#iteration4

Billboard installation Gorizia, Italy - 2024

Perhaps in order of scale/importance(?)

Stats

The whole thing needs to be relooked! even need to research this first. 

Moods

Relook at quantifying moods. Is using a scale the best way to do so?

Onboarding/Tutorial

This will need to be researched too. What’s best for people that like to do things (probably a tutorial) and what’s the best way to go about this?

Memories 

Someone suggested I look at misuse cases, and one of the examples they provided were bad memories. What if the graphs only showed the user being sad? What then? 

I also need to research the way to quantify something like moods and emotions.

Redesign the page.

Day/night button

Moving this to somewhere more accessible

Export as PDF

Crit #1:

This critique session allowed me to ask my design peers more in depth questions, and be given advice and other input that I’ve been needing for the project. 

Things to think about/work on:

Onboarding/tutorial for the app - because there are a lot of things to learn

Statistics - more research to better understand what I want to portray for the users

Memories - present this in a more interesting way, not like the current home screen.

Crit #2

This class critique session allowed me to try to put my ideas forward in a way that was fast and digestible. This was very difficult, especially trying to boil all the things i’ve been doing in a short amount of time. One idea resonated with me...

Things to think about/work on:

Results to the hypotheses:

Stats – have a more clear layout

Hypothesis: Having a clear layout will allow users to easily enter another variable, add a mood, and learn more about themselves.

Result: The layout isn’t clear enough. Especially where users need to add the mood for another day (that isn’t today). It wasn’t intuitive enough. Participants took a long time trying to figure this out. Also the tasks that were set up did not allow the participants to understand the other features to this aspect of the app.

Add entry – changing the checklist icon automation, adding a colour task

Hypothesis: People would understand what the colour icon at the end means

Result: Participants understood, especially with the animation of the colour sliding in and out of the main palette.

Hypothesis: Less cumbersome because of the checklist automation, and having it change state once tapped on.

Result: This was a more usable to go about to do this, participants were receptive to do this.

Collage – adding more interactivity

Hypothesis: Give more interactivity would allow users to understand how to use this feature

Result: The animation and interactivity allowed participants to visually see what was happening and therefore understood what was going on. Because of this, they were able to complete the task without any problems.

Structure – multiple ways of doing things

Hypotheses: having multiple ways to do things would go with users’ mental models on how to do things.

Result: All participants had the same mental models, especially with the way they went about doing things (changing the date/editing a note)

Concerns

The prototype not being real enough – lacking in animations

The animations really helped with participants understanding what was going on with the app.

Difficulty of Tasks:

Most tasks (on average) skewed more towards the “easy” part of the scale. Out of all of the tasks, participants had the most trouble with the stats task. So this will one of the largest areas of focus for the next round of iteration.

Usability Scale:

This is a lot like the previous iteration. The positive statements “I can learn to use this app,” “I was confident using this app,” etc, were towards the Agree end, which was good to see. The only thing that was a bit controversial (lack for a better word) was the “I need instructions to use this app.” A lot mentioned that after using the app, they would understand, but they would need an explanation. 

Because this is a user-centred app, I’d like to hope that they wouldn’t need any explanation to use the app. So this is something that I think I need to work on. having the balance of on screen assistance, but not going overboard. Having intuitive icons and features without having to overly explain the functions is going to be difficult. 

Interesting notes:

Participants had given me some ideas or thoughts that I want to take forward

Changing the mood button’s location - perhaps this is needed

Moving the day/night icon to somewhere more accessible

Define the goals of the test:

Questions/hypothesis

Stats – have a more clear layout

Hypothesis: Having a clear layout will allow users to easily enter another variable, add a mood, and learn more about themselves.

Add entry – changing the checklist icon automation, adding a colour task

Hypothesis: People would understand what the icon at the end means

Hypothesis: Less cumbersome because of the checklist automation, and having it change state once tapped on.

Collage – adding more interactivity

Hypothesis: Give more interactivity would allow users to understand how to use this feature

Structure – multiple ways of doing things

Hypotheses: having multiple ways to do things would go with users’ mental models on how to do things.

Concerns

The animations would be too much in the prototype

Users being confused about where they are in the app

Areas of Interest

The stats tab

The collage feature

Structure

Animations

Purpose

Getting thoughts on the ‘improved’ features

Testing the animations of the app, to increase usability

Determine format and setting of study:

Face-to-face and in-house at university – in a lab setting. It will also be moderated by me, as it will provide me with richer design interests. I would also be able to interject and ask questions and prompt comments from participants. Because this is an in-person test, the interaction feels more personable, and I am able to detect cues such as body language and facial expressions.

Number of users:

Nielsen recommends 2-5, and I will aim to get 5 people.

Recruit the right participants:

My target audience involves:

People that primarily use print journals and planners

People that are tech savvy

People that are aged between 18-25 years old

Tasks:

Specific tasks – although there is a specific task and flow, I am able to also learn how people discover and explore information by watching them in-person and hearing their comments.

I am also going to get them to physically walk around and time them to test against user specifications.

Collecting metrics:

To collect data to analyse, other than writing notes on the participants’ actions, I also plan to have a post-evaluation survey which will ask users about their thoughts and how likely they would use the app over their current diary. I also encouraged the participants to make comments or suggestions whenever they felt appropriate.

Information Architecture + Wireframe flow

Interaction Personas

I decided to bring the personas again and visually imagine what they would look like, and imagine what the environment around them would look like, to help me make more decisions on usability.

The template is from Compagnucci (2018)

Olivia:

Dark environment - have a night/dark version to the UI?

Private - value privacy in the app

Using the app for a little longer.

Hannah:

On the move - clear UI and clear nav. Ready to quit the app and open it again.

Lots of people around - not so much private

One hand use - utilise the thumb zone

Use the app quickly

Toby:

Hiking - clear UI, but also may have spotty internet connection. So the ability of auto saving? and retrieving that information

Environment light changing - ability to change theme easily

On the move - clear UI and clear nav. Ready to quit the app and open it again.

Use the app quickly