DG390 User Focus and Perspective Basics. Allitze Faro s Dominique Fürst s Cesar de Schepper s110443

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1 DG390 User Focus and Perspective Basics Allitze Faro s Dominique Fürst s Cesar de Schepper s Date:

2 Table of Contents Introduction page 3 Context of Use Analysis page 4 Context of use analysis I page 4 Context of use analysis II page 5 Interviews and Personas page 6 Interview process page 6 Personas page 8 Requirements, mapping, affordance and constraints page 9 Requirements page 9 Mapping, Affordance and Constraints page 10 Scenarios and QOC analysis page 11 Scenarios page 11 QOC analysis page 12 Tasks page 13 Paper prototype and heuristic evaluation page 14 Prototype page 14 Tasks page 14 Evaluation page 14 User evaluation page 15 Set up user test page 15 Reflection page 17 Appendices page 19 2

3 Introduction As a designer you want your product to be used and chosen over the product of possible competitors. But how can this be achieved? By giving the user exactly that what he or she wants the chances of buying, and continuing to use, the product become vastly larger. The aim of this assignment was to become familiar with user centered design and the importance of it throughout the whole design process. This was achieved by designing a device that people can take with them on a walk from one train station to the other. The device should provide guidance and information about points of interests for the user. This report presents the design process of such a device, for children in the age category six to eight years, from the start to a low fidelity prototype. The first steps will be double because we had some difficulties within our team, which led to one team member less and a pair member more. We continued, and finished the process with one concept. 3

4 Context of Use Analysis In the beginning each of us had a certain idea about what the device should do and look like. In order to make these different ideas clear to each other we created three different storyboards, we included photos of the original storyboards in appendix 1. These storyboards made it possible to conduct a context of use analysis for our design case. We identified the users, their capabilities and limitations, other stakeholders, the activities that should be conducted, different environmental characteristics of the device and experience goals. This led to the following context of use analyses. Context of use analysis I The users and other stakeholders The primary users will be the children of six to eight years old. These users are quite familiar with electronics, but there are some limitations with this user group. Their hands are not that big and the strength in the arms is not that big, therefore the device should be easy to hold and light. Another limitation that this user has is the lack of concentration, so the device should make sure that they stay focused. Furthermore they are clumsy and their motoric skills are not fully developed yet. Next to these things the users do not understand difficult information and might not be able to change all the settings of the device. Therefore there are some other stakeholders as well. The parents, for example, need to change the settings of the device and a distributor at the station needs to give the devices to the children and parents. Tasks and Activities At the beginning a route must be drawn on the map by the parents. The children are able to pick a lay out for the device that fits them the best (this could include a crown, pirate or car that represents you on the map e.g.). During the walk the children s device will vibrate and make a sound when a location is reached. The device will show a short animation with info about the location. If there is text with these animations the device will say this info to the user. At these locations the children are able to play games (single player, battles, and team challenges) that are relevant to some extend to the different locations. Environment The device should be able to withstand water to some extent as there is always a chance that it will rain during a walk, definitely in the Netherlands. It should also be able to withstand some force as children might drop things on the ground sometimes due to clumsiness. The device of the parents should interact with the device of the children. The parents choose the route, which will display on the system of the children afterwards. Furthermore the children can battle with each other during some of the games or team up to make the game easier to play. The devices should be handed out and gathered at the different stations. This can be done with the OV-chipkaart out of a wall. There will be a deposit for the devices taken from the OV-chipkaart that one will get back when the devices are returned. For those that do not own an OV-chipkaart yet, there will be a service desk where they can get the devices when a deposit is paid. Behind this service desk is someone who is familiar with the device so that he or she can help the costumers when they have questions about the device. The device should have GPS and a screen to let you know where you are on the route and where you need to go to reach the next location. Next to this the device should be able to vibrate and make sound. Furthermore the devices that go on the same trip should have a wireless connection in order to communicate with each other during the walk. 4

