Saturday, March 21, 2015
Breakdowns identified after the paper prototype evaluation
Image1
Image2
Image3
Image4
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#
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Prototype
Screen
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Reference
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User’s
feedback/ critical incidence/ problem
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Reason
for negative feedback/ breakdown
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Scope
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Severity
(high/medium/low) and justification for giving it that rating
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Ways
to rectify and any tradeoffs (i.e why the fix might not work)
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1
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See
Picture 1
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7-14
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The
user mentions that it is difficult to find the save button and takes a
considerable time. And at last, randomly guesses the correct option.
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Since
the user is non-technical, she did not identify the download icon straight
away.
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This
specific screen.
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Low
(Because most users are able to identify the download icon)
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Can
have a caption with the icon so that the user won’t get confused.
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2
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See
Picture 2
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17-18
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The
user mentions that the letters are too small and there is no white space. And
the user takes time in trying to perform and fails.
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The
number of post views is displayed on top of the post. Since it is just
displayed as a number and with a small chart next to it, user couldn’t
identify it.
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This
specific screen.
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Low
(Because most users are able identify as it is a common way of depicting the
number of views.
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Can
have a caption so that the user will not get confused.
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3
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See
Picture 3
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19-20
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The
user takes time to find the icon where it will navigate to advertisements of
the site. Finally, after considerable time, User is able to succeed.
|
The
user takes time and searches the site to find the advertisements of the site.
Since it is displayed at the very top, the user was unable to straight away
identify it.
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This
specific screen and the screen that appears after the user presses the
advertisement icon.
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Low
(Because the advertisement icon is clearly visible at the top of the screen)
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The
user can check the top to find the advertisement icon, since usually other
options are mostly displayed at the top of the page.
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4
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See
Picture 4
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21-22
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The
user gets confused and shows the published date of the news post instead of
the current date and time.
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The
current date and time is displayed at the top left corner of the page. The
user was unable to see the date and time straight away as the user was
concentrating on elsewhere.
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This
specific screen.
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Low
(Because most users would straight away be able to identify as it is quite visible)
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Since
it is quite visible, the user can properly check and understand.
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Contextual inquiry for prototype
Tasks
1.
Find older news articles.
2.
Find a way to go to the chat room.
3.
How to view the full description of a
news post.
4.
How to view the local song list.
5.
Find the current date and time.
6.
Find out the number of views for a post
7.
Find the author of a news post.
8.
Find the published date of the news post.
9.
How to download a news post.
10.
How to view the advertisements of the
site?
Description of the technical user.
Our
technical user is Mr.Fernando and he is 22 years old. He is currently reading
for his degree in Information Technology. Hence, he is well accustomed with IT
and its applications. So, the team decided to do the evaluation with him as our
technical user as he is an experienced user in IT. 2:55 Minutes were taken by
the user to complete the tasks and he was capable of successfully performing
all the given tasks by the team. He did not encounter any difficulty while
performing.
Transcript (with technical user)
1. Evaluator:
Can you find older news articles?
2. User:
<presses on the correct option to view the older news articles>
3. Evaluator:
okay.
4. Evaluator:
Then, can you find the place to go to the chat room?
5. User:
Can you repeat?
6. Evaluator:
Can you find the place to go to the chat room?
7. User:
<presses on the correct button to go to the chat room>
8. Evaluator:
okay.
9. Evaluator:
There is a place to view the full description of a news post. Can you find that
place?
10. User:
Full description of the post?
11. User:
<presses on the correct link to view the full description>
12. Evaluator:
Okay. Then, there is a place to go to the local song list. Can you find it?
13. User:
Here! <presses on the correct button to get the local song list>
14. Evaluator:
Okay, can you find current date and time?
15. User:
<shows the correct location of the current date and time>
16. Evaluator:
Okay. There is a place that has number of post views. Can you find it?
17. User:
Number of post views? <Searches through> There!! <shows the correct
location of views of a post>
18. Evaluator:
Can you find the author of a news post?
19. User:
There! <shows the correct place where the name of the author is stated>
20. Evaluator:
Then, there is the date in a news post that has the published date, can you
find that?
21. User:
This! <shows the correct place where the published date is displayed>
22. Evaluator:
Then, there is a place to download a news post?
23. User:
Here! <presses on the correct button in order to download a news post>
24. Evaluator:
There is a place to go to advertisements of the site. Can you find it?
