Due to the WordPress blogs acting as portfolios, it is essential that they are professional and are in a correct working order for employers to view. With that, the primary aim of this task was to test and evaluate another students blog. By doing this, we can ensure that our sites meet the basic usability goals and offer a good user experience.

Evaluating

As the evaluator, I was provided with a list of 8 tasks by Amber Dalton to ensure her blog met all of the usability goals whilst also giving a good user experience.

Figure 1 is the feedback video where I offer constructive criticism on how Amber could improve the user experience.

Designing

I provided Lucy Magowan with a list of 8 tasks for her to examine my blog to provide me with constructive criticism.

1. Use the search bar to find a module.
2. Find the ‘Collage Maker’ post and open it (Without using the search bar).
3. Open the Adobe XD file on the post.
4. Expand an image
5. Find where to access my Dribbble account and open the link.
6. Download the file on the ‘Childish Music Festival Style Guide’ post.
7. Play the presentation video on RP2- Multichannel UX
8. Return home without using the home button located on the menu.

Figure 2 is the feedback video I received from Lucy.

Approaching the Feedback

I was provided with many suggestions in order to improve my site, some of which involve changes within the journey Lucy had taken when evaluating some of the tasks I had provided.

There are 4 major changes which were suggested.

Adjustment 1

The first suggestion was pointed out during Lucy’s journey when evaluating the first task. Although it was stated the search bar was easy to find, the ‘search’ button was advised to be clearer by changing the colour of its hover state.

I headed over to Elementor to change the site settings; I noticed that the colour of the hover state of the button was transparent. I quickly adjusted that by selecting the correct colour from my global colours and altered the text colour to white to keep the consistency throughout my blog.

Adjustment 2

It was brought to my attention that blog posts were missing from one of my previous modules. I visited my dashboard and searched my earlier posts, I discovered that there were 19 posts unpublished. I amended that by publishing the posts that sat under drafts.

Adjustment 3

After completing adjustment 2, I was able to amend adjustment 3. Lucy had discovered that my blog posts didn’t fall under the category, however, this was due to posts not being published.

In order to fix this, I went back to the posts from the dashboard and quick edited all of my posts. I ensured all of the relevant categories were selected for them to appear on the pages. I noticed that this was an issue across many blog posts so I was able to amend them too.

Adjustment 4

In one of my earlier posts, Lucy pointed out that some of my images weren’t clickable. This was due to being unfamiliar with WordPress at the time. Nevertheless, I took the time to go through my older posts to amend the issue. All of my recent posts didn’t have this issue.

Additional Adjustments

Whilst I was testing and evaluating Amber Daltons’ blog, I decided there were two areas where I could improve. On my homepage, I had an illustration of myself; I instead decided to switch this with an actual image of me.

Additionally, there was only the option to visit both my Pinterest and Dribble accounts. I added my LinkedIn and Instagram accounts so users could see more of me and my work on other platforms.

Conclusion

To conclude the task, I believe Lucy has helped me to discover additional areas of my blog that could be improved besides the suggestions she gave in the feedback video. Evaluating Ambers’ blog assisted me in improving mine with minor changes to my homepage. Although there weren’t many changes suggested, they were still significant as they contributed towards giving the user a better experience when visiting my blog