This is a summary of a user testing session from March 26, 2019, ran by GBKS as part of the Usability Testessen event series. 7 people participated, each test was about 12 minutes, which is a very short amount of time. Testers did not get any guidance and were asked to speak out loud what they were seeing and thinking. Testers were generally tech-savvy, but not developers.
Test scenario
Testers were told that they had bought lunch for a friend. The friend wanted to pay them back in Monero, and asked them to go to getmonero.org, download the wallet and send them their address.
Testers started on getmonero.org. Once they found and clicked the download button, they were switch over to the wallet which was already installed on the computer.
Wallet feedback
The wallet was the main test object, so starting with the feedback summary first. Some website feedback is further down this document.
All feedback is in comments directly on each image.
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Website feedback
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Summary
Overall, the test went well. It was fun to observe people use the wallet and share their feedback. There are some definite struggles testers were having, but considering they only had 12 minutes for the whole scenario, very limited guidance, and mostly no prior blockchain/crypto knowledge, they all did well.
One thing that’s very clear is how important it is to choose the correct words and explain things well. No matter how good(or bad) the visuals are, UI design is still a lot about good copy. Generally, testers had no problem reading UI copy and tried to understand things. It was only when they encountered technical terms with no explanations that they became unsure. Those are the usual suspects like node, daemon and mnemonic seed.
The only time the wallet felt broken to a user was when the daemon didn’t start and they were stuck with the loading screen. Otherwise, it performed very well.
We made a lot of progress when it comes to usability with the last wallet release and I think there’s a lot of value in iterating the screens we currently have(and also the website). If newcomers can find their way into receiving Monero smoothly, they they are more likely to keep using it.
I hope this is helpful to the Monero community. Feel free to reach out with any questions, ideas, and concerns.
Test scenario
Wallet feedback
Website feedback
Summary