User Experience Test from peek.com

Here's the video - 15 MB.

not bad! he got what the app was for.

just reinforces how much we need some kind of sandbox thing.

That was great. @alanna can you tell me more about why you think the vid reinforces the need for a sandbox?

Because he spent all that time on the website and still never saw the app in action! All users want to do is get in there and click the buttons and then they'll immediately see how it works.

He did get to see the app via Diaspora's group ... & he didn't express a desire to play with the app any more than that. Said he'd come back if he had a group that needed to make decisions.

@alanna did you see Simon's link in the contributor's wall about another way of introducing users to the product?

Yeah a walkthrough could achieve the same outcome as a sandbox. It's just really obvious that people will not really watch videos all the way through.

I thought it was interesting he did not see the frontpage video, and instead watched the old one.. made me want to make the front page one stand out more, and remove the people from the holding image, replace with app screenshot.

@robertguthrie he did have english as a second language though — I expect the video's headline text would leap out at native speakers more

@robertguthrie although the user has English as a second language (presenting a true user case to consider headline copy against), I think this user presents a typical user persona-type, users display diverse patterns for orientating themselves with an online offering.

Some are more inclined to use the top navigation in an orderly fashion, being steered by the navigation labels, others are more freestyle and will scroll and click through from in-page various calls-to-action.

My recommendation is to more clearly identify the difference between the videos i.e. 'What is Loomio' (homepage video) and 'Take a tour'.

I realise you're trying to keep the 'How it works' section clean - but some users will naturally have a mind-set of looking for deeper explanation (and be open to investing time in a video there) when they decide to go into a 'How it works' section.

Although it's a common theme to use videos on homepages (ie Xero amongst many), when presented also with a 'How it works' section...some users will take the short cut to what they consider an 'in-one-section."

Could the Intro video also be added to the How it works section.

Another option also to consider:

I don't think all users will know to expand the screenshots to full view.

So, as users are typically not going to actually watch a video past 20secs in length - I recommend breaking up the demo into bite sizes 20 sec videos and placing them in place of the screenshots.

In this case the "Intro Video" could lead the section.

Questions remains - should there be a double-up on the homepage?

Food for thought.

PS: Went to peek.com - little confused as appears to be a travel website? :/

Thanks @neva that's awesome stuff. Sorry It's usertesting.com

Cool, thanks for link - really interesting example right there.

Usertesting.com - video tour on homepage, may be skipped as I explained, but they've a combo of screenshots and a video on a 'How it works page'. Their video is very long, but within the main video they have a fancy (but over complicated) set of video clips.

Of course the actual design is not nearly as lovely as Loomio!