Panel : Interaction Design + Usability Testing
HCDE 210 Panel Report 1
Interaction Design Prototyping for One Bus Away
Guest Speaker: Alan Borning
An app that was created here at the University of Washington, One Bus Away has proven to be very clutch in my many experiences with public transit. It was interesting to hear Professor Borning talk about the early stages of designing the app because many of the methods and techniques he discussed such as paper prototyping, surveying, and beta testing, were ones that I also used in designing my app prototype in the interaction design sprint. It’s crazy how an app that began as a side project for co-creator (and Professor Borning’s former PhD student) Brian Ferris has extended beyond UW, Seattle, AND the Puget Sound Region, being further developed in various places in the country such as Atlanta, NYC, Tampa, and many more.
Nordstrom’s Usability Testing Project
Guest Speaker: Laura Barboza
Although her presentation was cut short due to time constraints, Laura described three research objectives for her third Anniversary Sale website usability test:
- Do customers understand what Early Access is?
- Can they identify what their next step options are?
- Do customers see the benefit in becoming cardholders?
Even after two usability test projects, customers still had trouble identifying where to find sale items, which items were on sale, how the sale worked, etc. I found it interesting how the simple positioning of certain words and links on a page could serve the purpose of emphasizing certain things or result in so much confusion among the customers. Through this case study I realized the importance of usability testing, especially for a company like Nordstrom trying to hard sell a special event.
Improving my own work — What I learned:
Interaction Design Sprint
For the low-fidelity prototype I made for the citizen science app, I think my work could be improved if I had worked with a small team. During the design process and creation of my app, there were multiple times where I had to redo parts or would have to add in certain features I felt were necessary but forgot to include in the first place. Working with a small group would also allow for more ideas to work and build off of to improve my app.
Usability Testing Sprint
In my process blog for the Usability Test Sprint, I had explained how “think-aloud” protocol could improve our results if the test were to be run again. Through the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale case study, I think a combination of “think-aloud” protocol and multiple trials would help improve our results. With “think-aloud” protocol, we could pinpoint specific areas of the task which were most confusing, and alter each task to fit those things for future executions. This would provide us with stronger results that would allow for improvement in the usability of the oven.