25. User:
There! <presses on the correct button to view the advertisements featured by
the site>
26. Evaluator:
Okay. Thank you.
Description of the
non-technical user.
Our
non-technical user is Ms.Fonseka and she is 21 years old. The team decided to
evaluate her as the non-technical user. 4:10 Minutes were taken by the user to
complete the given tasks. The user took more time than the technical user to
complete the same tasks which were given to the technical user. She was able to
perform certain tasks successfully and had some difficulties in performing the
other tasks. She was confused while performing certain tasks, therefore, was
unable to complete them.
Transcript (with non-technical user)
1. Evaluator:
Can you find older news articles?
2. User:
I’ll click on this to view older news. <presses on the correct option to
view the older news articles>
3.
Evaluator: Okay. Then, can you navigate
to chat room?
4.
User: Chat room? It is here! <presses
on the correct button to go to the chat room>
5.
Evaluator: Okay. Then, can you find the
full description of a post?
6.
User: I’ll click on this, ‘Read’!
<presses on the correct link to view the full description>
7.
Evaluator: Okay. Then, if you want to
save a post, can you find a place to do that?
8.
User: To save a post?
9.
Evaluator: Yes!
10.
User: <takes time to perform the
task>
11.
Evaluator: Is it difficult to find?
12.
User: Yes, it is difficult!
13.
Evaluator: Okay.
14. User:
May be, I can click on this! <finally, after some time, presses on the
correct button in order to save a news post>
15.
Evaluator: Okay.
16.
User: I’m not sure. <confused>
17.
Evaluator: Can you find how many post
views are there?
18.
User: Post views? The letter are too
small. There’s no white space. It is difficult to find. I’m sorry, I can’t
find. <User is unable to perform the task>
19.
Evaluator: Okay. There is a place to go
to advertisements in the site. Can you find that place?
20.
User: Advertisements? Emm, ah this one!
<takes time to perform and finally presses on the correct button to view the
advertisements featured by the site>
21.
Evaluator: Then, can you find current
date and time?
22.
User: These! <gets confused and shows
the news post’s date>
23.
Evaluator: There is an author for a news
post. Can you find the name of that author?
24.
User: I think it’s this! <shows the
correct place where the name of the author is stated>
25.
Evaluator: Then, there is a place to go
to local song list
26.
User: Local?
27.
Evaluator: Local song list
28.
User: Okay, ah this one! <presses on
the correct button to get the local song list>
29.
Evaluator: A place to find local jobs?
Can you find it?
30.
User: <presses on the correct
button>
31.
Evaluator: Then, can you find the date
of a post?
32.
User: This is the date of the post!
<shows the correct place where the published date is displayed>
33.
Evaluator: Okay. Thank you.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Paper Prototyping
In human–computer interaction, paper prototyping is a widely used method in the user-centered design process, a process that helps developers to create software that meets the user's expectations and needs in this case, especially for designing and testing user interfaces. It is throwaway prototyping and involves creating rough, even hand-sketched, drawings of an interface to use as prototypes, or models, of a design. While paper prototyping seems simple, this method of usability testing can provide a great deal of useful feedback which will result in the design of better products. This is supported by many usability professionals.
Here is 3 paper prototypes for our software.(News Room of Infolanka.lk).
Here is 3 paper prototypes for our software.(News Room of Infolanka.lk).
Paper
prototype 1
Breakpoints and supposed solutions.
1. Find
older news articles.
Finding older articles is
implemented on the top left hand corner of the site. The user can enter a year
and press the Go button. If there are older news articles of the specified year
in the site, it will be shown on the post column else an error message will be
displayed. Since viewing of older articles option is implemented at the top, it
is clearly visible and understandable to the user.
2. Unable
to find the link to go to chat room.
The user can go to the chat room by
clicking on the Services tab; a drop down list, which will show listed other
options of the site (other than viewing news articles). In this tab, a link to
chat room is provided. This drop down list is implemented at the top for better
viewing for the user.
3. View
the entire description of the post.
The user can view the entire
description by pressing on the Read link which is clearly provided with the
post description. Since the provided name “Read” is understandable, the user
can straight away click it without doubt to view the entire post.
4. Unable
to find the link to view local songs.
By pressing on the Services tab; a
drop down list, the Local Songs can be viewed. This provided option is much
understandable to the user than the option of “Miyuru Gee” which is stated at
the site, which probably might cause confusion.
