b7030039 – DigiCivics @ APL

WEEK 9 USER TESTING

User Testing – Blog 9

Who will test it?

For our user testing plan we aim to find out both the successes and failures of our design from the key stakeholders in our project. We want to invite Katrina, Nigel and also potentially some youths living in the area whom Katrina may have some connections to, to also invite, as our design is focused around giving the youth an opportunity to explore their area and create a link between them and 250 Philip Street.

Setting

Our test will be conducted in the Wingrove area as this is the base context for our design intervention therefore we would be able to receive genuine feedback of how well the explorer/game works within the setting.

We will need a smartphone for the interface and we thought about including paper charts with factors which we would ask users to rank from high to low, in terms of the games; ease of use, engagement, how well it responds to the brief, the longevity of the game and the overall enjoyment and fun element.

As for team numbers, we decided only 2 or 3 people in our group will take part in the user testing so we avoid the potential for us coming into their community and intimidating the users to respond positively. We want the testing to be as natural as possible as if we were not testing at all, with us occasionally prompting users to ensure we get all our questions answered as Herzum (2016) suggests, for instance:

What would you do next?
How would you use the navigation tool?
Encouraging them to think aloud and ask why they did a certain thing.

We want to achieve “rich verbalisations…by employing relaxed thinking aloud” with the aims of gaining a more insightful response to usability problems and successes (Herzum 2016).

Prior Questioning

Before testing the prototype however, we want to gain insight into the users’ knowledge of the area now, if they know about events and get involved in them and also their current digital abilities, as some may have little experience with a digital interface. This is one reason why we wanted a simple prototype with obvious navigation features.

Key testing elements

Running briefly through the testing, the participants will engage in the navigation feature and explore their area, completing tasks and activities. We want them to explore the routes and experience the active side to the game. We would also want them to interact with the background features of the calendar, chat, picture albums etc. to determine the success/failures of these as well.

In terms of measures of a ‘good’ design, we want to capture the users view on the ease of use, the durability of the game, and ratings of the ‘fun factor’ etc.

We will document all these through media images, basic charts and stickers, and written statements from users.

We want to ensure the design is a good idea and if it would actually help the community to improve the social connections within the area. The design we are proposing is a unique social explorer into the Wingrove community. At the beginning of our task, the digital scene was scattered with unused Facebook pages, Watsapp group chats and website events. We are aiming to combine all these features and create one interface in which Wingrove residents can check events, interact with one another with regards to these events, with a focusing on the youth as our target users as during our user research many mentioned the need for a youth program in the area. This explorer could be the start of the beginning to bringing the youth into community events, with use of 250 Philip Street, a building which was once a youth club itself.

We want users, particularly the youth, to progress this narrative and allow them to engage with their area through active exploration.

References

Hertzum, M. (2016). A usability test is not an interview. Interactions, 23(2), 82– 84.

BLOG 7 – Preparing to Prototype

Leading on from last weeks extended storyboarding/sketching session, this seminar we worked on improving our location-based game idea and expanding the interface to include a map of Wingrove in which users could click on certain ‘hot spots’ and find activities or local information. We wanted to broaden the initial GPS game into something more tangible in which implementations to the local context could be made.

We began brainstorming some ideas for what could be included in the digital game/interface as we did not want to overcompensate and flood the interface with options. We narrowed in to focus on exploration activities and interactive digital inclusions such as camera options that would prompt digital probes in order to gain wider opinions on the local area and Greening Wingrove activities. We wanted to preserve the idea of having a treasure hunt feature, furthering this to think about engaging with the idea of including schools or families, to tackle the safe-guarding/ethical implications a location-based game may have.

For our initial plan, we thought about having a map as the home screen and placing pointers which the user could click on to participate in different activity options. Such as history tours or nature walks. Including options such as these it begins to broaden the location-based games into potentially becoming part of both youthful and family livelihoods, as it could be something that families want to use together to explore their area and get outside. This gives users a broadened scope of activities they could engage with whilst using the service as, although we are mainly focusing on a younger target market, the wider aim of social cohesion can only be met with a developed broadened user base. Our new refined storyboard will be uploaded in a separate blog post as we wanted to ensure it portrayed our ideas seamlessly.

