Part 6: User Testing & Final Release
User Tests
| Title | Instruction | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Create an Account | Create an account with an username and password. | Our app limits all functionalities to registered and logged-in users exclusively. The first thing any user must do is to create or log into an account. This task allows us to gain insight into whether it is easy for a new user to locate and execute this fundamental feature easily. |
| Logout and Sign In | Log out of your current account and Log in to an account with username, xX_iLuvPlushies_Xx, and password, 1. | In the context of apps, seamless log-out and account switching is fundamental to user experiences. This task serves to evaluate the ease of accomplishing these actions within our app. Additionally it prepares the user for the subsequent tasks which requires a larger number of items logged. |
| Add an Item | Add an item you own to the app. | The tags might be a little bit confusing for the user, and taking a photo might be difficult from a laptop. We just want to look for any potential annoyances in this process. |
| Delete an Item | Delete any item from your catalog. | Deleting an item should be easy for the user. It is a common action a user will face in our app. This task tests whether the design of our app makes it easy to do so. |
| Search and Edit | Find [an item at the bottom of the list]. Edit it with a new last used date and other new information. | If the user chooses to use the search feature, it will be important for its usage to be intuitive and for it to return helpful results. If the user chooses to not use the search feature, that is also useful information. The edit part is there to test whether our edit feature works and is intuitive since the last used date helps promote the self awareness purpose of our app. |
| Week's Plans | Find and view the tasks you have to complete for this week. | A key feature of our app is the generation of a plan that provides users with a set of tasks to complete each day. This feature makes it easier for users to discard items. Therefore, it should also be intuitive and simple to find the plan. |
| Complete Tasks | Complete a task for today (no need to actually discard items, just say you did in the app) | We are unsure if the process on how to complete an item is intutive for the user. Currently the only way to complete a task is to find the corresponding item adn discard it which may not be obvious for some users. |
| Achievements | Find your current levels and achievements. Explain briefly what level you are on for each achievement and how to level up. | Achievements is a key feature that promotes incentive in our app and persuades people to discard items. The user should be able to easily locate and explain the meaning behind certain achievements. |
Task List
| Title | User 1 | User 2 | User 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create an Account | Upon opening the app, the user effortlessly located the registered user section without encountering any issues. Given that the app directly opens to the login page, it intuitively guides the user to the account creation process. However, she did express that the terms "Register User" and “Login User” seemed strange and suggested simplifying it to just "Register" and "Login" headings. | After opening the app, the user was able to create an account with no problem. | The user had no issues locating the relevant fields and creating an account. |
| Logout and Sign In | The user efficiently accomplished the task with ease. She noted that the icons on the bottom of the screen effectively conveyed the purpose of each page. Using her familiarity with social media apps, she seamlessly navigated to the Profile page to log out. This demonstrates that the logout function is intuitive and aligns with the conventions of typical social media applications. Then, the user effortlessly logged in using the provided username and password, locating the appropriately labeled section on the login page. | The user was able to go right to the account screen and logout and sign in with the account credentials we gave them. This is a common flow in many websites, so this isn’t too surprising, but it shows that our app doesn’t stray too much from the norms. | The user effortlessly navigated to the account screen, logging out and signing in with ease using our provided credentials. This familiar flow, common across many websites, matches user expectations. |
| Add an Item | Upon logging in, the app directed the user to the Catalog page. Subsequently, she identified the "add item" button, facilitated by its prominent size and adherence to the widely recognized convention of employing a plus sign to symbolize the addition of items in social media apps. Once the item page opened for the user to input information, she was able to quickly add the necessary information for the item she is adding. Surprisingly, she stated she was “unsure how to add a picture of the item”. Rather than clicking on the missing picture icon, she opted to log the item without an image. This confusion could be attributed to the absence of labeling on the image icon, failing to signal to the user that clicking the icon would allow them to upload a picture. | After being instructed to add an item, the user immediately went to the add button to add a new item. They filled in the info they wanted, and specifically noted that they were leaving “location” and “description” blank because it’s optional. This is a good thing to note, since we denoted required fields using the asterisk symbol, in the vein of a Google Form. The user chose not to add a picture. Later on, when asked why they didn’t add a picture, they said that it was an intentional choice. They recognized where they would click to add a picture, but stated that it was more something they figured out rather than something that was intuitive. | The user initially tried to add an item by looking for it in the search bar. After not finding anything, they then located the add button. They had no trouble filling in the fields, but chose not to add an image. When asked about it later on, they say they just didn’t want to, but correctly identified how to. |
