - “OK, I’ll leave the username as my name.” Carries on to the password.
Enters a password. Sees that the strength is weak, then notices the hint below. “OK, I’ll add some numbers.” The strength is still weak - “That’s probably fine for now.” He presses next.
Location
just skipped past this without even looking at it. 
“It’s quite easy to setup. It prompts you into everything. Quite user friendly.”
Participant 7
Language
no real problems. Accidentally changed the language and was a bit disorientated; a more prominent selection style could have helped (the check mark icon isn’t particularly visible).
Input sources
understood what this is. Said the word “keyboard” even though the term used in the ui is “input sources”.
Network
no problem.
Login
replaces the user name with something a bit more creative. He’s asked about this and describes it in terms of “personalisation”.
Reads the information under the password entry after having started to enter. “Oh it’s eight” (referring to the minimum number of characters mentioned).
Ignores the strength indicator (which reads “weak”) and presses next.
Asked about how he uses passwords. Says he uses a fingerprint reader at home.
Location
sees that London is preselected and clicks through. When asked, he thinks that the location will be shared with applications.
Online accounts
“I would add an account”. “I would probably add Facebook, and definitely Google. I wish there were more, so I could add all of the cloud services that I use.” [He is obviously familiar with the idea of a cloud service.] What services would you add? Replies - Skydrive, Dropbox, Box.
Finish. Reads the panel.
He’s asked about what he thought about initial setup as a whole. “It was very straightforward, and not intimidating. For the people I work with, it could be even more friendly.”
Participant 8
Language
no problem.
Input sources
selects English (UK), as that’s already in the list. No idea what input sources are when asked though. Doesn’t seem to register that it’s an add/remove list (but then she doesn’t have a reason to).
Network
the wi-fi is already selected, but has no no problem understanding it.
Login
Clearly reads the heading and advice under the user name. Enters a name and doesn’t bother to change the username that is automatically completed.
First attempt at entering a password, the meter says “too short”. She deletes it and has another try. Then it says “not good enough”. She tries again. Again it says “not good enough”. Then she notices the guidance below the password field, and has another try. Again it says “not good enough”, but she continues on to the confirm password step. Then she notices “not good enough”, so tries again and manages to get “strength: fair”. The passwords don’t match; she correctly guesses that this is the case, even though there isn’t a clear indication on screen. She deletes both the password and confirm password fields and retypes. Now it reads “strength: fair” and there are warning icons. She knows the password isn’t right. She’s asked what she thinks is happening: “It’s probably not strong enough, but I don’t no how strong it’s supposed to be. It’s so random! I don’t know how anyone could figure that out.” She thinks that the password isn’t strong enough, when it is the fact that they don’t match that is the problem.
In the end the researcher has to help her get through.
When she’s asked about it, she says that she originally thought the passwords didn’t match, but retyped them. Without clear feedback, she had assumed that she had made them match when in fact she hadn’t.
Location
preselected to London so clicks through. When asked she guesses that the location is used to set the date and time.
Online accounts
Do you know what this is for? “It’s an iCloud service.”
Asked about the experience in general - “It’s OK…”. Comes back to the password issue.
Participant 9
Language
happy to click through since English (UK) is selected. Easily understands the panel.
Input sources
selects English (UK). When asked he has a decent guess at what input sources are “it’s probably what language you want to put into it”.
Network
already setup, but he doesn’t realise (doesn’t seem to notice the check mark that indicates the connected network) [this could be because he is expecting the network not to be set up]. Clicks on next after it has connected.
Login
enters a name, seems happy with the username that is prefilled.
Enters a password and immediately moves on to the confirm password field (even though the meter says “strength: too short”). Clicks next and it’s accepted. No real problems here.
Location
sees that london is selected and clicks next.
What do you think about that? “It’s a basic start up. Anyone could do that. My grandparents got a new laptop and couldn’t set it up.”
Participant 10
Language
selects English (United Kingdom). Do you know that this is about language? Is confident that it is.
Input sources
“I guess that this relates to language”. “I like this, because on the Mac you don’t get an option - it’s straight English (US).” Understands that this is for inputting text. Thinks it might also be to do with browsers.
Network
knows that this is wireless even though it isn’t stated. Clicks on the one he wants, sees the progress spinner, waits for it to stop and then presses next. No problems.
