Testing and learning – Page 2

Week 9, NUDC: Preparing for prototype demonstration

Hello again,

This week we met with our client Tony, who reached out to us wanting an update on the project. We caught him up on our progress and gave him a rundown of our prototype, which was not completely ready for testing. He was very understanding of this and we felt like his input will help us improve our prototype even more for our next round of user testing with Ali, Ed and Sean. We would be testing their interaction with the user interface and ease of use, we’d only require devices such as an Ipad, a stable internet connection and a means of collecting data. One of the more important feedback inputs we got from Tony was that we should ask the user of our product to identify their age range and preferred mode of transport, this is because age and transportation will influence their responses.

We recorded notes on where Tony struggled to progress through our rough invision prototype and identified flaws with macro links. In addition, Tony didn’t properly read the text meaning he was unaware of the reward stickers and the progress bar, vital to incentivising our target audience. Henceforth, we plan to develop the design making the reward more obvious and include other improvements that attribute to the ease of use, such as zooming into the map so the user can see the proposed changes more clearly. We also discuss about implementing pop-up tips to make it clearer for our user. Our colour palette was very tertiary at first but we added bold pinks and blues to make the content more appealing and easier to read. Our ideal participants would be the younger demographic but are not exclusive to them, however it would be heavily influenced on the locations we would propose.

We also plan on asking Ali what the long term use of our project could be and if/how it may benefit them, if there is something we could include. We’ve decided to allocate ourselves roles where we’d split up into teams of two, one would interact with either Ali or Ed and the other record their progress. We also plan on conducting our prototype demos indoors in order to avoid any disruptions such as noise or bad weather. We plan on not providing them much help unless needed, and not give away too much information immediately as they wouldn’t be using it blind as our audience would.

9) We Love Bikes : Preparation for the user tests

At the moment we are writing this blog post, we still working on our prototype which will be completed by the end of the week. As we said before, we have chosen the Marvelapp website as a platform to build our prototype.

Meanwhile, we sent invitations to two of our stakeholders, Heather and Mark, to do the prototype demonstrations with them. We’ve agreed that these testings will take place on two different days, one day with Mark and another day with Heather, as our availabilities are not always compatible, and also that our group will be split for each interview as we don’t need to be all there, too many people can also make it difficult to conduct user interviews as the end user may feel uncomfortable if there are too many of us there. We think that the user will feel much more confident in this way, and it’s important to build a relationship of trust between us and the stakeholder.

So on Monday 4th December, Jordy and Isaac will have a meeting with Mark, and on Tuesday 5th December, Ellen and Aymeric will do the same with Heather. We still need to fix the time for each interview, knowing that we only can after 5 p.m on monday and after 3 p.m on tuesday.

Mark’s interview will surely be held in his office, just as we did when we first spoke to him, but the location of Heather’s prototype demonstration is still unknown. We don’t want to do the same mistake as go into a coffee shop to ask her some questions, as we did the first time we met her, because there were too much people and to much noise. So we are thinking on asking her to go at the university instead.

The user interviews should help us to understand how well our designs perform in practice, the accessibility to the end user, and to get some fresh point of view about our project. This is very important for the end goal of our project as it needs to be easily useable. We also hope to answer the question of how effective our prototype is at displaying the accountability of the council when working on cycling projects. We will ask at the end of the interviews if the interviewee has any overall issues with the design and how we could correct them.

At the end of this process the two separate groups will come back together and discuss the feedback from the meetings. Using this information we would then address the major issues, which would most likely be the issues raised by both of the interviewees and add or remove these features to the design and correct them.

Week 8: User Test Preparation

As we are going to do 2 user tests in the coming week, everything needs to be well prepared to achieve a smooth run through. The Marvel App prototype must be completed and tested before we show to the users to avoid any technical problems during the test. During the testing workshop section, we assigned team members roles for the user testing day. While one of us is introducing the app to the users, the others are demonstrating the using of the app from tablets and other devices. Good time management is a necessity.

Our first User Prototype Test was scheduled on 9th December from 10-11am at Kids Kabin with Will and Gerrard, with the second test scheduled at 12pm in Walker Learning Hive with Heather. We have been to those two places for client interviews before so there should not be a problem.

We based our interview around the five-step interview guide:

Give an introduction
Allow the user clients to have a brief self-introduction and ask why are they interested on the project. Our project aimed to served the local community, therefore we must have better understanding with our users.

Run the application in Marvel App and introducing the details and functions of the prototype.
Tasks
Give the users to have a taste of using the app at first hand experience. Ask them to navigate and execute tasks on different sections on the app to see if they can handle the functions and put to real life practise.

Observe their reaction
Document and capture their instant reaction when navigating the app. Observe and listen to what they say.

Collect general feedback
Ask them how, why and what they feel worked well or didn’t worked well. Can request more detailed feedback, such as “what should be done here on the page?”, or “what do you wish we had included but didn’t include?”

Conclude with a Debrief
Set up a set of questions other than those from feedbacks in order to collect more data from the future users to modify the app to be more appealing and user friendly. (e.g How useful did you find this app for the use of the local community?)

We aimed to test what we have done throughout the project, how the prototype works and does it meet the demands of our users in Walker local community. Moreover, Users responses in Testing section it very important for designing the prototype. During the testing progress, we need to make sure they know how to use our app and solve any confusion by explaining thoroughly. With positive and negative responses from the users, we can improve the prototype to a better future app for community.

