This week we began our prototype testing process. We met with Clare Ross, from Gateshead Council at the Civic Centre to show her the PowerPoint presentation prototype of our app for Chase Park. As Clare is one of the stakeholders in our project, it was essential we gained feedback from her for the prototype to ensure we had fulfilled the project goals which were based around the stakeholders’ requests.
Overall Clare responded very positively to our prototype. She was especially impressed with the volunteer hours log section and explained how the volunteers currently use Whatsapp for this, but having this facility on the app would improve communication, make the volunteers feel that they were part of something and make volunteering more sociable. Clare also highlighted that having a public log for individuals’ hours, this could encourage volunteers to complete more hours as it may result in competitiveness. This would have a positive impact on the park and the log could be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund as proof of the volunteer hours completed. Clare also gave positive feedback regarding the location service and the ability to share photographs of the park within the app.
Clare only had two concerns about the app. Firstly, she suggested we label the options on the main menu rather than only using symbols; to avoid confusion or doubt of what the symbols meant. Clare also highlighted the obvious issue around safeguarding. Safeguarding is something we need to discuss further as a group and find the most effective way of using security measures within the app without taking the fun out of it.
Clare used the prototype as we intended and we asked her to think out loud as she did. This was useful as we gained feedback from her regarding every aspect of the app. Overall, this prototype test left us feeling positive about our progress but highlighted that we need to think further about the clarity of the visuals and explore the best measures we can introduce for high levels of security and safety.
Our next step will be to hopefully meet with Alan from the Friends of Chase Park to also test our prototype with him and gain feedback from another of our stakeholders.
Hi team, thanks for writing these findings up on your blog – I’m glad it left you feeling positive and overall it sounds like Clare has been a very helpful partner for you. We talked about her comments at length in the seminar last week, and you came up with suggestions for how you might respond to the comments through your design. I would encourage you to get these thoughts down too to show how you have carefully thought through your feedback. Safeguarding is always a worry when working with young people – it’s one reason why few people do it – but as long as you can show that you have thought about how your design can respond to these concerns (N.B: not solve them, as I don’t think this is possible) that will satisfy me at least. Look forward to checking back in tomorrow.
Great to hear your prototype demonstration went well. Consider adding a sentence or two in relation to your planning for the session. Some aspects of your app are clearly aimed at kids and young people, logging volunteer hours however will be aimed at a different user group (from here, it is not clear if you also discussed the gaming features). It would be good to hear your thinking in relation to how you prepared for the prototype demonstration so it fits the stakeholder. As Sean said, it would be useful to try structure your feedback under key headings for example general concept, usability, functionality, and any ideas for improvement — especially also if you have additional prototype demos arranged. It will make it easier to help you reflect on the implications or actions in response to the feedback you got. Onwards.