Prototype Photos

Briefing

Thank you for volunteering to test our prototype for 6.813/6.831 User Interface Design.  Our website is a tool designed for parents of school-aged children to coordinate carpooling for school and after-school activities. Our goal is to create an easy-to-use interface that makes it easy to set up carpools, helps users keep track of commitments, allows for scheduling flexibility, and ensures the safety of the children.

Scenario Tasks

We have created three roles in which you will play the parts of the various parents participating in the carpool.

First Role

Your name is Jane, you have a son, Bob, who has signed up for Underwater Basket Weaving, and you want to carpool with other parents. You live at 1234 Fake St., Bakersfield, CA 93203. You also need to keep in mind that your family is going on vacation from 4/22 to 4/29.

• Task 1: Visit getyourride.com to find and join a carpool for your son’s activity. After joining a carpool, find the group under the pending groups.

You have a feeling your turn to drive is coming up, but you aren’t quite sure when.

• Task 2: Get the next date/map for your next drive and confirm your availability. Out of curiosity, you also take a look at your schedule for the month.

A few weeks later, you have an unexpected death in your family on 3/26, but it is your turn to drive. You will need to reschedule.

• Task 3: Swap one of your dates for a new one.

Second Role

Your name is Vladimir, one of the other parents in Jane’s basket-weaving carpool. Jane has proposed to swap dates with you, and you need to accept her proposal to complete the swap.

• Task 4: Agree to swap dates with Jane.

Third Role

Your name is Alyssa, another one of the other parents in Jane’s basket-weaving carpool. It is your turn to pick up the kids, but the other parents want to know that their kids are safe. Luckily, we have a mechanism for letting them keep track of where you are on the pickup route.

• Task 5: Use the mobile app to allow the other parents track

Observations  - First Iteration

First User:

Task - 2: 

• User correctly selected the next tab date and clicked “confirm”.  Afterwards, user was able to quickly identify the view next schedule option.
• User remarks that he does not know how to make page options go away after completing the task.

Task - 3:

• User selected “swap times” from the view next date tab. Leading the user into the “my carpool section” already loaded with basket weaving information.  User selected the swap arrow on the date he wanted to remove and selected another data (arrow) to complete the task.   (User did not select cancel date)

Task - 4:

• User selected “my carpools” tab immediately.  
• Following tabbed page load, the user selected “basket weaving”.
• The user remarks that he would “tab out to view his calendar and tab back to confirm the swap date”.
• User remarks that clicking the final “okay” would make the my carpools schedule re-update with the revised dates.

Task - 5:

• User remarks that “track ride” is a little confusing because he wants to track his ride, not track another parent’s.  However, user was able to quickly  run through all tasks.

Second User:

Task - 2:

• User promptly selected next date.
• Once selecting next tab, the user re-read his task description.  User seemed a little confused after selecting confirm.  The facilitator told the user that there currently is not any feedback at this time.  
• User was able to print route directions and get his schedule for the month instinctively.
• Afterwards, user remarked that he was initially tempted to select the “my carpools” tab.

Task - 3:

• User recalls seeing something about swapping in “next date” and selects the “next date” tab.
• Once there, he selects “swap” to get to the my carpools tab.
• User selects the date he wants to swap and the new date to swap with.  The user was confused with the language “you” or the option to swap with yourself.
• User remarks that the swapping is very tricky and needed facilitator guidance to complete the task.

Task - 4:

• The user selected “my carpools” and remarks that the notification was catching his attention.
• The user selects “I accept” quickly after viewing the pop up.
• The user initially “cancelled” because he wasn’t sure which dates were his.   After correspondence with the facilitator he was able to understand the date selection.
• The user was confused because in task 3 he only selected 1 date to swap, not two.

Task - 5:

• The user quickly selected “basket weaving” and then “track ride”.  
• The user remarked a confusion with the vocabulary “track ride” since he would do that to track someone else’s ride, not his own ride.