5 Experience goals Satisfying: I want to have a good experience during the walk. Enjoyable: I want to be enjoyed by the device during the walk. Pleasurable: I want the device to make the walk more pleasurable and less boring. Exiting: I want to feel excited when I learn something in a playful way through the device. Entertaining: I want the device to entertain me during the walk, so it will be less boring Helpful: I want to be told what the route will be and how I should walk. Motivating: I want to be motivated to take a walk to station A to B and keep on walking. Rewarding: I want to be rewarded after I do something good, so I will be motivated to continue the walk. Challenging: I want to be challenged to learn new things about location and to finish my walk. Informative: I want to know more about the location I pass by after the walk in comparison to before the walk. Context of use analysis II Users: Children around the age of 8-10, whom go on walks. Generally they go on walks due to a school walk or going for a walk with parents. Capabilities Young and fit, so they are easily able to go on longer, tougher walks without endurance issues. They are very familiar with technology and they will easily be able understand and use a new system. Limitations they are not really interested in going on walks (and in nature) Empty historical locations aren t interesting to them, because there is nothing to see there If you give them technology, they will look more at the screen and less at the environment they are walking in. Activities They should go to a NS-pickup point to get the device. They should pick a destination. They system should then display all the points of interest (PoI) in between the start and end location. The system should provide encouragement to go to the PoIs which are further away. The system should register your location to validate your proper participation. At the PoI s there should be an interaction between the system and the location. There should be a reward system for properly completing the interaction. At the end the device should be handed in and the effort they put in should be rewarded in some way. Additional Stakeholders: Parents, they will probably either accompany their children, or want to know exactly where they are. (through GPS Location) Service desk, have to know where the device came from, how well the user preformed and what reward should be awarded for the effort. Environments Physical: Locations with Signal/GPS capacity and markers for interaction with the system. There should be Direction markers to show the potential routes between PoIs. There have to be locations to hand in the system, get the reward and potentially the exchange of systems between locations. Social: Leader boards for a particular location, which provides a competitive element between users. Interaction between our system and other media/technology companies to provide enticing rewards (linkable to existing systems children already use.) Organizational: Adjust service centers to interaction with the system. Organize special events to promote use of the system. Technical: Technology with location recognition (GPS) and environment interaction (Virtual Reality). Servers, which store the leader board data. It should have Location markers (low-tech).also the device should have a camera for environment scanning. 5

6 Experience Goals Usability: The user should be able to determine their personal route, because the ability to choose their own direction isn t something they can do now when going on walk, while adults are allowed to pick their own routes. The device should be easy to understand and be similar to current technologies so it doesn t have a steep learning curve. User Experience: It should have a smooth non-intrusive HUD so it is less enticing to look at the screen and not at the environment around you. The screen size should be carefully considered: it should be too small so it is hard to see, but it also shouldn t be too large so it is too heavy to carry around comfortably. Effectiveness: the number of PoIs visited and the number of completed walks shows the effectiveness and user friendliness of the system. Efficiency: the time it takes to complete a journey and the number of times a location is visited shows how well the PoIs are spaced out, how attractive a location is to visit. Satisfaction: the number of participants, the number of problems with the leader boards and the route lengths will show the popularity of the system. There should be incentives to make the longer routes more attractive than the shortest route. Interviews and Personas The interview process To become certain of what the user wanted to be able to do with the device we had to conduct interviews. In order to be able to conduct interviews we first had to come up with some questions. We started to think of questions for the themes: Goal, System, Workflow and Attitude (towards technology). This resulted in the initial questions shown below. Goal Questions Do you sometimes take a walk with you parents? What do you like about going on a walk? What don t you like about going on a walk? What would make a walk (even) more enjoyable for you? Would you like some competition from friends during the walk? System Questions Would you like to be able to pick your own theme for the device? Would you like to be able to fill in your interests? Like kinds of plants, myths or historical buildings What do you think of an animation with important info when you reach a location? What do you think of playing games with or against people that walk with you at the locations? What is your favorite game in general? Do you like Dora? What do you like the most about Dora? Would you like a device that works just like the TV-show Dora? Do you play games on the PlayStation/IPad/PSP/Xbox etc.? Would you like to obtain something after each game, for example a puzzle piece, with which you can play an end game? Would you like to know what kind of locations you will visit beforehand? Workflow Questions How often do you go on walks? What do you do during these walks? Would you like to pick the route yourself or would you rather pick a recommended route? 6