Our idea of location and mapping is key in driving our aim of social cohesion, nationwide there is a lack of children playing outside, we feel that by having this game/app which enforces people to go outside and explore, with the win-win potential of gaining free or discounted activity incentives, it is responding to and tackling this urban issue on a local level. Organisations such as Playing Out address this, by attempting to ‘activate street play in neighbourhoods’.

In response to the digital interface’s unique aspects, the app is a personalised social media space for the residents of Wingrove, from our user research we found out that the Facebook pages are scattered and become very inactive shortly after starting up. Bringing all these pages together into one system would refine the area’s digital platform voice and provide a space for local events to be promoted and spoken about.

Moving forward, we would still like to begin to prototype the locational game based idea, focusing on the youth of the area as that group was at the forefront from the opinions of the participants of our user research. Our demo activity for the prototype may simply be a piece of paper with instructions, questions and locations on and then using google maps to travel around the map to complete the treasure hunt quest, or using development software to create and interactive prototype.

In terms of promoting and gaining further user research from our prototype, a youth workshop would have to take place, perhaps linking in with the primary schools or the Nuns Moor centre.

Our next steps are, to further develop and refine the technicalities of: 1) user narrative, 2) the information architecture and data of the interface and 3) initial design views of the interface. We want the product to be focused on the map idea, therefore having the design be centred around the map of Wingrove.

SIA Storyboarding – Blog 6

SIA Blog 6

This week we began storyboarding our idea with the aid of Erkki Hedenborg, our academic mentor. We discussed many alternative options and finally honed our digital idea into a designed interactive game for social cohesion and community exploration.

During the beginning of the session we began drafting potential ideas for a digital solution, initial ideas started as digital interventions placed around Wingrove in specific points that would advertise activities and allow users to interact with it, by sound or movement for instance. We then moved on to discuss this interaction in a more physical manner by creating an interactive game. With this, users would gain insight into the Wingrove area, meet other locals, and gaining knowledge of potential activities happening. This is important as those we questioned in our door-to-door survey did note that they did not know of many activities taking place within the area.

The idea stems from the concept of location based GPS games such as Pokemon Go, Geocaching, and ActionBound, in which users have to explore an area to earn rewards or learn things about the specific area chosen. We wanted to replicate this idea by giving young adults/teenagers/kids the option to discover Wingrove and connect with other users to enhance their social connections within the area.

Potential ideas for prototyping this concept could initially be a piece of paper with set questions or facts on it and use of google maps to navigate the treasure hunt. Those using the game would have a set route to follow and have to pick up points along the way that would collate into a final league board, with those with the most points earning prizes or gift vouchers (potentially). Some reservations are held by having incentives to play the game, however we did then lead onto looking at having proactive rewards such as a free one hour music session, or one free activity session at the Nuns Moor centre. In doing this, this improves the users awareness of activities within the area, therefore subverting their attention indirectly to other recreational activities for the youth to engage with within Wingrove.

Below are some initial mind-mapping/sketching that led us to the interactive game idea.

User Research

From this we took insight from our user research, as many of the people we interviewed discussed the need for more youth programmes and activities, by using the game idea it gives teenagers and kids the opportunity to play outside and embrace their area rather than having nothing to do. In addition, the use of the Arthurs Hill building as a central addition to the game to engage the youth of the area with the activities going on there, thus indirectly creating a youth centre/central point by having them physically visit the building. Katrina and David Webb both spoke about the need for youth engagement within the area, we feel targeting this group will then set the path for future generations to converse with one another and begin a narrative with them in Arthurs Hill and community engagement.

After including our user research we developed a final storyboard proposal which depicts the narrative of downloading the game to the end point of the game.

Storyboard

Next Steps

Our next steps include refining the game idea, deciding where the set routes would be, as well as potentially including different interfaces for alternative uses. The game idea does hold some reservations as we do need to define what exactly the user is putting in and getting out of the game, what sets this idea apart that would make users want to actively engage with it and also, perhaps developing what else the interface can offer, so that we define exactly how it meets our project aims.