GR3 - Paper Prototypes

Prototype

Screen 1 - Home screen.

This is the home screen of the app. It is simple and straight forward. It has the logo of Torch and two buttons for the user. The first one brings the user to screen 2 (the tour search screen), and the second one brings the user to screen 9 (the tour creation screen).

Screen 2 -

This is the tour search screen. It is a map view, with a search field and two tabs at the top. The user starts in the "View Map" tab. The "view tours" button on the bottom starts out greyed out, and there is a bit of explanatory text to help the user.

Screen 3 -

When the user selects a landmark it looks like this. A picture and the name of the landmark appears and there is an "add to tour" button. Touching this adds this landmark to the list of landmarks that definitely be in tour.

Screen 4 -

Selected landmarks appear as highlighted pins. When at least one landmark is selected, the text at the bottom has changed, and the "view tours" button is clickable.

Screen 5 -

This is the other tab of the search interface. It lists the landmarks you have selected. They can be easily removed from this screen using the "x" on each of them.

Screen 6 -

Once the user selects "view tours" they see a list of all the tours that contain their selected landmarks. The list items can be selected to view more detail and be chosen as the tour to follow.

Screen 7 -

This is the detail view of a tour. It lists the landmarks that are part of the tour and there is a "begin tour" button to start when the user is ready.

Screen 8 -

This is the screen to follow a tour. It is a split screen with a path highlighted in the map on the top half, and the list of landmarks in the bottom half. Selecting one of them will pull up a third party app (wikipedia or yelp, likely) to give info about that landmark. The arrows in the middle step through the steps of the travel route.

Screen 9 -

This is the create tour screen. It is a map view similar to the search for tours screen. The bottom has a "save tour" button, which is partially obscured in this image. Adding landmarks to the tour is done the same way are selecting this when searching for a tour.

Screen 10 -

As landmarks are added to your tour, the path is automatically created.

Screen 11 -

To edit the tour, you can go to list view to rearrange them (by dragging the textured area of the left of each list item) or delete them using the "x".

Screen 12 -

This is the screen to save your new tour. The fields are all editable and then saving the tour adds it to the tour database.

Briefing

Torch is a mobile application designed to help users find and follow walking tours of notable landmarks and attractions. Users can also create and submit their own tours.

Scenario Tasks

We gave users the following tasks.

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.

Observations

(right now these are the direct notes; we need to analyze/summarize them)

User 1
- Task 1: Find a tour
  - Tapped on the general area of MIT, but there was no response
  - Tapped "View Tasks", but there was no response
  - Tapped on a landmark (Killian Court), and the info popped up
  - Thought that he was searching for tours, but the text "Add Tours" makes it seems as if he was creating a tour
  - Said there was not enough visibility on the original screen of what's in the database (i.e. display something on the map)
  - Should grey out the "View Tour" button if it's not active
  - If there's 1 tour with the landmarks chosen, should it go straight to the tour details instead of the list view?
- Task 2: Follow a tour
  - The "Begin Tour" button is not visible (wanted to click on the landmarks to start the tour). Consider moving to the top?
  - Keep scale in mind - will the list of landmarks be scrollable, etc.
  - Why can't I start the tour where I am? Or at another place of my choosing?
  - How can I reorder the landmarks on the tour?
  - Thought the arrows would change the view to show different maps/tours
  - There's a problem in the mental model of the arrows between left/right and up/down
  - Maybe we should highlight the nearest landmark
  - When do you click the arrow, there is no feedback in the list to show that it has advanced
  - Maybe if you embed unique icons into the map, users would see a relationship between the list and the map
- Task 3: Create a tour
  - Don't see any way to exit the current view, except the standard Android back button. Users don't like to use that if they're deep in an app
  - Maybe add a "modify tour" button so users can just alter a pre-existing tour
  - Take advantage of the mobile app - maybe allow the user to make a tour as they're walking around to each landmark
  - Same "Add to Tour" text as when finding a tour, but a different effect - confusing
  - Added landmarks to the tours in the wrong order, at first unsure how to reorder
  - "If I want the tour to backtrack... how do I do that?"
  - Liked the list interface for reordering the tour
  - Consider combining the list and map views onto one page, although you may have to drag landmarks far (and that would be inconvenient if the screen was split)
  - "I don't know estimated time", maybe we should provide distance/time/stops
  - Also could provide distance/time/stops feedback on the screen as the user is building the tour
User 2
- Task 1: Find a tour
  - At first, wanted to select an area on the map (by dragging an area with multitouch) to define where the tour was going to take place
  - When that didn't work, tapped directly on map and added landmark to tour
  - Didn't understand what "adding" a landmark to the tour did until he saw the help text
  - Pressed "View Selected" to see what it did, realized that it was to edit what he had already selected
  - Once the 1 tour was returned, he knew the arrow meant to click it to select it
  - "All the things listed are in the tour"
  - Wanted to remove things from the tour - it included landmarks he hadn't selected
- Task 2: Follow a tour
  - Found the "Follow Tour" button easily
  - Clicked arrows immediately... didn't like the result, but he knew how to undo it
  - Confused by what the arrows mean in general
  - "I walk up to the Media Lab... what happens?"
  - Wanted to see an arrow leading him to the start point of the tour
- Task 3: Create a tour
  - Hit the "Back" button repeatedly until he saw the home screen
  - Clicked on the landmarks he wanted to add, seemed familiar with the interface
  - "I'm familiar with the campus so it's easy to locate" landmarks
  - Very averse to typing or using voice to search, would much rather click on places
  - "This isn't the shortest path", tried to drag the path to modify it
  - Saw the "Save Tour" button when he wanted it, and clicked it
  - It might make sense to put the map/list view on the same page
User 3
- Task 1: Find a tour
  - Clicked "Find a Tour"
  - Initially looked at the map a long time, looked unsure what to do
  - Later commented "I was hoping to see landmarks to choose from"
  - After selecting two landmarks, he hit "Find Tour"
    - We asked him what he expected to see, he said he expected to see a list of tours that include those two locations (help text probably assisted on that one)
- Task 2: Follow a tour
  - Found and clicked "Begin Tour" immediately
  - Expected a path from current location to the beginning of the tour, or "wherever I'm supposed to go"
  - Touched the Killian Court list item because he wanted to go there, did not have the expected effect
  - "I walk to Killian... then I follow the path to Kresge"
  - Only interested in the landmarks he chose, did not want to have to stop at the others
  - "I would expect it to tell me where to go" (as in specific instructions)
  - Not sure what the arrows are, maybe there are more/other landmarks to look at
  - You could also show other interesting stuff on the way to a landmark, and show more info about the landmark when you get close to it
- Task 3: Create a tour
  - "Keep hitting back until I see the home screen"
  - Didn't know where Burton-Conner was, but he knew to search for it
  - We asked what he would do if he wanted to change the order, he said he would try to drag the path, or look to the bottom for an "edit" button next to "savE"
  - When he went to the list view, he realized he could drag the order around

Summary & Analysis of Original Interface

Observations of Revised Interface

(right now these are the direct notes; we need to analyze/summarize them)

User 1
- Task 1: Find a tour
- Task 2: Follow a tour
- Task 3: Create a tour
User 2
- 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"
- Task 2: Follow a tour
  - 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
- Task 3: Create a tour
  - Finally he hit the "Back" button repeatedly until he saw 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
- General Observations/Comments
  - 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
User 3
- 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"

Summary & Analysis of Revised Interface

Prototype Iteration

(we need to do this)

To Do

Write descriptions for each interface screen
Summarize observations into "usability problems"
Revise interface
Describe interface revisions
Three more user trials

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