Jeffrey Chan, Ryan Lacey, Amruth Venkatraman

Briefing

Thank you for volunteering to test our website mock up. We're working on a design for 6.813 and believe that your feedback will help us revise our design to be more intuitive and easy to use.

Our site, Your Turn, is a toy exchange website. Imagine you're middle aged man (or woman, depending) whose daughter, Susie, has an upcoming birthday. Susie has grown out of a lot of her old dolls and trading cards, so now they're wasting storage space. You decide to donate the unused toys and want to find something nice for Susie's birthday. You recognize that she has been talking about wanting to learn how to play an instrument a lot lately.

We'll provide you with a couple tasks to try to accomplish, but feel free to explore the space. We encourage you to talk aloud as you navigate the site, especially if you find something confusing or peculiar. And don't worry about trying to find "the right way" to do things. We are testing our site, not you, so any troubles you encounter reflect a flaw in our design. Your test results will be kept confidential. Feel free to stop at any time.

Tasks

List donations on website.

Search for a nice gift for Susie's birthday.

Check messages to see if anyone has responded to your listing.

Protoypes

Photos

	Navigation Bar Users can navigate around the site to visit the homepage, give page, get page, messages, and profile.
	Give Page Users upload information on toy(s) they would like to donate. "Single" - List each toy individually "Collection" - Upload a batch of toys as a single item. Items do not have to be related (eg. User could upload dolls and board games as a collection). Accordion collapsible interface for listing toys. Toy Listing Details: Name of toy The age range the toy is appropriate for A description of the toy An image of the toy
	Get Page Users browse offerings and select toy(s) to ask for from other users. Toys listing displayed as item picture with name as caption. Page Features: Drag & drop interface allows users to drag toy image to cart. "Quickview" (not shown) - Popup on picture click that provides detailed toy information. Filters for more powerful and efficient search: Item Name (search bar) Age Range (drop-down) Toy Category (checkboxes) Toy Condition (drop-down) Checkout prompts user to message toy owners to begin the exchange process.
	Messages Page Interface through which users communicate with one another. "Recent Contacts" - Listing of people user is in comunication wih. Standard messaging interface to allow users to dialogue over contact information, how toy(s) will exchange hands, etc.

Observations

Iteration I

User 1

Field names unclear
Confused by browse/URL since there was no picture placeholder
Add toy looks like it behaves like submit
No clear all option
Cancel button is unclear what it corresponds to
New button in messaging unclear
Single vs Collection unclear

User 2

User wanted to put contact info in description
User wanted a picture placeholder but was able to assume function
User wanted a button that says “any” for age
User wants submit confirmation for donation
“Any” condition for dropdown filter
Drag and drop not obvious
Feedback on hover for shopping cart
What does clicking on cart do
Confirmation that message was sent
Notification on envelope for unread messages

User 3

Where is remove button on toy listings page?
Can I submit toys of different types at once?
Checkout is confusing...
User tried clicking shopping cart
Distinguish which item is being messaged for
Can I cancel order after placing

Summary of Iteration 1

Make age range a drop down (learnability)
“Add toy” label changed to “Add another toy” (learnability)
Distinguish single toy vs collection of toys better (learnability)
Add clear filters button (efficiency)
Delete new button in message window (learnability)
Add send button in message window (safety)
“Any” field in toy condition search filter (efficiency)
Affordances for cart on drag and drop (learnability)
Add to cart button as well in receive page (learnability)
More clear remove button on add toy listings page (learnability)
Distinguish which message is going to which user for which item on requesting items (efficiency)
Change name of “checkout” button (learnability)

Iteration Step

How it changed between iterations:

Made toy listings field descriptors more clear
Added picture placeholder before a picture is uploaded
Add clear all filters option
Change "Add toy" to "Add another toy"
Made age range a drop-down to suggest possible values
Added remove toy button on receive page
Changed interface for getting toys
- Cart metaphor changed to wishlist metaphor
- Wishlist contents not shown on page, but rather on clicking the wishlist
- Can add toys to wishlist either by drag and drop or from detailed view of the toy
- When dragging an item, the wishlist image animates to a "Add item" image
Messages page: send button shown, removed add new conversation feature

Iteration 2

User 4

Enters own name in toy name
Struggled to map deck of cards to category
What is single versus collection? (trying to put two things should be a collection?)
Confused by what a wishlist is

User 5

Didn't enter a category for toy 1 since wasn't required
Wanted to type his own category for toy 2
Tried claiming own toy
Confirmation of toy submission bothered user
Confused why all toys were showing when nothing was checked under categories on get page load

User 6

User entered name in for toy name
What is single v collection?
Thought had to message owner to claim, so thought he was done with task 2 before he was
Didn't understand where there was a limit he could claim
Is notifications for messages per message or # of different users messaging me?

Studio Commentary

Q: How does claiming a collection work?
A: The user messages the owner for specific things he sees in the image

Q: What happens if multiple users claim the same toy?
A: The owner of the toy gets requests for his toy and gets to pick who gets the toy.

Q: What happens if the accordion fills the screen?
A: When adding a new toy, the window automatically scrolls to the toy they are trying to add.

Q: What about a message label instead of checkout?
A: That's an idea we considered but decided there is a distinction between messaging an owner of a toy for more information versus actually claiming, so we decided to avoid that.