Improving iTunes User Experience through Feedback and Organization

The assignment content discusses the usability issues of iTunes, specifically with regards to search functionality and feedback provided by the system. The study found that users often miss the search bar due to its blending with the background, and that there is a lack of feedback during certain tasks such as importing music and adding songs to playlists. The researchers provide recommendations for improving the user experience, including reorganizing menus and buttons, providing clear feedback, and reducing the number of steps needed to perform tasks.

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
Aim........................................................................................................................................................1
About the report...................................................................................................................................1
Limitations.........................................................................................................................................1
Experimental Design..............................................................................................................................2
Participants............................................................................................................................................2
Tasks......................................................................................................................................................2
Prioritization of Issues...........................................................................................................................2
Summary of overall findings..................................................................................................................2
Performance Data.................................................................................................................................2
Usability Issues......................................................................................................................................2
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................2
Evaluation Discussion............................................................................................................................2
Introduction
ITunes is among the most popular music players, media management and digital content e-tailing
platform in the world today. It has been on a steady rise since its inception nearly a decade ago. The
rise in popularity was mainly attributed to the fact that it was a simple and intuitive player offering
features and benefits that surpassed its competitors. However, over the years it has grown into a
mature platform offering many different features and solutions which it may not have been
originally designed or thought for. As a result, it has become bundled with several functionalities and
performs several additional tasks than it used to do earlier. While the interface has grown revamps
and overhauls several times since its inception, many people find iTunes today a lot more difficult to
handle than they used to. The paper will present a usability testing of iTunes with a pre-defined set
of users and would also present a summary and analysis thereafter.
Aim
The main aim of this usability testing is to assess the usability of iTunes from the perspective of
general users performing typical tasks. At the end of this test, a conclusion can be drawn to the
degree of usability of iTunes and what are the recommended solutions for the overall usability
problems reported.
About the report
Limitations
This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature, and thus the objective is not to obtain findings
that are generalizable to a larger population. Our goal is not to compare and rank systems based on
the user data. Rather, we seek to obtain deeper insights into how users evaluate their experience.
We expect that this will contribute toward building a user experience evaluation framework that
may be used for future evaluation studies involving a larger population. In addition, we note that the

participants in this study were all students in Information Studies. On the surface it would appear
that the results may be biased towards “savvy users” given the knowledge and perceived expertise
of users in this study. However, many of the patterns that appeared from interviews in fact indicated
that satisfaction with usability heuristics correlates more with persona types than with expertise of
the system.
Experimental Design
Different participants - single group of participants is allocated randomly to the experimental
conditions. We chose this method of measuring usability it seemed sensible to observe users and
determine where the major interface interaction issues were occurring. We did not perform a
heuristic evaluation because we wanted solid evidence of usability problems.
Participants
Considerations
The preferred age group would be from the young adults to those in their near thirties. It is quite
likely that the actual audience varies much more, but this age distribution was assumed to be
potentially the most interesting one to take the new delivery mechanism into use. The gender of the
audience was not considered to be a factor. The visually impaired were not accommodated in the
design to any great extent either.
Selection
Audience selection was done entirely on Facebook groups in a randomized manner. The total count
was 5. The gender distribution was nearly even. Also each of the participants were asked to have
some working knowledge about the iTunes environment. In the end, all of the participants stated
they had used iTunes. The participants were not technologically oriented with a few exceptions. Two
out of the five had considerable technical background whereas the remaining six were not as fluent
with digital devices. The age distribution was narrow and averaged at 30 years. The youngest of the
participants was 24 years old while the oldest had turned 32. The exact ages of each individual user
are found __. Over the course of one week, these five people participated in user tests. Of the five,
two were novice iTunes users with 10 or fewer songs in their iTunes library and two were advanced
iTunes users with 1,000 – 10,000 songs in their iTunes library. The final user was an intermediate
iTunes user also with 1,000 – 10,000 songs in their iTunes library. Four of the five participants also
used Windows as their primary computing platform. Interestingly, the five participants ranged
widely in the length of time they had been using iTunes – from novice users with only zero to five
months of experience to an advanced user with more than twenty four months of experience.
Test Process
Teamviewer
Estimated and Actual Duration
Latest version
During weekends
Notes were taken
Users were asked for feedback

