GR6 - User Testing
Josh Duncavage, Tyler Singer-Clark, Stephen Zhang, Raven Clayborn
Design
Implementation
Evaluation
Reflection
"Planning ahead is invaluable" - When the first step taken involves writing code, things get messy very quickly. It does not cost much (with regard to time, effort, etc.) to first think about general strategy and structure before even touching or thinking about specifics. This gives the project a much clearer direction, and allows you to focus on the specifics when they do finally become relevant.
"Group members working together in the same place works well" - Even when work is divided such that each group member is modifying different files and performing separate tasks, working in the same room increases efficiency significantly. Instead of getting stuck for long periods of time on trivial errors, chances are someone else in the group has encountered the mistake before and can save you unnecessary stress and wasted time.
"Users may be paranoid, and it is a designer's job to account for that" - When seeing an app for the first time, not all users are comfortable exploring freely. Some users only want to click things or try things if they are positive what will happen, so as designers we need to keep this in mind. There is no room for a lack of clarity. Things that seem obvious may not be apparent to first time users, and if that scares them, that's on us.
"The customer is always right" - Related to the above point, thoughts and ideas of the designer are generally conjectures, but do not mean anything if the user reacts differently than expected. Since the end game is about the user experience, the job of the designer is to listen to users and sincerely consider their feedback. (When this was discussed in lecture, it was pointed out immediately after that we are still the designers and sometimes the users do not realize what they truly want, but this idea should be handled with care.)
"Prototypes are a designer's best friend" - Instead of trying to implement everything immediately, an iterative design process involving multiple partially functional prototypes helps isolate specific issues, and gets many of the big things out of the way by the time you want to focus on details. The benefits of prototyping vastly outweigh the costs (if you are reasonable about how you go about it).
"Vast changes may be the easiest direction" - Getting too attached to an idea can bog you down. If too many users take issue with something, even if it's a big component of your design, it may be best to scrap it and try something completely different. This is related to users always being right, but just because a design idea is important to you, it isn't necessarily a good idea for you to keep.