User Testing the Widget Customizer 0.13 Plugin
I’ve tested the Widget Customizer 0.13 plugin with the Twenty Fourteen theme on WordPress r26863.
Summary
- No problems adding, reordering, or removing widgets
- Content and Primary labels for widget locations weren’t clear to the user
- Trouble with scrolling the slide-out, but it could have been a one-time user error</
- Widgets can get a little lost if you add one to an already long list
- ”Find widgets” search seems to obscure the last widget description
- Feels messy to see all the widget controls stay open
- Its not clear, at first, how to exit the customizer
Successes
No trouble adding a text widget. She clicks “Save & Pubilsh” a lot—seems to assume it’s needed to see the changes. (0:23)
No trouble reordering widgets, but again hesitates when looking for right vs left sidebar. (0:56)
No trouble removing widgets. (1:01)
Points of Confusion
She has no idea what sidebar is which. The quick red glow seems to have helped a bit. (0:31)
Scrollbar jumps back to the top, not sure what she did to trigger that. (0:12)
She expected the new widgets to be added to the top. (0:18)
Has some trouble reading the “Twenty Fourteen Ephemera” widget description at the bottom of the slide-out panel. (0:17)
Other Insights
It doesn’t seem to bother her that all the widget controls stay open — but boy does it feel messy. (0:19)
Its not clear, at first, how to exit the customizer. But she gets it eventually. (0:33)
If you’d like to see the full video, you can download it here: 2b86a9a1.mp4 (9:25)
(For Reference) Tasks Used in the Test
- Go to Appearance > Customize Add some text in a new widget at the top of the left sidebar.
- Look through the widgets and pick two that you like. Add both of them to the sidebar and say why you picked them.
- Rearrange the widgets so the bio appears at the bottom of the right sidebar.
- Remove all of the widgets from the left sidebar except the text you added before and one other widget you think is the most important to keep.
- Verify that the updates you’ve made are visible on the site separate from the live preview in the dashboard.
User’s Computer Info
- Operating System: Windows 7 6.1
- Browser: Windows Firefox 26.0
- Display: 1920
Next up: a couple more tests with version 0.14 of this plugin.