Seminar 2 - Individual Post - Julia

Today I read chapter 13 and 15 in the course literature Interaction Design and in this post I will prepare for tomorrows seminar by applying the relevant theory regarding our projects upcoming evaluation part. I will also use some of the theory I learned in today's lecture.

Since this is my first evaluation of this kind, it's hard to know what kind of evaluation to use. Therefore I think we will be using the most "expensive" evaluation type since we can't afford taking the risk of having a bad evaluation in our project. There are many different methods to work with while evaluating the project. It will also be important to consider all the aspects of our design. Using a clear setting of evaluation steps will help us to reach the aims of the evaluation.

We're going to use evaluation to create an iterative process in our project to make our design better step by step by taking the users opinion in consideration, using both analytical (where users are not directly involved) and, if there's time,  empirical methods. The combination of different evaluation methods will give us a better understanding of problems during the process of our design.

We will use the formative evaluation process. We will start early with the evaluation to make sure that our design works fine for the users so we don't have to make a full re-design when already have a working prototype. I think it's important to also make the evaluation continuously so we during our process will keep focus on our target group and not end up on side-tracks. This will also help us to make concrete decisions about re-designing since the evaluation will bring up concrete problems in our design. It's important to remember that we're doing the evaluation to make changes in our design. It's very important to remember that and to be open-minded. Kill your darlings will now be more important than ever.

To start with, I think the analytical evaluation suits our project the best, where we not include the user but instead we will try to simulate user experience using different methods. For later evaluation it could be good to use the empirical methods to consider real users opinions.

During our first steps in the design process I think a good way to evaluate our design is to use analytical methods like Cognitive walkthroughs, Heuristic evaluation and Predictive models

The Cognitive walkthroughs is a good model since it’s a good evaluation tool to use for walk-up-and-use-interfaces. Based on the model, we use our personas that we created with their scenarios to try to imagine what would it be like for the persona to use the ticket machine. In this case the "experts" using the system will be the group members. Here are the three questions that we have to consider:

• Will the correct action be sufficiently evident to the user?
• Will the user notice that the correct action is available?
• Will the user associate and interpret the response from the action correctly?

What we have to take in concern is that we are not the typical first time user, but it's a good evaluation tool to start with.

The Heuristic evaluation (discount evaluation) will also be useful. By using the website www.useit.com, we can find the most suitable protocol and grade the problems to find the biggest problems in our design. Here is a list of Nielsen's Heuristics (to start with):

1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
6. Error prevention
7. Recognition rather than recall
8. Flexibility and efficiency of use
9. Aesthetic and minimalist design
10. Help and documentation

One Predictive model I found interesting and could be useful in our evaluation is the GOMS model (goals, operators, methods, selection rules). By using this model we can find problems in our design evaluating the steps that the model brings us and easier navigate through the design model, using the schematic picture of the design.

If there's time in the project:

Moving on to the later phase of the evaluation, we will use the Empirical evaluation methods since they are tested and by that we will also get the best result of our evaluation as possible. Our testing conditions will be in the subway where we can find our target group. We will carefully inform them about the product so they know what we're trying to do. Hopefully, we will start to see patterns in our design pointing to some lack of design. It's important to not forget the special cases with users having problem with the design since that could be important for us too.

A good way to understand the user is to evaluate using the Think Aloud technique. By making the user say what they think, it becomes very easy to understand what the problem with the product is. This might be a good evaluation technique for us to use later in the progress. 

In our evaluation surveys will not be considered since it takes too much time and if the interview-time where to long, I think it's hard to get tourists to do a survey.

Questions to seminar

·       What are the aims of the evaluation?

·       Which methods are relevant to us?

·       Which methods should we combine in our evaluation?