Results of this study have been shared with Lamplighter Brewery.
Lamplighter Brewery Employment Page
Chris Guiney
User Research Proposal
Business goals
Lamplighter Brewery first opened their doors and tapped their kegs for the public in Fall 2016. Their business goals are similar to other breweries and bars, to produce and sell their own product onsite. As well as exporting to other local establishments.
What sets Lamplighter above the many other Boston area breweries and bars is their identity of being a craft or microbrewery. Their website states “Overall, we’re all about embracing the spirit of Cambridge - we’re focused on quality, innovation, and craft.”
A small operation with under 40 employees, Lamplighter is able to experiment and create unique products served in a hip environment, much to the delight of their customers. Who travel to the Central Square taproom/brewery from as far as the greater Boston suburbs.
In addition to beer ingredients, energy, and real estate Lamplighter highly depends on one more resource. Food/beverage and service industry employees. “Beer is an important part of what we do, but equally important are the people that make that beer happen. Meet the team that keeps the lights on!” (Lamplighter.com/about) However, the food/beverage and service industries experience high employee turnover rates. “In 2016, the annual employee turnover rate in the restaurants and accommodations sector was a whopping 73% according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (Macnamara) Many working in these industries are doing so part time to support an education or primary job, and not for the below minimum wage + tips salary.
Test goals
In order for Lamplighter to succeed in brewing its exceptional product and attracting customers to the taproom, they must be able to entice employee candidates and hire talent. Often at a moments notice should an employee abruptly quit.
The goal for this test is to assess the effectiveness of the employment inquiry function on Lamplighter Brewery’s website.
1) McNamara, Andrea. Toast, 21 June 2018, pos.toasttab.com/blog/lets-86-the-73-annual-restaurant-staff-turnover-rate.
Scope
The scope of this test will include the subject locating the employment inquiry function of the brewery website. And executing the inquiry using a supplied candidate profile. Which will alert Lamplighter’s HR team this is not an actual job candidate, but an experiment to improve their website.
Usability test plan
Checklist
1) Reset website between each session to Lampighter.com homepage. Delete cookies & history.
2) Make sure the camera and screen recorder are functioning.
3) Ask participants to sign informed consent form.
4) Turn on recording devices.
5) Provide participant instructions and ask them to complete the task.
6) At end of task turn off and save recording.
7) Provide participants with post task survey.
8) Reward participant with payment: one 16 oz can of Lamplighter craft beer.
9) Ask participants to sign receipt of payment.
Recruitment screener Questions
1) What is your age?
2) What is your gender?
3) What is your ethnicity?
4) What is your annual income?
a) Under $10K b) $10 - $20K c) $20 -$30K d) $30 - 40K e) $40-$50K f)...
5) What is your highest level of education?
6) In what city or town do you currently reside in?
7) How many times have you searched for new jobs in the past year?
8) How many times have you searched for new jobs in the past 5 years?
9) How did you search for your most current or recent job?
10) What is your preferred variety of alcoholic drinks to order?
a) Beer b) wine c) liquor d) N/A does not drink alcohol.
11) Have you ever worked in the food and beverage industry before?
(If no) Does working in the food and beverage industry hold any interest to you? On a scale of 1- 5 with 5 being the most interested. 3 Being neutral. And 1 being most disinterested.
12) Do people come to you to fix tech issues or do you seek others for help?
Participant briefing
This study will involve navigating a website on a laptop. To examine the website’s employment inquiry function. While using the laptop you will be filmed and your screen actions will be recorded. After the study’s task has been completed, you will be asked to complete a short survey. Upon completion you will be compensated for your participation.
Consent Form
Purpose: This study investigates potential employees utilization & opinion of Lamplighter Brewery’s website. This study will ask you to participate in a test and answer survey questions. This study will take approximately 5-20 minutes.
