04/06- 04/08 Evaluative Workshops
We conducted evaluative workshops with 5 participants. We used paper prototypes and sketches to walk our participants through the experience of using the system. We also used the “thinkaloud” method to understand their thoughts and probed them further. We asked for feedback on their immediate reactions to each scene, any hesitations they had about our concept in general or some parts of it and probed on them on some challenging questions such social boundaries and mixed reality visions of the future. Conducting evaluative workshop not only helped us evaluate our concepts and the direction in which we are headed but helped our team align our concepts to the design implications thus grounding our design solution further.
Key takeaways from our evaluative workshop were:
- Takeaways: different learners have very different needs in terms of what helps them learn best. (Lydia wants grammar tables, Jon only wants to practice in a real social context)
- Feedback: set up expectations for giving and receiving feedback on language use
- People had varying levels of trust for their hosts. They want to know what their hosts are getting out of it and if there’s any accountability–are they who they say they are? How can you communicate with either the host or the platform about your experience?
- People loved the social aspect and the ability to experience the environment — before arriving, people want to know what the neighborhood is like: walkable? Friendly? Amenities?
- Our own expectations for features: people want to be as engaged in the moment as possible with as little intervention from the system as possible. Interventions and helpers like grammar tables, captions, and slowing things down might be helpful in an individual mode, but interrupting a conversation isn’t good