7 Attitude (towards technology) Questions Would you want to take a walk more often when it is more entertaining? What would you definitely not want to do during a walk? What is your experience with electronic devices? Would you like to know when other walkers are near? Would activities that fit the different locations encourage you to go on walks more often? To make sure if these questions would give the results we conducted a pilot interview before the real interview took place. The pilot interview (in Dutch), together with the answers, can be found at appendix 2. During the pilot interview we noticed different things that needed to be changed. The first thing was the order of the questions. We followed the order which was given to come up with questions, but this did not work. The order was goal questions, system questions, workflow questions and attitude questions. We noticed that some of the workflow questions should be asked first and other questions should have been asked later in the interview to avoid going from one subject to another and then back to the first. Therefore we arranged the questions more logically. Another thing we changed is the amount of questions in the interview. It is difficult for children to concentrate on one thing for a long time and therefore the interview should not take too long. In order to make the interview shorter we skipped some questions that were too specific for this stage of the assignment. Furthermore we noticed that we got a lot of yes and no answers, which does not give that much information to work with and some of the questions were a bit vague for children. Therefore we had to change some questions a bit, to make it harder to answer with just yes or no, and to make all the questions clear for children. In the end, the initial questions were not that bad. With some small changes we were able to make a good set of final questions. Next time we will try to make the initial questions less specific in order to get more information to work with. Additionally we will also try to avoid a lot of yes or no questions in future interviews. Together we were able to conduct 10 interviews with our final questions, which can be found below. The interviews (in Dutch), together with the answers, can be found at appendix 3. Final Questions Do you take a walk with you parents every now and then? How often do you go on walks? What do you do during these walks? What do you like about going on a walk? What don t you like about going on a walk? What would make a walk (even) more enjoyable for you? What would you definitely not want to do during a walk? Would you like to go on walks more often if it is more entertaining? Would you like to pick the route yourself or would you rather pick a recommended route? Would you like to be able to fill in your interests like kinds of plants, stories and buildings? Would you like to know which things you are going to pass beforehand? Would you like to know when other walkers are near? Would you like to be able to personalize the device? What is your experience with electronic devices? Which devices do you use? Do you like to watch TV? Which programs do you like to watch? Do you like to play games? Which games do you like to play? Would you like to play matches during the walk? Would activities that fit the different locations encourage you to go on walks more often? 7

8 Relevant user data: The children seem to be quickly distracted. So they need to be triggered in a playful way. Do not walk frequently. They are not experience walkers. This needs to be taken into account. The children seem to like having input. So there has to be room for their input. The children like both games in real life as virtual games. These two kinds have to be combined. The children cannot make big decisions. This is why the device needs to guide them. We gathered all the answers to the interview questions in a table, which can be found at appendix 4. The numbers under the answers represent how many times that answer was given during the interviews. Personas With the information from the table each of us was able to create a persona. The personas were used to maintain focused and to create empathy with the users. The three different results can be found below. Persona I Meet Lara, a seven year old, calm, girl who likes to be surprised. She likes nature and goes on walks with her little sister and parents or grandparents on a regular basis. During these walks she gathers chestnuts and other things she finds to craft with afterwards. If there are suitable trees along the way she wants to climb in them. There are not many things she does not like about walking. As long as it is not raining and the walk is not much longer than one hour she is happy. In her spare time she likes to go to the stables to ride horses, but she also likes a lot of different animals, like dogs and rodents. With friends she likes to play games in which you need to take care of animals on the DS or Wii, but they may get argument as everyone wants to take care of the same animal. Lara does not need a lot of motivation to learn about nature as she is already interested in this. In order to make the device more interesting for her to use during these walks she needs to be able to pick a theme that fits her interests. She is, however, not that interested in buildings. To get her motivated to learn about buildings the device should give her something to collect virtually whenever she passes an important building. Persona II Meet Luke. He is an eight year old boy who is hyperactive and has difficulty concentrating. He likes playing outside, but does not really take the time to take a walk. When his parents take him and his brother with them for a walk, he likes to run and play with his brother. He likes those walks the most when it is snowing. He does not like slow walks or being quiet during walks. His favorite activity is playing soccer. He is quite fast and full of energy. He plays a lot outside with his friends, because he does not like to play alone. He only plays alone on the PlayStation, but he is not allowed to play on it very often because he starts yelling when something does not goes his way. Luke is also very curious when he gets in contact with new things, but because of his lack of concentration he gets distracted easily. Luke needs to get motivated through the games on the device to learn about the locations and buildings he will pass by during the walk. A reward is needed to keep his attention. The device also needs a key chord, so that it will not fall when Luke suddenly starts to run towards something interesting. The menu and games must not be very difficult, otherwise he will get frustrated easily. Persona III Meet Mia, a nine year old girl, she normally doesn t enjoy going on walks, because her parents manage the pace and she never get enough time to play and explore when she get to a new area. She does, however, enjoy going on school walks, because she is with her classmates and they take a long enough break during the walk to really enjoy playing with her friends. She enjoys playing games and collecting interesting objects she sees during the walk and displaying them when she gets home. However, even school walks can get boring, because the activities they plan during the walks are always the same. Mia would like a device, which allows her to decide when and where she wants to go. She would also like a device that recommends good areas to play and collect items. The device should give her plenty of options on activities and games to make sure it doesn t get boring or repetitive. 8

