The first prototype is now ready for deployment and thus needs critical testing. Ingrid and John,our 2 personas, are asked to try the system and answer a short questionnaire. The same procedure is followed in the next iteration.
-------------Questionnaire ---------------
1. The size of 'words' and menus was:
a) Too large
b) A bit too large
c) Just fine
d) A bit too small
e) Too small
2. How easy was to recognize button icons on the screen:
a) I can see the buttons clearly
b) I sometimes confuse the buttons with the background
c) What buttons?
3. How easy were the menus to navigate:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
4. How easy was it to find a desired product:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
5. After selecting a product, the e-trolley directed you:
a) Very quickly to the item
b) Adequately to the item
c) In a long path to the item
d) I could never find what i wanted
6. The e-trolley display shows:
a) Way too much information
b) Too much information
c) Just the right amount
d) Not enough information
e) Very little information
7. The subtotal price of the products in the trolley so far is:
a) very useful
b) useful
c) not important
d) useless
8. How was your overall experience with the e-trolley?
a) I was very satisfied
b) Satisfied
c) Neutral
d) Disappointed
e) Very disappointed
9. Do you have any further comments?
______________________________________
______________________________________
______________________________________
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Tuesday, 13 March 2007
Prototype I
This is the first prototype. Its purpose is to set the framework of the interface.
Goals:
1. Create a template framework , that can be used on most Screens. This is a very important concept in HCI, as familiarity is crucial in making a system more usable.
2. Use buttons with familiar terminology. This will increase the obviousness of the system. Users should be clear on what function each button serves. Such as "Just Start Shopping".
3. Reduce the number of buttons on each screen. Keeping the interface simple will help prevent users from 'getting lost' in the system.
In the following post, we will test the prototype, highlighting its deficiencies and main successes. This will allow us to review the prototype.
Goals:
1. Create a template framework , that can be used on most Screens. This is a very important concept in HCI, as familiarity is crucial in making a system more usable.
2. Use buttons with familiar terminology. This will increase the obviousness of the system. Users should be clear on what function each button serves. Such as "Just Start Shopping".
3. Reduce the number of buttons on each screen. Keeping the interface simple will help prevent users from 'getting lost' in the system.
In the following post, we will test the prototype, highlighting its deficiencies and main successes. This will allow us to review the prototype.
Preparing For Prototyping
We are now at the stage of prototyping. We will be using all the information gathered from the previous stages, such as the questionnaire, social observation and other parts of the Creative Design to guide the prototyping.
We will be following an iterative process to encourage the development of the product. The stages of iteration we will follow are: Prototyping - Testing - Review. Doing this allows for adding useful functionality as well as discovering and fixing problems in the prototypes.
We will be following an iterative process to encourage the development of the product. The stages of iteration we will follow are: Prototyping - Testing - Review. Doing this allows for adding useful functionality as well as discovering and fixing problems in the prototypes.
Prototype I - Analysis Review of Results
The questionnaires revealed several properties that can be improved in the prototype.
Firstly the responses we received to the question concerning the size of the menus and text displayed showed that an increase in the size was necessary. John stated that the size was "Just Fine" while Ingrid found it "A bit small". For people like Ingrid this can become really annoying especially after a 30 minute shopping walk. The size of the menus and text has to be larger. Using capital letters might also make the system more usable.
Due to the 2-dimensional nature of the screen, buttons may not be as easy to distinguish especially for Ingrid who hardly has any experience with technology. Furthermore Ingrid is colorblind.
This has shown that the e-trolley user interface should clearly display buttons through intelligent use of colors and thick borders.
The original interface did not make it clear where to start. Although a modern user will intuitively know to look at the menus at the sidebar for guidance in the tasks he wishes to complete. But for the elderly this cannot be taken for granted. A clear sign must be given to indicate where to begin. This will be added to the next prototype that we create.
Finally our personas have made two suggestions regarding system functionalities:
a) The ability to perform keyword searches.
b) Provide the shopping list to view all items that have been selected.
c) Increase screen size
Firstly the responses we received to the question concerning the size of the menus and text displayed showed that an increase in the size was necessary. John stated that the size was "Just Fine" while Ingrid found it "A bit small". For people like Ingrid this can become really annoying especially after a 30 minute shopping walk. The size of the menus and text has to be larger. Using capital letters might also make the system more usable.