The role of the observer was to take notes (with pen and paper) about the responses and reactions
of the test person as well as to get first hand experiences how the users felt about the software. No
audio-visual recordings were taken during the interviews, again to make the situation more
comfortable to the test users.
After following through the task assignments with both applications, the users were asked to fill in a
questionnaire and evaluate their experiences. Also, an informal discussion was held about the
experience.
Tasks
Usability Metrics
Success Rate
In a given scenario, was the user able to complete the assigned task.
Error Rate
Which errors tripped up users most? These can be divided into two types: critical and noncritical.
Critical errors will prevent a user from completing a task, while noncritical errors will simply lower
the efficiency with which they complete it.
Time to Completion
How much time did it take the user to complete the task? This can be particularly useful when
determining how your product compares with your competitors (if you’re testing both).
Prioritization of Issues
0 Superficial usability problem: may be easily overcome by user or occurs extremely infrequently.
Does not need to be fixed for next release unless extra time is available.
1 Minor usability problem: may occur more frequently or be more difficult to overcome. Fixing this
should be given low priority for next release.
2 Major usability problem: occurs frequently and persistently or users may be unable or unaware of
how to fix the problem. Important to fix, so should be given high priority.
3 Usability catastrophe: Seriously impairs use of product and cannot be overcome by users.
Imperative to fix this before product can be released.
Summary of overall findings
While Apple’s iTunes digital music application is usually commented on having a simple interface and
considered easy to use, a series of user tests covering the functionalities of importing music, creating
play lists, and burning CDs revealed a number of specific usability problems. The user test tasks were
based on the findings from the previous heuristic evaluation and user survey. Problem areas
identified by applying heuristics were then further tested with real users. These specific usability
problems were clustered into nine general problem areas and ranked according to severity and the
ease with which they could be fixed. They are addressed in detail in this report, providing
information about the general problem, some specific examples, and a high-level recommendation
for solving the problem.

The nine problem areas are:
1. Burn Disc interaction causes confusion or surprise
2. The use of highlighting is inconsistent with external operating system standards
3. Critical buttons blend in with interface and symbols do not accurately convey meaning
4. Feedback for numerous iTunes functions either does not exist or is not cognitively processed by
the user
5. Conditional matching for the artist in the Smart Playlist auto fills inconsistently with album
metadata
6. Check boxes in song list interface are not fully utilized by the user.
7. Some clickable areas of the interface do not look clickable - no tool tips or hover text
8. Method of stopping an import is unclear
9. Advanced features less accessible to novice users
Performance Data

Usability Issues
Burning CD
Problem
Evidence
Illegibility of the Interface
Problem
One aspect of iTunes that users commented on favorably, both in the survey and the user testing,
was its very simple and subtle interface. Users like it because it is not confusing or cluttered, yet still
very useful. However, user tests displayed a couple of interface design flaws related to buttons that
could be extremely detrimental to iTunes functionality. Several critical buttons blend 12 into the
interface to the point that users either did not know they were there or figured the functionality
represented by the button was currently unavailable. The other design flaw is that some of the
buttons do not accurately convey their purpose. Their icon design does not represent their
functionality.
Evidence
As you can see, the button does not look like a button because it is completely the same color as the
interface background. While users saw it, they believed that it was not available for use due to it
being the same gray color as the rest of the window, similar to grayed out options in menus. The
gray usually means that the option’s/object’s functionality is not available. This inconsistency caused
severe usability problems. Another area where users frequently did not notice an element was the
search bar. Often when performing a task, the display area in the center was what drew users
attention, and they just glossed right over the search bar. One user, when asked if he had considered
searching for his music instead of browse, said “oh, I didn’t even see that there was a search bar
there. There’s so much other stuff going on.” A reason for this is that the search container is quite
blended with the background. Another example, is the “audio streaming” button for streaming audio
to different devices. The user can only learn about these when they click on it.
System Feedback
Problem
Feedback provided by iTunes is generally extremely subtle and often missed by the user. In other
situations, no feedback is provided. The main areas of iTunes where this problem occurs are during
importing music, adding songs to play lists, and burning discs. When importing, it is difficult to tell
which songs are importing. There is an indicator, but it very small and easily overlooked. While
adding songs to play lists, there is no feedback at all to tell the user that the songs were successfully
transferred. The only way to know for sure is to actually open up the new play list and make sure the
new songs are inside. And finally, the feedback problem with the burn disc functionality has to do
with when the burn is completed. The feedback for this area is subtle and can go unnoticed by the
user.
Evidence