Third User:

Task - 2:

• Confusion between selecting next date or my carpools tab
• Viewed full schedule
• Confirmed Date

Task - 3:

• Navigated to my carpools tab
• Forgot which date was next, so he navigated back to his next date tab to view the date
  Selected the swap date button to initiate the swap
• Initially selected only one date, received error message and then immediately selected another date to swap with

Task - 4:

• Noticed the notification and navigated to the “my carpools” tab
• Noticed the notification and navigated to the Underwater... tab
• made sure he was not conflicted on either of those days
• The displayed notification of when the date is swapped is slightly confusing, there should be a more clear delivery of swapping to and from

Fourth User

Task 1

1. He entered, “Underwater basket weaving, Bakersfield, CA” and tabbed and pressed submit.  He mentioned he would expect the cursor to be in the text field by default.
2. He clicked on the first class.
3. He clicked the button to enter his address.
4. He liked seeing that Alyssa and Vladimir are nearby.  He felt that motivated him to go further.  He asked how far the class is from his home.  We should display that.
5. He then clicked the button to add himself to the carpool but was confused because he wants to know more about the people in the carpool first.  He wanted to click on their names and see a profile.  This is a safety issue; we’re not providing the right info prior to setting up a carpool.

User 6 (male)

Task 1

1. He entered, “Underwater basket weaving, Bakersfield, CA”.  He felt the field was too generic and would have preferred to see a “location” field in addition to a description field.
2. He clicked on the first class.
3. He strongly resisted going further because he doesn’t want to carpool with people he doesn’t know, for the safety of his children.
4. He clicked the button to enter his address.
5. Upon seeing that Alyssa and Vladimir are close to him, he wondered whether they are close to him in the direction of the class or another direction.  He suggested putting a map on the page.
6. He tried to select Alyssa and Vladimir, but didn’t understand why there were no checkboxes and didn’t see the button to add himself to the carpool.
7. Upon seeing that button, he clicked it, signed up, checked the boxes for Alyssa and Vladimir and proceeded.

Summary

*Task 1:*

We optimized efficiency at the cost of safety without realizing it.  We’re dealing with people’s children here.  In such a situation, safety is a top-most concern.  People want to log in first and know that others are logging in first.  They want to see profiles of other potential carpoolers and call them before carpooling.

Task 2:

There should be a way to view full schedule from my carpools

display the day of the week of events in the my carpool tab ( thought it would be best to navigate to the next day tab to get this information )

Task 3:

The full schedule could display more information ( i.e. which parent is matching on each day )

Should be able to narrow down what the actual date is ( i.e. highlight the current day in order to be more visible )

Task 4:

Mobile ( track ) - see what other parents are currently logged in and viewing this event

Summary ---

: swapping is hard

Confusion over next date versus my carpool tabs

Being able to browse between months

Displaying parents that are driving on that particular day of the calendar

Highlighting method for current date on the swap list

Most trouble - Swap Dates

Need feedback from clicking

Instructions on pop up are vague

Prototype Iteration Changes

1. Mobile app wording: “track/untrack” to “enable tracking” “disable tracking”
2. Differentiate My carpools from Swapping with a new tab## full schedule shows up on bottom
   1. We didn’t want to put instructions on a swap because it would be so intuitive to use, but swapping dates is not a regular function. We made it more descriptive

3. My Carpools Tab - Changed “You” to “\[the user’s name\]” because “You” was confusing to some users. Most notably, some non-native English speakers seemed to have confused “You” with someone’s actual name.

4. Changed View My Full Schedule button to something that can be expanded and collapsed
5. Minor point of confusion - date inconsistencies, used Alyssa’s name instead of Jane’s for the swapping response task. Fixed in revised prototype. Also reworded some of the instructions on the interface that were confusing before.## Gives user’s and Jane’s new driving dates. Also gives link to updated schedule.
6. Displays date next to “Welcome,______.”
7. My Full Schedule now lets you browse between months
8. Colored/bolded Next Date and Swap Date tabs to make them obvious