Suggestible - GR3

Original Prototype Pictures

Model 1:

these four pictures are sliding suggestion screens that we fed through the drawn android window. The first three image shows the starting screen of the application with all types of suggestions being made. The second image shows suggestions in all categories but food (So when the user chooses to filter out food from the suggestion pool). The third image is all food suggestions. The last image is a screen of suggestions of restaurants you get if you press a food category from the main suggestion screen (like Italian or Pizza rather than a specific restaurant).

this picture shows the sliding suggestion screen set up in the android screen. When the user made scrolling motions on the screen with their fingers we pulled the long suggestion paper up or down to mimic scrolling.

Picture 1 shows the scrolling window set up as well as the transparency that covers the whole display which shows which filters are selected. The second picture shows the menu that pops up when the user presses the android menu button. The third picture is the screen you get to if you press "see deleted listings" on the menu from the second image. The last picture is an example of a screen you get to if you press on a suggestion. It shows a map or picture as well as buttons that link you to more information about the suggestion.

Model 2 (Same pop-up menus and info pages):

This is a sample of the main window of our second version of the prototype. We used the transparency to change the suggestions. This version shows one suggestion at a time and scrolls left and right. The screens are the same as the previous model when you press "Find It!".

Briefing

Name: Suggestible

Platform: Android Mobile Phone

Briefing: This application will use the power of suggestion to help a person decide how to spend their free time by recommending food, books, movies and places to go.

Scenario Tasks

Task 1: You're looking for something fun to do but you just came from lunch so you don't want food. 

Task 2: You've had some childhood trauma and have an irrational fear of museums, Dr. Seuss, and ice cream.

Task 3: You're a picky eater, find somewhere to eat that has a four star rating.

Task 4: You've been running around all day, and you want to find something you can do at home.

Task 5: (Round 1): You've just given up being a vegetarian so you would like to add steak and hamburgers back into the suggestion pool.

(Round 2): You used to be a vegetarian, so you previously deleted steak and hamburgers from your suggestion pool. Add them back now.

Observations

In task 5, many users didn't understand the delete functionality and the fact that there was a list of deleted items. We reworded the task to make it clear that they had previously deleted these items, which improved the situation, but some still had problems in the second round of testing. This could be due to the fact that none of them had used Android devices, and thus were less familiar with the "Menu" hardware button.

Most users don't immediately understand the filtering functionality. Currently all of the types of activities start off selected, and the user can deselect the ones he or she is not interested in. In testing, most of the users tapped a category when they wanted to see activities from that category, and then reversed their selection once they saw the app respond. This may be due to the lack of visual fidelity of the model, since it was somewhat nonintuitive to identify which things were selected.

Once again on the topic of filtering, it took some users a couple of tasks before they realized the existence of the filters, and that they were press-able buttons. This once again may be due to low visual fidelity.

Some users were confused by the fact that in Model 1, we had both restaurants and types of food listed together. One user mentioned out loud that she couldn't tell if one listing was a restaurant name or a type of food. We changed this in prototype 2 so that only restaurants are shown, not types of food.

The delete/undelete functionality was confusing to users, especially in our first round of testing, and one user mentioned that they would never delete an item for fear they would be unable to recover it. We added an in-place undelete feature, so that any accidental deletions can be easily undone without changing to a different screen.

More about Android than our app - users who did not have Android phones had a very hard time discovering options that were in the menu activated by the hardware menu button. Android users (the target market for any Android app) had no trouble with it.

Most users (by a wide margin) preferred Model 2.

Updates to Prototype 

These pictures show the updated more info screens so that they show more descriptions on the first click.

These pictures show the updated version 2 prototype. We did a similar scroll screen as the version 1 prototype since one of the complaints from the first round of users was that version 2 was too slow but we thought some of that feedback might be based on the fact that we had the clean and rewrite the transparency between every swipe. We also changed the "Find It" button to "More Info" and added the icon of walking feet, food, book, or movie.

Changes based on feedback

• Added more information once the user has selected movies, books, etc, like reviews, description, author, director
• Buttons are smaller and closer together so that more information can fit on screen
• Removed categories from the food listings, now there are only restaurants so that the behavior is consistent
• Changed some of the button labels, amazon is now amazon instant for example
• Task 5 rewritten, hopefully it’s clearer now
• Cancel button causes a strikethrough and the red x changes to an undo arrow for three seconds before the option goes away. This makes it easier to undo deletes.
• Added additional scroll screen for just movies and books (for task 4)