1. Observations.

I conducted observations on Tuesday in the CS building room 102 at 9:50 am, Friday in the Friend Center Lobby at 10:50 am, and Monday at 1:20pm in Frist.

At Tuesday in CS 102, I observed people in Programming Languages before class started. I spoke with others too to ask about what they were doing. My observations were:

• Most people were quiet. On interview, the most likely reasons for this were because:
  • “It’s early.”
  • Students do not know each other, in part due to the gradt/undergrad split of the class.
• Many students were on their laptops checking email, performing other small tasks, or looking at our electronic textbook.
• Many students were either texting, sending email, or reading the news on their phones

At Friday in the Friend Center Lobby, I observed traffic as it passed through and interviewed people about what they were doing at that time. Popular activities included:

• Standing and talking with friends
• Printing documents in the Friend center library
• Using the bathroom
• Checking texts/emails on phone

I also spoke with students and found that most had checked their phone for email/text in the last 10 minutes.

At Monday in the Frist, I observed traffic and interviewed people about what they were doing. I also walked around the building to see observe different parts. Common activities included:

• Getting late meal (long line)
• Picking up a package from the package center (long line)
• Checking mailbox or looking up mailbox combination on computer.
• Staff was cleaning full garbage cans
• Checking texts/emails on phone
• Working at tables upstairs

The outside of Frist was also crowded with pedestrian traffic.

From interviewing people and observing these 3 situations, I think that my interface should probably focus on the student who is in a hurry to do something between class. It would likewise make sense for it to be a web, desktop, or mobile application, as most students use a computer or phone in the 10 minutes between class. Speaking to students, I found that many are “trying to get little things done,” or trying “not to be late for class.” Students felt like time between class was “short” so an application that helped people streamline their activities during this time would make sense.

2. Brainstormed Ideas:

1. An attendance taking application using prox scanning to check students into a class before that class starts. Takes advantage of earliness so class time can be more productive.
2. Flashcard application for teachers to learn students names.
3. System of lights (turn signals, brakes, etc) for bikes to help bike users better communicate with pedestrians in crowded areas. Implement interface on handle bars of bike.
4. Lights that notify people on bikes/skateboards when there are people around a blind corner (like near the pillars in front of Frist, or the corner of the Dinky waiting area building)
5. Bike interface that lets you know how fast to go to get to class on time.
6. Map services application mounted onto bike/skateboard to create a route to location that avoids stairs.
7. Map services application to map routes like quickest, most scenic, least crowded, most squirrels, etc.. between buildings
8. Touch screen interface in lobby of building for indoor map and room availability.
9. Mobile application to quickly order “take out” from Frist or dining halls to save time if trying to grab food between class.
10. Touch screen interface to quickly look up Frist mailbox lock combination.
11. Mobile application to check printer status and release jobs from print queue remotely to save time printing before class.
12. Resource finder application to find objects like printers, pencil sharpeners, staplers that actually work
13. System for Frist late meal workers to montior traffic in order to have more checkout stations during peak hours (which often coincide with the 10 mins between classes)
14. Trash can sensors for facilities workers to respond to full trash cans at peak times between classes.
15. Course oriented chat interface to allow classmates ask other classmates course related questions (what’s today’s lecture about?, where did we leave off last time?…)
16. Platform for “highlight video” of previous lecture.
17. Web interface for instructors to post course-related articles or cool things to look at before class.
18. Mobile based course related quiz game before class that gives you feedback on how well you know the material in that class relative to your classmates.
19. Locations based interface to help introduce you to people in your lecture before with similar interests
20. To-do list interface that automatically opens applications that are needed to complete tasks (ex. “email Joe” on todo list would automatically open a new gmail message w/ Joe as the recpient). Application would proceed down list sequentially.
21. Applications that learns user’s computer behavior to suggest tasks.
22. Mobile device plays music based on mood/weather
23. Change music selections with interface on bike handle bars or by hitting a large button in your jacket.
24. Application to allow for collaborative selecting of room temperature / lighting to be set before class starts.
25. Application that generates ideas of things to do at night so students can make plans

Two Favorites:
Item 11, an application to check printer status and release items from print cluster remotely

Item 20, a to-do list that automatically opens applications that are needed to complete task.

