User Test Briefing
Going abroad for the summer? Have an internship in a city far from home? Afraid you won't know anyone in a brand new place? Thank goodness there's TravelTech!
TravelTech will cater to the logistics of your traveling needs so you don't have to worry about it. Like your personal assistant, TravelTech will help you locate your schoolmates in a new setting, find a roommate, and set up easy ways of communicating with your new friends.
Right now, TravelTech is undergoing some basic user testing to gauge its usefulness and user-friendliness. We appreciate your participation in this task and ask you to follow all directions and be as honest as possible in your comments and suggestions.
Tasks - First Prototype
1) Input trip details
Instructions: You will be in New York from May 23, 2012 to August 1, 2012. Enter this information into the site.
Expected action: Select a location in New York on the map page (first picture below), then select the given start and end dates on the calendar (second picture below).
2) View results
Instructions: Tell me the name of the person who will be about 30km away from you. Then, add this person to "Group 5". Afterwards, save your trip details.
Expected action: Click on the appropriate line on the graph and read off the relevant user information. Then select "Group 5" from the drop-down list and click the "add" button to add the person to the travel group. Finally, click the "Add Trip" button to save personal trip details.
3) View and Edit Travel Groups
Instructions: Tell me the names of the people in Travel Group 1, and remove one of these people from the group. Then, create a new travel group called "My Group".
Expected action: Click on "Travel Group 1", select a person, click the "Delete person" button then the "close" button. Then, select the "add group" button, type the group name, and hit "submit".
Observations - First Prototype
1) Map page
2) Calendar page
All of the users were confused by the calendar interface because there was no way of specifying which date was the start date and which one was the end date. It was also unclear to some users that they merely needed to click on the appropriate date to select it.
3) Results page
Every user was overwhelmed by this interface. The graph was confusing to most of them because it was unlike any graph they had encountered before.
Modifications
Map: We added a search box to the map page, so that users could easily select a specific location. Additionally, we changed the arrow button to say "Save and Continue" to make this step more clear to users.
Calendar: We placed two calendars side by side, one to select the start date and one to select the end date, in order to alleviate the confusion that users had. 
Results: We completely got rid of the previous graphical representation as all users found it to be too confusing. We replaced it with a more visual interface, allowing the users to see which other users would be near them in a given date range and within a certain radius. 
