Williams-Sonoma Test

Abby Bumgardner

September 24, 2023

Introduction
Williams-Sonoma is a company that sells cookware and home-related items.
The company’s website, Williams-Sonoma, is a gateway for purchases, browsing, and
account holding for customers.

A usability test is intended to determine the extent an interface facilitates a

user’s ability to complete routine tasks. Typically the test is conducted with a
group of potential users either in a usability lab, remotely (using e-meeting
software and telephone connection), or on-site with portable equipment.
Users are asked to complete a series of routine tasks. Sessions are recorded
and analyzed to identify potential areas for improvement to the web site.

I, Abby Bumgardner, conducted the test. I am a marketing student at the

University of North Georgia. The items used to facilitate the test consisted of
my smartphone to FaceTime the test taker, my laptop to take notes on the
test, my mother’s smartphone to FaceTime myself during the test, and my
mother’s laptop to run the test.

Executive Summary
The usability test was conducted with the purpose of discovering how
user-friendly Williams-Sonoma’s website is. The test was conducted on
September 23, 2023 beginning at 12pm Eastern Time.

The test consisted of one participant, my mother, Jody Bumgardner. The test
took Jody approximately 40 minutes to complete. Jody is a 48 year old
mother who cooks as a hobby, so she would be considered a part of
Williams-Sonoma’s typical client base.

The test identified only a few minor problems including:

● Some of the videos on the page were blurry.
● It was difficult to locate items due to how many categories there
were.

This document contains the participant feedback, satisfaction ratings, rates of

tasks completion, and overall recommendations for improvement.

Methodology
Sessions

The test administrator recruited the participant through personal familial

connection. The participant was contacted via text message, and then
FaceTimed during the duration of the test. The testing period lasted
approximately 40 minutes.
After each task, the administrator asked the participant to rate the difficulty
level of the task on a scale of 1-5, ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly
Agree. The post-task scenario questions included:
● How easy was it to navigate the home page?
● Ability to keep track of their location on the website.
● Ability to find each desired item in a timely manner on the website.

After the last task was completed, the test administrator asked the participant
to rate the website overall on a scale of 1-5 (Strongly Disagree to Strongly
Agree) for seven subjective measures including:
● The website was easy to navigate.
● I would return to this website again in the future.
● I could easily understand where I was within the website at
all times.
● The website structure was simple to comprehend.
● I could find what I was looking for quickly.
● The website was very aesthetically pleasing.
● The website felt very clean and organized.

In addition, the test administrator asked the participants the following overall
website questions:
● What the participant liked most.
● What the participant liked least.
● Recommendations for improvement.

Participants

The participant is my mother, Jody Bumgardner. Jody is a 48 year old female

who does not have a paid job, but cooks, cleans, and cares for her children.
Jody’s favorite hobby is cooking, so she came into the test with prior
familiarity with the company. Jody was the only participant, and was tested on
September 23, 2023.
Role
Federal State / Public Federal Medical Research * Other
Staff/Agency Health Department Grantee Institution Institution Organization

- - - - - 1

Evaluation Tasks/Scenarios

Test participants attempted completion of the following tasks:

● Locating a rolling pin.
● Creating a free member account.
● Locating a college-friendly item.
● Adding an item to the checkout cart.
● Locating a useful cooking tool for under $30.
● Saving items in the ‘liked’ section and finding them after logging out of
the website account.

Results
Task Completion Success Rate

For example:
The participant successfully completed tasks 1-5. The participant had difficulty
in completing task 6. When reentering her Williams-Sonoma website account,
there were 2/10 items that had previously been saved that were missing from
her account.

Task Completion Rates

Participant Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6

1 √ √ √ - √ -

Success 1 1 1 0 1 0

Completion
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 0%
Rates

Task Ratings
After the completion of each task, participants rated the ease or difficult of
completing the task for three factors:
● It was easy to find my way to this information from the
homepage.
● As I was searching for this information, I was able to keep track of
where I was in the website.
● I was able to accurately predict which section of the website
contained this information.
The 5-point rating scale ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly
agree). Agree ratings are the agree and strongly agree ratings combined with
a mean agreement ratings of > 4.0 considered as the user agrees that the
information was easy to find, that they could keep track of their location and
predict the section to find the information.

1. Locating a Rolling Pin

The participant started off with difficulty in finding a rolling pin due to the
mass amount of categories to search through and not being sure how the
company would label a rolling pin within their website. Luckily, the search bar
at the top allowed the participant to quickly find the rolling pin rather than
searching herself.

2. Creating a Free Member Account

The participant was able to quickly create a free member account. There were
no issues regarding this task according to the participant, and she was able to
create the account within a timely manner and continue shopping. The
participant also mentioned that she likes this feature because it creates a
sense of importance and loyalty as a customer regarding the company.