Due to the 2-dimensional nature of the screen, buttons may not be as easy to distinguish especially for Ingrid who hardly has any experience with technology. Furthermore Ingrid is colorblind.
This has shown that the e-trolley user interface should clearly display buttons through intelligent use of colors and thick borders.
The original interface did not make it clear where to start. Although a modern user will intuitively know to look at the menus at the sidebar for guidance in the tasks he wishes to complete. But for the elderly this cannot be taken for granted. A clear sign must be given to indicate where to begin. This will be added to the next prototype that we create.
Finally our personas have made two suggestions regarding system functionalities:
a) The ability to perform keyword searches.
b) Provide the shopping list to view all items that have been selected.
c) Increase screen size
Prototype I - Questionaire Response (Goldfinger)
1. The size of 'words' and menus was:
a) Too large
b) A bit too large
c) Just fine
d) A bit too small
e) Too small
2. How easy was to recognize button icons on the screen:
a) I can see the buttons clearly
b) I sometimes confuse the buttons with the background
c) What buttons?
3. How easy were the menus to navigate:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
4. How easy was it to find a desired product:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
5. After selecting a product, the e-trolley directed you:
a) Very quickly to the item
b) Adequately to the item
c) In a long path to the item
d) I could never find what i wanted
6. The e-trolley display shows:
a) Way too much information
b) Too much information
c) Just the right amount
d) Not enough information
e) Very little information
7. The subtotal price of the products in the trolley so far is:
a) very useful
b) useful
c) not important
d) useless
8. How was your overall experience with the e-trolley?
a) I was very satisfied
b) Satisfied
c) Neutral
d) Disappointed
e) Very disappointed
9. Do you have any further comments?
I liked the idea. It would be nice if I could type a keyword for searching for items.
a) Too large
b) A bit too large
c) Just fine
d) A bit too small
e) Too small
2. How easy was to recognize button icons on the screen:
a) I can see the buttons clearly
b) I sometimes confuse the buttons with the background
c) What buttons?
3. How easy were the menus to navigate:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
4. How easy was it to find a desired product:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
5. After selecting a product, the e-trolley directed you:
a) Very quickly to the item
b) Adequately to the item
c) In a long path to the item
d) I could never find what i wanted
6. The e-trolley display shows:
a) Way too much information
b) Too much information
c) Just the right amount
d) Not enough information
e) Very little information
7. The subtotal price of the products in the trolley so far is:
a) very useful
b) useful
c) not important
d) useless
8. How was your overall experience with the e-trolley?
a) I was very satisfied
b) Satisfied
c) Neutral
d) Disappointed
e) Very disappointed
9. Do you have any further comments?
I liked the idea. It would be nice if I could type a keyword for searching for items.
Prototype I - Questionaire Response (Ingrid)
Ingrids Responses:
1. The size of 'words' and menus was:
a) Too large
b) A bit too large
c) Just fine
d) A bit too small
e) Too small
2. How easy was to recognize button icons on the screen:
a) I can see the buttons clearly
b) I sometimes confuse the buttons with the background
c) What buttons?
3. How easy were the menus to navigate:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
4. How easy was it to find a desired product:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
5. After selecting a product, the e-trolley directed you:
a) Very quickly to the item
b) Adequately to the item
c) In a long path to the item
d) I could never find what i wanted
6. The e-trolley display shows:
a) Way too much information
b) Too much information
c) Just the right amount
d) Not enough information
e) Very little information
7. The subtotal price of the products in the trolley so far is:
a) very useful
b) useful
c) not important
d) useless
8. How was your overall experience with the e-trolley?
a) I was very satisfied
b) Satisfied
c) Neutral
d) Disappointed
e) Very disappointed
9. Do you have any further comments?
It would be nice if I could see all the items that I have in my shopping list. Also the screen size could be larger for people that can't see clearly.
1. The size of 'words' and menus was:
a) Too large
b) A bit too large
c) Just fine
d) A bit too small
e) Too small
2. How easy was to recognize button icons on the screen:
a) I can see the buttons clearly
b) I sometimes confuse the buttons with the background
c) What buttons?
