GoodGhosting Alpha Testing — 👻
Results and insights from our first user tests
And so it begins!
After months of research, coding, and brainstorming sessions, we’ve finally got an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to show to the world. But before we can take it to the Ethereum mainnet, we had to do a bit of testing. For this, we deployed our MVP on the Kovan testnet, and hooked it up to our preliminary user interface. We went into the alpha testing with one primary goal:
To improve GoodGhosting by discovering, observing, and resolving as many usability issues as we could.
We were able to achieve this by reaching out to members of our community. We invited 8 people on a ‘first come, first served’ basis to try out our savings pool on the Kovan testnet. The group of testers was split into two groups of four. We’ve dubbed the groups Blaze and Kale. Splitting the testers into two groups allowed us to test the first group, gather feedback, make minor iterations to our interface, and then try out the changes with our second group.
The MVP worked as expected, we learned a lot, and are one step closer to open beta testing!
How did we test?
Each tester took part in an online onboarding and offboarding call. During each call, I was accompanied by at least one observer. Together we combined our years of experience and powers of observation to shut up and listen 🤫. We weren’t here to sell our product, we wanted to hear what our user’s thoughts were. During the onboarding call, we gave our users the task to:
“Use our step-by-step guide to join the game.”
This allowed us to test and observe:
- The ease of following a step-by-step guide (which will later be used for beta testing)
- The intuitiveness of our site’s interface
Sifting through the feedback
Although the general reception of our MVP was positive, there were some valid pain points that were made clear to us throughout our testing. So when it came to analysis, we used a technique called “Affinity Mapping”. What is affinity mapping? I’m glad you asked! It’s a way of writing down a lot of individual points of observation and feedback from your users and then grouping them together. It gives a bigger picture of what’s really going on. Once everything was grouped and sorted, we were able to pick out some key pain points from our users.
Blaze Group
Pain Points:
“I wonder what a round is and how long it lasts?”
“I think my transaction went through?”
“I don’t know what happens after 14 hours.”
“Have I deposited my money? I can’t tell.”
Observations:
- The initial copy of the game dashboard left users perplexed
- Testers weren’t always confident on when to make their second deposit or how to withdraw funds
- The ‘Game Stats’ section felt lacking and left users with more questions than answers
Bugs:
- The page didn’t auto-populate after users joined the game and made their first deposit
Quick Fixes:
- Adjusted copy
- Fixed auto-populate bug
- Added a pop-up window to notify users of their successful deposit
- Added additional stats to the ‘Game Stats’ Section based on tester feedback
Kale Group
Pain Points:
“I’m making transactions but I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Is game duration the same as a round?”
“What happens if you drop out?”
“Current checklist design for ‘Withdraw your funds’ isn’t a clear CTA. I think I clicked on it accidentally.”
Observations:
- Testers felt well informed and satisfied after reading ‘Game Stats’
- Most testers were still not confident as to when the next deposit was due
- There were more questions about the rules & parameters of the game
- Inconsistent copy made it difficult for users to understand the rounds
Bugs:
- The auto-populate bug has reprised its role, it also brought a few new uninvited friends to the party
Quick Fixes:
- Added additional stats to the ‘Game Stats’ Section based on tester feedback
Feedback From Offboarding Calls
Once the game was complete, we held offboarding calls with our testers to gather their postgame feedback. When the testers were prompted about their experience, they gave positive feedback using words like “simple, smooth, and painless”. But there were some key takeaways that we got for points of improvement :
- Testers were still asking many questions about our product that should be made clearer on the site
- It was easy, almost too easy. One tester even used the word ‘boring’. Luckily we have plenty more up our sleeve to make the process a lot more interactive and fun.
- Our withdrawal CTA was not intuitive
What we learned
It was the finest of details that really caused the biggest of problems for our users.
This was the first intimate contact between our users, the game and ourselves. We were taken aback by their willingness to help and their thorough feedback. It was also a humbling experience that caught us all by surprise. When you put out an MVP, you spend so much time doubling checking things and trying to make it all as clear and as intuitive as possible, but sometimes you’re just slightly off the mark. The important thing is that our testers were able to navigate through our MVP. However, we got some awesome ‘glows’ and ‘grows’ along the way.
Glows — What we should keep doing
Step-by-Step Guide
The guide that we created for the testers allowed them to easily acquire the test currency for our testing. The only hiccups occurred when users were tasked to engage with a third-party page.
Landing Page
For many, the copy was clear and explained what we do well. Our testers ranged in various levels of financial and crypto knowledge. Each tester seemed confident and comfortable reading through the landing page. There were also some positive comments on our layout and color scheme.
Interface
Our interface was easily navigated by all of the testers. Each tester was easily able to join the game and make their initial deposit.
Grows — Where we need to improve the most
Game Dashboard
This is where the confusion began to set in with many of our testers. There are some clear points that we need to improve upon. Some of the CTAs weren’t as intuitive as we thought and some of the copy (both new and old) left testers feeling lost. Though the details are minute in nature, they can make or break the user experience of our product.
Bugs and user engagement
Throughout the testing, there were many “What now?” moments from our testers. Testers would often come to points along the way that cause confusion. One of the leading causes came from bugs.
Clearer details
The interface and game are simple to understand and navigate, but the fine details left testers with more questions than answers. These details were not only copy related, but always related to our product itself. Although it’s clearer to some, others are still a bit unsure about things. Every call yielded more and more questions. Every question revealed the potential room for improvement. The curious nature of humans did get the best of us, but it has helped us to better prepare for the future.
What’s next?
A bunch of cool sh*t 💩.
But first thing’s first. We are going to go take a deeper look at our feedback, continue to iterate (both on the user interface and smart contract front), and then prepare for our open Beta testing. If you’re interested in keeping up to date with our product, you should totally join our discord channel.
Not a fan of discord? Well, then you can also follow us on Twitter!
A message to our supporters
A massive thank you to our testers and supporters so far. Our journey together has only just begun. We are so happy to continue collaborating together and working towards building an awesome product. Without your love and support, we’d probably be lying face down in some drained hotel pool. So hats off to you all. You’re the real MVPs of our MVP!
