Usability Test for Nascar.

com
Test preparation
I prepared to conduct these tests by first, going through the tasks myself. I was able to get through task
one easily. I went to the navigation bar where I moussed over Chase and the Fantasy where I saw the
Chase Grid Fantasy Challenge and clicked on that and saw the perfect scores in bold. (3678) I then
scrolled down further to the bracket and determined that the championship would be held in
Homestead-Miami because that location was under Championship in the bracket.
For task two I went and clicked on the drivers tab in the navigation bar. I then control F Arics name
where I clicked on his image. Above the fold of the website I was able to determine his current rank (16)
and car number (43). In order to find the year he started racing I then scrolled down until I saw the
timeline at the very bottom and saw that the very first part of the timeline was in 2006, his rookie year.
In order to find the number of races he ran in 2010 I went back up the page to the driver stats and
looked under the section of 2010. I couldnt find an actual category for number of races ran, this is my
first problem that I encountered. I logically thought that the starts were the number of races ran and
concluded that he had 9. I then looked for his rank in 2011 in his stats where I found that they had 2009,
2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014, but not 2011. I scrolled back down to the timeline where I found that there
was a section for 2011. This was the second problem that I ran into because I could not find the last part
of task 2.
For task three I looked through the navigation bar and didnt see anything that related to the Mobile 1
Question of the week so I typed it in the search bar Mobile 1 question of the week where the first
thing that popped up was the video, I clicked on that and scrolled through the text where I was able to
find the question What is the importance of using mirrors at the Talladega Superspeedway? I do not
have a Facebook so I was not able to share this with my friends on Facebook.
For task four it took me a while to find where information for the internship was. I typed in internships
to the search bar where I found only articles, I clicked on the first article New class set for NASCAR
diversity Internships where I scrolled through it trying to see a link for internship applications and I
didnt find anything. So when I was at the bottom of the page I looked at the footer where I found
careers and clicked on it where it brought me to NASCAR career board. I suspect that this would also be
an issue with my testers being able to find where to apply for an internship. I then proceeded to click on
the view all open job positions. I then clicked on the NASCAR diversity internship program where I

figured out that one could only apply if one was a minority, I then went back and saw that the only other
internship open was marketing. I could not find anything about a production assistant internship so this
is another problem that I ran into that will be troublesome for the testers.
For task five I went back to the Perfect Chase Grid Fantasy Challenge Page where I then clicked on the
full perfect score list to the list of people with perfect scores.

Choosing Participants
Tester 1: Dakota
Dakota is my tester one. Dakota is a 22 year old male who works at a car wash while he attends school.
He attends DeVry University in Kansas City where he is finishing up his senior year majoring in network
administration. A normal day for him starts with school, he then in his spare time catches up with his
sports teams on TV or the web, he then works the rest of the day. He says he spends around 70 hours a
week (give or take) on the internet and it is split 50/50 between social media and browsing. Dakota is
my high-experience tester. I consider him a high experience user because he is constantly on the
internet. With his degree, although he doesnt necessarily study the web, he is well aware of
programing, scripting, and networking so he is very tech savvy and up to date with the world of
computers. He is also well aware of sports including NASCAR, because he watches ESPN and other sports
channels in his free time.
Environment for Tester 1

Location of test: The test was conducted in Dakotas room where he would be on his
bed. I chose this location because it is where he does most of his browsing and it is
where he is most comfortable.

Physical environment: The overhead ceiling light was on. The test was conducted at 930
pm after he worked because this is the normal time that he always browses the web
(after work.) He normally browses the web with the TV on so he had the TV on ESPN
while the test would be conducted. The TV was a constant distraction because he would
look up constantly to see what was happening. At the time a couple of men on a talk
show was talking about their picks to win for NFL football. He would constantly look up
and talk out loud about how he disagreed or agreed with their choices. Another

distraction was his younger sister who in the middle of the test came banging on the
door to hang out where it took around five minutes to get her to stop knocking and go
away.