| Delete an Item | The user inadvertently clicked on the item and proceeded to "delete" it by clicking the discard button, contrary to the intended process. It's important to note that the correct procedure for removing an item is to navigate to the edit screen and then click the delete button. The confusion stemmed from a lack of clarity regarding the distinction between discarding and deleting an item. The term "discard" in the app context refers to removing the item from the user's possession, whereas "delete" signifies the removal of an item mistakenly added to the catalog. This disconnect is compounded by the user's unfamiliarity with what "discarding" entails in our app and the additional steps required to locate the delete button. It highlights the need for clearer communication about this feature’s functionality. | The user went right to the item I told them to delete, but clicked “discard” instead of clicking “edit” and then “delete.” This appears to stem from an unclear definition of what “discard” means in this context, as well as obfuscation of the proper “delete” button. This is confusing in general, but is made worse by a lack of clarity on what the difference is in our app’s context. | The user navigated to the item they wanted to delete, and initially clicked on the edit sheet to delete the item, before quickly clicking off of it and clicking the discard button. This is the case due to the same reasons other users did this, but when we questioned this user about why they went to the edit sheet first, they said that they did this because that’s where they expected to find the delete button. Something to explore could be how to better show the user that this is the correct place to find the delete button, or how to better consolidate all of these actions into one place. |
| Search and Edit | The user was able to easily navigate to the search bar to search for an item and seamlessly located the edit button to make modifications to the item. | The user was mostly able to easily find the search bar and search for an item and edit it. The only hiccup was their expectation of how the search would work. We did a matching based on whether or not an item’s name started with the query, while they expected a search based on whether or not an item name contained the query. | The user easily found the search bar and searched for the item we instructed them to look for. They edited the item’s fields with no issues. |
| Week's Plans | Similar to the logout and sign in task, the user easily deduced the correct icon to click to view the week’s plan and navigated to the page to find the tasks for the week. | The user was able to easily find the correct page based on the icons, and interpret the plan. | The user was able to easily find the correct page and look at the plans. |
| Complete Tasks | The design of the plan page effectively enabled the user to visually grasp the tasks assigned for each day. She swiftly identified the tasks, articulating the specific actions required to complete them. She accurately deduced that completing a task involved navigating to the Catalog page, locating the corresponding item, and subsequently clicking on "discard." | Having seen what an item’s page looked like before, the user was able to quickly understand the directions from the task. From there, the user navigated to the item in question and clicked discard. I think had this been one of the earlier tasks, it might’ve been more confusing, but as it was, there were no issues with completing the tasks. This user did find the ordering of the tasks and the 7-day window to be a little strange, however, and said they would have preferred it just to show what was left for the week. | Similar to the other users, this user was able to quickly find the task to complete and complete it. After doing so, they went back to check and make sure that it was no longer there. |
| Achievements | The user promptly navigated to the Profile page to review her achievements, but confusion arose regarding the distinctions between levels and achievements for discarding items, adding items, and completing tasks. Initially, she mistakenly linked the "adding items" achievement's level to the quantity of items added, rather than understanding it as the level of the achievement. After discussion and realizing that the number below the achievement indicates how many items are needed to level up, she corrected her understanding. Furthermore, she expressed confusion about why the player's level was displayed next to the achievements, as she was unsure of the connection between levels and achievements. This initial confusion highlighted a potential design issue in the achievement display, indicating a need for clearer design elements to distinguish levels and achievements. | The user quickly found the achievements page, but was confused as to how to interpret what was shown. At first glance they believed the progress bars were scroll bars and did not see the link between the “To Next” indicators and the bar. Additionally, they only recognized the “Level” achievement as an achievement, and thought the other achievements were more like “user stats”. I think a lot of these issues came from how we organized the data, and a lack of detail. For example, maybe presenting the “To Next” as a bigger part of the progress bar would convey its meaning more clearly. | The user found the achievements page, but did not really know what any other achievements were outside of the level. To them, they thought the other achievements were options for leveling up, and not achievements in their own right. This is again something that can be fixed by revisiting the way we name our achievement/phrase the descriptions. |
Flaws or Opportunities for Improvement
- A notable opportunity for improvement in our design evident in our user tests lies in the way we present the discard and delete buttons for an item. The confusion between discarding an item and deleting an item can be classified as a conceptual major problem. The user confusion surrounding discarding and deleting an item arises from the lack of clarity in distinguishing these actions. Currently, deleting an item requires the user to initiate the edit process and then access the delete button. On the other hand, discarding an item is immediately visible to the user upon clicking on the item. This confusion is significant as users may assume that discarding and deleting an item are synonymous, especially if the delete button is not easily accessible without navigating through the entire edit process. The major issue stems from the fact that discarding an item signifies actively removing it from the user's possession, completing the associated task, and earning experience and achievements. However, if a user intends to delete an item from the catalog, if the item was added mistakenly, and mistakenly hits discard, it incorrectly increments their achievements, leading to a misrepresentation of their actions and potentially impacting the overall user experience. To resolve this issue, we can initially provide a clear prompt on the catalog page, explaining the distinction between deleting and discarding an item. We can enhance the visibility and accessibility of the delete item button by placing it adjacent to the discard item button on the catalog page, eliminating the need to navigate through the edit process. The buttons themselves can also have associated prompts that appear when we hover over the button that details the purpose of deleting or discarding an item.