9 Requirements, mapping, affordance and constraints Requirements Every product has some requirements when it comes to the design. For our device we were able to come up with five different requirements in different categories with the help of our personas and other information we gathered in earlier stages of the process. These categories are: Functional, look-and-feel, ease of use, ease of learning and performance. The five requirements, defined with the help of the Volere Template 1, are shown below. Functional Requirement type: 9 Description: The user should only be able to pick existing roads that can be used by pedestrians. Rationale: It is important for the system to show only existing roads that can be used by pedestrians. If the users are able to pick any road, the map could show the users that they should walk on the highway, which is definitely not safe especially with children. Source: During the discussion of the core functions we made this decision together. Fit Criterion: Try to draw different routes; the system should not give you the option to go on a highway (they can be marked differently on the map). Customer Satisfaction: 3, most people will find it normal that the system will not allow you to walk on a highway and will not feel extremely satisfied when this function works. Customer Dissatisfaction: 5, if this function does not work and a group with children accidentally ends up on a highway the customers will be unsatisfied. Dependencies: The performance and ease of use requirements depend on a functional device. Look and feel Requirement type: 10 Description: The device should look like it is meant for children. This will be done with the use of different bright colors (for buttons etc.). Rationale: It is important for the device to look like it is meant for children because they are more likely to use something that looks like it is meant for them. Devices for parents are quite often in neutral colors, by making a device with bright colors children will notice that it is only for them. Source: During the discussion of the core functions and design we made this decision together. Fit Criterion: At the service desk 90% of the children will ask for a children s device Customer Satisfaction: 4, children will enjoy a device that is meant for them more on a walk than a device meant for adults and children and the colors will make them able to remember certain functions. Customer Dissatisfaction: 3, children use a lot of technical devices, like IPads, which are not specifically made for children, therefore they will not be that dissatisfied when their device has less colors. Dependencies: The ease of use and ease of learning requirements depend on how the device looks. Ease of use Requirement type: 11 Description: The user should be able to see and very easily adjust the route they want to take. Rationale: Ease of use when using the core function of a device is very important. Because our device acts as a guide to and from locations of interest, the ability to pick and adjust a route later when you change your mind is important. Source: It was a design decision made when we decided on the core functions of our device. Fit Criterion: The screen should be large enough to display all the relevant information about the route and the surrounding locations. The device should be adjustable in a reasonably short amount of time. Customer Satisfaction: 3, most people will find it normal that this function works and won t feel super satisfied about the proper functioning of this feature. 1 Volere Requirements Specification Template Edition the Atlantic Systems Guild Limited 9