During the test, users made several comments about iTunes’ lack of feedback. One mentioned that
he/she did not knowing which songs were importing, and did not see or understand the small
indicators that show up next to the song currently imported and the songs already imported. He/she
said the indicators “were not intuitive.” This user also did not know when he/she had managed to
stop the import. He/she clicked on the import button multiple times, then kept clicking on it as if
waiting for something to happen. Several users commented on the lack of feedback when adding
songs to a play list. One even said that he/she opened the new play list to check and make sure that
the songs arrived because there was no other way to know for sure.
Recommendations
At that time the recommendations listed below are based on the research observed:
(1) A reorganization of the layout of menus and buttons, not only in terms of aesthetics, but also in
relation to labelling, positioning, grouping of similar functions, colour and size;
(2) Make it clear what the computer file is, what the device is, and what it will be transferred;
(3) Make it visible the ability to drag and drop files on devices;
(4) Reduce the number of steps needed to perform the tasks, such as: the synchronize button that
appears in each synchronization screen, before the options to be downloaded appear;
(5) Improve user feedback, either through color or location, because the current path was not saved,
and without contrast, and check that all tasks have their result, because some did not appear;
(6) Show the time remaining to complete tasks such as synchronization;
(7) When an error occurs, instruct user clearly on how to address issue and propose Attribute (by
Priority)
(8) Improve check boxes for both playlist and sync options;
(9) Offer help in the native language of the user, either through the manual or some warning;
(10) Allow the user to manipulate device information;
(11) Make clear the differences between synchronize and apply functions or think of ways to better
represent this task. Finally, these were some priority diagnosed suggestions, which can help in the
development of future prototypes with more interesting solutions for the iTunes interface to be
tested as well
Evaluation Discussion
It was found in the usability analysis that the system is at an unacceptable level for use, in a critical
scenario. However, there was no serious major design flaws, but still there were many small minor
usability issues throughout the application. When the usability principle is violated, user will be lost
and have a hard time figuring out what to do with the product in terms of accessing its capabilities.
This will lead to lose of interest or desirability of the product.
Users spent more time than they need to perform an action and often get confused, lost, or
misunderstood. The dissatisfaction and frustration were diagnosed at various times. This is due to
the difficulty or inability to perform the task linked to the use of an “Apple®” program, or a company

that grew by its innovative idea and simplicity. The iTunes definitely comes out of Apple’s concepts.
However, it was also possible to observe that, despite all the frustration and unacceptable actions,
the power of the brand slightly increases the sense of denial to the system and transfers to the user.
This research allowed mapping of several program issues, mainly regarding the labelling and
organization of menus and buttons, hidden feedback and deficiency in error prevention with texts
that do not clearly state how to solve them.
It has been proven that usability is an important factor for a system, but it is tied to the user’s
context. Mainly if the context has symbolic meaning, in this case the satisfaction is not directly
related with the step by step success, or the time expended in the middle of the process, once the
critical scenario is confirmed, and in the end of the process the satisfaction was intermediary. When
the goal is complete, in this context of use, the effectiveness, the satisfaction and the efficiency are
improve. There are some limitation in this study. Firstly, the context was geographically limited.
Secondly, the company sees iTunes as a service, and in services interactions, emotions and
customers are further influenced by the context. And finally, it is necessary to do a more in-depth
analysis of the discourses in the user’s test. Nonetheless, the following reflection is released: When
consumer has another alternative to the synchronization task, how will it be with this service?
Customer satisfaction and facility of use in a society where time is scarce, profitability sought and
competition is fierce, as well as the real loss that iTunes is having of users and financial are factors
that strengthen a reanalysis of this software.
Appendix
Invitation Form
Survey Questionnaire Form
Instruction Sheet
User Profiles
Post-test Follow-ups