Paper Prototype

Phase 1

Following are the screenshots of the screens of LocaShare (phase 1):

Tasks:

1. View Bob’s information (current location and historical location)
2. View what information Bob can see about you, edit it. 
3. Add John as a new friend of yours. 
4. View offers and select one.

Observations:

Lessons Learned:

- Adding users is currently not intuitive. All three users asked why they had to go to "My Friends" and "search" for Bob when Bob wasn't a friend.

- Home screen is not conveying sufficient information for the tasks described. All three users tried clicking on Joe's photo on the home screen to view information that Joe's friend can see about him.

- Navigation controls need some work. All users thought that "Friend" and "Deals" beside "LocaShare" (at the top of the screen) was clickable. None of them realized that "LocaShare" would lead them back to the home screen.

- Viewing friend page could use some work. As User 1 pointed out, the buttons do not convey necessary/sufficient information to take an action.

- Editing preferences page could use some work. The "What" and "Where" seem to be contradictory as User 2 mentioned. Also, would the preferences erase the previous setting and create a brand new one? Or would Joe be able to edit the previous one and create a modified setting?

- User 3 asked if the "deals functionality" could be turned into a social experience ("I would like to share my deals with Bob").

Re-design:

After receiving the feedback in the first iteration, we made changes to our design.

Second Iteration

Responses:

User 1:

Home: Able to navigate to friend's page and deal's page. Asked about how to add a friend since clicking on “My Friends” does not make sense ("Bob is not my friend at this point")

Friends page/Add Friends: Was wondering if the location mentioned was the last one updated. Didn't see an intuitive way of how to add Bob. Asked if the user could add Bob by clicking on "Friends" beside "LocaShare". 

Viewing Friend page: Tried clicking on the photos to view Bob's info and info that Bob could see about Joe. When said that nothing would happen, the user tried clicking on the buttons. And was able to view appropriate information. The information displayed on the screen made perfect sense to the user. Did not understand what "Bob's LocaShare" and "My LocaShare" meant (they didn't look like clickable buttons either). And the fact that the red triangle in "Bob's LocaShare" pointed towards Joe further confused the user.

View information that Bob could see about Joe/Edit preferences: Tried clicking on Joe's photo on the home screen, which did not work. Did not understand that the textbox was a map (we hadn't put the marker on the map at that point). The user thought about writing the location names in that "textarea". Understood the rest of the controls. Also understood what the charts were conveying. Wondered whether these edits were being made only to Bob or to all friends.

Deals: Tried clicking on the box to the left of "Star Market" as it looks more like a button than an icon (we hadn't drawn the "star" in it at that point). Was able to understand the concept of categories and was able to navigate to the appropriate offer and select it. Asked whether the categories were pre-defined. Wondered if it was possible to create user-specific categories. Also, how to select multiple offers at once.

User 2:

Home: Able to navigate to friend's page and deal's page. Was not able to navigate from the home screen for the "Add Bob" task since the user was expecting an “Add friend”/”+” on the homepage. Wouldn’t expect to click on “My Friends” to add Bob as a new friend.

Friends page/Add Friends: Was able to view Bob (in friends currently near him and was also able to use the vertical alphabetical listing to spot Bob). However, while adding Bob as a friend asked why there was no feedback given about success/failure of the action.

Viewing Friend page: Asked about the difference between "Bob’s LocaShare" and "My LocaShare". Said that the user shouldn't be called "Joe" ("me" sounds more natural). Was able to understand current location and aggregate information intuitively.

View information that Bob could see about Joe/Edit preferences: Asked whether the user was adding more restrictions or removing restrictions from what Bob can see (when editing information). Asked what would happen if there was a contradiction (If the time I enter now contradicts information already present, when would Bob be able to see my location?). Mentioned that deleting (by clicking "Show"/"Hide") was possible for the aggregate information, but could do that for other details ("When/Where/What"). Initially asked what the radius would be when the user clicks on the map. Then spotted the "What" and asked if the user selects "State" level, why would the user need to select multiple locations on the map (e.g., "Stata Center", "Walker Memorial") since they're all in the same state?

