Case Study: Testing Asda's TV Shopping Service

Claims of simplicity of use accompanying the launch of Asda's pioneering new home shopping service (see: Brief: Asda finds New Market through TV sets) are no accident, according to Marty Carroll of The Usability Company.

The Usability Company was commissioned by Asda to assess the usability of the company's home shopping service, using a prototype version prior to launch, and make recommendations for changes before going live on Sky Active. Asda were specifically interested in the usability issues experienced during the registration process, the use of the shopping basket and the checkout process.

Eight participants, representative of the service's core target audience, were given two scenarios to complete reflecting proposed real world usage. These scenarios involved finding products, adding them to the shopping basket, selecting a delivery time, navigating the checkout process and using value add features provided by the service. Each participant's screen and an image of the participant were captured using picture-in-picture software. All of the video footage was analysed to determine where problems occurred.

The overall finding was that the service was very usable having been designed following user-centred design methods. However, a number of issues were uncovered that would undoubtedly have caused problems for customers. These included terminology, consistency and feedback problems. As an example, users were not offered feedback having added a product to their shopping basket. Users also had difficulty determining how products were categorised within the online store.

According to David Martin, marketing manager at Asda: 'Final usability testing uncovered a number of issues that we were able to rectify before going live. This allowed us to deliver the kind of customer experience Asda customers are used to from launch. The interactive TV channel is not only relatively new to users, but also there are very few organisations with real experience of working with it.'

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