GR6 : User Testing

Design

Overall, we finished our design and implementation since GR4.

TODO: Design in gory detail with screenshots

Overall, we decided to focus on presentation of the timeline. The view and edit functions are functional, but we have not innovated in that area.

We decided to disable selection of the map markers - It is a little practical because the touch screen has so many markers, and the arrow partially obscures them.

TODO: talk about the color choices and arrow design (taper).

We made the following design changes in response to user feedback:

Map/Journal view mode:

• Map is now interactive

• Map icons are now positioned at the center of locations, not right above them

• There is now a direct mapping between entries in the list and entries on the map, using colors

Entry View Mode:

• View now displays a location hint ("near <city>")

• User can make swipe gestures to navigate between consecutive entries

Entry Edit Mode:

• When exiting the edit mode with unsaved changes, user is asked to save or discard the entry. Entries are no longer automatically saved.

Implementation

We have two main "Activities" in our code implementation. One is "JournalMapActivity", which corresponds to the journal/timeline screen. It is in charge of presenting the map, recalculating the arrow positions, and plotting the star markers. It also keeps track of the scrollable list of entries.

Once you tap to view or edit and entry, you enter "ViewEditActivity". This is the second activity that deals with both view and edit modes. We decided to keep both view and edit modes in the same activity, because these modes share a lot of the same information. It would also be slower if we had to navigate between different activities so often. The activity keeps track of which mode (view or edit) should be active, through the use of a Boolean value. It is in charge of displaying the appropriate "+ Photo" and "+ Contact" buttons, the photos and contacts themselves, and the textual descriptions.The menu items are also different for each mode.

We implemented the class Entry, which stores everything that can be part of an entry. This includes the timestamp/location of when/where the entry was made, its photos, text, and contacts. These entries are all stored in our database. Whenever a user views a previous entry, the system will look it up in the database, and retrieve and display the appropriate information.

TODO: Talk about database

TODO: Talk about map

TODO: talk about what is missing from a complete app.

TODO: talk about the main challenges.

TODO: ??

Evaluation

User Test Scenario

First, we told users about the purpose of our application. We also explained that it will be on an Android device, and mentioned that using the back button, menu button, and the context menus are standard for Android applications.

Our tasks have not changed since the paper prototyping phase. We asked users to perform the following:

Task 1 - View a previous entry on your timeline.
Task 2 - You are traveling in Siberia. You see a beautiful view of some snow-capped mountains. Create a new entry that includes 1) a small textual description, and 2) a photo (that you will be taking).
Task 3 - You realize that your photo is blurry. Edit the post to replace the photo with a new one.
Task 4 - Share your entry online.

Finally, we asked each user to explore the app and give general feedback.

User Test Feedback and Observations

All our users are in their early 20s and are very technologically capable. They like to travel and experience new things. Although they are usually quite busy, they find time to make occasional weekend trips. Because of these traits, they are good representatives of our target user population.

User 1

The only difficulty User 1 had was with deleting a photo. Although it was possible to delete a photo by holding down and triggering the context menu, this was not obvious to User 1. She claims that it is because she is an iPhone user. We can fix this by adding a small "Edit" button to the entry view mode, as this is more similar to how edits are done on iPhones.

Other Feedback:

• User 1 would like the star map markers to be tappable - she thinks it would be cool if tapping a specific star will bring you to the corresponding entry.
• User 1 also suggests to start the user testing with a few pre-made entries in the journal view. This is make it more obvious to the user that the stars/arrow will change as you scroll through the entries list.

User 2

User 2 had no problems with the assigned tasks. A very possible reason is that she is a regular Android phone user. However, she did not understand the star markers on the map, even though we had pre-added some entries to the journal.

Other Feedback:

• User 2 really liked the aesthetic design of the application, and commented that the map markers would be much more understandable if she were actually traveling and if the application actually tracked down her true locations for the entries. 
• User 2 also suggests that we add little left and right arrows for the entries in View Mode. These arrows will help inform the user that he/she can actually swipe through different entries.

User 3

User 3 knew that she was supposed to hold down on a photo to delete it, but she tried to do it in View Mode. It took her a little time to try the menu button and press "Edit". Right after that, though, she had no difficulty with the deletion. The same fix we mentioned for User 1 can also be applied here. An "Edit" button in a corner of the View Mode will make it more obvious, especially to iPhone users, about how to edit the entry.

Other Feedback:

• User 3 suggested a different way of editing the text of an entry. She believes that simply tapping the text in View Mode should make the text editable. She also wants photos and contacts to be editable in both View Mode and Edit Mode. Basically, she wants a single mode for both viewing and editing.

Reflection

We learned many things about UI design. One of the major lessons is that it is very important to consider who your target user population is. An interface can seem very easy to use to developers, but it can be difficult to use for the general public. We realize that we should first think in terms of what our users need and aim to do, and then design accordingly.

When we started our paper prototype, we had three potential designs. One design seemed fairly simple to implement, but also seemed pretty ordinary. Another design seemed very difficult to implement, but we all knew that it would be absolutely awesome if it worked. We finally decided on the latter design, because the idea was just too awesome. We were prepared to give it our all. And it turned out great!

There was one issue, though, with the paper prototyping. It was very difficult to make a paper prototype of the map markers, arrow, and their changes as the entries are being scrolled. Therefore, none of our users were able to provide good feedback for the feature. However, they thought it was a great feature once we explained it to them. If we were to do this a second time, we would probably rely a bit more on the computer prototype, on which it is easier to express complicated features like this one.