Technical environment: Dakota owns a Mac Book Pro and thats what he uses to do his
homework and everyday browsing (along with his phone.) His lap tops screen
resolution is 2560 by 1600. His connection speed was average, pages loaded in three to
four seconds. The average connection speed is 10 megabytes per second. (Akanegbu,
Daly) The browser he used was chrome, (the browser he always uses.)

Tester 2: Donna
Donna is a 52 year old female. Donna works as an upper elementary school nurse. Donna received her
undergraduate and graduate degree in nursing at MU. A normal day for her is going to work tending to
sick kids and then coming home and baking or reading romance novels. Donna says that she spends
around ten to twelve hours a week on the internet and one hundred percent of the time is browsing the
web. (She has no social media.) Donna is my low experience user she doesnt not keep up with whats
new in the computer world, and she doesnt spend a lot of time on the computer, she mainly uses it for
emails only.
Environment for Tester 2

Location of test: The test was conducted in the living room on the couch where Donna
lives because this is where she browses the web the most.

Physical environment: This test was taken in the afternoon when she normally sits
down to get on the computer. There was no lights on, but there was a lot of natural light
coming from six windows in the room. The only distraction that happened was in the
middle of the test when her dog jumped up and started whining because she needed to
be let out to go to the bathroom.

Technical environment: Donna owns an HP Ultra laptop. She uses this lap top for
browsing. The screen resolution is 1377 by 768. The connection was average; her pages
loaded from five to six seconds. Donna used Internet Explorer because this is the
browser she uses on a normal basis.

Test Results
Initial Site Thoughts:

Tester 1 Report:
Dakota said that this site is basically everything NASCAR. He then reads off of the
navigation bar saying that you can find news, video, schedules, reports, standings,
drivers, etc. in NASCAR. He talked about how the navigation bar and its dropdowns were
appealing. But he thought that the homepage was way too busy and distracting from
the content on the page. He liked that as he scrolled down that there was a button on
the right that would bring you back to the top of the page.

Tester 2 Report
Donna talked about how the site is an overview of whats happening in NASCAR. She
said that you can get the latest news and headlines, starting lineup, and watch videos
too. She said that she explained that the front page was fun to look at and that she
liked the big picture (above the fold) that seemed to be the big story because it caught
her attention.

Task 1: Determine the following information about the Perfect Chase Grid Fantasy Challenge.
Tester 1

How many players had a perfect score?

Dakota went to the navigation bar, he said that this is where I usually go to guide me
through the site. He moussed over the chase in the navigation bar and then fantasy
where he saw the Chase Grid Challenge and clicked on that. He scrolled down a bit
where he saw the perfect scores and was then able to determine how many had a
perfect score.
--Answer: 3678
--Completed: yes

When and where will the championship race be held?

He explained how he saw the yellow words that said race lineup and Championship in
the bottom left hand corner of the screen from where he was at on the page that told
him the amount of how many had perfect scores. He then scrolled down further to the
bracket where he looked under the Championship section of the bracket where the
location was under.
--Answer: Miami
--Completed: yes

Tester 2

How many players had a perfect score?

She scrolls down the homepage because it sounds important so it should be on the
very first page. She then goes up to the navigation bar and mousses over video and
clicks on the chases 101. After she looks around the page reading the words in bold and
cant find the answer she sees that in the navigation bar there is Chase in one of the
tabs, she mousses over it and doesnt see anything over the Perfect Chase Grid Fantasy
Challenge and then continues onto the Fantasy tab where she then sees the Chase
Grid Challenge and clicks on it. She then immediately sees the perfect scores in bold
and then asks if I would like the percentage or total number.
--Answer: 3678
--Completed: yes

When and where will the championship race be held?

