Week 7 Reflection

For the user observation with think-aloud, comment on how you experienced the technique (as either user, observer or other). What kinds of information and insights did it give you about the usability of the prototype? What aspects of the technique worked well or were frustrating?

As an user, it’s hard to understand the prototypes in the tutorial session because they seems haven’t completed yet. (probably just because not enough time to complete) There were some missing components and not quite sure the correct order of the screens. There are 2 others classmates as an user and we all bit confuse on some components but we couldn’t ask the one who create the screens. I like think-aloud technique because I can give my opinion as much as I can but not only answering questions in survey. Although the screens seems haven’t completed yet, I can understand the purpose of the application with the existing prototypes and visualised the application.

For the heuristic evaluation, what kinds of information or insights did you gain about the usability of the prototype? What aspects of the technique worked well or were frustrating?

By using the heuristic evaluation method, I know whether our design meets the real worlds needs, whether the layout / procedures are easy for the user to understand and any issues in the application. When I prepare the heuristic evaluation form, I could have a chance to double check if the design meets the project goals as well. I can see the user’s opinion on each task easily by the heuristic evaluation form. However the result of the evaluation is very depends on the user’s background / skill / experience. So we should better evaluate with more people.

Assignment 3: Presentation Slides (Carmen, Mark & Tracey)

IDEA9106 Sonic Selfie Presentation Slides (PDF)

Week 5 Bodystorming Reflection

1. How did physically acting out help to explore ideas?
By acting out physically during the brainstorming section, it helps us to find the problems easily especially during the role-play. For example, when our group was brainstorming on how to improve the doctor waiting rooms, we setup the furniture like the clinic reception. It helps us to imagine we were in the waiting room. So we can come up with ideas easily. The physical acting out can also encourage all team members involve in the brainstorm while everyone got a role.

2. Did you refine your ideas and solutions to the problem through bodystorming? In what way?
Yes. While we do the bodystorming for how to improve the doctor waiting rooms, we found that the patient only needs to take the buzzer but they don’t need to take the number separately. The queue number should embed with the buzzer.

3. What was difficult or challenging about bodystorming?
Sometimes it’s hard to have similar furniture or material which really suitable for the case. For example, when we do the brainstorm for “sleeping in airplanes”, we can hardly use the existing furniture in classroom to setup like aircraft cabin. In that case, we still need to use our imagination and write down on the paper.

4. Does bodystorming lend itself to certain types of problems?
Yes. Bodystorming is suitable to for those ‘tangible’ problems. But not quite suitable for some intangible problems like those happened in online applications.