10 Customer Dissatisfaction: 5, if this doesn t work it will be very noticeable and annoying to the user and will lead to a high level of frustration when using the device. Dependencies: The ease of learning and the functional requirement depend on an easy to use device. Ease of learning Requirement type: 11 Description: The user should be able to learn how the menu and the screen work so they can get the relevant information on the screen quickly when walking. Rationale: The ability to learn how our interface works is important because we want to implement the ability to choose different themes for the interface. If the interface isn t simple enough, then the added difficulty of themed menus could make it harder to learn the core functionality of the device quickly. Source: Through the interview we learned that themed menus might be a good design idea, but we realized it might require multiple version of the interface. Fit Criterion: In every theme the user should be able to get to a function in the same amount of time (the theme shouldn t hinder in the progressing through the menu.) Customer Satisfaction: 3, a menu that is easy to learn makes it more fun to use a device and the ability to use it quickly makes you able to use it when walking. Customer Dissatisfaction: 2, not being able to learn it quickly is annoying but doesn t make the system less usable. Dependencies: An easy to learn device is influenced by a device with good functionality. Performance Requirement type: 12 Description: It should be able to recalculate a new route quickly when you deviate from the route so taking a different route to go by something you see is possible. Rationale: A good performance from the map makes it easier to change your behavior when using the device and make it less visible that the device needs time to do its other functions. Source: our design is centered on the functionality of the route, so a functional map is very important. Fit Criterion: Testing how long it takes the route to change when you change a path. Customer Satisfaction: 5, fast functions on the screen are good and make the device seem higher tech. Costumer Dissatisfaction: 2, when you walk the map changes slower than in a car, so a faster change is less important but still annoying. Dependencies: The ease of use depends on a device with good performance. Mapping, Affordance and Constraints The requirements listed above all have to do deal with mapping, affordance and constraints. These things are definitely something one should keep in mind when designing a product and we will explain why. Mapping is really important when it comes to design; there are however some designers who do not think about this long enough, which may lead to some problems for the user. On the other hand there are also designers who do think about this, and get the result they wanted. An example of bad mapping is the light switch in the rooms on the 6th floor of Metaforum. The fact that you see the temperature on the screen in combination with the turning wheel makes you think that you can adjust the room temperature with the wheel, but in fact it is the light which you can adjust with this turning wheel. This is confusing for the user and makes is rather difficult to operate for those whom are not familiar with the system. An example of good mapping is the lay-out of the pages you open on your computer, and mainly the upright corner (underscore, square, two squares and cross). It is logical that the window minimizes when you press the underscore as the underscore represents the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. It is logical that the window fills your entire screen when you press the square as this could represent your whole screen. It is logical that the document becomes smaller when you press the two squares as the two 10

11 screens represent more windows are opened in one screen. And it is logical that the document closes when you press the cross in the corner. These things make the product easy to use even for those whom are not that familiar with computers. Interaction with objects is supported by different affordances and constraints. There are different constraints: physical, logical and cultural which effect the interaction with objects. This is also the case with your mobile phone. Affordance is the perception of possible action. There is only one button on the front of a Samsung Pocket, which makes the affordance for a button that takes you to the home page of the mobile phone. Constraints are properties of an object that help us achieve our goal with the product. If we want to charge the Samsung Pocket it is useless to search for an IPod charger as this will not fit in the mobile phone, this is a physical constraint. A logical constraint of the Samsung Pocket and mobile phones in general, is the camera icon that opens the camera function. The arrow button on the Samsung Pocket, which brings you back to the previous page, is a cultural constraint. Scenarios and QOC-analysis Scenarios Scenario I Lola, six years old, is traveling by train with her grandmother. Her grandmother decided to walk from station A to station B so they walk by this small castle. Lola and her grandmother get out of the train and walk towards the office where they can get the devices they can use during the walk from station A to B. The devices are hanging on a wall, but have a lock that you can only open with your OV-chipkaart. There are two kinds: one for adults and one for children. Grandmother gets one for herself and one for Lola with her and Lola s OV-chipkaart. When they turn the device on, it introduces itself. It shows the map of the possible routes that can be chosen. Grandmother had the option to connect her device with the device of her granddaughter. This will give her the option to choose a route for both of them and will give a message when the devices are too far from each-other. G: Which route will we take, my darling? I want to pass the castle, so we can choose out of two routes. Do you want to go over the little bridge too? L: Yes! Over the bridge! G: Did you already choose a theme for your device? L: Yes, grand mom. Look! This is the pretty princess theme! G: How lovely! Do you see the map now? It is only a twenty minute walk. Lola and her grandmother start walking the route they see on the map. When they are near the bridge, the device starts buzzing. L: There is the bridge! The device of Lola starts making sounds and asks if Lola is ready to play a game. Through the game, Lola learns on a playful way the history of the bridge. When they leave the bridge behind the device gives Lola a star and shows her the map again. After they came across different buildings and other special spots, they arrive at station B. Lola and grandmother walk to the office where they can leave the devices, check out and continue their train trip. 11