Participant's Rights: I understand that my responses will be kept in the strictest of confidence and will be available only to the researcher. No one will be able to identify me when the results are reported and my name will not appear anywhere in the written report. Please do not share other people’s identities or responses from the focus group with others to maintain the anonymity of the participants outside of the focus group. I also understand that I may skip any questions or tasks that I do not wish to answer or complete. I understand that the consent form will be kept separate from the data records to ensure confidentiality. I may choose not to participate or withdraw at any time during the study without penalty. I agree to be video & screen recorded for analysis with the understanding that my responses will not be linked to me personally in any way. After the transcription is completed, the tape recordings will be destroyed.
I understand that upon completion, I will be given full explanation of the study. If I am uncomfortable with any part of this study, I may contact Chris Guiney at 978 395 6012.
I understand that I am participating in a study of my own free will.
Consent to Participate:
I acknowledge that I am at least 18 years old, and that I understand my rights as a research participant as outlined above. I acknowledge that my participation is fully voluntary.
Print Name: _______Sam Juliano______________________________
Date: ____3/3/19________
Scenario and Tasks
Scenario: You are a graduate student looking to work at a brewery. You need to find employment soon to pay rent, bills, and purchase food. You prefer to work at Lamplighter Brewery in Central Square Cambridge, MA. You are specifically looking to work on the production / service side of the business. Such as a: Barback, Bartender, Bouncer, Brewer, Cook, or Server. As these roles will allow for flexible hours around your class schedule. You are not looking for a managerial or executive role.
Task: Upon the test administrator’s instruction, open the laptop provided. The homepage for Lamplighter brewery will be open in the browser. Apply for a job of your choosing from the positions listed in the scenario above. Use the contact info and bio provided below to complete the application. Notify the administrator when you have completed the task and be prepared to answer a short exit survey, provided by the study administrator.
Provided job application contact info and Bio
Email: guiney_chri@bentley.edu
Phone: 978-XXX-XXXX
Bio: *This is not a genuine work application* This application has been part of Bentley University UX design course in usability testing. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience and are happy to share the results of the test.
Analysis Plan
Lamplighter.com’s employment inquiry function is a self service application. Using the video & screen recording, and survey we will investigate the following:
Performance measures
1. Did the subject locate employment inquiry? (Y/N)
a. How long did it take?
2. How many pages did the test subject visit before finding employment inquiry?
a. How many clicks did it take the subject in total?
3. What is the subject’s age, gender, employment status?
4. Does working in the craft beer / brewery industry at some point appeal to the subject? On a scale of 1-5
5. Did the subject believe the employment inquiry easy to find?
On a scale of 1-5
6. Did the subject believe the employment inquiry form was located where they expected it to be? On a scale of 1-5
a. If not, where the subject expected it to be.
7. Did this experience make the subject more likely, less likely, to apply to lamplighter
8. comments
Moderation Sample Video
Test subject
Test subject screen activity
Report
Data from video and screen recording
1) Yes, subject located the employment inquiry function.
a) It took the subject 110 seconds or 1.83 minutes to locate the employment inquiry. Subject does not begin participating until the 29 second mark of the video. Subject alerts administrator that he has completed the task at the 2:19 mark.
2) Test subject visited 4 distinct pages before arriving on the Contact page where the employment inquiry function is located. First clicking on About. Then Merch which opened a new tab, the subject then explored the Merch side menu. After scanning the menu options, subject returned to the previous About tab. Then the subject navigated to the Beer page. Scrolled down the entire page, and then clicked back to About. This time scrolling down to the bottom of the page. Subject then scans the footer menu options. And selects FAQs. After scanning FAQs subject navigates to Contact. At the bottom of contact Subject locates the employment inquiry gmail link.
a) The subject clicked the trackpad/mouse 10 times in order to locate and open the employment inquiry email function.
Data from exit survey
1) What is your age: __26____
2) What is your gender: ___M___
3) What your race/ethnicity: ___White_________
4) What is your employment status: ____Employed________
5) (Y/N) Does working in the craft beer / brewery industry at some point appeal to you? __Y____
6) (Y/N) Do you drink alcohol? ___Y___
7) (Y/N) Do you enjoy craft beer? ___Y___
8) In the past month, how many times have you visited Lamplighter brewery? ____0__
9) In the past month, how many times have you visited other breweries? __2____
(Y/N) Have you ever applied here before: __N___
How would you improve application process?
