Seminar 2 Meeting

Can letting users test our product prototype be useful for us?

In our current project we will use a field study as soon as we have made a hi-fidelity prototype and use that data to further improve the usability. Before that however, we first need to develop a functional prototype.

What is the best evaluation method for our product?

Decide-Framework

1. Determine the goals
1. We want to know how our first concept design is interpreted by the target group to learn how we should continue with the project.
2. Explore the questions
1. How intuitive is the user interface?
2. Do you find the UI well designed?
1. How can it be improved?
3. How easy is it to find a specific element?
1. Where do you experience the difficulty?
3. Choose the evaluation paradigm and techniques
1. We will begin with a heuristic approach, for example Nielsens Heuristics, since we need a functional prototype before we start conducting field studies in a natural setting.
4. Identify the practical issues
1. Time constraints
2. Low budget/no budget
3. We need to avoid influencing the user while conducting the evaluations. Cognitive walkthroughs is a solution.
5. Decide how to deal with the ethical issues
1. We probably won’t have any ethical issues. The GPS capabilities will be informed to the user.
6. Evaluate, interpret and present the data
1. We will first make a prototype using some sort of prototype tool. We will then use the heuristic approach to evaluate the prototype UI and gather data ourselves, to save time, and iterate this process until we are satisfied. Afterwards, field studies will be conducted in the natural setting (the boat) using cognitive walkthroughs to clearly see how the users interact with the prototype.

If we had unlimited time and money, we would evaluate the prototype(s) by collecting data automatically from the users while the prototype is running.