# User Testing - Brand Personality Tests
## Background
### What we aimed to learn
The goal of this round of testing was to learn how our current brand is perceived. This will give us an idea of where we are now with our branding, and how that differs with where we want to be.

It's also valuable to understand how users feel about our industry as a whole. Does our brand align with what they desire?

### Approach

We ended up running this test twice, with 10 testers total. We screened for those who have booked entertainment/services online in the past.

Prior to running this test, I reached out to John, Heather, Mark S, Megan, and Locke with [a list of adjectives and their opposites](https://www.dropbox.com/s/hcu5t3lz15rat2s/Screen%20Shot%202021-11-03%20at%2012.04.43%20PM.png?dl=0) (80 adjectives total), e.g. Welcoming/Reserved, Vibrant/Subtle, etc.

I then had each of those team members choose and rank-order the top 10 adjectives they would use to describe the *ideal* brand personality of GigSalad. From there, I took the average of everyone's ranked responses and distilled them down to our top ten ideal brand personality traits:

* Fun (vs. Serious)
* Welcoming (vs. Reserved)
* Trustworthy (vs. Rebellious)
* Intuitive (vs. Technical)
* Friendly (vs. Professional)
* Warm (vs. Cool)
* Secure (vs. Free)
* Feminine (vs. Masculine)
* Modern (vs. Classic)
* Playful (vs. Earnest)

These brand personality descriptors were then shown to the users for them to rank where we currently fall on the spectrum of these traits.

### The test

There were three sections to this test:
1. Gauging branding sentiment of our industry as a whole
2. Gauging branding sentiment of our results pages
3. Semantic differential scale questions regarding the top adjectives we've identified – the adjectives we "want" to be on one side, the antonym on the opposite, and having them rank where we fall on that scale.

:paperclip: [See the full test outline here!](https://hackmd.io/@07EQYIpTSViVTj7XX0W0zw/SkxBuEalt)

## Findings
### How far are we from our ideal brand personality traits?

#### Differential scale ratings

Users were asked to rank where GigSalad falls when presented with brand personality traits and their opposites.

Users were given a 5-point rating scale with our ideal trait being `1` and the opposite being `5`. For example:

> Overall GigSalad’s brand feels…
> Modern [1] • • • Classic [5]

Ratings below represent where we currently are in terms of ideal brand personality traits. The scores below represent how aligned we are with our ideal brand personality traits. A score of 5/5 would be perfect alignment; a score of 1/5 would be poor alignment:

| Adjectives | Alignment score |
| -------- | -------- |
| Fun | 3.4/5 |
Welcoming | 3.3/5
Trustworthy| 3.4/5
Intuitive | 3.0/5
Friendly | 2.3/5
Warm | 2.1/5
Secure | 2.8/5
Feminine | 2.0/5
Modern | 3.1/5
Playful | 2.9/5

If you take the average from those alignment scores, we score a 2.83/5.

At a glance it looks like we're already on the right track as far as being fun, welcoming, trustworthy, and modern, and have plenty of room to improve as far as being friendly, warm, and feminine.

Since 10 people isn't enough to get a clear picture of users' sentiment from ratings alone, here's a few stand-out quotes from users explaining why they ranked how they did:

**Fun/Serious**
> "Fun. Fun for sure. **I get a fun vibe from it**. Guitars, events, birthday parties"
>
> "Definitely **feels fun**.. I mean **just the name itself 'GigSalad' is fun**"
>
> "I wouldn't think it's too out there... **I think it's pretty balanced between fun and serious**"
>
> "I guess it seems like it's going to be fun with the little image of the guy with the guitar, but **I don't think the logo or anything about the website is super 'fun'**."
>
> "Seems fun in a way that's like really easy to use and there's a guy with a guitar that's really cool, **but serious because it's organized well and easy to navigate**"

**Welcoming/Reserved**
> "I feel like the website is just **a little bland for event planning**"
>
> "**It's bright, it's airy**... fast free quote is inviting and helps you feel reassured... **reviews, bookings, very welcoming**"

**Trustworthy/Rebellious**
> "I'd say trustworthy **because of the reviews**"
>
> "I'd say trustworthy... I like how they show **reviews and past bookings**"
>
> "**The reviews**, primarily, **make it trustworthy**"
>
> "it seems **really trustworthy**... **I don't think I'd be suspicious of it** if someone were to send me a URL and ask me to book a performer"

**Intuitive/Technical**
> "It looked **straightforward and easy** so intuitive"
>
> "Definitely seems **very easy to use**. No question on How do I navigate this at all"
>
> "I'd say it's not super technical, it's pretty **easy to use**."

**Friendly/Professional**
>"**Pretty friendly actually**... the way that GigSalad asks questions..."
> -- Likes the follow up questions in the quote request form.
>
> "Leaning more towards professional [over friendly] because they're [Gigsalad] more **simple** and **basic**."
>
> "They do a good job at being **professional and friendly**...like **balancing those things in a good way**...the **pictures** of the cover bands are **fun**...people wouldn't put their band on a website they don't trust"

**Secure/Free**
> "I would say **it's secure**...I definitely don't assume it's free. **Seems trustworthy to me**."
>
> "**It definitely feels secure**"

**Warm/Cool**
> "It feels warm... **it feels welcoming and happy**... I definitely feel the warm vibes, not the cool"
>
> "The blue and the white gives me a cool vibe to it... but **it's a warm feeling because it's a company catering to customers' needs**."
>
> "the colors are **on the cooler side**, **but the pictures**, the way you can scroll, navigate through the site pretty quickly..." - She kind of trails off here, but attributes warmness to user images and ease of use.
>
> "I'm going to go with 'cool' **due to the blue color**. Just **doesn't give a very warm feeling**."

