WikiWard UX Case Study

1. Abstract

In our user study for the wiki project, we gathered feedback from a diverse range of participants,

including 22 users: 10 computer science students, 4 fans of The Wandering Inn webserial, 5

parents over the age of 50, and 3 friends. This range of demographics provided invaluable

insights into how different user groups interact with our platform and their unique usability

challenges as well as which aspects of our website can be problematic for all demographics of

users. From these studies, we were able to get some very solid feedback that helped, and will

continue to help this project become even greater.

The feedback was overall extremely positive, with users thinking that the idea was great and the

website was overall very easy to use and functional, but there were some key areas that the

users felt our website could improve. These main areas were website stability, the intrusiveness

of the table of contents, and sections where the UI felt unintuitive.

In response, we prioritized fixes to improve website stability, aiming to ensure a smoother, more

reliable user experience. For the table of contents, we adjusted its layout and behavior to make

it less obtrusive, only appearing when necessary. We also streamlined various UI components

to improve intuitiveness, focusing on simplifying actions that users struggled with. This

feedback-driven approach has been instrumental in improving our platform and ensuring a more

accessible experience for all user groups.

2. Introduction to User Interactions

Throughout this user study, we were able to interact with users from a variety of backgrounds.

We got feedback on WikiWard, our website, from a total of ten CS students from the University

of Utah and BYU. We also met with a group of four individuals from The Wandering Inn discord,

who each gave their feedback on how useful the site would be in their particular fandom. Finally,

we met with five of our parents and three of our friends and performed a user study on them.

During our user studies we let the users “drive” and interact with the website while we asked

them to perform various common user interactions. These interactions include looking for

information on different pages while filtering their location, adding new information to a wiki,

creating new wiki pages, and using spoiler prevention methods like reporting and spoiler

flagging. We spent about a half hour per meeting with the user. Throughout some of these

meetings, we would give a tutorial and then talk to the users and see how they were feeling

about various parts of the website as they navigated through it in order to gather feedback. For

others, we gathered feedback in a form and did not interact with the users, to get a more

authentic experience.

Throughout the user studies, there was an positive reaction to the project. Some of the things

that the users really liked were the overall concept of the website, the ease of filtering pages,

and the clean UI. There were also a few things that were mentioned that should be improved

like the table of contents being in the way, website stability being spotty, and visual suggestions.

Based on this feedback, we identified several areas for improvement to enhance the user

experience. To address issues interacting with the table of contents, we plan to making it more

intuitive and easier to expand or collapse sections. Website stability was another key issue, with

users experiencing occasional crashes or delays. To address this, we are prioritizing back-end

optimizations to improve loading times and prevent instability. Finally, we received valuable UI

feedback, prompting us to make certain buttons and features, like the search bar and “Create a

Wiki” button, more prominent.

3. Summary of User Feedback

Our user studies aimed to gather feedback on WikiWard’s usability, functionality, and general

user experience from our wide variety of users. To facilitate this, participants performed tasks

that included creating an account, finding specific pages, filtering content, adding citations, and

navigating various site features. Overall, our users positively responded to WikiWard’s concept

and found its features intuitive, particularly those related to locating wiki content and filtering by

reading progress. However, many users shared common usability concerns. Among these, the

most frequently mentioned issues were difficulties navigating the table of contents, challenges

with website stability, and confusion over certain UI elements, such as the “Create a Wiki” button

and the term “slug.”

Feedback from parents and users with limited technical experience highlighted challenges with

essential navigation tasks, particularly with using selectors instead of the search function. This

group also struggled with collapsing and expanding sections in the table of contents, and over

60% were uncertain about using the help page when they encountered obstacles, which

impacted their task progression. Additionally, many parents found terms like "slug" unclear and

unfamiliar, which contributed to hesitancy during task completion.

Computer science students encountered different, though overlapping, usability issues. While

these users did not struggle with general navigation or filtering content, about 50% faced

difficulties when creating citations due to unclear instructions on where to input text. Similarly,

around 40% of students noted they had trouble finding the “Create a Wiki” button, which slowed

their workflow and created a sense of frustration. Despite these challenges, students reported

that locating wiki content and using progress-based filters were straightforward and effective,

underscoring their generally positive impression of these specific features.

