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More iPlayer testing
- 3 Sep 07, 04:30 PM
We鈥檝e been looking at how the iPlayer, the 大象传媒鈥檚 seven-day catch-up service, has been received by the public now that it is in extended beta testing. This week, we鈥檙e doing something a little different.
Feel free to hum the theme tune to Mission Impossible as you read this next bit. Keep it to yourself, dear Reader, but I鈥檝e managed to get my hands on some usability videos of people testing the iPlayer.
It has been extensively tested 鈥 and I mean extensively 鈥 with people with all kinds of access concerns, from people who are hearing impaired to visually impaired people via others on the autism spectrum.
Usability testing is a fascinating process. The user is set a series of tasks, like finding and downloading a programme, and encouraged to 鈥渢hink aloud鈥 as they go about them. Communicating their thought processes, and explaining why they do certain things, gives a real insight into how the iPlayer will fare in the real world.
I鈥檝e taken a look at the usability videos of how people who need to change the appearance of the iPlayer because of dyslexia, or colour-blindness, have found it.
The appearance of the iPlayer can be extensively modified to suit each individual user. For someone with dyslexia, this might be changing the colour of the text and the background to make it easier to read. One of the usability tasks was to do precisely this.
After watching several of the usability videos, it quickly became apparent that one issue was the wording used to link through to these features. A couple of testers did not realise that the 鈥淒isplay Options鈥 link would let them change the appearance of the website. When pressed, one tester thought that the link 鈥渕ight have something to do with subtitles.鈥
The 鈥淒isplay Options鈥 page also had a couple of issues for some of the users. Firstly, there is a preview window to check out changes made 鈥 unfortunately, this was just below the bottom of the screen. Users were successfully changing colour schemes, and pressing preview, but it seemed to them as if nothing happened. Whilst they quickly realised what was going on, they all agreed that the preview window should still be more prominent.
For one tester, the default appearance of the page itself was a problem. Unlike the iPlayer, the 鈥淒isplay Options鈥 page has a mainly white background. One tester found this difficult to look at after a short time.
Generally, though the testers thought it was pretty cool to be able to change the colours for of the text, or the background colour of the page, or the size of the text. They also agreed that they would be tempted to use it, although they also liked the default colour scheme of the iPlayer, which is largely white text on a black background.
Once the feedback from these usability videos has been properly assessed, I expect that the next version of the Display Settings feature will be considerably enhanced 鈥 and given a different name!
The usability videos did have some lighter moments as well. One participant, having been briefed on the tasks ahead, was asked if he had any questions. With a look of horror, his solitary question was, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have to sit through all of Dance X do I?鈥
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