3. Reasons for selecting each prototype:

-This is both a feasible and useful app that solves two persistent problems: Princeton students often are in a rush to print before class and printers are often unreliable.

– This app would be a straightforward way to help streamline the process of completing the “busy work” Princeton students often do between classes.

4. Photos and descriptions of prototypes:

Printer App

The Printer App allows students to remotely release print jobs when they are nearby a printer. This saves them time both finding a worker printer as well as printing their documents. This applications seems like it would be best implemented as a mobile app.

 The main page of the remote printing app has 4 buttons. A “My Queue” button to view all of the items currently in your print queue, a “Printer List” button to view all of the printers nearby, listed in order of closest to farthest, a “Check Map” button to view printers in a map view, and “Print!” button that will prompt you to select a document to print and a printer to print to.

The Main Page

Three landing pages that follow the main page

From the main page, the buttons for “My Queue”, “Printer List,” and “Check Map” correspond to one of the three drawings in the column on the right. From the “My Queue” page, users can select documents to print from their queue and delete documents from their queue. From either the list or map view of the printers, users can select which printers they want to print from. After the user selects a document in the “My Queue” page, the user is directed to the “Select Printer” page. After the user selects a printer from the “Printer List” or “Map” pages, the user is directed to the “Select Document” page.

A dialogue appears if the user clicks on a printer in the map

If a user clicks on a printer in the map, the user is prompted to print from that printer.

A user can select documents or printers from these menus.

Below are the two menus from which the users can select a printer or a document. The user reaches these pages after selecting “Print!” on the home page or by landing here after viewing the “My Queue,” “Printer List,” or “Map” page and selecting the options described above.

The success menu.

A display appears to notify the user that their document is successfully printing.

The user has various ways of getting from the main page to the “Printing” page depending on how they interact with the intermediate menus.

A overview of the application

To-Do List App

The main feature of the To-Do list app is that helps students quickly navigate through the tasks that they typically complete between classes. When students add a task to the to-do list, in addition to the title, they must also give the name of the application needed to complete that task. For example, sending an email might use Mail or Thunderbird, while editing a document might use Microsoft Word. After selecting an application, the user must select the file or url of the resource they wish to modify. For example, if the task involved editing a document in Microsoft Word, he would enter the file path of the document. After creating a to-do list, the user presses “Start!” When the user presses start, the program traverses their todo list, automatically opening the necesarry resources. The todo list application maintains a small dialogue box in the corner of the user’s screen so that the user can move between tasks and can navigate back to the main page.

The main page of the todo list app consists of a list of the users tasks, with the options to add an entry or to start their to do list.

The main page

When users click the “New Entry” button, the are prompted with a form with which they fill in information about their task. The information requested is the title of the task, the application need to complete the task, and the file or url where the task can be accessed. Ideally the file/url entry section would be updated once the application section is filled in so the to-do list knows which resource it needs.

A form to create a new task

To choose an application, the user selects from a drop down menu. To choose a file/url, the user either enters a url directly or can browse their file system to find the correct address.

A drop down menu appears to allow the user to select an application.
A file system browser allows the user to select a file.

From the main menu, the user also has the option to edit an entry in the to do list. Likewise, certain local applications, like Mail, may not need a file/url inorder to start up.

This menu allows a user to edit an entry in the task list

Tasks Read: “Email Joe,” “Check Bank Account,” “Fill Out Survey,” “Proof Read HW”

When the user presses start, the correct application programs start. For example, the first drawing shows a new email window so the user can email Joe. The to-do list displays a small dialog box in the corner of the screen to remind the user that it is running and to allow the user to move to the next item in the list. Pressing the “next” button, for example, could automatically open Microsoft Word with the user’s homework so that they can edit it.