Donna then scrolls down from where she found the answer to the first task explain that
there will probably be more information on the Chase Grid Fantasy Challenge on the
rest of this page. She sees the bracket to the championship race that she examines and
finds the location under the championship section of the bracket.
--Answer: Homestead-Miami
--Completed: yes

Recommendation: My recommendation for this is to give multiple points of entry into different
subjects. By doing this NASCAR.com would be making it easier for users to find what they are looking
for. When viewers cant find something fast on a page, they get frustrated, which is the opposite
experience that one would want the viewer to have.
Task 2: Determine the following information about driver Aric Almirola.
Tester 1

His current rank

He immediately went to the drivers tab in the navigation bar where he didnt even look
at the drop down options and just clicked on the drivers tab. He then looked up at the
TV for a couple of minutes watching and listening to what the talk show hosts had to say
about fantasy football. He then looked back down and scrolled up and down one in a

half times trying to find Aric. He then got very irritated and ctrl F to find his name where
he typed in Eric. He got frustrated even further and typed in almi and he finally
found his name and clicked on it where he found his rank above the fold in the bottom
left hand corner.
--Answer: 16
--Completed: yes

His car number

Dakota found this answer by staying on Arics page and a picture popped up with his car
and number.
--Answer: 43
--Completed: yes

The year he started racing

Dakota then stays on his page because this is where all of the information on him will
be and scrolls through where he finds the interactive timeline where he interacts with
it.
--Answer: 2006
--Completed: yes

The number of races he ran in 2010

Dakota scrolls back up where he previously saw a stats chart and clicks the Driver
Stats option. He cant find an actual number of races ran, so he determines that the
start option is what the number of races ran means.
--Answer: 9
--Completed: yes

His rank in 2011

Dakota stays on the stats timeline and sees that there is no 2011. He says that that this
makes no sense. He scrolls down to the timeline where he sees that in 2011 it says that
Almirola collects his first sprint cup pole, while racing for JR Motorsports. Dakota
explains how this is frustrating and it doesnt make sense why there is no stats for the
year and refuses to search anymore.
--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no

Recommendation: The interactive timeline is a great feature on the site. It helps capture the viewers
attention and gives a chance for the user to interact with the site. Both testers found it difficult to find
certain information in the interactive timeline. I would suggest redoing the drivers stats and
information to where it is consistent with every player.

Tester 2

His current rank

Donna begins with moussing over the Drivers tab where she studies the dropdown
and explains how she wants to see if she can narrow her search even further. After
seeing that there is nothing related to Aric she clicks on the actual Drivers tab. She
scrolls through the page because this is where all of the drivers are so he should be in
here somewhere. Donna scrolls up and down the full page two times and finally sees
him. She mousses over his name where she sees further information about him.
--Answer: 16
--Completed: yes

His car number

Donna sees that on his section on the drivers page his number is on the upper left of his
picture. After answering this question, her dog jumps up and starts whining so Donna
took her outside to go to the restroom for about eight minutes. She comes back and
continues.
--Answer: 43
--Completed: yes

The year he started racing

Donna continues reading on the information that is provided when you mouse over his
name. She explained that the print is too small and she cant read it so she clicks on his
name where she is brought to his page. She sees a button with driver info and clicks
on it where a popup comes up with Qs and As. Instead of exiting out of the popup she
presses back where it takes her back to the drivers page and she has to click on Aric
again. She scrolls through his page until she is at the bottom and makes a sigh, hmm
when she sees the timeline and clicks at the very beginning of it.

--Answer: 2006
--Completed: yes

The number of races he ran in 2010

Donna says oh I need to go back up to his stats for this answer. She scrolls back up to
his stats where she determines that the option of starts means the number of races
ran.
--Answer: 9
--Completed: yes

His rank in 2011

Donna still looks in the stats for this task and says Its weird that there is nothing here
for 2011, maybe he took a break, Im going to go back to the timeline and see if there is
anything from 2011 on it. Donna finds that the timeline has 2011 on it, and then
explains how she doesnt know the answer.
--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no

Recommendation: the question of the week was hard (took a couple of tries) for both testers to find. In
order to make this more accessible to the viewers, putting a feature somewhere on the front page, or
adding more points of access throughout the site would make it easier for viewers to find the question
of the week. I would also suggest putting a description below the video because that is the standard of
all video websites like YouTube, so that is what a viewer would suspect.
Task 3: Find the Mobile 1 Question of the Week then:
Tester 1

Determine what the question of the week is.

