Week 9 To-Do’s
Lecture and reading
Attend the lecture to learn about this week’s topics and obtain extra information from this week’s reading list (short articles/videos to read/watch). More details are available on the Schedule page. Each student should submit their second reading reflection by next week, and more information can be found on the Information page under Deliverable 1c.
Plan your low-fidelity prototype evaluation
There are 4 parts to this planning process:
- Come up with a test plan. For each of the 2 features (chosen last week), what tasks you will ask people to do with your prototype? Why these tasks?
- Create a script of instructions for the facilitator, wizard, participants. For the facilitator, write down a list of questions that the facilitator may ask the user during an evaluation session. For the wizard, outline the list of user actions and the appropriate system responses for each action (note you still need to list the system responses to each action when Figma is used). For the participants, write down the list of tasks they will be asked to perform and some instructions that will explain to them what they will be doing during the prototype evaluation session (e.g., think aloud, etc.) and why.
- Write down the general procedure that the wizard should follow to properly respond to input from a participant. For example, what should the wizard do if the participant does something unexpected? How long should the facilitator/wizard wait in silence without offering help, when a user is stuck at a particular step, unable to proceed?
- Decide on the roles each team member will play during the evaluation: facilitator, wizard, or observer. The interactive wireframe prototype may not need a wizard. Each role will need 1 person during the evaluation.
Mock your low-fidelity prototype evaluation
After planning the evaluation, run a mock evaluation with 1 person from the class. Include all the steps you planned, even the step where you obtain consent. Each evaluation consists of testing both the paper prototype and the interactive wireframe prototype. The recommended order is to test your paper prototype first, then the interactive wireframe prototype, but you can use the other order if it makes sense for the tasks in your prototypes.
- Descriptions with photos/screen-caps showing any major changes to your prototypes since last week. A major change is a new screen, change to the navigation structure, significant addition to content on a screen, etc. Include a shared link to the Figma file for the interactive wireframe prototype.
- Evaluation scripts and procedure.
- The list of people who took on the role of wizard, facilitator and observer.
Conduct low-fidelity prototype evaluation
Based on the mock evaluation feedback, run an actual evaluation with 2 people who are outside this class (e.g., friends, acquaintances, extended family, etc.) using the same procedure. Try you best to find target users (e.g., people who fit the personas) to perform the evaluation. Note the paper prototype really must be done in person, and in general in-person evaluations are better: they can be more convenient for you, and often much more informative and revealing since you can observe users’ facial expressions and body postures more closely. You must obtain consent from people participating in your evaluation if they are not a student in our CS449/649 class.
For each evaluation, specify whether the evaluation is with a target user, and document the key findings (that will be in your design report), including:
- Any points of confusion or hesitation from the user (with the user’s consent, include closeup photos/screenshots of the user performing the action on the prototype at these points of confusion/hesitation; the photos and screenshots should not have any identifying information).
- Your questions to the user and their responses.
- How you think your feature can be re-designed based on these findings.
Team meeting and design document
Conduct this week’s team meeting or discussion in and/or out of class. Update your design document with the meeting minutes and the outcomes of this week’s activities. More details are available on the Information page under Deliverable 2a.