A view of the todo list application while the user is completing tasks.

5. Photos, descriptions, and detailed notes from user testing:

Test Structure: The structure of the test was that I presented the paper prototype to users telling them to interact with the paper as if it were a computer application. I tried to let them interact with it on their own at first, but offered help if help was needed. I started by giving them a card with a blank todo list queue. They then had to add tasks to the todo list and click “Start!” once tasks were added. I say they “had” to do this because this is really the only useful way to use the application.

1) Test 1

-Sarah clicking the “Application” button in the “New Entry” form.
-One common mistake was clicking “Start!” When the todo list was empty

For my first test, I demoed the application to Sarah. During her demo, the first thing she did was hit the “Start!” button. I then told her the the “Start!” button does nothing because there is nothing in her todo list queue. She then clicked the “New Entry” button. This brought up the new entry form. She then entered the title of the task, the application, and file path. After entering tasks, she was directed back to the todo list queue. She then clicked the “Start!” button. She was slightly confused when the email interface popped up, but she completed her first task, and clicked the “next” button. The second task then appeared and she clicked the “next” button. The simulation ended.

2) Test 2

-Mike attempting to start the to do list by clicking an individual task

For my second test, I demoed the application to Mike. Like Sarah, the first thing he did was hit the “Start!” button. I also told him that the “Start!” button does nothing because there is nothing in his todo list queue. After questioning the purpose of the application, he then clicked the “New Entry” button. This brought up the new entry form. He entered the title of the task and then entered the application. He asked about the “File/Url” field, for he was a bit confused as to why he would need to enter this information for a todo list.  He then entered the file path. After adding tasks to his queue, he was directed to the todo list queue. Instead of clicking “Start!” though, he clicked on an individual task, in an attempt to complete that task. Clicking an individual task, however,  does nothing. He then clicked the “Start!” button. His first task appeared, he completed the task, and he clicked the “next” button. The second task then appeared, he completed the task and he clicked the “next” button. The simulation ended.

At the end of the demo when I spoke with Mike he said he didn’t think he would personally use this application. He said he would “just do the task” rather than take time to add it to a list of small things to do later.

Test 3)

Kyle looking over the main page of the todo list app

For my third test, I demoed the application to Kyle. Like Mike and Sarah, the first thing he did was hit the “Start!” button. I also told him that the “Start!” button does nothing because there is nothing in his todo list queue. He then clicked the “New Entry” button which brought up the new entry form. He entered the title of the task, the application, and file path/URL. Like Mike, he also asked why the File/URL is needed. After adding tasks to his queue, he was directed to the todo list queue. He then clicked the “Start!” button. Like Sarah, he wasn’t exactly sure why the email interface appeared but after some direction, he completed the task. He, however, but did not immediately find the “next” button. I pointed out the “next” button and he clicked it. The second task then appeared, he completed the task and he clicked the “next” button. The simulation ended.

6. List of insights from testing.

1. All 3 test users clicked the “Start!” button while the queue was empty
   1. My first thought to solve this problem is to eliminate the “Start!” button from the main page when the todo list is empty. I think this could work, although it’s possible that the word “Start!” could be confusing even when there are items in the list.
   2. A second solution would be to change the word “Start!” to “Execute To Do List”, or “Do!” or something more descriptive and straightforward than “Start!”.
2. Users questioned why a file or url was necessary for a todo list
   1. To solve this problem I think it would be helpful the user to have more background information on the application. The user is supposed to go into this kind of test blind, so it might be helpful to add a more descriptive welcome page to the application to introduce its basic concept.
3. Users were surprised when the page changed from the todo list queue to email when they pressed “Start!”
   1. Once again, I think it would be helpful for users to have more background of the purpose of the application. One idea would be to change the page sequence and make a “loading screen” appear when the user presses “Start!” that says something like “Now starting your todo list…opening HW.doc with Microsoft Word…”
   2. I think changing the word “Start!” to something more descriptive would be helpful to with problem as well.
4. Users had trouble finding the “next” button or needed me to point out the small todo list dialogue box in the corner.
   1. I think I could make the dialogue box more prominent so that users are aware of its presence and can use the “next” button to go to the next task.
   2. After the user clicks “Start!” and the proposed loading screen appears, I could have the message in the loading screen make note of the fact that a dialogue box will appear.
5. One user clicked on an individual task in order to attempt to complete that task
   1. I think that I should make clicking individual tasks have some functionality. I think it makes sense that users should be able to sort tasks in the todo list by dragging them.
6. Users questioned the purpose of the application
   1. Though the application was somewhat confusing on it’s own, when I described the application to users myself, they saw its use. I think I should find a way to work my description of the app into the interface itself. Maybe some progress bar or instruction set like “Add Entries -> Sort Entries -> Execute List!” on the main page would be helpful.
   2. I think the fact that the application was made of paper was unusual for my users. I think this may have made the app seem more strange.