12 Scenario II Sophie, an eight year old travels by train with her younger sister, Anne, and parents. Her parents want to walk from station A to station B through a forest. The family gets out of the train and walks towards the service desk where you can get devices. Sophie and Anne do not have an OV-chipkaart and therefore they cannot take the devices from the wall. Sophie s father asks one of the employees at the service desk for three devices, one for adults and two for children, and he pays caution money for it. They turn the devices on and get the chance to link their devices to each other. After this the adult s device shows possible routes. The parents choose a route, because their children like to be surprised. The children choose a theme for their devices; Sophie picks an animal theme because she likes animals a lot, Anne chooses for a princess theme. Their devices show them the map in their theme. Sophie and her family start to walk and after some time the Sophie s and Anne s device start to vibrate. They look at the device and see that a giant apple tree is near. The device gives some information about the place and asks Sophie and Anne if they want to play a game in battle mode or alone. The sisters choose for the battle mode and play the game. Anne wins the game and receives a crown; both sisters get a star for completing the game, afterwards the device shows the map again. They come across different locations, where the sisters can play a game, before they reach station B. The family walks to the service desk at station B, hand their devices in, and get their caution money back. Then they continue their journey by train. Scenario III Alice and her parents decide to go on a day trip to Amsterdam. They decide to get an OV device instead of a pamphlet about Amsterdam. They give Alice her own device. Before they go they input shops and places in Amsterdam they would like to add to the route and allow Alice to add some places as well. During the walk they take a detour to visit a shop they missed. The device asks them if they want information about the locations you are currently near or navigation options that return them to the right route. During the detour they walk past by an amusement avenue. Alice s device shakes and asks her if she want to play a game. She accepts and starts the game but has too little time to finish it there. The family continues along the route and visit all the shops and monuments they want to see. Between the final location and the station there is still a long walk so they decide to take the tram the rest of the way. During the tram ride Alice decides to finish the activity from where she last ended to get the star for this event as well. At the station they return the devices and continue their train ride. QOC analysis With the help of our scenarios we were able to come up with a QOC analysis that can be seen below. Questions: How can a user indicate that he or she wants? To continue walking and therefor skip a game that belongs to a certain spot? C \ O I. A button on the device of the child II. By shaking the device of the child III. Only the parent can control this with a button Support planned behavior Allow spontaneous behavior Cannot be used accidentally Yes Yes Yes Yes Maybe not Yes Maybe No Yes 12

13 Options: Give the device a button with which you can skip activities when you pass the spot. Shake the device as a sign that you want to skip the activity. Only the parent has a button with which you can skip activities when you pass the spot. Criteria: Support planned behavior (scenarios!) Allow spontaneous behavior Efficiency - low user effort, minimal number of actions Must make it able to undo action Score table: If a Yes has a value of 2 points, a Maybe a value of 1 point and a No 0 points. The scores of the three options are: I. A button on the device of the child: 2,5p II. By shaking the device of the child: 1,5p III. Only the parent can control this with a button: 3p Conclusion: The third option has the most points. Which means that giving the parent s device a button to control whether the child wants to skip an activity or not. Tasks The tasks the user can achieve when using the system are: Adjusting the theme of the device to fit a preferred style for adults or an engaging theme for children. The ability to choose a route from station A to Station B along either a composed or a custom route and the ability to see places of interest along the way. The user should be able to adjust the route after starting the walk to accommodate detours desired and be able to be directed to other places along the way. The system should have settings which allow you to choose which places might interest you so the pop-ups that indicate you are close to a place of interest fit the user. 13

14 Paper prototype and heuristic evaluation Paper Prototype This 2-D steering wheel has 3-D buttons with different colors and forms. The buttons have different forms and colors to emphasize the different functions they have. They also contribute to the playful look the wheel has to have for our age category. The wheel does not contain a screen. We have made four different screens that can be put on top of the wheel. This is due the fact that we wanted to evaluate which game the children of our age category would appeal the most to them. Task description The paper prototype should evaluate the effectiveness of our system by examining these tasks: The screen size should be checked to see if it is large enough to display the required information. The user should be able to pick a theme by navigating through the first menu on startup. The user should be able to pick a route by going to the menu, finding the route picking option, selecting it and seeing the routes available on screen. They should then be able to pick one which should automatically load as the current route selected. The user should be able to go back into the menu to add a detour to rest stops/food venues along the way, by picking a detour option in the route menu, which gives them the option to get guided navigation to that spot added to the map. The user should be able to see when a game option arrives and should be able to pick when to start this challenge, afterwards they should be directed to a summary of how they did. The needs to understand the positioning and function of the buttons on the system, which should be determined by asking them to utilize the buttons to navigate the system and evaluating how often they choose the wrong button. The user should move about with the device and the paper prototype should simulate a notification to see if the notifications are clear enough in their functionality and position on the screen. Evaluation of prototype Principles #1 Visibility By looking, the user can tell the status of the (actions of the) device and alternatives for action. It is possible to determine the relationship between actions and results, between the controls and their effects #2 Feedback The user receives full and continuous feedback about the results of actions. Includes sound, highlighting, animations #3 Conceptual Model The designer provides a good conceptual model for the user, with a good match between the system and real world and consistency in operations and results 14

