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- We chose to implement this software on Android because the picture taking functionality translated best on a mobile application. We utilized the Android SDK, coding primarily in Java. The frontend was handled with Android's own XML view layer. The backend was handled with SQLite databases.
- In general, we followed a Model-View-Controller pattern, where the ContentProvider and SQLite abstracted the database information into data models, the XML layer contained the View, and the bulk of the Java code was the controller.
- One major implementation problem we encountered was simply lack of familiarity with the platform. None of our team members had ever programmed in Android before, and found the learning curve sufficiently steep enough to be problematic.
Evaluation
- In general, we found that users found the application easy to use and navigate. Users enjoyed the simplicity of the application and the ability to do the same task through multiple, but natural, avenues.
- The users we chose were representative of our population in that we chose users from different age ranges, who also generally found the need to organize large amounts of items.
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- MAJOR: Learnability, Efficiency - Users almost all found the task: "Setting a thumbnail the collection thumbnail" difficult to do. The thumbnail was not editable from the Collection Properties page, which was where most users first looked to execute the task. Though long pressing is a normal thing in applications, users did not find long-pressing an obvious feature of our application. There is no feedback that suggests that a long-press does something (in other applications that we looked at, most long-presses cause vibration or something).
- MINOR: Efficiency -- Users generally did not find naming an item a necessity, which made the collection view page unaesthetically pleasing because it was cluttered with Untitled1s. We can solve this by making removing the name labels from Collection View.
User tests:.
Procedure for user testing:
- Brief users with following brief:
Panel Collector’s Catalogue allows users to view and organize their collections on the go. By tagging and taking pictures of items, users can keep track of and search their large collections through visual recognition, without having to recall solely from memory.
Remember that we are testing the application, not you. Feel free to explore, and think your actions out aloud. If you find yourself confused, or wishing for something extra, let us know, and again, feel free to comment out loud with any observations you make.
This session should be fun, so relax and make yourself comfortable. If at any time you want to stop, you are free to do so. Thank you for taking the time to help us user test the application.
- Ask users to preform following tasks:
| Panel |
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1) Create a new collection, and add some items with photos and tags. 2) Share your new collection with a friend for viewing. 3) Starting from the Home screen, quickly search for a crab. 4) Delete the “imaginary” animal item, since it doesn’t belong. 5) You decide you need some help managing your board games, so you share the collection with a friend, and let them co-manage it with you. 6) Go back to the collection you created, and set one of your items to be the collection thumbnail. 7) From the Home screen, make a new board game item and add it to the app. 8) Finally, you’ve decided that you have too many shoes, so you want to delete your entire shoe collection |
Briefing: Reading briefing. Tested Portrait mode, landscape mode behavior is unspecified.
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