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Prototype First Iteration Analysis
Taking user observations into account, we tried to indicate the attributes of medical questions with icons. Furthermore, we added the filter buttons so the users can order the list of questions according to his own preference. The "my answers" tab also allowed the user to find and edit his previous responses quicker.
The issue of users not knowing "chat with Paul" will bring them to a group chat is partially addressed by the wording "Join a chat with Paul"In summary, feedback from usability tests from the first iteration concluded that the design, although simple, lacked functionality for normal and expert user scenarios, including search, sort and categorization. Hence, we adapted the feedback into our second iteration prototype and added much more functionality and performed another iteration of user testing.
Recitation Feedback
- On the Medical and Health page, there should be a visual cue to let the user know which questions are urgent, and which questions have yet to be answered. We tried to address this concern in the 2nd and 3rd prototype iterations by including visual markers for urgent and unanswered questions.
- It was suggested that we should integrate more feedback into our design. For example, in regards to the visited pages and questions under Medicine and Health we could have the The text of the visited pages should have show up with a different hue or color value than the ones that haven't been visitedhave not been visited. We also tried to integrate these ideas into the 2nd and 3rd prototype iterations. We also felt that some of the feedback options, were harder to distinguish on a paper prototype and would be more visible and obvious in a computer prototype due to the greater degree of fidelity.
- Another comment from recitation which was also commented on by our user testers was that the video chat aspect of our design was confusing in terms of functionality and how video chats were sorted. We agree with these comments and ultimately tried to simplify the video chat aspect of our interface in order to avoid confusion. We also added in an option to chat with a new random person in order to try to integrate a way to promote making new friends and connections among the users.
Prototype Second Iteration Photos
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One recurring confusion users encounter is what's going on when they enter a video chat. The prototype screen shows a number of faces, but it is unclear what immediate actions the users can take.
The 'like' and 'dislike' buttons on the video chat screen and the filter buttons on each screen added confusions.
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We believe that the first critical incident is attributed to the fact that our low-fidelity prototype does not show the participants chatting in real time. Otherwise it would be pretty apparent that the user can just start conversing with the others.
Based on the principle of simplicity and the fact that the 'like' and 'dislike' buttons didn't serve much purpose, we decided to remove it in the 3rd iteration. The filter buttons on the Medical and Health page will be replaced by something more externally consistent with other applications' filter and sort mechanism.
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