3. How easy were the menus to navigate:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
4. How easy was it to find a desired product:
a) Very easy
b) Moderately easy
c) Sometimes confusing
d) I could never find what i wanted
5. After selecting a product, the e-trolley directed you:
a) Very quickly to the item
b) Adequately to the item
c) In a long path to the item
d) I could never find what i wanted
6. The e-trolley display shows:
a) Way too much information
b) Too much information
c) Just the right amount
d) Not enough information
e) Very little information
7. The subtotal price of the products in the trolley so far is:
a) very useful
b) useful
c) not important
d) useless
8. How was your overall experience with the e-trolley?
a) I was very satisfied
b) Satisfied
c) Neutral
d) Disappointed
e) Very disappointed
9. Do you have any further comments?
It would be nice if I could see all the items that I have in my shopping list. Also the screen size could be larger for people that can't see clearly.
Saturday, 10 March 2007
Creative Design - Shop & Go
Shopping is an exhausting and stressful task at most times. The long queue delay that most super markets have at their checkouts, makes customers only feel worst. The NAV GUIDE deals with this issue by introducing the Shop & Go concept. Shop & Go updates the customers total as they are doing their shopping. When an item is added to the trolley, the sensors pick up the id and price of the product and add it to the balance. If an item is taken off the trolley, then of course the item would be taken off the total.
When the customers have finished their shop, they do not need to queue for a long time to pay. In fact, they do not have to queue at all, as the Shop & Go service allows them to pay the NAV GUIDE by debit/credit card. This allows the customers to pay and leave the store within minutes off them finishing their shop. This would decrease the amount of stress shoppers experience and also give them a much more relaxed environment they can shop in.
Creative Design - Hardware
This is the first hardware design. To avoid making the eTrolley cumbersome it is fitted with a 10.1" screen. This will allow the user to see enough information and make use of its touch-screen interface. It has a joystick which the customers can use to propel the trolley. The antennae gives eTrolley wireless capabilities to connect to the database. The database stores information about the location of the shelves and their contents. It also stores information about navigating through the shop. This includes recognizing where the eTrolley currently is so that the shortest distances can be calculated and a suitable short path suggested.
Tuesday, 6 March 2007
Creative Design - Checkout (2)
Since the customers can pay by either using the Checkout function of the eTrolley or by going to the cashier (only God knows why!), two buttons are added below the total amount to enable this functionality. If the customer prefers to go to the cashier, then the route from the current location to the cashier is displayed.Creative Design - Checkout (1)
In the final screen, all products in the trolley are listed along with their prices and the total amount. If the customer wants to remove an item in the list, they just scan it again and remove it from the trolley. The total amount and the list are automatically updated.
Creative Design - Search by Shelf/Brand/Keyword
The search page will have the following three options:
- Search by shelf
- Search by brand
- Search keyword
"Searching by shelf" and "Searching by brand" pages will display a list of shelves and brands respectively for the customer to select and they can only select one option at a time. In the "Searching by keyword" page where the customer has to enter the keyword to search for, a virtual keyboard will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Monday, 5 March 2007
Creative Design - Nav Guide (6)
The final page with the route to the destination will be similar to the sketch above. If the destination shelf or product is not shown in the map (i.e. at a different section of the store not shown in the map at that moment) then the customer will need to move towards the direction of the line to see where it ends. There also has to be some way to indicate whether the user moves in the right direction or not.
Creative Design - Nav Guide (5)
After our last group meeting, it was decided to alter the "Get Directions" screen in order to allow the customer to select specific products as well. Thus, the screen is split in half with the names of the shelves on the left and the products of a shelf on the right part of the screen. For example, when the customer selects "Vegetables", the right part of the screen will show all available products on that shelf and as a destination, either a shelf on the left or a product on the right can be selected.
The "Detailed View" button at the bottom shows or hides the products on the right. This is to let the old people choose the level of detail they perfer in case they find it too simple or confusing to use.
Creative Design - Nav Guide (4)
An option that the Nav Guide component provides is that of requesting directions from the current location of the trolley to another shelf. A drop-down list can be used to present the names of the shelves to the customer and after the selection, a map will be displayed with a red line indicating the route to that shelf.
Creative Design - Nav Guide (3)
In the screen where the shelves and the location of the customer are displayed, there needs to be some functionality that allows the customer to explore the area and see what shelves are in different parts of the store that are not displayed in the map at that moment. As with online city maps, arrows can be added to make this possible. Touching one of the arrows will trigger the system to immediately update the map and display the other shelves.
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