We built three initial paper prototypes corresponding to the three designs we did in GR2 - Designs . We tested each of the prototypes on users and incorporated their feedback on our revised design.
Prototype Photos
Design 1
Design 3
Briefing
This is what we told the users:
"ShutterConnect is a service to help users find photographers for events like weddings and birthdays. We want to make it easy for you to find the right photographer for your location, event and budget.It is also a service that allows photographers to advertise to their services."
Scenario Tasks
Task 1: Finding a Photographer
You're looking for a photographer for your wedding, which is in 3 weeks. You want a wedding album and full coverage (i.e. the photographer should be there all day). Your budget is $2000. You also want to make sure that you get the digital files, and you would rather not pay for any travel expenses incurred by the photographer.
Task 2: Adding a Review
You used the services of the photographer "Ansel Adams" two weeks ago. YOu were very happy with the service and you want to leave a good reivew, highlighting his agreeable personality and the promptness with which he delivered the great photos.
Task 3: Creating a Profile
You are a photographer whose business is called "Awesome Shoots Inc." You want to describe yourself as a photographer primarily involved in portraiture and as who loves working with seniors. You have 3 sample photos to upload and you charge $500 per shoot by the hour. You live in Cambridge, near MIT.
Observations
Following are the comments that our final design received:
Our participants suggested that the 'sign up' field was so prominent that it was not clear that a user can search without signing in.
A positive criticism was that the help prompt in the search box was useful in hinting at the syntax to use while searching.
One participant took some time in deciding on how to move from the results of a photographer search to the photographer's page. The participant suggested that we add a button or a clearly afforded hyperlink on the photographer's name to this effect.
We plan on implementing a slider to facilitate selecting a user's budget. One participant suggested that we add a number to this slider, so that a user gets immediate feedback on what her selected budget constraint is.
It was also not clear how to conduct a new search while currently viewing results of a previous search. One participant suggested that clicking the logo to go back to the home page and start a new search was not obvious.
One participant suggested we change the search functionality such that entering a photographer's name and hitting enter immediately took the user to the photographer's profile page.
Instead of adding a visible status message whenever a user changes one of the parameters of a search, one test user suggested that we eliminate the status message altogether, and just use the checkbox on the left-most column of the search page to indicate that a parameter has changed.
We were also advised to add a popup with "Save/Cancel" buttons whenever a user clicked on an object to make it editable instead of just having the user assume that editing an element automatically saves it.
As part of each photographer's page, we have a sample gallery that displays the photographer's work. One participant suggested that we have an 'X' on the top left corner of every photo that allowed a user to delete the photo. In addition, it was suggested that we have a placeholder icon named 'Click to Add Photo' always be in the left-most position in the photo gallery. Lastly, one participant recommended that the photos on the gallery be draggable, to allow a photographer to edit the position of the pictures.