- Another area for improvement lies in how we display the achievements on our app. The confusion that arises from the achievement section of the Profile page can be classified as a linguistic moderate problem. Users currently mistakenly assume the number after the achievement name refers to the number of x completed rather than the level of the achievement (ie. Item Discarded 2 is supposed to be level 2 rather than 2 items discarded). This can create confusion when the user visits the Profile page expecting to see the number incremented when they complete an action, but instead seeing that the level did not change. We wanted to make it clear that the achievements were sequentially obtained, so we chose the naming convention “Achievement Name i” where i is the user’s location in the sequence. However, labeling them “Achievement Name Level i” or adding different effects that convey a similar message (i.e. gold, silver, bronze, etc.) would have made it more clear to more users how the achievement system worked.
- A third area for improvement pertains to two users' slight trouble with identifying how to add an image to the item they are logging. This issue with adding photos to items can be categorized as a physical minor issue. Two users identified that the process of adding an image to an item is not intuitive and required some exploration before discovering that clicking on the image was the method to upload a picture. While both users were able to conclude on this functionality, the slight friction for the action of uploading an image for first time users can contribute to a negative user experience if the user can not figure out the functionality after a few tries. To address this issue, the default image can contain the words “click here to change the item photo” to clearly indicate to a new user how to upload an image.
- A fourth design flaw is a physical minor issue shown in one of our user tests regarding the functionality of the search bar. When prompted to use it to find an item, the user tried to type a keyword in the middle of the item’s name rather than the beginning. This resulted in no items appearing, since our search bar is implemented such that all items that start with the search term appear. Modifying the search bar to show all items that contain the keyphrase could make searching for items easier for users. This will allow the user to search for an item that begins with a certain word and contains a certain word to avoid the issue of disconnect between the user's mental model of how the search function works and the way it is programmed.
Design Revisions
- We ended up having to make changes to the Achievement concept to have progressive levels rather than each achievement being capped and independent (e.g. Tasks II being the next step after Tasks I, instead of making progress towards Tasks I and Tasks II simultaneously with Tasks II merely having a higher value to achieve it). This mirrors the way achievements tend to be designed in apps and allow users to make progress to a continuous tracker.
- We decided to break up the route for generatePlan and getPlan into sections that are incorporated into our concepts. While this improvement is not fully complete, we started moving some of the logic contained in the while and for loops evident in the route into the Plan, Task, Item, and Tag concepts. Having many awaits and in the loops eliminates the benefit of having async function calls. Moreover, it can cause blocking if a route takes a long time to run. Therefore, we simplified and made some routes more efficient by writing function calls in our concepts that return bulk data for a list of ids, fields, etc (as seen in route getPlan).
- We also decided not to implement surveys in our app. The surveys were initially intended to allow the user to gain more insight into their items. However, with regards to time, we decided to scrap the idea since the Plan and Tasks also provide this insight and had better synchronizations with Achievements and Points.
- We originally planned for more pop-ups for XP gains and other achievement level-ups. This ended up not being implemented due to time constraints. We figured the functionality of the catalog and tasks were more for the app.
- Unlike in our initial wireframes, we did not end up implementing tag filtration. Users can only search based on the name of the item, instead of being able to also filter by tag. This is solely due to time constraints, since tag-based filtration is an accelerator and not strictly necessary to meet the minimum functionality, we decided to focus on more integral parts of the application.
- We also added a progress bar below each achievement after receiving feedback during the video presentation in class. It was brought to our attention that the current design of the achievement section of the Profile makes it a bit difficult to visualize the progress a user is making towards a specific achievement. The addition of the progress bar allows the user to clearly visualize the progress to reach the next level of a particular achievement and provides aid to the number of actions needed to level up displayed above the progress bar.