Careers button or more obvious on there about page.
1.Strong disagree 2. Mild disagree 3. Neutral. 4. Mild agree 5. Strong agree
10) On a scale of 1-5, see scale above, does working in the craft beer industry at some point appeal to you?
___4___
11) On a scale of 1-5, it was easy to apply for a job on lamplighter.com
__5___
12) On a scale of 1-5, The employment inquiry info was easy to find on lamplighter.com
__2____
13) On a scale of 1-5 the employment inquiry info was where you expected it to be
___4___
14) If you answered 1-3, where did you expect the employment inquiry info to be
___NA___
15) On a scale of 1-5, This experience made you more eager to work for lamplighter brewery.
___3___
Any comments please leave them below:
*Subject did not leave any additional comments*
Screenshots
Fig 1. Homepage menu does not include ‘Contact’
Fig 2. Headers do not include 'Contact'
Fig 3. Only footer menus include 'Contact'
Fig 4.
Fig 4. Continued
Fig 4. Continued. Employment inquiry function is only located at the bottom of the contact page, in very small text.
Recommendations
The minimum time needed for one to access the employment inquiry function on Lamplighter.com is 14 seconds. The test subject took 110 seconds. A difference of 93 seconds.
The minimum amount of pages needed to visit in order to access the employment inquiry function is 3. Including the homepage and the contact page where the function is located. The test subject visited 6 distinct pages, and visited the about page twice. A difference of 3 pages.
The minimum amount of clicks needed to execute the employment inquiry function, opening a gmail link, is 3. The subject took 10 clicks to reach this goal. A difference of 7 clicks.
In his answers to the survey questions, the test subject mildly disagreed that the employment inquiry function was easy to locate. However he did mildly agree the employment inquiry was where he expected to find it. And strongly agreed the gmail link made it easy to apply for a job. Test subject was neutral about whether this experience made him more eager to work at Lamplighter brewery.
The reason for the test subjects inefficient attempt to complete the task of applying for a job on lamplighter.com can be explained by the differences in header and footer navigation menus. See fig 1. The homepage only displays the top navigation bar, which does not include the Contact page button where the employment inquiry is located. So in order to reach this page a user must choose either Beer, Taproom, Events, Luminary Society, or About to then scroll down to that page’s footer and select Contact. But they can not select Merch, as the test subject did, from the header, as that will direct the user to a store without a link to the Contact page. Fig 2 and 3 display the different menu options for the header and footer, as seen on the Luminary Society page.
Once on the Contact page, the user must scroll down 3 screens lengths to the bottom. And then read small text to find the employment inquiry link. Our test subject commented that he would improve the application process by making the employment inquiry link a careers button or more obvious and on the Homepage.
It is my belief that Lamplighter will attract a larger pool of talent by making the following changes to their website. First add the Contact page button the the homepage menu of Lamplighter.com. This way if a potential employee goes to the website with the intention of applying for a job, they can arrive to the right page immediately without getting sidetracked or lost. Next, a more obvious careers button on the contact page would be far more visible than the current small text at the bottom of the page. This button could even just be an anchor link to the existing text and gmail function at the bottom of the page. Perhaps the button could be located in the top right, next to the find our beer icon. More testing will be needed to determine the best location.
In conclusion, the employment inquiry function on Lamplighter.com was located in an intuitive page for the test subject. But it was not very intuitive how to arrive to the page in order to complete the task of applying for a job. And the experience left the test subject neutral about working for Lamplighter. In order to staff a small business and make a superior product in a high turnover industry, the brewery needs to attract a steady stream and large pool of job candidates. The design of the brewery website should ease the burden of inquiring about employment opportunities and excite potential employees. Therefore it is worthwhile making changes to the website’s employment inquiry function.
