Capstone Process Documentation: User Testing

Hey! I’m back with some exciting updates and feedback regarding my capstone project, 50 Ways To Say I Love You*.

*A little refresh and recap about what my idea is in case you don’t know…

My project is a typographic and visually driven book all about love and the many ways people show that to others around them. This is also part of a larger brand that has products such as sweatshirts, notebooks, and enamel pins.

User testing for a book that hasn’t actually been printed yet doesn’t look like your typical user testing with other products such as apps or websites. To make it easier and most accurate to what a physical product would be, I threw all of my work into a digital flipsnack book. I then composed a list of questions to ask my three interviewees. These questions were intended to be thought-provoking and get the most in-depth, non-biased responses out of them. The questions were:

1. Based on the cover alone — what do you think this book will contain on the inside?
2. What is the first thing that grabs your attention on this page/spread? What is next?
3. What do you think of this typeface paired with the illustration?
4. In your mind, how does this illustration correlate with the text?
5. How would you say these colors make you feel?
6. Does the composition effectively move your eyes around the page?
7. How is the balance between positive and negative space?
8. Aside from your personal taste, do you see the genre/style of this book being executed with a high level of craftsmanship and intentionality?
9. Does one illustration/page look different or stand out from the rest?
10. What are the strongest and weakest qualities of this book?

I paired different mixtures of these questions with each other for each spread I showed my testers.

These interviewees were actually each one of my target markets. This included:

• Jessica, a creative. She was selected because she has worked as a creative director and graphic designer for many years
• Eva, a people person. She was selected because she has a big heart for people and loves having deep connections with others.
• Jadyn, a young home decorator. She was selected because she is part of Gen-Z and has strong opinions relating to the design and decoration of interior spaces.

Overall, I think my testing went really well! I received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from my interviewees which was so good to hear and pretty surprising to me. Since these were fresh sets of eyes that have never seen or heard of this project before, there was just more area for confusion and misunderstanding.

Based on all of their feedback, I’m walking away with some big wins:

• They thought that the majority of my page spreads have a good balance between positive/negative space, solid color distribution, and a composition that leads your eyes all around the page and is visually engaging.
• They thought the typeface pairings, as well as how they look with my illustrations, work well together.
• They found the addition of the quotes to add more than I personally thought they did.

I’m also walking away with a few things I need to adjust for a stronger overall product:

• Pages 15/16 are lacking a little bit of interest. I will either switch pages 16 and 17 to pair a more simple page with a complex page, or I will add some extra detail to page 15. I’m also going to play around with the text/colors on page 15 to create something more attention-grabbing.
• Page 19 works, however, it doesn’t fully fit in with the rest of my illustrations. I’m going to mess around with some more flat renders of this page, and potentially change one of the letters to read more easily.
• Some of the language I use for each “way” could be altered slightly for maximized clarity. Specifically on pages 2 and 15.
• The letters were not that legible or immediately noticeable on page 8. I’m either going to enlarge them and space them out more, or change it to be a different format altogether.

Luckily, I didn’t run into any major confusion or problems with my interviewees. With each tester though, I found that we spent the most time talking about pages 15 and 19. To me, this indicates I should focus most on improving those two (adjustments listed above).

I’m glad I did the user testing because it helped to either confirm previous doubts I had about certain elements or bring to light things I had no idea were confusing or interpreted a specific way. I really want all of my spreads and designs to read well, work well, and (ideally) not produce any critiques or questions from viewers. Since I’m done creating the different pages and elements of this project, it’s all about the refining now!

Here is the flipsnack if you’d like to see it for yourself: https://www.flipsnack.com/8B5A9D77C6F/50-ways-to-say-i-love-you-draft-hmqvs5n7t9/full-view.html

Truly cannot believe we’re so close to the end with this project :’)