ElderConnect

GR3 - Paper Prototyping

Prototype photos

Briefing

Here is the briefing we gave to users:

Purpose of application: To connect the elderly with their younger family members

• You are a grandparent named Harry.
• You are a native English speaker, but you have trouble typing and you are somewhat unfamiliar with using computers.
• Your granddaughter is Lily, a college student in California.
• This is your home computer, and it is the computer you use to go online. Assume webcam and microphone come with the computer, ready to use.
• Pretend Lily calls you one day and asks you to add her as a contact on ElderConnect so that you can stay in contact and chat sometimes.

Scenario Tasks.

Task 1: Lily calls you and asks you to add her as a contact.

Task 2: One day later, you want to send Lily a message.

Task 3: A few days later, you go on ElderConnect again. You want to call Lily.

Observations from Wednesday's Testing (Round 1)

Total number of users tested: 5 (Address Book: 3, Phone Metaphor: 1, Action wheel: 1)

User testing descriptions

Address Book Metaphor Prototype

• Phone
  • During the add-contact task, users were uncomfortable with the fact that the phone call actually went through to the granddaughter. Some expressed that “Add contact” should feel different from a normal phone call, and should allow them to hit an “OK”-like button to confirm before the request is sent.
  • Lacks a “send” button. old dial-tone phones with no numerical feedback do automatically start dialing, but since our display looks like a cell phone that displays numbers, it should be consistent with cell phones having a “Send” button.
  • No way to delete one digit at a time. This is poor safety for the elderly who may make errors while entering digits. Having no digit-backspace also threatens efficiency; the user would need to completely start over if he/she makes any mistake.
  • Lacks an “end call” button. This was simply an oversight on our part.
  • Not a real cell-phone number (only 6-digits long).
  • User not sure if * and # keys are necessary since they are never used when dialing a phone number.
• Mail
  • Yellow mail icon misconstrued to be a “compose mail” button.
  • “You’ve got mail” icon being inside the address book seemed to be inconsistent with the address book metaphor; normal address books don’t have mail-receiving functionality inside. User suggested to put the inbox in a corner of the browser instead rather than associating each mail icon with a particular contact.
  • Can’t hear message playback or see previously sent/received messages again.
• Options/Widgets
  • No way for grandparent to write an email, yet receives emails from grandchild. Makes user feel somewhat mistreated.
  • Doesn’t make sense for “call” and “send voicemail” to be two diverging options. Normally the caller would call and, if the recipient doesn’t answer, the caller would leave a voicemail.
  • Call/Send Voicemail screen: user wondered why both options were shown even though the contact was not online.
  • Need video vs. audio option
  • No way to send a video message.
  • User said that it may feel more like an address book if the user can fill in the details right on the book instead of on a popup. So maybe clicking on Add Contact will turn that entry into some text fields.

Phone Metaphor Prototype

• Phone:
  • There is no end call button.
  • No way to confirm that the phone number is correct because it automatically dials.
• Mail:
  • User did not associate “leave a message” with “send a voicemail.” Strong association between “leave a message” and textual message.
  • No way to review a previously received message again.
• “Call” and “Message” are currently either-or options. Would like the option to both call or send message even when the recipient is online.
• Immediate start of message recording was a bit startling.

Voice Search / Action Wheel

• Circular action wheel:
  • Circular selection momentarily confused user because it does not look like normal button options. However, user understood that they were probably buttons after thinking for a brief moment.
  • User did not know what what voicemail icon stood for.
  • User thought the X over the phone meant “end call” instead of “calling is not an option.”
• No functionality to delete a contact.

Feedback summary

Inconsistency with Expectations:

• Having a phone actually dial the recipient during the “add contact” task was disorienting to users.
• The reason for having “call” vs. “send voicemail” options is not intuitive. Used to leaving voicemail as a failed call attempt, rather than an upfront option.
• Many users were so caught up in recording their voice messages that they forgot to click “Done” until they realized they needed to do something.
• Users wanted the option to send a text message, not only voice messages.
• Letter icon was ambiguous to users (compose mail vs. receive mail).
• (Phone metaphor prototype) No user attempted to punch numbers into the phone to dial the recipient.

Consistency with Expectations:

• All users correctly clicked on the phone digits to dial the phone - understood that the interface was mimicking a phone.
• All users clicked on the recipient to initiate communication with the recipient. Some noted that they did so because it was the only thing to click on.
• Users used the X’s in the upper right corner of layovers to exit out of the layover or to undo the selection. This was as we had hoped/expected.
• Users clicked the “Cancel” and “End call” buttons correctly.
• When mailbox icon was in upper right corner of the browser, all users knew to click there for mail.
• Users noticed the address book metaphor.

Positive and Meta-feedback:

• Users remarked liking the simplicity of the interface (aside from the call vs. messaging options confusion)
• Users expressed some degree of amusement/excitement over recording a voice message and talking over webcam. The excitement may be partly a result of feeling nervous, but users seemed on the whole happy and played along with the voice-recording/webcam components of the study.
• One user (playing the Grandparent) remarked over webcam: “It’s nice to see your face!” This remark suggests that college-aged students assume and are aware of the notion that their grandparents would like to see them more often.

Changes for Round 2

Flow:

• To address all the communication-option confusion, change to the following flow hierarchy.
  • If online: see call vs. send message →
    • If click into messages: see 3 options (voice message, email, video message)
  • If offline: goes directly to the 3 message options (voice message, email, video message)

Phone changes:

• Make “Add” button so that user has control over when phone starts connecting during Add Contact task.
• Show “End call” button once user and recipient have connected live, during Call task.
• Add back-arrow icon to allow deletion of 1 digit at a time.
• Make sure phone number is 7 digits long.

Receiving Mail:

• Change mail icon to mailbox icon. May want to try mailbox on yellow paper.
• Place mail icon in upper right of browser, representing mail from all contacts rather than from individual contacts.

Voice Mail:

• change wording from “voice mail” to “voice message” so that it is not confused with real-world voice-mail recording when the recipient does not pick up
• perhaps change icon from a tape to a person speaking

Observations from Friday's Testing (Round 2)

TO BE CONTINUED. Robin is taking a break and will be wiki-ing again soon.