15 #4 User Control User should be able to correct themselves if they make a mistake. System should support both novice and experienced users. #1 Visability No problem found. The menus that are presented on the screen are clear. The change in menus follow the actions of the users. There is a clear relationship between actions and results, between the controls and their effects 2. The heuristic that is violated. #2 Feedback 2. A description of problem. The user could not indicate the buzzing and sound of the device as a signal that an activity will be started. 3. Possible causes of problem. Not able to identify the link between the signals and the upcoming activity. 4. Expected consequences of problem (severity). Only 10% of users will experience the problem and 50% of them will need helo to overcome the problem. 3. The heuristic that is violated. #3 conceptual model. 2. A description of problem. It s not clear where the forms of the buttons stands for. 3. Possible causes of problem. The forms used on the button do not refer to meaningful concepts associated with the function. 4. Expected consequences of problem (severity). 100% of the users will experience the problem if buttons are not explained or not visualised on the screen at each desissionpoint. #4 User Control No problem found. The device always gives the opurtunity to cancel or redo an action. User evaluation Setup user test The user test is set up in 3 phases: - Phase 1: using the menu In the first part the task is to use the buttons provided to navigate the menu to: 1. Pick a theme 2. Choose a route 3. Pick the types of notifications you want The goal of this phase are to establish if the design of the device gives enough feed-forward to be able to use the device without too much help. It allows us to determine if we were able to pick the right positioning and labeling of the buttons and determines of we need to make changes in the layout or function of the interface. The questions this phase has to answer are: 1. Is the navigation intuitive enough? 2. Is the addition of a theme a good design decision? 3. Will the device be used in the way we intended during the design process? 15

16 We will find the answers to these question by: Measuring how long it takes the user to complete the initial setup. We also want to get feedback on if the use of a theme is appreciated by asking a series of questions like: do you appreciate this option? Would you add additional themes if you could? Etc. The practical issues involved in this phase are the lack of linked menus in a paper prototype makes simulating interaction with the menu difficult to measure. The ethical issues in this phase are hard to pin-point but potentially our lack of focus on language support might prove a problem and adding a option to the startup menu would solve that. We can evaluate and present this data by timing the navigation of the menu and making a time table of the results to see if navigation is specifically difficult for someone. We can use the answers to the questions about themes to establish the validity of that design decision by comparing the number of positive comments to the number of negative comments. - phase 2: interact with the device during the walk the tasks involved in this phase are: 1. The user gets a notification that they are close to a game, they have to accept the challenge and they should be shown a list of game options 2. Afterward they should be able to navigate from the final game screen back to the map. The goal of this phase is to determine of the integration between the game part and the navigation part of our system is smooth enough for end users to understand. The questions in this phase are: 1. Are the games a fun addition or an unwanted distraction? 2. Is the navigation between them smooth enough? We will get the answers by asking if they enjoy this function of the system and which location related games sound like the most fun. The practical issues here are that this design decision makes our product unique but also is the most subjective function. The way we can evaluate and present this data is by evaluation the answers to the questions to see if this is a positive or negative addition. - phase 3: handing in the device The task this phase are logging out of the device The goal of this phase is to see if the way to log out of the device is clear. The questions of this phase are about finding out if the system gives enough indication of how it worked. We will find the answers of this phase by testing how long it takes for someone to log out and asking them if it was intuitive enough for them and if they though the process could be improved The practical issue with this phase is that there are no protocols for handing in the device in place yet so we can t really evaluate the whole process. We can evaluate and present the results by asking the user beforehand how he imagined he would log out of the system and where he/she thought the option to do so would be in the menu, so we can evaluate of our placement is correct and would potentially need adjustment. Unfortunately we were unable to do a user test. We contacted different primary schools, but none of them responded during the Christmas holidays, which is somehow logical as schools are closed during this time period. Just after the holidays we got some responses in which we were told that the direction would return on Wednesday and that it would take another day or two to arrange the user test with them. This was, however, too late for the presentation and report. We were also unable to do a comparison of the heuristic evaluation and the user test for this reason and did not make a proposal for a new design based on these results 16