**Feminine/Masculine**
> "I'm going to go with **masculine because of the picture of the man playing guitar**, and I **associate bands with masculinity**"
>
> "**More on the masculine side**. I'm **not sure why I think that**, but that's **the vibe I got** from the site."
>
> "**More masculine due to the blue**, and that big man [guitarist silhouette] in the background there."
>
> "**More masculine** even though the **circle logo gives it a feminine feel**."

**Modern/Classic**
> "It does somewhat of a classic feel to it because of the artists but I'm leaning towards modern"
>
> "Definitely get a modern feel, a perfect amount. Lost of variety and modern way to book a gig which I like a lot"
>
> "**Pretty modern**... I feel like it **could be modernised a bit more**."
>
> "**Definitely modern**. When I booked my wedding there was no way to do it online. I actually had to go and listen to the bands in person!"

**Playful/Earnest**
> "With the guy in the back playing guitar, that's a bit playful, but **I don't see this playfulness reflected anywhere else on the site**."
>
>"Very **playful**, **fun**, and **entertaining**."
>
> "Since you are on GigSalad for a good time, **I would lean more towards playful**"
>
> "It does to be more on the playful side and not too earnest. **More the fun side than the serious side**"

**Comments on color usage**:

> "White and blue. Associate with **peace** and **simplicity**. **Serene**"
>
> "Blue; I associate blue with calming and serenity. **I wouldn’t necessarily associate this color with entertainment**."
>
> "The blue, it kinda **makes me think if a finance website**"
>
> Blue- the emotion associated with **this color is calming**!

### Takeaways
Our *ideal* brand personality is one that is Fun, Welcoming, Trustworthy, Intuitive, Friendly, Warm, Secure, Feminine, Modern, and Playful. According to users, our current site ranks about halfway in between user sentiment and ideal brand personality.

When asked about our color usage, every user pointed out our GigSalad blue as the color that catches the eye, and was described as being calming, serene (x2), professional, and that of a finance site. You can see this reflected in how users scored our site with "Secure" being our highest rated brand descriptor at 3.4/5.

Calm, serene, and professional are fine descriptors, but are they in alignment with the fun, *warm*, feminine, and playful spirit of the site we're hoping to evoke? I don't think so. Users didn't think so either with feminine, playful, warm and friendly being the lowest ranked personality traits.

Now we don't want to sacrifice Security for the sake of Femininity or Fun, but rather discover how to integrate these characteristics harmoniously. Are there more playful, feminine, or warm colors that evoke a similar feeling of trust and security?

There are sites that have done this. Namely crypto-related sites where it's important to maintain that feeling of security:
- [Enjin](https://enjin.io/)
- [Polygon](https://polygon.technology/)
- [Polkadot](https://polkadot.network/)

These are just a few examples of sites I feel have adequately integrated a feminine and warm feeling to the experience without sacrificing that feeling of security.

### Moving towards the Feminine, Playful, and Warm
Being that these were the lowest ranked brand personality traits, I feel as though they should be the ones paid extra attention to.

**Feminine**
- Use of warmer and more traditionally feminine colors.
- Purple could be a good candidate as it's the middle ground between warm and cool on the color spectrum.
- Increased roundness of elements

**Playful**
- Use of unique illustrations throughout the site.
- More vibrance and boldness in colors used.
- Fonts that have a more playful personality

**Warm**
- Warmer colors
- Big smiles
- Use of illustration

### Upcoming testing
Now comes the fun part -- designing new elements and styles and testing them against what we have now. I picture this taking shape in two phases:

#### Phase 1 - Preference testing
- Side by side comparisons
- **Fonts** - results, profile, or `/start` pages would be good to test. Ideas for fonts to test:
- [Sailec](https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typedynamic/sailec/)
- [Inter](https://rsms.me/inter/)
- [Metropolis](https://www.1001fonts.com/metropolis-font.html)
- [Proxima Nova](https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/proxima-nova)
- [Gordita](https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/type-atelier/gordita/)

- **Colors**
- Vendor card tags
- Top Performer, Featured colors
- Primary and secondary color choices - buttons, icons, text
- **Illustrations**
- Photos vs illustrations
- Homepage - categories
- Quote request process

#### Phase 2 - Interactive prototype preference/usability testing

With information gathered from phase one re: colors, fonts, and illustrations I will create interactive prototypes of updated pages to be tested against the live site. Pages to consider:

- Home page
- Results page
- Profile page
- Header/Footer

#### Phase 3 - Brand personality test pt. 3
Once we are confident in the brand direction, we will run the same brand personality test again, alongside the [best disc tests](https://bestpersonalitytests.com/best-disc-personality-tests/). with the goal of increasing our "alignment score" as mentioned earlier in this report.

<hr>

That's it folks! Thanks for reading!

Shout out to Ryan Westeren for all of his help when writing, running, and analysing these tests, and to John for his eagle eye when it comes to reviewing. Eagle John!