Blog 10: User Tests

Here we are again, nearing the end of the project and this week we have completed two user tests on our app. The two who participated were Peter Kellet and Steve Emsley, Peter works at the university as a senior lecturer in Architecture, he has a strong interest in the environment and sustainability. Steve is formerly a social worker , now retired , he is a resident in Jesmond and has a very keen interest in renewable energy , with a PVC panel installation on his own home now for over 10 years as well as an active member of the local Green Party.

Last week we spoke about what we planned for the user test so that the tests would run smoothly and all went to plan , so this week we will be filling you in on how they went, fingers crossed!

Now to take you through how the user tests with Peter and Steve went, to keep it simple we will discuss Peter’s answers first with Steve’s following after.

User test with Peter Kellett 14/12/16, Claremont Tower

Peter participated in our first user test, so it felt right to discuss our findings from this first, most importantly to discuss first is how they reacted to the prototype we had created with it being the first time they had ever seen it.

Openly admitted he “wasn’t the most tech savvy person on the planet” however would give the best feedback he could based on what was in front of him, but all things considered he managed to navigate the app successfully without becoming stuck on anything and being very vocal throughout with constant feedback and everything he was doing/interacting with.

Peter provided us with good feedback for us to further develop our prototype with reflections such as:

A yearly consumption figure perhaps not such a good idea, and broken down two figures, one for summer and the other for winter as consumption patterns would be very different in those two, in addition energy providers typically take quarterly meter readings.
Integrating a pop up on the app projecting a well informed hypothetical figure for the user if that particular user should not have solar panels.

With lots of other feedback on colour schemes, button’s, size’s etc.

We felt as though Peter interacted with the prototype as we expected him too with a good understanding of all the content, a good insight in to the goals we’re trying to achieve. The only thing I would say is that he didn’t really interact with the social media side of things but understood why we had it on our product.

Now, we move onto our user test with Steve who of course we already know from when we back at our research stage so it was good to meet up and show the progress we have made as a group.

User test with Steve Emsley 15/11/16, Jesmond Library

Much like Peter, Steve managed to navigate the prototype well and understood all of the content we had and didn’t have any negative comments towards colour schemes, text, sizes. We did feel as a group that the app wasn’t thoroughly tested by Steve as on the occasion there would be a long pause between using the app to talk about other matters that weren’t part of the interface.

However we did feel like we got some good feedback from Steve towards our project objectives as we had a discussion about fossil fuels and renewable energy. Steve expressed that he understood the link between the two but people should be buying their energy from renewables only companies which isn’t widely publicised on the app itself, so as a group we feel this is something we could push on with for our project and make Jesmond push towards being a renewables only using area with the right information and understanding throughout the app.

The general feedback we got from Steve in regards to the app was that it needed to be more informative with more text, pictures to ensure and enhance that understanding of energy and renewable energy in a simplistic way for everyone to understand.

In Conclusion

We felt that both our user tests went well and that we learnt a lot through the process but there are some things we would change if we was to do it again. I think the main one being that we kept the whole process a little too open which caused it to go off onto other subjects or start conversations that weren’t in regards to the prototype. So add a little more structure with it still being open discussion type feeling.

Now that we have come towards the end of the project as a group we can reflect that in spite of a hesitant start with the understanding of where we envisioned the product we have persevered and we are all pleased with the progress of the project and also the character of the group . We are satisfied with where we have taken this prototype and got the concept of a dashboard not just for the individual homeowner but also one that resonates at community level off the ground! We are happy to develop this concept through further with the client and have expressed this to them!

Blog 9: User Test Preparation

Firstly, before the test we need to prepare as a group and this is how we have managed that.

It may seem obvious but we made sure to begin with that the prototype on marvel was complete and everything was in working order ready for the tests.

We assigned the roles to team members for the day of the test and agreed that our schedule would allow for holistic input in addition to the Interviewer’s schedule from individual group members to the user if they thought it were necessary to do so. Each team member was asked to familiarise themselves with the schedule first.

An important part of the user test is location of the test and also creating an interview schedule to keep us on track so that during we remain on topic for the user and leave ample time for useful feedback.

Whilst one of the user tests is in an office on university campus the second user test will be taking place in a public library in Jesmond. As previously mentioned we keep it a very open experience without overly instructing the user what to do on the app, this way they are able to navigate the app freely and instinctively.

Google Developer’s usability testing video among others on youtube were able to guide us to make a 5 step process for the user interview ,as a schedule this will consist of: 1. A friendly welcome 2. Context and user background 3. Introduction to the prototype 4. User Tasks and 5. Debrief/ Final Feedback.

Examples of our format could include:

Setting the tone to the user and reassuring them that “We aren’t testing you, we’re just testing the prototype” This will make them feel at ease right away.
Ask the user a bit about themselves and why they are interested in the project/product.
Introduce the app and the activity that we have planned for them to try. Play down the app a bit and explain it will be developed further.
Set the user a task to do on the app and see if they can remember from memory what to do/where to go. Continue to prompt questions such as like, how, why, what do you feel worked well/didn’t work well. Observe what they are doing whilst using the app. Keep asking them to think aloud throughout to ensure the feedback is good quality.
Gather general feedback of what they thought of the product and finally thank them for the time!

We now go again for the user tests, thank you.