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- Find a tour of MIT's campus.
- Follow a tour around MIT's campus.
- Make a tour of MIT's dorms that includes Baker, East Campus, and Burton-Conner.
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Observations of Original Interface
The list below is a summary of our observations from user studies. For more information, view the paper prototyping notes that we took during the trials.
- Task 1: Find a tour
- The home screen was not confusing, users knew what they wanted to click on.
- When presented with a blank map, users were unsure what to do to find a tour.
- Users thought that selecting landmarks for a tour felt like building a new tour. It was unclear that they were choosing search criteria.
- It was not clear that users should switch tabs to remove landmarks from their criteria.
- The "View Tours" button should be greyed out to indicate that it is not enabled at the start
- Task 2: Follow a tour
- Most users found the "Follow Tour" button easily, although one thought it should be more prominent
- Users did not know what their first step should be, as there was no path from their current location to the start of the tour.
- Users expected some sort of feedback as they moved around, such as highlighting the closest landmark.
- The arrows to flip through the directions were confusing, most users did not understand what they were for. One user was confused because left/right arrows were scrolling the directions up/down.
- Some users wanted the ability to edit the tour as they were following it, perhaps by removing landmarks or changing the order.
- Task 3: Create a tour
- Users remembered the "Create a tour" button on the home screen, and mostly knew to use the Android back button to get there. One user also wanted a virtual back button.
- Some users thought they might want to start with an existing tour and modify it, instead of starting a tour from scratch. Our application does not currently support that feature.
- One user added the landmarks in an inefficient order, but did not realize that the order you add the landmarks was also the tour order until the map drew the tour path. It was also not clear to the user to switch tabs in order to remove/reorder landmarks.
- The affordances on the landmarks in list view did communicate to the users that they could reorder the list.
- When adding a landmark that the users did not know the location of, it was clear to the users that they could search to find it.
- Some users felt that the list view and map view should be combined into one view, because they're so closely linked.
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Observations of Revised Interface
Observations of Revised Interface
(right now these are the direct notes; we need to analyze/summarize them)
The list below is a summary of our observations from user studies. For more information, view the paper prototyping notes that we took during the trials.
- User 1 Task 1: Find a tour
- "I want to include things on MIT's campus"
- Clicked on Killian, Stata, and Kresge to add them
- "I want my tour to have 3 places"
- Saw the text that said 1 tour was found, but he misinterpreted it. "I assume this now says 3... oh, I misread it"
- Clicked view tours, and then on the MIT tour
- Task 2: Follow a tour
- Clicked follow tour immediately, then began to narrate what he would do
- "I will go outside and orient myself." "I walk down Memorial Drive" "I follow the green line to Kresge"
- Had a good understanding of what he should do, which was not present before the revisions
- Wondered if he could reorder the path while following the tour
- Task 3: Create a tour
- Did NOT use the "create a tour" button on the home screen, but instead went back to the MIT tour and clicked "modify"
- Removed all landmarks in the tour
- Searched for the dorms because he wasn't sure exactly where they were, but he did not realize he could just click on them
- Confused about the blank time boxes... perhaps they should be autopopulated with something
- General comments
- "When finding a tour, it seemed like I was building a tour instead of searching"
- Wanted to see all the tours, and then have the option to filter (instead of putting in search criteria first)
- The home screen was not confusing, users knew what they wanted to click on.
- When presented with a blank map, users were unsure what to do to find a tour.
- Users thought that selecting landmarks for a tour felt like building a new tour. It was unclear that they were choosing search criteria.
- It was not clear that users should switch tabs to remove landmarks from their criteria.
- The "View Tours" button should be greyed out to indicate that it is not enabled at the start
- Task 1: Find a tour
- First, he asked to understand the phone interface: what do the Android buttons at the botton do?
- Described what he's viewing and remarks that he understands what he's seeing
- "there's a map that knows where I am by geolocating"
- "lots of pins" "pins are landmarks"
- He selected three landmarks It made sense and he pressed "View Selected" to see the tours claims that this app helps understand the city better, gives an "inverted sense of city"
- Found Most users found the "Follow Tour" button easily
- He said that he was in an "interesting predicament" when he first started following tour, closer to another stop, but tour "wants me to go to Kresge first"
- He asked himself, what should I do "follow the app or disobey?"
- He decided to follow the tour, which is easy to do
- Clearly understood steps of following a tour Confused about how to go back to home screen? There is no easy way, although one thought it should be more prominent
- Finally he hit Users remembered the "BackCreate a tour" button repeatedly until he saw on the home screen
- Seemed familiar with the interface
- Added Baker, dismissed Baker, and added Burton-Connor to the tour because he did it in the wrong order
- After he added Burton-Connor, he remarked that he now sees that he could've rearranged them and that its clear
- Saw the "Save Tour" button when he wanted it, and clicked it
- He commented that he wished he could reorder the events once following a tour
- Have a modify button on the follow tour screen
- Was glad that it reacted to you disobeying the tour (because the tour is location-based)
- Asked if there was a way to specify stop time in addition to travel time
- Wished he could add his own descriptions about the stop to the stop description
- Task 1: Find a tour
- Comments that it "geo-locates me"
- Initially confused by all the landmarks.
- Clicks on the list options button expecting to see a list view
- Asks for a list view where he can just check all the landmarks he wants
- Gives example of NYC and says would just want to check off "Sears Tower, Empire State Building, etc"
- After selecting two landmarks, he hits "Find Tour"
- Task 2: Follow a tour
- Found and clicked "Begin Tour" immediately
- Wanted to start somewhere else then what told by tour
- Said he wouldn't follow tour if it didn't make sense to him, but he would not take the time to modify tour either
- He would just follow what he wanted and would want the app to follow along with him and keep track of where he's going
- Task 3: Create a tour
- "Keep hitting back until I see the home screen"
- "how big is the description bubble on the phone?"
- When adding landmarks, he wanted to add his own descriptions for the stops
- General Comments/Observations
- Should make the route based on user's geolocation, instead of have user modify routes
- Wanted to add custom locations
- Wanted to add/edit description of specific stops
- Should be able to develop routes on the fly
- "the user shouldn't have to tell the app where he/she's going"
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- , and mostly knew to use the Android back button to get there. One user also wanted a virtual back button.
- Some users thought they might want to start with an existing tour and modify it, instead of starting a tour from scratch. Our application does not currently support that feature.
- One user added the landmarks in an inefficient order, but did not realize that the order you add the landmarks was also the tour order until the map drew the tour path. It was also not clear to the user to switch tabs in order to remove/reorder landmarks.
- The affordances on the landmarks in list view did communicate to the users that they could reorder the list.
- When adding a landmark that the users did not know the location of, it was clear to the users that they could search to find it.
- Some users felt that the list view and map view should be combined into one view, because they're so closely linked.
Prototype Iteration
(we need to do this)
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