Planning, Prototyping, Plunging into the Unknown
This week we divided and conquered. Each group member created his or her own prototype that honed in on a specific design element that we are going to be testing this week. The different types of prototypes included a class icon, on-boarding page, and interactive planner pages.
Going forward we are going to try to collect data from users concerning each of these aspects of our four-year planner design before moving forward. This is to ensure that all details of our final prototypes are data driven and each design decision is backed by evidence.
Specifically what we are looking for is an evaluation of intuitiveness/ease of use. For our class icons we want to know: which format makes the availability of when you can take that class the clearest? How do we make the most of the tiny icon’s real estate? For the on-boarding page we want to find out: what is the least amount of information we need to ask people for them to get started using the app? How do we efficiently get information about their interests so that we can give them customized GE recommendations later on? In testing our two iterations of the interactive planner page, we want to know: which flow of information do people prefer (bottom to top or side to middle) when adding classes? Which presentation of information makes most sense to them when choosing which classes to take to fulfill major requirements? Generally how does this organization affect the efficiency of making their plan? These questions will help frame the nature of user testing we will carry out this week.
As far as actually implementing the tests we are going to present the prototypes to users in a fashion that alternates which one they see first. We are also looking forward to testing the designs with Cog Sci and non Cog Sci majors to see how the designs perform with different biases. This week will be exciting as we get to see the interaction of our different design elements come together. Hopefully we will gain some valuable insight this week and use that to finalize our prototypes!
