Usability test-analysis

The next step
-was all about the test-videos, describe them, analysing them and find good conclusion!

What we did first was creating a paper prototype of pur product, the My life diary program, and tried to make it as similar as it would be in the real life in on a computer screen. We found some potential users, in different ages, with different lifestyles, but every one of them matched our selected segment, and were seen as potential users in the future. We thought it was a good idea to do the selction like that, to see the differences and the difficulties they might have while using our program. 

In the earlier post we added one of the test-videos, of Jorman testing My life diary in the two different ways you can use it, by the time-line and by the manual searching way. We were realy pleased with the result!

• We started to explain to them what My life diary is all about, what you can use it to, when, where and all the functions the program has, it was the base thing for them to understand before beginning the tests.
• We gave them one question, for them to figure out in the program, it would be kind of a guideline for the, and for us to see how well they would figure it out on their own.
• We told them that we wouldnt help them during the test, that they would have to figure it out and go forward on their own, for us to see how well and clear we made it.
• After they had done the test we talked about it, each of them gave us their opinions, suggestions and comments about My llife diary.

The test was made by:

#1 user: Jorman, 20 years old
#2 user: Izabela, 39 years old
#3 user: Florencia, 26 years old


Analysis of the test's..

#1 user:

For Jorman it went really good, he is used to use a computer everyday, smartphones and so one, so he knows quite a bit about using new apps and programs, which made it easier for him to start with ours.
After we gave him the guideline, on finding a picture from a trip to paris in 2010 he started. he was a little confused in the beginning, because he didnt know if using the search button or the timeline, so he chosed the time-line to go from there. He succeded to find the picture, without any difficulties or big confusions. He told us that it was very clear what to do, by the lay-out and how we made the timelines, he also thought that the time-lines made it funnier to use, cause it was different. Even by testing the other way, by using the search manual botton he did very good! he did ine little mistake once by pushing the wrong botton, but he just went back and then continued. Our reflection by watching him was that he understood it good, he did not get stuck at any point or had to think a while before continuing. We were happy, as well as he!

#2 user:

The next user was the 39-year old women Izabela, with 4 kids and a busy life, with a llot of work, activities and travelling.
We gave her exacly the same guideline, and she sterted wothout any worries or confusion. She chosed to start the manual way, by writing the thing your are ssearching for, so she did, and wrote trip to Paris. Our program got the word Paris, which was the main thing it found in the system, and out came all the files from Paris. She thought it was very clear, and did not have any difficulties finding that one picture. She is a big user of the Iphone, and uses that more then a computer, because she is always on the run with the children or at her job. So she thought it was perfect that the program even could be used in a smartphone, and she wwould use it she said, because as a mom she loves taking pictures, keeping memories and look back every now and then..
With the time-lines she figured it out very smoothly too, but she got a bit confused bu the different stepd, the years, months, weeks etc. and perfered using it the other way, because it was faster. She even liked the lay-out idea we had, and had a good feeling about the whole program.

#3 user:

Florencia is a girl that just finished her studies, and are on her way out to see the world, and travel a lot to different places. She was one of our potential users, because she loves travelling, and taking pictures, videos and saving everything she has, including a LOT of files, that she has saved in different places. As so many other people, she is not exacly sure of where she has everything.. When she heard about our program she got surprised and liked the idea.
Our observation of her doing the test showed us that she was interested in the idea, she did not ask us anything and said nothing, just tryinng to figure out how to get forward and finding the picture. Even Florencia was very surprised with how easy it was to use, easy and clear she said. One little problem we found here was that she did not notice the ''search'' botton on the first page, where you can chose either that way or the time-lines. Thats why she klicked directly on the timeline, beacuse its bigger and drags the attention she mentioned. She liked both of the way to use it, but was more into the creative way with the time-lines.

So what's the conclusion?

First, we just want to say that we are realy happy about the results of the test's, and how peoples reaction and comments were. We did not find any big difficulties or problems while oberving the users testing the program! And the best thing was that the users liked it and saw it as an easy-using program, but still exciting!
They thought it was a good lay-out, and that we had made it realy obvious and clear how to do, and how to go forward throug the different steps. Florencia suggested that we could make it more obvious that you can you two different ways to enter your files and search for something special, which in this case was the picture from Paris. She thought that the time-line kind of ''took ''over the page, and that it wasnt clear enoght that  you can use the search button and do in the manual way, which is totally different without any time-lines. After menioning that the other two users agreed, and Jorman mentioned that he actually almost did the same mistake in the beginning, befor seeing the serach button. They said that there were a lack of colors, but we mentioned that the real program would be n colors of course, and that the user can chose the layout by itself, they thought it was a great idea! Especially Florencia that is realy creativ.. It will make it so much more personal and fun she said!

/Dalia

Usability test videos

Here we have our two test-videos, where we asked Jorman, my friend to tro to use our program.
We asked him to find a picture from his trip to Paris in 2010, so he did.

And here are the results!

In this video he is suppose to find the file by using the time-cirkels, it is one way to find a specific file

In this seconf video I asked him to find the while by using the ''search'' method in our program

/Dalia

Java Prototype (excluded)

We tried our best on coding java to get a simple Graphical User Interface. This could have been more intuitive and "real" when doing our Prototype testing, but it was just too hard. Here is the actual program in case anyone wants to see it (click on the link below). Don't judge hehe.

Download MyLifeDiary

Paper Prototype

Paper Prototype "My Life Diary" from Pep Blanchart on Vimeo.