Login
jumps into entering his name. What do you think a local account is? “I suppose it is giving you ownership over the guest account that you are using.” [Obviously being influenced by the test conditions here.] When asked he seems to think that it is related to the wi-fi.
Clicks the user name drop down. “These are user names that are available, I would imagine. I quite like that, because it is giving you an option.”
Enters a password and then confirms it in the second text entry. Then reads through the advice underneath - “I don’t really like that” [referring to the advice on how to create a strong password]. Deletes the password and tries again. Asks whether caps lock is on or not - he’s not sure (there are alert icons in the text entries, but for another reason). Says that he’s used numbers and upper and lower case for his second attempt. “I’m not too keen on the mix upper and lower case. I find that a bit of an inconvenience. I like to have passwords the same or similar to other passwords I’ve got. I know that makes it easier to be hacked, but it makes it easier to remember.”
The strength meter says weak, but he clicks next without seeming to give it much thought.
Location
doesn’t seem to notice that london is already selected. Searches for “London”, along with his post code. “If it wants your location, you want it to be specific to where you are.”
What are the options that you’re given there? [Referring to the search results drop down.] “It only seems to give you airports…” Why do you think there are airports here? “I can only assume that, given the design of the laptop, it is designed for people on the move. … That’s the only reason I can think of.” Selects Heathrow and clicks next.
“I’m quite happy to give it my location.”
Online accounts
reads through the description, but seems hesitant. “It seems a bit early on in the process to be asking or mails, details, and that sort of thing.”
Clicks Add Account anyway. “Oh you’ve got Facebook! That’s interesting.” Why is that interesting? He closes the dialog and points to the description on the panel - I quite like that, I’ve never seen that before - the idea of having social media directly connected with your laptop when you first start up.” Have you ever seen that on other devices? “I’ve seen it on other devices, but not at startup.” What devices? “You can hook your Facebook up to your Mac.”
What did you think of that process? “Generally quite good because it was short. Didn’t ask too many questions. The only thing I disagreed with was the mail [he’s talking about online accounts], because it puts pressure on to enter your details early on, but on the flip side it gives you the option to skip that, so I think that’s OK.” Why wouldn’t you put your mail stuff in? “There’s other things that I’d rather configure first. Getting my design sorted on my laptop, familiarising myself with the desktop and the dashboard.”
Participant 11
Language
quickly goes for english (uk) and clicks next.
Input sources
again, quickly goes for english. What is an input source? “No idea!” Just went for English (UK) because its her language.
Network
knows this is wi-fi. Clicks on the network, sees it connect and clicks next.
Login
enters her name. Highlights her user name, then clicks the drop down. Pauses. What are you thinking? “That I can’t select my own user name.” Explains that she likes to use her nick name, but that it isn’t available.
Enters a password, then confirms it. Moves the pointer over to next and then pauses. Explains that she read the advice about how to write a password. Decides to change it, which she does without any problems.
Location
thinks that the location was determined using GPS, and expects to be able to turn this off in the settings. Thinks that location setup is for sharing your location with websites.
What did you think about that process? “Different.” How? “Making me set up a user name, and selecting wi-fi straight away.” You don’t have a user name? “No, because my username is connected to my XBox Live, like [it’s] my Microsoft account.”
Participant 12
Language
understands that it’s language selection.
Input sources
clicks on english (uk) again. Why do you think you have to do it twice? “For confirmation, in case someone did it wrong the first time.”
Network
the network is not connected. He clicks on the network he’s instructed to and gets the password dialog. Enters the password. Sees the progress spinner and identifies that it’s connected. Clicks next.
Login
What’s this account for? “A user.”
Enters his full name. Skips straight past the user name. Enters a password and confirms it. Then clicks next. Does this fairly quickly without hesitating.
What did you think about setting up a user there? “Straightforward.” When asked he knows that it asked for his full name, username and password. He knows what his username was set to and was happy with it.
Location
What’s this for? “Sometimes if you use Google Maps it might want to know your location.”
Sees that it says London and thinks it’s correct. Presses next.
Online accounts
Do you know what this is asking you to do? “You can use it to connect to several laptops.” What might be included in this? “Streaming, like pictures and information.” Would you add an account here? “No, because I prefer to do it through email.” Is there an option here to add email? “No, I just do it through email [infers that he would send a picture as an attachment].”
What would you do now? “I’d just click next.”
“It’s straightward and easy to read, easy to navigate.”