Dakota went to the mobile tab at the very top and clicked on it. He scrolled through
the page and said Im going to try a different tab because nothing here relates to the
question. He then scrolls over a couple of the tabs when he looked up at the TV again
to watch for a couple of minutes. He then said Im annoyed. He then proceeds to the
fans tab where he says that I saw this before when I was going through the navigation
and so Im going to check it out now. He then continued to the fans tab where he
clicked on the voting for Miss Coors Light where he checked out all of the girls. He

asked for the question again and this time he went through the news tab and said I can
see this being a news article kind of thing and clicked on the mobile one question of
the week.
Dakota then scrolls down and tries to read the information below the video and explains
I cant find the question down here which is weird because the content and
information of the video is usually explained here. So he watched the video.
--Answer: What is the importance of using mirrors at the Talladega Superspeedway?
--Completed: yes

Share the question with friends on Facebook.

He clicks on the Facebook icon below the video where it brings him to a new page and
he posts the article.
--Answer:
--Completed: yes

Tester 2

Determine what the question of the week is.

Donna scrolls over the navigation and says I dont know which one that this would fall
under so Im just going to click on the first one. She then scrolls through the page and
doesnt find anything so she clicks the back button. She then goes to the news tab and
looks over the dropdown and couldnt find anything but clicks on the news tab because
its the next option. She sees the mobile 1 Question and immediately watches the
video.
--Answer: What is the importance of using mirrors while racing?
--Completed: yes

Share the question with friends on Facebook.

N/A (doesnt have a facebook)
--Answer: N/A
--Completed: N/A

Task 4: Determine the following information about Nascars Production Assistant Internship:
Tester 1

The location of the job.

Dakota goes back to the homepage by clicking on the icon, he goes through all of the
navigation items looking at the dropdowns. He then scrolls down the homepage and
finds the career option in the footer, he clicks on that and it brings him to a further
search where he puts in intern and the looks at the dropdown of location where he
determines his answer from the options in the dropdown.
--Answer: Los Angeles, Daytona Beach, Charlotte, and Concord
--Completed: yes

Software Skills required.

Dakota cant find anything in the position type category that says production assistant
so he puts all and for the position type he puts intern and searches. All that popped up
was the marketing and Diversity internships. He made a sigh (hmpffff.) He continued to
say that there must be a mistake I dont know where else this position would be
because I did the broadest search for an internship so I dont know how to answer your
question. He then again looked up at the TV and watched it for around five minutes
before he proceeded with the test.
--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no

Writing skills required.

--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no

Refer this internship notice to a friend.

--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no

Tester 2

The location of the job.

Donna says she is going to first look at the tabs at the top. She doesnt scroll over
them she just reads the tabs. She then sees the search bar and says Oh I didnt even
see the search bar until now. Donna proceeds to click on it and types in internships.
An article pops up and she clicks on it and scrolls up and down and doesnt see anything
so she says Im going to start fresh and go back to the home page. She clicks back

several times until she gets back to the homepage. A pop pops up asking to give
feedback and she immediately exits out of it without even reading it because its
annoying. She then types in careers to the search bar where she clicks on the NASCAR
internships. She reads through the first paragraph and sees America and uses that as her
answer, she explains how she is frustrated because she cant find specific locations but
technically America isnt wrong.
--Answer: America
--Completed: yes

Software Skills required.

She then scrolls down through the pdf and looks at the requirements.
--Answer: Be computer proficient in Microsoft Office applications
--Completed: yes

Writing skills required.