Deals: Understood the concept of the notification, but said that the user was not interested in utilizing any offers right now and could click "My Deals" at a later point in time. Tried both approaches (using "My Deals" and clicking on the notification). Saw the categories and was able to easily navigate to the offers from Star Market. Tried clicking on the "Star" symbol to see the offers but was told it wouldn't work. Then asked whether the little arrow below "0.4 mi" would provide a map/directions to Star Market (since it was directly below the distance). When given an explanation that it would display the offer, the user went ahead and was able to view and select an offer.

User 3:

Home: Able to navigate to view friends and deals. However, when asked to view the information that Bob would see about Joe, tried clicking on Joe's photo and name.

Friends page/Add Friends: Saw an inconsistency in adding friends. Said that "searching" should be the same as in contacts on a cell phone (search for people in your contact list). On a cell phone (contact list), when you want to add users, you don’t search for them. Understood the vertical alphabetical listing as a scroll bar (not as a clickable mechanism). Asked if the user could add Bob by clicking on one of the "empty boxes" under "Currently Near You").

Viewing Friend page: Asked why Joe was showing up on the screen when viewing Bob's information. Was able to understand all the data presented on the screen.

View information that Bob could see about Joe/Edit preferences: Noticed the arrow that indicated that all the information shown on the screen related to Bob (using the arrow below Bob's photo). However, asked if the user could click on Joe's photo to see what Bob could see about Joe. When said that it was not possible, the user needed assistance to understand and use "My LocaShare". The "When" and "Where" made sense to the user. However, the user did not notice the search bar below the map. Asked if the user had to explicitly hide each aggregate information separately. "If I want to hide my daily/weekly and monthly stats, do I have to click "Hide" 3 times?" Also, the "neighborhood/city/state" did not convey the look of radio buttons to the user.

Deals: Was able to navigate to the deals page and understood the concept of categories. Said that the little number would indicate that she has those many # deals available. When asked to read the offer and decide whether to select it, the user was able to take appropriate action. The user also mentioned that "Select" sounded rather ambiguous. Was the user adding Star Market as a “friend”? How much/what information can they see?

Briefing:

LocaShare is an application that allows you to share your location data in ways that are different from existing services like Foursquare and Latitude.

• place and time-based sharing: you can elect to share your location only when you arrive in certain places, or only during certain times of day or times of the week.
• granular sharing: You can also choose to share more granular data -- such as what city you are in, but not where precisely.
• sharing for deals: Besides just social sharing, you can also share with companies in exchange for incentives that they offer. Deals can be offered based on your current location, and the app
• data browsing / transparency: An important part of the interface is the part that lets you see both data that is shared with you and see the data that you are sharing with others.
• localshare types: in order to avoid having to manually select every detail every time, LocalShare allows you to choose from templates. *
  • a Basic share shares your location all the time

• • a Neighborhood share shares your location only when you are in a certain neighborhood.

• • an Out & About share accepts a list of locations and will share whenever you are in any of them.

Task Scenarios:

Task 1:

Create a LocalShare that shares your location all the time with your friend Bob.

Task 2:

You live in Cambridge, but Bob lives in Jamaica Plain. Create a share that allows Bob to see whenever you are in his neighborhood, but only during evening hours.

Task 3:

Your mother Alice knows you're going on a ski trip, and wants to know that you've arrived safely there and safely home. Create a LocalShare that allows her to see what city you're in.

Task 4:

You like to eat in several places. Bob likes to come eat with you sometimes, and you would like to share what places you eat and how often you go to them. Choose two restaurants, and share with Bob information about when you go to those restaurants. 

Task 5:

You are at a shopping center and you view the deals that are available to you. Select one that looks attractive and opt-in. (REI 5 % off) Make sure you understand what you are sharing.

Task 1:

View Bob's current location and identify the restaurant he visited most frequently last week.

