localeStorage : Design Process
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The Problem
Have you ever seen a photo online and thought, damn, I want to go there. And for some that means if the photo was taken in Glacier Mountain National Park then their want is to go to Glacier Mountain National Park. And I feel that as well, fairly often — but what if you were so taken aback by a photo that you wanted to go to the exact spot where it was taken, where you could identify the markings on the trees nearby and the same thick smell of scat in the air.
As I browse through the endless stream of landscape photography on instagram, largely because those are the people I exclusively follow, I frequently find myself in this position. Sometimes you get the occasional comment talking about how the poster ended up going through XYZ just to get the picture you’re seeing. But what an amazing picture it usually is when you do run across posts like that. Wouldn’t it be even better to experience it in person?
Well I sure think so and that’s why when I had to come up with an idea I would have follow through to absolute fruition, this was at the top of my mind.
Enter localeStorage()
The Name
Let’s start with the name so I can talk about how clever I think I am. The idea behind it comes from the web’s own localStorage() command that allows developers to store certain data within the user’s web browser instead of on their servers.
My idea was/is for a platform to store location data in a pastebin-style.
local = on-site, in-area | storage = storage
locale = place, area | storage = storage
Man I’m good, High Five.
The Features
From what I have told you so far, you can gather that you will be receiving some sort of instruction on how to get to a specific location but I have yet to tell you what that consist of.
- First and foremost, each post contains exact location coordinates for every spot as well as the general location details (Area, Nation, Address) and a google maps link to there.
- Secondly, a list of gear necessary for any trip; this can be added from our pre-generated lists that base themselves off of popular outdoor activities (i.e. a list for standard hiking gear, camping gear, etc.) as well as from user input
- Third, Explorer’s Notes serve as a way to share information that isn’t specifically pertaining to on-foot directions — maybe you found a giant Kubrickian Monolith on your adventure and you’d like to warn those who come after you that they may start acting very strangely if they come across it
- Lastly, Spot Directions are for the explicit step by step directions you will take to get exactly where the intention is
The Journey
So with that idea, to create a platform to share extremely explicit location data, I had to walk through the process to see if it was indeed a pursuit of a solution to a problem rather than the search for the problem to my solution.
Needfinding proved that there was atleast a somewhat interest in a platform like this. I would have done more extensive needfinding, at the time, if this were to be a real platform; I would need more than, people think they would like it. But since this was for a certificate I didn’t worry about it nearly as much as I would be if I were pioneering the idea for a company to develop. Only in later development did I find that the response to it was overwhelmingly positive.
Next up was paper prototyping it out to develop an idea of how it would function and form the general structure. Not much has changed in way of the picture below, although many small but informed improvements were made after testing of the fully fleshed out prototype.
We’ll skip ahead to after this was all made into something real and testable.
Testing
Usability testing the Invision prototype on 3 potential users resulted in a wealth of feedback. Some in data and others in personal statements.
Something that surprised me was each person tested came forth at the end of the test with their opinion that it was a great idea. Opinion’s don’t matter all that much but it was partially surreal hearing that when they weren’t probed for it at all.
The link to this prototype is here.
The actual data provided was also of quality. The largest percentage of problems were with the platform itself as well as the janky set up it was set under that allowed minimal amounts of freedom. There were many general improvements like the map linking recognition as well as the final AB testing solution of hamburger menu use.
General Improvements were
- “Gear Name” Added — added to avoid confusion between the standard post view’s google maps link and gear for the trip needed
- Image Confirmation —added in the form of a notification at the top of the page so that the user is not left assuming they need to hit the submit button after they add an image
- Only Text — The only text is available on all locations and posts now
- Home Button — The top header logo (home link) is now accessible on every page
- Permutational Design Implementation — The interface now has roughly 85 screens to account for any possible combination that the user may do when they are completing the tests Most general additions were added so that the user wou
- Map Icon — The map icon now has the location pin in a neon border to draw attention that it is clickable
AB testing
The AB testing prototypes were focused around one version with all of the general improvements (version B)and another version with a button to add a new post now available from the hamburger menu (version A).
The results exceeded expectation significantly.
I measured my successes for chi-squared by version A being successful with the user accessed and used the hamburger menu link when making a new post and version B counted as a success if the user did not attempt to probe the hamburger menu when beginning to make a new post.
My chi squared test resulted in a statistically significant .00165 in favor of version A. Average user completion time for A was 2:03 vs B’s 2:50 with B taking a full 8 minutes longer to complete across the 10 people tested with it.
Things
Well now that we’ve gone through all this information in so few words, I guess we’ve come to the end of the article. This felt short for describing what it was, especially given my love for writing overly long and complicated articles but that may or may not be because I will be writing a full article not specifically tailored to assignment requirements.