She scrolls through the one page pdf and cant find anything about writing skills. Donna
says that why is there software skills on here and not writing skills? This makes no
sense.
--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no

Refer this internship notice to a friend.

She asks How does this work? and sigs, hmmm. And then she explains I dont know
how to do this and I dont see anything referencing to referring or sharing this
information with a friend so I dont know.
--Answer: N/A
--Completed: no
Recommendations: Both testers were unsure of the tasks given to them. Both were unclear on the skill
requirements. I would suggest cleaning up the overall careers section. Making the requirements more
obvious to a viewer that would be applying.
Task 5: Return to the Perfect Chase Grid Fantasy Challenge to determine if there are any additional
players with a perfect score.
Tester 1

Dakota goes back to the fantasy tab and clicks on the Perfect Chase Grid Fantasy
Challenge drop down. He then clicks on the see perfect players names and says Im
looking at the perfect scores and I dont see anyone else that has a perfect score.
--Answer: no one else
--Completed: yes

Tester 2

Donna clicks all the way back to home and then clicks again on the fantasy tab. And
then clicks onto the Perfect Chase Grid Challenge and then on the perfect scores list.
Where he finds no one.
--Answer: no one
--Completed: yes

Testing Conclusions

Completion Rate:
Dakota completed ten out of the fourteen tasks so Dakota got a 71% completion rate.
Donna completed ten out of the thirteen tasks (she only had thirteen tasks because she
was N/A for the share this with your friends on Facebook task.) So she got a 76%
completion rate. Overall, both testers were a little below the typical task completion
rate of 78%. It is also weird that my high experience user scored less than my low
experience user. I think this is because NASCAR.com has not adapted to the modern
trends in the web world.

Similarities and differences:

Overall the main differences between Dakota and Donna were that Dakota used the
logo/home button in the top left corner to get home and Donna would use the back
button. Dakota used control F to find things on a page while Donna would read and
scroll through the page, it wasnt until the end when she finally found the search bar she
started using it. Dakota was very quick to find answers compared to Donna who was
more patient. I think that these difference exist because of the age difference. In school
Dakota grew up with the internet and was taught more on the internet and more up to
date information compared to Donna being taught techniques later in college that are
now old and out of date.

The main similarities that both testers had in approaching the tasks were that they both
used the navigation bar, for the most part, to guide them through the site. They also
both struggled to find anything about the production assistant internship.

Overall there is always room for improvement. I could tell from the two testers that it
was very easy for them to find the Perfect Chase Grid Fantasy Challenge and
information on that subject. I can also conclude from my two testers that the Drivers
page was easy to navigate and figure out basic information by hovering over the drivers
names. Also clicking on the driver and going to their page I could see that it was very
easy to find even further information by how fast both high and low experience users
found the tasks. Overall the navigation bar helped both testers through the tasks
successfully because they both used it to guide them.
Some improvements that need to happen include anything regarding internships and
careers. Both testers had trouble finding anything from task four. Even after they both
found information for the internships they were both unable to find a production
assistant internship position And only one could find anything on the requirements for
the position. Also in task 2 (find Aric Almirolas rank in 2011) both testers looked in his
stats and the stats graph skipped over 2011, yet the year 2011 was in Almirolas
timeline. This made both testers confused and frustrated. Cleaning those things up
would make for an even better user experience, and cleaning up would start by
changing the overall layout everything on the home page is extremely cluttered, and
there is a black background making the site even busier. Making the whole page white
would make the page look clean, and by reorganizing the content on the page, that
would help the viewers navigate through the site. Next, NASCAR.com needs to
eliminate any confusion that a viewer may experience while on their site. Making sure
that information about the players, events, etc. is consistent throughout the site to
eliminate any confusion that a viewer may experience. Adding multiple points of entry
to content will also make it easier for someone to find what they are looking for.

Bibliography

Akanegbu, Anull and Daly, Jimmy. The Average Internet Connection Speed in
Every State in America. State Tech Magazine: n.p. n.d. web. 19 Oct 2014.