...
User | Create a Tournament | Search for/Join a Tournament | Update a Tournament | Manage a Tournament | View a Tournament | Overall Comments |
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User 1 | - Confused with their name vs. tournament name on form
- confused with friends vs. email
| | - Tried to open sidebar and click on player's name to update score
- Didn't fill in score
- Didn't notice the notification from opponent to approve score
| - Noticed the sidebar animation, went straight there
| | - Thought logout symbol was a power button
- Suggested to switch location of icons on top bar
- Was confused what the friends button did
|
User 2 | - Confused with their name vs tournament name on form
- Thought friend name and emails corresponded with each other
- Suggested to change "Close join period" button to "Start Tournament"
| - Suggested to put "Join" button on top of page in case description was very long, might not know there is a "Join" button if not immediately visible
| - Ignored notification
- Suggested a visible state change after the score was sent for approval
| - Wondered why side bar would ever disappear if there's space for it
- Tried to click name in bracket to boot/make manager - supposed to go to side bar
| | - Thought logout button would close the application
|
User 3 | - Also entered their own name instead of tournament name
- Didn't know what password box was for, skipped it because noticed it wasn't required
- Wondered why the join period was grayed out at first
- Suggested put the invited members' names in the members box after invitations were sent
| - Initially confused what the search bar at top did - would it search his tournaments or all tournaments
- Confused with the layout of the search results page - wasn't consistent with other sites he used. Said he doesn't read all the labels as a heavy internet user
| - Only user in this iteration to notice notification message
- Didn't know what tournament the match was for, didn't want to approve it because he didn't know
- Didn't know which box in the round-robin grid to press first (he could have done either)
| - Suggested having some color-coded key to explain what the colors for each player meant.
- He did accurately guess what each color was
| | - Same issues - power button, left-right layout of top icons
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Third Iteration
By the end of the second iteration, we had been able to weed all major problems out of most of the pages, reaching a point at which further iterations of paper prototyping would add little to our insight. However, our "Create a Tournament" page was not at this level yet - users still had trouble completing the primary task without confusion, and we noticed some consistent mistakes being made by all three testers of our second iteration.
Create a Tournament |
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 Image Added |
Third Iteration Observations
User 1 | User 2 | User 3 |
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- User had little issue creating a tournament
- Questioned how the "password" system would work (ie. is it shown in the email?)
| - User noted external consistencies helped him - had little issue
- Wasn't sure about preview section until he clicked on the drop down menu
| - User had no major issues
- Noted that "close join period" button should perhaps be "start tournament"
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Reflections
Paper prototyping proved to be an invaluable lesson. Not only did paper prototyping help us iteratively think through the UI design and implementation for BrackeTracker, it also provided us with insight on the process of creating a successful User Interface. We learned that certain features, such as the icons on our header bar, which we thought had clear meaning, did not clearly convey the messages and affordances we expected. Through observing users work through various tasks we were able to develop a better understanding for the aspects of our design that dealt with factors such as learnability, efficiency, and visibility. We realized that we needed to emphasize certain aspects of our design, such as including animation for our sidebar, while getting rid of other aspects that users did not find as important, such as the notifications search bar. Furthermore, observing and talking with users after completing the tasks enabled us to pinpoints areas in the overall process flow of our design that needed further clarification such as the tournament search paradigm. The overall process of paper prototyping allowed us to weed out any major problems that were present in our design. However, there are limitations to this approach - it lacks the fidelity to allow us to test some of the finer details that will only be present once we move on to digital drafts. The observations, feedback, and improved prototype design will enable us to create a better computer prototype in the next stage of our design process.
fin