Heuristic Evaluation PEAK
PEAK is an educational App, which is aimed to help training brain functionalities on a daily basis. PEAK is a product of collaboration with Cambridge University’s Department of Psychiatry combining clinical practice and gameplay learning.
Duration: 2 Days Test Project: Thought process
To gain outside information for my short project I sent out a mini Survey, researching people’s expectations for a learning app. The outcome showed me that gamification is a required motivation factor especially for busy people and that they prefer to use such application on their commute.
Even more interesting that push-notifications were wanted in order to remind on a regular training and also that there is a need for information about how and that it actually works.
Next I created a Task Analysis, for using the App for a daily training, and broke the process down step-by-step. For each I elevated positive as well as negative aspects based on own experiences and assumptions due to a lack of time to test the product.
Doing the same for the competitors Elevate and Lumosity with post-its created a great overview to break down the different steps and see where there is a great opportunity for PEAK to improve in.
Through putting the details into a Competitive Analysis I came to following main conclusions I wanted to evaluate on:
- information about training benefits were hardly given and definitely have the ability to be improved
- in comparison to its competitors PEAK lacks in walkthrough functionalities such as the ability to review the walkthrough while getting to know a new game and finding the walkthrough easily
Creating a Persona based on my survey research, own assumptions and knowledge I found that the most important features for the app is the need to complement the willingness of learning and growing with a lack of time and a lacking ability of memory due to over exposing to external influences.
Using my Post-it wall again I created a User Journey to visualize the emotional journey of the persona while using the app. It shows that the main problem lies in the uncertainty in what way the app is actually helping the user to expand their brain capacity and also the frustration of not remembering the game rules and not recognising the game clearly.
To propose a solution I took the Game Card and redesigned it to have clearer information and gave the user to ability to review the walkthrough when and how they want.
Next Steps:
As this project is based on assumptions and a lack of time the next step would be to first test PEAK as well as competitors in comparison through Usability Testing; also to research deeper into the psychological side to fully understand the progress and benefits for the individual user. Then creating a MVP based on the research findings which then to test through User Testing. After that: iterating the MVP and testing again until a happy solution is found.
Further I would like to suggest recreating the dashboard and show the information given clearer and in combination with a potential training progress for the user.
Another idea is to give the user more encouraging reminders (on request) to engage further into their training and growth-potential.
As this App requires a lot of research and specific psychological knowledge I want to highlight that this heuristic evaluation is based on assumptions only and shows only the beginning of the thought-process of a long term project!
Thank you