5. Date
and time is not clearly visible.
The current local date and time is
provided at the top of the page. It clear states the time in the correct format
and the date. Since it is at the top with clear font, it is directly visible to
the user and the user doesn’t have to look for it.
6. No
option to save post.
The option to save a post is given
at the end of the news post as a Save button. Hence, the user can press on this
if he/she desire to save a news post. The provided Save button is clear to the
user since such an option is not given at the implemented web site.
7. Unable
to find a link to view advertisements featured by the site.
Advertisements featured by the site
can be viewed by pressing on the Services tab; a drop down list, which clear
provides a link to Advertisements. This provided option will not cause any
confusion for the user if he/she needs to view only the advertisements of the
site.
8. Unable
to find the number of views of a news post.
The number of views of the news
post is given at the end of the post. The user can easily find out the exact
number of people who have viewed the article.
9. Unable
to find the author of the news post.
The author of the news post is
provided at the end of the description of the post. It is clear and visible to
the user.
10. Unable
to find the date of the news post.
The date of the news post is
provided at the end of the description. Therefore, the user can easily find the
date relevant for each news post.
Paper
prototype 2
Breakpoints and supposed solutions.
1. Find
older news articles.
The user can find older news
articles by selecting a year and pressing the Search button. This is
implemented at the left hand corner of the site. If there are posts under the
selected year, it will be shown on the news post column else an error message
will be displayed.
2. Unable
to find the link to go to chat room.
The link to Chat Room is provided
at the top right hand corner of the site. The user can click on it and visit
the chat room. This is implemented with visible font so it can be easily seen
by the user.
3. View
the entire description of the post.
The user can read the entire
description of the news post by clicking on the Full Description link provided
at the end of the description. This will show the entire news post. This
implementation is understandable to the user.
4. Unable
to find the link to view local songs.
The local songs can be viewed by
pressing on Local Songs tab implemented at the top of the page. This link is
given at the top for clear visibility and the font is also visible to the user.
5. Date
and time is not clearly visible.
The date is provided at the left
hand corner as a Calendar and the time is shown as a Clock. Since this is
implemented at the top of the site and it is quite visible, the user doesn’t
have to look for the local date and time.
6. No
option to save post.
The news post can be saved by the
user if he/she wishes to do so by pressing on the Save Post option given at the
end of the description. Therefore, saving of the post can be done without much
hassle.
7. Unable
to find a link to view advertisements featured by the site.
The advertisements belonging to the
site can be viewed by pressing on the Advertisements tab provided at the top of
the page. This is implemented with clear font so that it can be easily spotted
by the user.
8. Unable
to find the number of views of a news post.
The user can find out the number of
views of the post by clicking on the Post Details which is implemented at the
end of the description of the post. This will show the exact number of people
who have read the news post.
9. Unable
to find the author of the news post.
The author relevant to the news
post can be viewed by pressing on the Post Details which is implemented at the
end of the post’s description.
10. Unable
to find the date of the news post.
The date of the news post can be
viewed by pressing on the Post Details which is implemented at the end of the
post’s description.
Paper prototype 3.
Breakpoints and supposed solutions.
1. Find
older news articles.
The
user can find older news articles by selecting a year and pressing the view icon.
It is implemented under the left side menu list.
2. Unable
to find the link to go to chat room.
There
is a set of clear icons on the top of the page. Chat room icon can be notify
there with an image of two talking people.
3.
View the entire description of the post.
Users
can view entire description of a post by clicking on Read button which appear
in each news post.
4.
Unable to find the link to view local
songs.
Icon
to go the local songs page is on the top of the page. It is in the list of
icons on the top of the page.
5. Date
and time is not clearly visible.
In
this prototype, a digital clock and date is on the top of the page. It’s located
below to the name of page.
6. No
option to save post.
In
each post there is an icon with down arrow. It’s usually used to download
something. So with that meaning users can clearly identify place to save the
post.
7. Unable
to find a link to view advertisements featured by the site.
This
link also on the top of the page in top icon set with image with “ADS”.
8.
Unable to find the number of views of a
news post.
In
each and every post there is a number with a graph. This is usually used to
show numbers of views.
9.
Unable to find the author of the news post.
In
each news post, author can see beginning of the post with an icon of a man.
10. Unable
to find the date of the news post.
In
every news post you can find date after the title of the post.
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