Task 2:

Create a new locashare with Bob that allows Bob to see whenever you are in his neighborhood (Boston), but only during evening hours (7pm-9pm).

Task 3:

View and edit your information that Bob can view to hide your statistics information.

User 1:

Task 1:

- There are multiple ways to get to Bob (click on map or click on "My Friends").

Task 2:

- Too many button clicks (there is one even for confirmation that a new locashare has been created!) efficiency

- Just inform the notification, instead of asking them to click. -- efficiency issue

- Daily stats - when/what? -- not speaking user's language

- "What" sounds ambiguous -- use "History" instead

- Would like to know what locashares Joe has with Bob.

- View Bob's locashare accessible by me.

- Can have multiple locashares (naming will be helpful, but should not be mandatory). 

- Name locashares as the placesnames (Cosi, Stata, Cambridge etc)

- Click on multiple friends for one location is intuitive.. but would like a "who" tab... should be already set with the list of friends that have been assigned to that locashare.

Task 3:

- The title "View me as Bob" is ambiguous

- To view my locashare, there are multiple paths -- my friends, my photo

- Edit relationship with Bob either way -- clicking on  Bob or on yourself (photo)

- Saved locashares -- lists/tabs of locashares - visibility issue

- Bob (my relationship with Bob) ..  same options should be given (list of locashares with Bob)

Suggestions:

- Option to "Duplicate" the locashares to create them for other people.

User 2:

Task 1:

- favorite restaurant doesn't make sense since there is no rating feedback given. Also, if Bob already went to PepperSky multiple times this week, he may not want to go there again.

- no preference info given.

Task 2:

- "Whenever in Boston" in the task is ambiguous. If a friend in UCLA is coming to visit, their purpose of being in Boston may be different from someone in Cambridge. Requesting to share whenever you're in SP between 7 and 9pm makes more sense.

- there should be only 1 chart and user should be able to select the frequency of update

- difference between timeframe and the frequency of update

- if you want to share, but only see at specific times.

- time is not displayed consistently. Military time vs normal time.

Task 3:

- History of share -- hide weekly? if they hide daily, they can infer this information when they view the weekly chart.

- number of times in the chart is ambiguous. Say they're at a restaurant and they get a phone call. So they exit the restaurant, complete their phone call and come back. Does that constitute two visits? Displaying the amount of time on the chart may be more useful.

- may be more intuitive to give the user an option of specifying how long they would like information to be stored (in number of days).

- sharing exact location (everywhere) with family members seems more intuitive. something along the lines of "During this time Bob can see me wherever I am"

- affordance is not there to view your info. seen by Bob (did not click on own photo).

show history (in "View me as Bob"):

Now ------|||---------- 7days ago (this will be filled in based on the permissions that Joe sets)

- would "poke around" to view the information Bob can see about Joe. However, better labels would be "Location", "Time", "History" (can be repetitive). speak the user's language

- show amount of time, not number of times. depends on the context though. Restaurants -- many times, Location Tracking -- amount of time

- #times visited = fav. place

- can have similar settings like facebook. selecting multiple friends .. lack of external consistency

- history for the whole group, multiple -- singel entries or is there 1 single one for group formation.

- "My Friend" vs "New Friend". How do I add a new friend? learnability issue

- Show different times for different locations? Right now all the times in the "When" tab map to all the locations in the "Where" tab.

- Easier to "Choose time", and notify when that person can see where I am.

- Have a "global function". During this time, I don't want to be seen by anybody. This will override all other locashares.

- Time I want to be seen is like Facebook chat with location. 

- Can you send a text message to that friend as well?

- Tell where you are right now vs track your locations.

- have an icon (like in MSN) below the photo to show an affordance of clicking. Right now, clicking on the photo is not easy to learn.

- What if there are 5 restaurants in one building? How would LocaShare identify that building as?

- Need to have a mechanism to self-identify the location (like Facebook Check-In) for labeling the locations. If only GPS location is more important, maybe not needd.

- Issue of privacy -- not at home/office can help someone break into my home and steal my stuff.

