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Here’s how it’s going to work: We're going to present you with a paper prototype of the mobile web app, which is fairly rough representation of what the mobile site might look after we build it, but on a much larger scale. Depending on the type of mobile phone you are on, the stylus will be your mouse or your finger (for touchscreen phones). We'll give you a few short tasks and ask you to try to execute them on this "web app". As you click on things, We’ll physically change the website to respond to your actions. Let me briefly introduce you to our team. My name is ___, and this is __ __ and _ ___. After we get started I'll be controlling the "computer" and they're going to be taking notes to identify areas where we need to fix our system.
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- Home Page
- User didn't like the overall position label (the total amount you are in the red or green).
- User felt like the overall position could have been the last transaction and recommended that a label like "Balance" would definitely help the user understand what it actually means.
- User also wanted the overall balance to be color coded.
- User didn't like the arrow icon for drop down menu. User felt like it could be a play button and was therefore a bit confused.
- User liked the drop-down idea and felt it was a good way to get around having less screen space on a phone.
- User felt like the icon for viewing all transaction kind of looked like a calendar; suggests putting the rings on the side and not the top
- List of Transactions
- User felt that the +/- was confusing. He feels that color coding values with red and green is much more intuitive and should be done throughout the application.
- Scrolling Interface vs Search Interface
- User liked the very clear scroll interface to find usernames to add to transactions.
- User did not like the include me option and felt like it could be confusing to some users.
- User recommended that we move the include me option into the names section of the interface (closer to the bottom) instead of where we had it (closer to the top).
- User preferred the search interface over the scrolling interface due the fact that long list of names can be very painful to scroll through .
- Splitting of Money
- User understands the "custom" and "even split" options.
- User brings up a concern with custom splits and mental mathematics
- What if the users are splitting something more complicated than even integers?
- Suggests that we have some sort of recommendation when there is only one person left.
- Example
- Total = $68.47 for three people
- First person: User puts in $20 dollars
- Second person: User puts in $25 dollars
- Third person: User gets recommended by the system to put $23.47 dollars.
- Example
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User 3
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Task 1A (Scroll Interface)
- User immediately found the “Add Transaction” button, navigated through the “Add Transaction” page, and completed all necessary fields to submit the required information to add a transaction as stated in the task.
Task 1B (Search Interface)
- User immediately found the “Add Transaction” button and arrived at the “Add Transaction” page.
- User was confused by the search drop down menu due to the way it was depicted in the paper prototype.
- User expressed curiosity and confusion when the “Submit” button changed to “Next” when multiple users were selected for the transaction.
- User pressed the “Next” button, and on the second page of “Add Transaction”, User pressed the “Back” button to see what the system would do.
- User tried to edit the total transaction amount on the second page of “Add Transaction”.
- User could not edit the total transaction amount until going back to the first page of “Add Transaction”.
Task 2
- User selects John from the expanding menus on the home page, and navigates to the transaction history page with John.
- User selects the correct transaction and pressed the “Dispute” button to dispute the transaction.
Task 3
- User immediately selects the “Summary” button on the home page and selects Adam.
Overall Comments
- User did not have any general comments.
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User 4
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Task 1C
- User immediately found the “Add Transaction” button, navigated to the “Add Transaction” page.
- User initially does not include himself in the transaction, but decides later to include himself.
- User manually types in numbers and does computation by himself.
- User completes all necessary fields to submit the transaction.
Task 2
- User selects the “Summary” button on the home page.
- To dispute a transaction, User presses the arrow and then the “Dispute” button.
- User comments that he wants actual labels, clearer signs that a button is depressed, and directory style links so that it’s easy to get back.
Task 3
- User selected the “Summary” button on the home page and selected Anna to view transaction history.
Overall Comments
- User did not have any general comments.
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User 5
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Task 1C
- User immediately found the “Add Transaction” button, navigated through the “Add Transaction” page, and completed all necessary fields to submit the required information to add a transaction as stated in the task.
- User included himself in the transaction and clicked the “Next” button because he wanted to see his own name as part of the transaction.
Task 1C
- User filled in fields for amount and users involved in the transaction and clicked the “Next” button to enter individual amounts.
- User liked the autocomplete for entering the amount of money.
Task 2
- User navigated to the transaction history page with another user and successfully disputed a transaction.
- User was confused about disputing a transaction because he was thinking about it in terms of the net transaction rather than individual transactions.
- User wanted to see the name of the item.
Overall Comments
- User did not have any general comments.
Prototype Iterations
Throughout the user testing process, we encountered many suggestions and observed a number of changes we could make to produce a more user-friendly PennyPincher application. Outlined below are changes made during the various iterations and corresponding descriptions:
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