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GR3 - Paper Prototyping

Overview

We sequentially tested two paper prototypes on six different users. Each user is referred to as User A to User F. Users A, B, C tested prototype version 1 and Users D, E, F tested prototype version 2.

Due to the nature of our application, we wanted to emphasize testing the usability of our user interactions. As such, we focused primarily on trying to figure out the user's intuition for performing various interactions. Our goal is to have common actions be highly intuitive, so this prototype is our chance to test if they are intuitive enough. Our prototype is therefore low fidelity in breadth; the side panels are not very accurately represented since they should not be used in the tasks at all.

Unfortunately, one problem of the paper prototype is that it is not a computer. The user may not apply the same intuition as he would if he were using a computer application with the same mechanics. Therefore, we were not too picky with the details of running the prototype. If the user seems to be performing the right interaction, we let it pass. We did not expect users to be very accurate with their finger pointers, for example, in dragging in the exact position of the card. Most of the users ended up just saying general things like "I will drag this card into the middle."

Summary of Interactions

With cards on main table

Input

Action

left click

select top card at location

double left click

select entire stack of cards at location

nothing selected, drag

select box

card(s) selected, drag

move selected card(s)

nothing selected, right click

nothing

card(s) selected, right click

flip selected card(s)

card(s) selected, right click hold

enter rotate mode

With cards in player’s hand

* Note: In the hand, up cards are selected cards. Down cards are unselected cards.

Input

Action

left click on down card

puts card up

left click on up card

puts card down

left double click on down card

puts card up

left double click on up card

puts card down

right click

nothing

left drag on down card

moves grabbed card

left drag on any up card

move all up cards

Briefing

Metadeck by Haitao Mao and Victor J Wang

Metadeck is a card playing user interface that emphasizes user control. The main objective is to provide users with intuitive interactions with a virtual deck of playing cards in free-form, mimicking the experience as if users were playing with an actual deck of cards.

You have three tasks:

  1. Shuffle the deck of cards.
  2. Deal deck of cards evenly to 4 players. Every player should end up with 13 cards.
  3. Play cards from your hand onto the table (as instructed by the facilitator).## First, player one card that the facilitator picks.## Second, play a group of cards that the facilitator picks (for example, all the hearts in your hand).

Important things to keep in mind:

Scenario Tasks

1. Shuffle the deck of cards
2. Deal deck of cards evenly to 3 other players
3. Play cards (as instructed by the facilitator)

Version 1 Testing

Observations
Usability Analysis
Visibility
Learnability
Efficiency
Errors

Version 2 Changes (From Version 1)

We made three major modifications to the second iteration.

Modification 1) Pop-up Menu

Modification 2) Simpler group selection of multiple cards in a stack

Modification 3) Quick play of cards in hand

Version 2 Testing

Photos

Menu

Dealing

Playing

Observations
Usability Analysis
Visibility
Learnability
Efficiency
Errors

Conclusion

In our first iteration we tried to produce a highly intuitive look and feel by having the cards behave similar to icons of their own. Multiple cards are selected by dragging a box surrounding them or double clicking. We figured this would be familiar for users because many other computer applications use this kind of selection mechanic. Cards are moved between stacks by dragging and dropping, just like icons on your desktop or files in a file manager. 

In our second iteration we took the observations from our first iteration and got rid of some of the less frequently used input options. Instead, we decided to make a right click menu contain the common tasks. Shuffling and dealing are more or less "one-time" actions, in that they are generally performed only once per round. This means that putting them away in a menu should not hinder the look and feel of the interface too much. The game itself will still feel just as natural.