Usability Testing
This section simplifies how the team got to the finished product working closely with testers.
It is important for designers to constantly have the needs, desires, and pleasures of their users in mind when creating anything.
When you focus the user and not the product, you understand what works and what does not, what pleases, and what frustrates them (Barnum, 2020).
One user carefully testing our app
Summary of prototype
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Organise me is a prototype designed to tackle the problems experienced by students working remotely during lockdown. These problems were identified through a user survey.
Organise me uses notifications, goal setting, journal, analytics, badges and a study timetable to help students stay motivated and on top of their workloads.
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The app is grounded in psychological research on goal setting theory, gamification and motivation.
Organise me was created by a team of four applied psychology undergraduates.
The prototype has been made dyslexia friendly by its font choice and colour contrasts.
Test environment
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Three of the participants were user tested over zoom, to comply with COVID-19 restrictions. Three of the participants were user tested in real life with family members of two test facilitators.
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Participants
Seven participants were tested. Overall eleven user tests were conducted, at various stages of iteration. The target user group of the prototype is third level students, aged 18-25. All of the participants were within this target user group. Participants tested in real life completed a consent form. Participants tested over zoom gave verbal consent.
Procedure
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Participants were introduced to the app and asked their initial thoughts. Participants were then presented with a sample task, this was to test navigation. No prompts were given by the test facilitator during the task.
After completing the user task, participants were asked the questions about
the prototype:
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This procedure was followed for all iterations of the prototype, however the user task changed as the prototype developed.
Initial user test - 4 participants
User task
Find upcoming work, locate the profile page, find the progress made in September, locate the study timetable and find out how time was spent this month.
User feedback of initial design
Positives:
Great idea. Simple, understandable layout. It’s good that you can track your activities throughout the app. The analytics page is a great idea.
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Negatives:
Label buttons, make them more clearly buttons. Add a daily reminder of things to do. Change the layout of the home page, prioritise the study plan on menu. The colour scheme needs to be changed, it looks sad and jarring. The profile page is not important. The home screen is a bit cramped and cluttered. Having a badges page is not necessary, maybe have it as part of something else.
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Iteration two - 4 participants
User task consisted of finding upcoming work to be completed and locating the study timetable.
User feedback
Positive
The menu is much better now, its easier to understand and navigate. The app is beneficial for all aspects of college organisation. The journal and the study plan are great. Analytics is great. The colour scheme is nice, playful and inviting.
Suggestions for further iterations
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The opening page is a bit confusing, the text box for logging in is a bit too small so it makes it confusing. It is unclear if it is just for astethics or if it is supposed to be used. The notifications screen isn’t well designed, redesign it.
Final iteration - 3 participants
User task consisted of creating a goal and marking it as correct, checking notifications, finding how to connect to blackboard and reading the study plan.
Final User feedback
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The addition of the happy brain upon goal achievement was a great idea.
Users really engaged with it and it appeared to improve their moods.
In conclusion
Users were very happy with the finalised prototype. In particular, users praised the notifications screen, the analytics page and the access to blackboard.
We took pride in adhering to all the participants concerns about the app and carefully tended to them to create something that can be truly helpful for future college organizational skills