17 Reflection Although I already had some experience with user focused designing because of my project, this assignment gave me more insight in the different steps of designing a product while focussing on the user. An example of a very useful tool is designing an low-fidelity paper prototype. In this way an evaluation of the project can be done in a early stage and design problems can be prevented easily. We had a rough start because of some problems with the teamwork, but when a groupmember was expelled we could pick up where we left off. I enjoyed the freedom that was given to us within the assignment. The way the tools were given to us, but we had to apply them ourselfswas very useful. I will apply these steps in future projects. I also learned that organising usertests cost more time than I thought. We had problems with finding cooperating schools. Overall I enjoyed this assignment and will use the different steps of user focussed designing in my future projects. -Dominique Fürst In my opinion I ve learned the most during the first few weeks of this assignment. During the first week I learned that there are different things within the environment which you need to take into account when designing something. For this assignment I did not think about the way that it needs to be distributed right from the start, but this is quite important for the overall design. I also learned that it is important to think about the experience you want to give the user from the start, because you can work towards this goal in that way and the whole designing process is much clearer when you have a fixed vision on what your user needs to experience beforehand. I became aware of the importance of a storyboard as well. Storyboards are an easy way to communicate your ideas within a group and make it easier to conduct a context of use analysis. In future projects I am certainly going to use storyboards. During the second week I noticed how important it is to ask the right questions to your target group. Sometimes questions seem clear to you, but they are not for others. I also learned the importance of a pilot interview, which I was not familiar with yet. It is really useful to know before the main interview which questions work and which do not, so that you can change them to get better results. We based most of the questions for the pilot interview on the context of use analysis from the week before. If I need to conduct interviews in the future I will definitely conduct a pilot interview before the main interview to save time. Creating personas also turned out to be quite useful. Instead of designing something for a vague user group you actually design something for an existing person, which gives you the chance to feel empathy with this person and, besides, it keeps you focused. During the third week I learned that mapping is important when it comes to designing. Your design must be logical to use for your target group, and therefore it should work similar as the devices they are already familiar with. I also became familiar with the Volere Template, which I found a useful way of describing the different requirements in a clear and short way. It also gives you the chance to see which requirements are more important than others. During this week I also became aware of the fact that interviewing is not as easy as it seems. When you want to conduct an interview, you should plan it far in advance. I was not allowed to interview children at a primary school and it was difficult to find children in the age category on the streets and in shops. I also tried to contact a bso, but they responded a bit late. I think, I wasted too much time on finding children to interview. Next time I will alter the age category a little bit, to broaden my target group and with that also the possibility of finding one of the target users or I will contact a place like a bso earlier. Looking back I see that every week continues with the previous week and you actually need the results to continue. It is almost impossible to come up with good requirements, for example, if you do not have personas and a context of use analysis. And in order to do a user test you should first have a prototype and know which you want to achieve with the user test. Presentation The presentation went a lot better than expected. Normally I get the urge to stutter or I get a black out, but that did not happen this time. We got the feedback that we should have added more visuals in our PowerPoint and I agree with that. Visuals often say more than words. 17

18 Teamwork and Communication I learned that communication is very important, but it can also be difficult within a group. Without proper communication nothing will be done or everyone will do the same things. Communication with children works completely different, you cannot talk to a child in the same way as an adult. The teamwork within this group was not extremely good, but this might have to do something with the fact that we had to kick one person out of our group when we were already busy with different ideas. Luckily our ideas were both electronic and we were still able to combine them. During this assignment I kind of felt like I needed to take the role of leader, but I am not used to taking a leading role within a group and do not really like to have this responsibility. In the end I am glad that I did take this role, even though it could have gone a lot better, but I am more confident in taking a leading role next time. -Allitze Faro The reflection of Cesar can be found on ID compass 18

19 Appendices 1 Storyboards 2 Pilot Interview 3 Final Interviews 4 Table 1 Answers to interview questions 19

20 Storyboards Storyboard 1 Allitze Faro 20