- I wouldn't use this app for social networking, but will use it for my family members for real-time location sharing.

- If users don't identify themselves, coming up with labels will be very difficult.

- May be interested in viewing historical information out of personal curiosity.

User 3:

Task 1:

Task 2:

Task 3:

- Sharing preference seems to be for future plans (sharing in the future). Mode is visible at that time. 

- Inconsistency in time display (military vs normal)

- Date -- is it this Sunday or the next? No option for setting dates.

- Did I already share Cosi and Stata with Bob? What do these markers mean?

- What does "View me as Bob" mean? Ambiguous not speaking the user's language

- 2 faces on ("View me as Bob") page. What are they for?

- Call "What" as "Past Statistics". Quite ambiguous. not speaking the user's language

- The home page has a bubble-like shape that looks like Joe is "saying" something. However, the internal model is that the nearby friends are the ones that are doing the "saying" (mentioning their location as being close to Joe).

- Past History. Current location. Mention the time.

- Didn't notice the option to delete time (the circle with "minus" symbol). 

- How do I add date to "When"?

- How to share with multiple friends at the same time?

- Location option. Will be helpful to show past statistics of locations I usually share with others (simplify the need to create new locations on the map). 

- New LocaShare --- map in "What" tab should be blank.

- Statistics is very ambiguous. Will be more useful to have a map that shows the route that Bob took in the past. Time is more important than frequency for the user.

- Can vary the size/shape of the markers on the map to indicate frequency (don't make the map messy)

- Specific group of people will be more helpful in the friends page. Divide by "Family" and "Friends". That way you can easily select all friends you want to be associated with that locashare.

- Associate "When" inside the markers on the map in "Where". When you click on a marker, a new window pops up and you can add it. Then you can add time and other details in that window. Should also be able to delete the markers (delete locashares).

- Existing locashare should not be editable. but should be shown when creating a new locashare.

- If Joe wants to notify Bob that he will be in Boston on Friday night, Bob has to to go view Joe's profile to view whether Joe is in Boston. It may already be too late. Having some kind of alert (using color or notification) will be helpful whenever a new locashare is created.

- exact location all day versus decide a location in advance.

---

- There are multiple ways to get to Bob (click on map or click on "My Friends").

- Multiple options for time. 

- Too many button clicks (there is one even for confirmation that a new locashare has been created!) efficiency

- To view my locashare, there are multiple paths -- my friends, my photo

- Edit relationship with Bob either way -- clicking on  Bob or on yourself (photo)

- The title "View me as Bob" is ambiguous

- Daily stats - when/what? -- not speaking user's language

- "What" sounds ambiguous -- use "History" instead

- Just inform the notification, instead of asking them to click. -- efficiency issue

- Would like to know what locashares Joe has with Bob.

- View Bob's locashare accessible by me.

- Can have multiple locashares (naming will be helpful, but should not be mandatory). 

- Name locashares as the placesnames (Cosi, Stata, Cambridge etc)

- My info opened to Bob

- Saved locashares -- lists/tabs of locashares - visibility issue

- Click on multiple friends for one location is intuitive.. but would like a "who" tab... should be already set with the list of friends that have been assigned to that locashare.

- Bob (my relationship with Bob) ..  same options should be given (list of locashares with Bob)

- Option to "Duplicate" the locashares to create them for other people.

User 2:

- favorite restaurant doesn't make sense since there is no rating feedback given. Also, if Bob already went to PepperSky multiple times this week, he may not want to go there again.

- no preference info given.

- "Whenever in Boston" in the task is ambiguous. If a friend in UCLA is coming to visit, their purpose of being in Boston may be different from someone in Cambridge. Requesting to share whenever you're in SP between 7 and 9pm makes more sense. 

- History of share -- hide weekly? if they hide daily, they can infer this information when they view the weekly chart. 

- there should be only 1 chart and user should be able to select the frequency of update

- difference between timeframe and the frequency of update

- if you want to share, but only see at specific times.

