FLICKR.COM

1
FLICKR.COM
Phil Koch I 300 Blevis, Makice, de Runa
Assignment No 9 Fall 2007 11.12.2007

• Formative Evaluation

Screenshot from www.flickr.com _at_ 11.11.2007
2
Evaluation Requirements

• Gather 2-3 representatives from the various
  categories of people who use Flickr.com
• Those who have never used the site before.
• Those who casually use the site to browse photos.
• Those who are interested in beginning to share
  their pictures with the site.
• Those who are adept at performing many tasks on
  the site.
• Those who are power users of the site and perform
  many advanced functions.

3
Evaluation Requirements

• Equipment for monitoring user behavior when
  performing tasks.
• A list of tasks tailored to each user based on
  the group with which he or she identifies.
• Facilities to conduct observations of usability
  tests.
• A team of evaluators consisting of guides for
  usability tests, designers for noting usability
  issues, and coders for implementing changes when
  required.

4
Evaluation Plan

• Conduct usability tests with the different groups
  using tasks tailored to them.
• Note challenges encountered by participants and
  rank issues according to their priority.
• Invite participants to surf the site unguided and
  observe where they click to access pages and
  perform tasks.
• After the tests, gather willing participants into
  a focus group and let them discuss their feelings
  about the site and suggest changes.

5
Evaluation Notes

• Provide incentives for participants by offering
  them 25 or a free year of a flickr.com pro
  account.
• Ensure participants are comfortable at all times
  by offering them unlimited nourishment and plush
  accommodations (i.e. snacks and comfy chairs).
• Assure participants that they will not be
  personally identified and that they may back out
  at any point during the study.

6
New Site Concepts

• Since flickr.coms redesign, most elements are
  laid out nicely and navigation is relatively
  painless.
• The sites hierarchy necessitates delving several
  levels deep in order to perform advanced steps.
  I would facilitate more common advanced features
  such as geotagging.

7
New Site Concepts

• The naming conventions are sometimes off. I
  would rename sets to albums. This is
  consistent with most other photo sharing sites
  and is a common term to describe a related set of
  photos.
• A link to the FlickrMail feature would be added
  to the bottom navigation and a textual affordance
  would be added next to the mail icon on the top
  of the page.

8
Additional Thoughts

• Overall, the flickr.com site is very usable and
  it is quite simple to perform common tasks such
  as browsing photos, uploading your own photos,
  and commenting on photos.
• Whitespace as emphasis is used very effectively
  on the site.
• The top menu bar is not easily recognized at
  first. A feature that makes submenus appear when
  the cursor hovers over the bar would be helpful
  but could eventually get annoying.