In all, I think my app was successful in that users were able to navigate through it reasonably quickly and understood its purpose with a little help from me. The biggest problem though is that it leaves much for explanation. I think the main goal of the revisions above are mainly to make the application and interface explain itself more clearly through better wording, button options, and page sequences.

Name: Michael Newman (menewman@)

My observations:
Every Tuesday and Thursday, I have two consecutive classes in the same room (Aaron Burr 219), as well as two consecutive classes in the CS Building (105 and 104). Consequently, I was able to observe the behavior of students/faculty between classes for the full 10-minute changing period twice a day on Tues/Thurs for the last couple of weeks. I observed that my peers tend to spend the extra time going to the water fountain and/or the bathroom, pulling out preparatory materials for class (laptops, books, printed notes, notebooks), conversing with the professor (particularly after class, not before), conversing with each other (occasionally, but not always, about course-related material), and using their phones – to text, call, browse the web, play games, or listen to music. Depending on the time of day (and the location), students may acquire/consume food or beverages – for example, I’ve seen COS students run to the tea room for coffee or to the vending machines for soda/snacks. This seems more likely to happen in the afternoon than in the morning. Professors, on the other hand, are less likely to spend the time socializing; in general they seem to roll into class with just enough time to set up their slides/projector and begin the lecture. After lecture, they tend to converse with students, pack up, and disappear. In general, both students and professors seem to spend the in-between time performing some combination of social interaction (in-person or via phone), personal refreshment (e.g., eating, going to the bathroom), and/or preparation for the class – not including, of course, travel time between classes.

Brainstormed ideas:
1. Online/mobile app that lets students anonymously rate the lecture they just attended, and/or provide direct feedback to the professor.
2. Mobile app that lets you know if your friends are planning to skip class; you can either coordinate so that someone always goes, or skip class if they are also skipping.
3. Mobile app that finds location on campus using GPS/Wifi, directs to nearest bathroom/food/water.
4. Mobile app that calculates distance to next class and estimates how long it will take you to get there.
5. Web app that lets you anonymously chat with those in the same lecture as you; you can ask questions and get immediate feedback without feeling embarrassed or put on the spot.
6. Kinect-based “stretching station” where students who have been sitting down too long can work out their stiffness with the help of a stretching game/program.
7. Mobile/web app where professor can upload class notes and student can send them all to All_Clusters with a single click (also provides printer location information).
8. Web app where students can anonymously gossip about their classmates (sorted by class, lecture time for convenience) and read gossip about themselvers.
9. Mobile app that uses current location data and time/location of next class to determine if it’s feasible to go get coffee before the next class starts.
10. Mobile app that plays soothing instrumental music and shows calming visuals (e.g., ocean waves) to help students relax between classes.
11. Web/mobile app that lets professors know what equipment/connections they should be prepared for in a given lecture hall (e.g., VGA adaptor only, HDMI connection, etc.)
12. Web/mobile app that provides a calendar of assignment due dates and exams; students can check to see if they have something to turn in for their next class.
13. Web/mobile app where professors can upload short outlines/background info on the upcoming lecture, which students can check on their phones before class.
14. “Assassins” mobile app: participating students can receive the names of targets to “assassinate” (with water pistols) between classes, and the last student still “alive” receives a prize.
15. Web/mobile app where student can log how much time they’ve spent outside each day; app reminds them to go outside between classes so they can get some sunlight and vitamin D.