- number of times in the chart is ambiguous. Say they're at a restaurant and they get a phone call. So they exit the restaurant, complete their phone call and come back. Does that constitute two visits? Displaying the amount of time on the chart may be more useful.

- may be more intuitive to give the user an option of specifying how long they would like information to be stored (in number of days).

- sharing exact location (everywhere) with family members seems more intuitive. something along the lines of "During this time Bob can see me wherever I am"

- time is not displayed consistently. Military time vs normal time.

- affordance is not there to view your info. seen by Bob (did not click on own photo).

show history (in "View me as Bob"):

Now ------|||---------- 7days ago (this will be filled in based on the permissions that Joe sets)

- would "poke around" to view the information Bob can see about Joe.

- Better labels would be "Location", "Time", "History" (can be repetitive). speak the user's language

- show amount of time, not number of times. depends on the context though. Restaurants -- many times, Location Tracking -- amount of time

- #times visited = fav. place

- can have similar settings like facebook. selecting multiple friends .. lack of external consistency

- history for the whole group, multiple -- singel entries or is there 1 single one for group formation.

- "My Friend" vs "New Friend". How do I add a new friend? learnability issue

- Show different times for different locations? Right now all the times in the "When" tab map to all the locations in the "Where" tab.

- Easier to "Choose time", and notify when that person can see where I am.

- Have a "global function". During this time, I don't want to be seen by anybody. This will override all other locashares.

- Time I want to be seen is like Facebook chat with location. 

- Can you send a text message to that friend as well?

- Tell where you are right now vs track your locations.

- have an icon (like in MSN) below the photo to show an affordance of clicking. Right now, clicking on the photo is not easy to learn.

- What if there are 5 restaurants in one building? How would LocaShare identify that building as?

- Need to have a mechanism to self-identify the location (like Facebook Check-In) for labeling the locations. If only GPS location is more important, maybe not needd.

- Issue of privacy -- not at home/office can help someone break into my home and steal my stuff.

- I wouldn't use this app for social networking, but will use it for my family members for real-time location sharing.

- If users don't identify themselves, coming up with labels will be very difficult.

- May be interested in viewing historical information out of personal curiosity.

User 3:

- Sharing preference seems to be for future plans (sharing in the future). Mode is visible at that time. 

- Inconsistency in time display (military vs normal)

- Date -- is it this Sunday or the next? No option for setting dates.

- Did I already share Cosi and Stata with Bob? What do these markers mean?

- What does "View me as Bob" mean? Ambiguous not speaking the user's language

- 2 faces on ("View me as Bob") page. What are they for?

- Call "What" as "Past Statistics". Quite ambiguous. not speaking the user's language

- The home page has a bubble-like shape that looks like Joe is "saying" something. However, the internal model is that the nearby friends are the ones that are doing the "saying" (mentioning their location as being close to Joe).

- Past History. Current location. Mention the time.

- Didn't notice the option to delete time (the circle with "minus" symbol). 

- How do I add date to "When"?

- How to share with multiple friends at the same time?

- Location option. Will be helpful to show past statistics of locations I usually share with others (simplify the need to create new locations on the map). 

- New LocaShare --- map in "What" tab should be blank.

- Statistics is very ambiguous. Will be more useful to have a map that shows the route that Bob took in the past. Time is more important than frequency for the user.

- Can vary the size/shape of the markers on the map to indicate frequency (don't make the map messy)

- Specific group of people will be more helpful in the friends page. Divide by "Family" and "Friends". That way you can easily select all friends you want to be associated with that locashare.

- Associate "When" inside the markers on the map in "Where". When you click on a marker, a new window pops up and you can add it. Then you can add time and other details in that window. Should also be able to delete the markers (delete locashares).

- Existing locashare should not be editable. but should be shown when creating a new locashare.

- If Joe wants to notify Bob that he will be in Boston on Friday night, Bob has to to go view Joe's profile to view whether Joe is in Boston. It may already be too late. Having some kind of alert (using color or notification) will be helpful whenever a new locashare is created.

- exact location all day versus decide a location in advance.