3.2 FAQ / Expanded Specification

Don't wait for assignment 3.1 feedback from tutors. You are at the stage now where the most important feedback is from your participants and other group members.

Note that we are removing the storyboard requirements since there is a fair amount of duplication between the final set of mock ups and what would consistute a storyboard. As an individual exercise you should develop some storyboards to present and verify specific paths through your design.

What do we do for 3.2?

  1. Create a refined paper mock-up by updating your paper based mock-ups to reflect the outcomes and group discussion of 3.1.

    At the end of 3.1 you conducted your first round of paper walkthrough with users on the consolidated design. These tests should have revealed issues with your design. Based on your observations, your group should have a good understanding of the areas that need to be redesigned and can think of ways to improve your interactive design.

    In the first stage of 3.2, you will develop the next iteration of paper prototypes, taking into consideration all the findings of the walkthrough and your groups overall understanding of the exhibit.

    Review the scenarios and requirements that you wrote earlier to understand whether your refined design still satisfies the objectives your group established through the project.

    [UPDATE] Note that this paper mock up will be enhanced during this assignment phase and we only expect the final design (see point 4) to be submitted. This step is however necessary to improve your current design based on the 3.1 user feedback.

  2. Run another set of usability tests with three or four participants using the refined paper mock ups. Groups with 2 members are to run a minimum of 3 participants, groups with 3 members are to run a minimum of 4 participants.

    Based on this new prototype you will conduct another usability walkthrough with 3-4 participants. You should use interactive paper widgets in this round if you did not use them in the 3.1 walkthroughs. You must also use a consent form as part of your procedure and you should prepare a walkthrough plan before running the test (which are not required in the submission).

  3. As a group discuss the overall findings of the usability tests after each session. Add the new data to the issues table that you started in 3.1, clearly showing the new set of participants for 3.2

    In a similar manner to 3.1 you will need to meet and debrief after each session to discuss the issues and fill out the issues table (append the data from the table developed in 3.1) with additional findings.The additional participants should show whether your new design has in fact rectified existing problems or created additional problems. Clearly show the 3.2 data against the 3.1 data so that you can identify whether issues have been resolved or whether new issues have arisen. Below is a table to illustrate how to set out the issues. 1-3 is for the previous walkthroughs, 4-7 is for the current set of walkthroughs
    Issue
    1
    2
    3
    		  
    4
    5
    6
    7
    1. Could not locate the help system
    X
    X
    		  
    X
    X
    2. Did not understand the "green house" term
    X
    		 
    3. Incorrectly used the colour pop up menu
    X
    X
    X
    		  
    4. Selected the wrong preference option because the terminology was not clear
    		 
    X
    5. Did not realise the significance of the colours of the main menu options
    		 
    X
    6. Could not locate the previous page option when viewing the multimedia search pages
    		 
    X
    X

     

  4. As a group, discuss the final changes that need to be made based on the 3.2 walkthrough data and create the final set of paper mock-ups

    Once you have completed all the usability walkthroughs you will need to develop a summary of the overall findings and work together on one set of final design sketches for your complete design.

    [UPDATE] This will be the only set of paper mock ups to be submitted.

  5. Annotate the final set of mock-ups with the significant changes made during this phase of the assignment

    Describe the changes that you have made in the design, annotating them to the mock-ups so that readers can clearly identify which aspects of your design have been improved. Why was the change made and how did the change benefit the overall usability. Annotating on the diagram is to help reduce the split attention effect when reading the document.

What do we submit?

Keep in mind this assignment is to be read as a single complete document, hence tutors will not have access to previous assignments.

Updated issues table to include results from 3.1 with the new results for 3.2. Please make sure that you allow the table headings to be duplicated if the table spans multiple page. For Word users, the Table Properties option can be set so that Row 1 is duplicated as the header row at the top of each page. Clearly indicate with a thick vertical line the point between 3.1 and 3.2 usability sessions.

Final set of paper mockups - 10 pages max, 3 screens per page. [UPDATE] This is the final set as described in Step 4 (above), this does not include the intermediate design that you used for Step 1.

Annotate the final set of paper mockups with a description of the changes made in the 3.2 design, briefly justifying why each change was made and how the change benefited the usability of the interactive. It is important that you place the description close to the relevant visual element so that readers do not have to search for information.

 

Is there a page limit?

Yes. 10 pages for sketches and annotated justification. 2 pages for the table.