3. Locating a College Friendly Item

The participant performed this task very quickly. There is a tab on the top of
the home page labeled ‘College Kitchen’ that allowed the participant to go
directly to a page full of college friendly items to purchase.

4. Adding an Item to the Checkout Cart

The participant had difficulty and was overall unsuccessful in adding an item
to the checkout cart. When selecting the ‘Add to Cart’ button, the website
would show a blank screen and not allow her to purchase any products. This
could be a personal laptop or signal issue, but it seemed consistent
throughout all attempts.

5. Locating a Useful Cooking Tool for Under $30.

The participant was able to locate a useful cooking tool for under $30. The
tool was a cooking spatula. While the variety of items within this price range
were very slim, there are some options for those on a tighter budget.

6. Saving Item in the ‘Liked’ Section and Finding Them After Logging Out of the
Website Account.
 After logging out of her account, exiting the website, reentering the website,
and relogging into her account, the participant was only able to locate 8 of
her 10 saved items in the ‘Liked’ portion of her account. This scenario would
be frustrating if you originally had difficulty in locating this item and did not
want to search for it again. This issue could cost the company income.

Test 1 – Mean Task Ratings & Percent Agree

Ease – Location in Predict
Task Overall
Finding Info Site Section
1 4 3 3 3.3

2 5 5 5 5

3 5 5 5 5

4 2 5 4 3.7

5 3 3 3 3

6 4 4 3 3.7

*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

Time on Task

The task that took the most amount of time for the participant to complete
was task 1, locating a rolling pin. While the search bar made this task
completion go very quickly, it took the participant a while to notice the search
bar, and therefore left her searching for quite some time for the rolling pin.
The task that took the least amount of time was task 3, locating a college
friendly item. Due to the tab on the homepage, the participant quickly went to
a page designated to college friendly items and easily completed the task.

Time on Task
P1 Avg. TOT*
Task 1 720 720

Task 2 480 480

Task 3 180 180

Task 4 420 420

Task 5 620 620

Task 6 570 570

 Overall Metrics
Overall Ratings
After task session completion, participants rated the site for seven overall
measures. These measures include:

● Ease of use
● Frequency of use
● Difficulty of keeping track of where they were in the site
● How quickly most people would learn to use the site
● Getting information quickly
● Homepage’s content facilities exploration
● Relevance of site content
● Site organization

For example:
The participant preferred the tasks that had obvious tabs on the website.
There were several tasks that took longer to complete due to difficulty of
location.

See table below.

Post-Task Overall Questionnaire

Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree

Thought Website
1
was easy to use
Would use website
1
frequently
Found it easy to
keep track of
1
where they were in
website
Thought most
people would learn
1
to use website
quickly
Can get
1
information quickly
Homepage’s
content makes me
1
want to explore
site
Website is well
1
organized
*Percent Agree (%) = Agree & Strongly Agree Responses combined

4.6.2 Likes, Dislikes, Participant Recommendations

Upon completion of the tasks, participants provided feedback for what they
liked most and least about the website, and recommendations for improving
the website.
Liked Most
The following comments capture what the participants liked most:
The aesthetic of the website was very good at capturing the participant’s
attention and peaked her interest. The labels for tabs that did exist were helpful once
located.

Liked Least
The following comments capture what the participants liked the least:
The site felt very cluttered in some ways. There were too many categories to
navigate through. If you were new to cooking and did not understand how to
categorize tools and appliances, you would have to rely solely on the search bar.

Recommendations for Improvement

You could provide a page that explains the categories of tools, or condense
more of your categories for an easier search. It took quite a while just trying to read
through all of the categories.

Recommendations
The recommendations section provides recommended changes and
justifications driven by the participant success rate, behaviors, and
comments. Each recommendation includes a severity rating. The following
recommendations will improve the overall ease of use and address the areas
where participants experienced problems or found the interface/information
architecture unclear.
[Provide the task title and an overview of the task. In a table, present the
change, justification for the change and the severity rating for the change. Do
this for each recommendation]

For example:
Find Organizational or Individual Funding Information (Task 2)
Task 2 required participants to find organization funding (Test 1) or individual funding (Test 2).

Change Justification Severity

● Make it easier to locate items Medium

by condensing categories or The participant took the most amount of time on
adding better tab the tasks that involved having to search through
descriptions. the website for items.

Conclusion
The participant thought that the website overall was very aesthetic. The
variety of products made navigation difficult, but from the perspective of a
cook, it was very exciting to search through the high-end options. The
organization could use some changes, but overall the experience was exciting
and not too difficult. The participant said she would definitely return to the
site to attempt future purchases.