Interviews

The last post we made about the interviews was not as deep as the one we made this time. We realized that if we really want to get to know our segment market, and find out who is in need and want of our product we have to get out there and talk to people. So we did!

We kept a lot of the questions from our earlier interviews, but added even more questions, more specific and detailed questions, that would help us figure out what people think about our idea and if they would actually use it? What we also did was that we talked to people in different ages, different stages in life, occupations and personalities, to see their differenties and compare their answers and opinions they came out with.

Our interview questions:

Do you write a diary?
If no: Why? 
Have you ever written a diary?
Do you see yourself start writing a diary?
What kind of diary would you prefer, a book-diary or a software program?
Do you use a book or your computer/ other technology equipment? 
Why?
Do you find it comfortable at all times?
Have you ever used an on-line diary or software?
In what situations do you have complications with writing your diary?
Do you ever feel that your work or studies don’t give you enough time to write as much as you want in your diary? 
Do you have a smartphone?
Do you use to carry around on your laptop or smart pads during the day?
Or do you have access to that in your work or school?
Do you like taking pictures?
How important are your pictures for you? Do you see them as memories that are important for you? 
Do you usually put in pictures in your diary-slides?
Where do you usually save all your pictures and videos?
Have you ever been in a situation that you have lost you files?
If yes:
What did you do about it?
What do you see as a useful solution to this?
Have you ever done a ‘’memory-book’’ or something similar?
With pictures from special occasions, time periods etc.. Do you think it is important to keep and make memories like that?
Do you have anything like that from your childhood or past? yes
Do you use to look back at this?
Or show it to friends/family?
After seeing our blog with the idea, what do you think about it? Why?
Could you see yourself using it at any time?
Do you think other people would find it exiting?
Whats the best part about the idea?
Do you see something missing there that you would be in use of?

Summary of our interviews and investigation

We tried to talk to people in different kind of ages and status, so see what they think about our idea and their views on the whole diary and saving files thing. We got some pretty good answers out of it, and to be honest we got surprised of how similar their answers were and a lot of positive feedback too. It was exiting to read it all!

The things that were clear about this topic, was that the most of them do not write a diary right now, only using Facebook, blogs, Instagram and so on. The explanation to this was the lack of time, none of them had the time or possibility to carry around on a book every day, and even if they had it at home, because they work/studies a lot and when they get home they don’t think about it. All of them had been writing a diary in their earlier years, but stopped doing that because of the lack of exitingness and time. They meant that it would make it so much easier to be able to write a diary on their computers, Ipads and smartphones, because they have it with them everywhere they go, and always using these things for everything they do. All of them had a smartphone, and some an Ipad, which gives them really easy access to the diary, and they liked that it doesn’t requires hard work or a lot of time, and u can use it whenever you want. We got the answer, interesting and exiting idea!

All of the people had once been in some situation where they have lost of been close to losing their files, pictures and important things that they had on their computer, and it was not fun, they couldn’t get back all of the pictures and so on, just the ones they had on Facebook etc. Their solution for this that they would like to have was just one single program where you could have all your files, without struggling with it.

One of the guys we talked to was really into the idea that you can print out your diary, make your own lay-out about it and make kind of books of your memories or special occasions! He called it some kind of a scrap-book.

The conclusion we got out of this, the most important one, was that people would actually use our program! They saw it as an exciting idea, with easiness and flexibility. They all had computers, smartphones and some Ipads, which they carry around during the whole day. They all loved pictures and it was important for them to keep on to their memories and be able to look back at it, show it for family/friends, and are even now a days looking back at their own childhood memories..

 

 

/Dalia

 

MyLifeDiary Survey

3 Personas

Madelyn, 32, a 3 months baby mom:  "I like the idea of combining diary with photos”

I always had a diary, it help me wright all my thinks and to express my self. In other way, for me is a way to express all my felling’s and analyze me it help me to feel so much confident of my self after writhing it. Now that I will use that tool I will not just have a simple diary I also will have a place where to express my self and add picture on it and if I want I will share it with others. Its fantastic!!.

Madelyn was always looking for something else to add on her diary but he didn’t know that. She is a person that is very sensitive and likes to remember each moment of his life and after some time look at it and try to remember it and enjoy it as if she was there.


 Jessica, 27 Recent moved from parent's house:  “like the program it self and the way of interact with her friends”

I have been writing a diary for three months now and I don’t really feel that it was something that I will keep doing for the rest of my life. But now that I will share with my friend how I feel and also add picture in a different way that a social network much more easier to see all my facts in this way presented. Now I can show to the people who I want how I’m.

Jessica is a teenager that wants to share with her friend how she feels every day but not to everyone just the ones that she wants. She needs to express her self with her closer friends and also see how the other ones were doing too. With the old diary she was feeling that was something boring but now she love this new way of diary and will keep using it.

Mike, 20, college student:  “love the design of the program and the way to store all the files”

I never had a diary in my life but I have a lot of picture in my computer and always don’t know what to do with them and I don’t want to lose any photo it at all. But I’m always thinking to throwing away because it take place on my hard drive and also when I want to search them I have to look at a lot of different folder in order to find them. With my life diary I don’t have to worry any more about that. This program facilitate me a better way to store my picture and I hope that in a future will be more than that with videos, music and docs from office like (word, excel, power point)

Mike is a teenager with a problem of storage of its things in the computer like the photos that he have, now he found a new way to store al his picture much more intuitive and interactive and with a better chronology that is nothing else simpler that the chronology of  his life on its self.

Artur