In addition to this feedback about key functionality of the website, users also suggested features

that they thought would make the website even better. One piece of feedback that was

mentioned a few times was that the content pages would be improved by having a sidebar on

the screen to show important information. Another user suggested that the website would be

better if it allowed customizability per series, such as changing the background, adding a

banner, or having a different homepage. Users also thought that third party authentication, like

through google, would cause them to be more likely to make an account with our website.

In summary, feedback from these varied groups highlighted both the platform’s strengths and

areas in need of improvement. Most users appreciated the platform’s core functionality, but

many shared similar critiques around navigation clarity, UI intuitiveness, and specific jargon,

which could hinder new or less tech-savvy users.

4. Team Response to User Feedback

We valued the feedback we received, so we want to make sure to address as much of it as

possible. Due to this, we have already addressed a number of user feedback. A first bit of

feedback that we addressed early in the user study was how some users thought that the

website was too bright and that so we implemented dark mode to address this. This change

was particularly important as some users mentioned they felt. Additionally, we have answered

user concerns about malicious users on the website by adding our privileges system to

WikiWard. With these privileges, any misbehaving user loses privileges so they cannot continue

with illegitimate contributions and actions. On top of this, we have already fixed minor bugs

found by users. These include the recently visited wiki page showing too much, profile pictures

getting reset when new users are created and the default image not showing, and a bug where

when users were not signed in to an account their progress the location from other wikis were

being used instead of being reset.

In addition to feedback that we have already addressed, there is more feedback that we are

planning to address throughout the duration of the capstone class. The main bit of user

feedback that we would like to address is concerns about website stability. Some users have

found the website occasionally not loading and displaying a “too many redirects” error instead in

some browsers, and we are planning on fixing that and other bugs with website stability like the

website reloading at seemingly random times. Another bit of user feedback that we plan to

address is the table of contents being in the way of the website too much. We plan on

addressing this by putting it on the side of the text of the page, or if that proves to be too time

consuming to have the table of contents closed by default. On top of these things, we are

planning to answer a number of small suggestions mentioned by users in the study. For one, we

want to fix a bug where new web pages are loaded too early, which causes a ‘flashbang’ of light

when in dark mode. We will also make it so only admins can delete pages. Another set of

suggestions we will address is minor ui changes, such as adding some padding between some

buttons, making some text boxes longer, sorting chapters numerically, and changing some icons

to make their functionality clearer. Finally, we want to address user feedback about how the

website is hard to use and understand by improving the help page. After making these changes

suggested by users, we believe our website will be even better than it already is.

Finally, we received a lot of feedback that could further improve our website, but we don’t have

time to address during the remainder of the capstone class. This includes feedback like having

a sidebar on the screen to show important information, allowing customizability for the website

background, a longer onboarding process, third party authentication, and having a dedicated

mobile application. We are grateful for these good suggestions and hope to implement them

after the semester is over.

5. Conclusion and Effectiveness

The user study conducted for WikiWard provided invaluable insights, especially regarding

features we initially assumed to be intuitive. While we thought elements such as wiki citation

and the process of creating new wikis would be straightforward, feedback revealed that users

found these tasks challenging. This highlighted areas where our assumptions did not align with

actual user experiences, allowing us to identify usability issues that could have otherwise gone

unnoticed.

The study was instrumental in reshaping our development priorities, showing us where to

simplify workflows and improve the accessibility of these critical features. Users' difficulties

emphasized the need for clearer guidance within the interface, particularly for citation tasks that

require specific formatting or steps. Based on this feedback, we can now adjust our interface

design to make these processes more seamless and user-friendly.

Reflecting on the study, one improvement for future evaluations could be to include a broader,

more diverse group of participants to capture a wider range of perspectives. Additionally,

conducting follow-up interviews after addressing a user’s feedback could provide deeper context

around specific challenges users face, allowing us to refine our approach even further. By

refining our study methodology, we can ensure more comprehensive insights that directly inform

our design and development decisions, ultimately creating a more intuitive wiki experience.

WikiWard_User_Study (1).pdf

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