The ideas I chose to prototype:
Online/mobile app that lets students anonymously rate the lecture they just attended, and/or provide direct feedback to the professor.
I like this one because it lets the student ask questions or suggest improvements while the lecture is still fresh in his/her mind; the professor can then respond to issues s/he otherwise might not even have known about.

Mobile app that finds location on campus using GPS/Wifi, directs to nearest bathroom/food/water.
This is useful because students often use their short breaks relieving/refreshing themselves, but they have only 10 minutes to walk to their next class, acquire/consume a snack, and/or use the bathroom – and in a strange building, students might have a hard time finding vending machines or a bathroom.

Prototype 1: Anonymous Lecture Feedback

Home page. User can either browse others’ reviews or submit a review.

The user can use this form to submit a review for a lecture.

User gets this screen after submitting a review. It links back to the home page.

The user searches for reviews by department, course number, and section.

After the user chooses a course and section, s/he can browse the reviews from most to least recent.

Prototype 2: Refreshment Buddy

Home screen. User must first acquire location, then look for food/water/bathrooms.

If user tries to find food/water/bathroom without first acquiring location. they get this message.

The user gets this screen once the app has found their location.

The app shows nearby places to get food when the user clicks “find food.”

The app shows nearby water fountains when the user clicks “find water.”

The app shows nearby bathrooms when the user clicks “find bathrooms.”

Map view shows the user’s location and the location of nearby food/water/bathrooms.

User Testing:
I chose to test my second prototype, “Refreshment Buddy,” with the help of three fellow students: Katie, Charles, and Osei. During this process, they interacted with my paper “screens” as if they were using a mobile device; when they clicked a button, I would give them the appropriate piece of paper to account for that action. They provided feedback, both directly and indirectly (through observation); the insights thus derived are listed in the section below.

Katie and Charles both clicked through pretty much every screen of the prototype (Acquire Location -> Find Food -> See Map -> Back -> Back -> Find Water -> See Map -> Back -> Back -> Find Bathrooms _> See Map -> Back -> Back). Osei, on the other hand, went through the process of finding food but stopped there, without looking for water/bathrooms. I provided the next screen for them after each “click” and let them know when they were trying to click something that wasn’t clickable, but otherwise I provided no prompting or instructions. All of them seemed confused by the purpose of the “Acquire Location” button, and Charles and Osei expressed an interest in having additional information about the food locations.

Katie clicks “acquire location.”

Osei attempts to find food without acquiring his location first.

When Charles clicks “see on campus map,” I switch to the map screen.

My hastily scrawled notes from user testing.

Insights from testing:
Katie
-It’s not immediately obvious what the app means by “acquire location.” What location? Should be more specific.
-It would be preferable to show one’s location on the map after acquiring it, and then just have nearby food/water/bathroom icons pop up on the map.
-The prototype doesn’t provide a way to change or re-acquire one’s location; having a constantly updated map display would solve that problem.

Charles
-It might be better to have more specific food locations, or to provide extra information about food (e.g., show only nearby free food).
-Liked the water fountain-finding functionality.
-Like Katie, wasn’t immediately sure what the location in “acquire location” meant. Should clarify the meaning.

Osei
-Wasn’t sure which elements of the app were clickable (e.g., tried to click on “Frist Gallery” under “Find Food” but could not).
-Would like extra details, such as information about the food available (menus? vending machine items?) at each location.
-Since I force him to click “Acquire Location” first anyway, I might as well just auto-acquire the location, or not show the links for finding food/water/bathrooms until after location has been acquired.

Assignment 2
Bereket Abraham

1. Saw the IDEO video.

2. Observed 3 people before CS 436 lecture on Tuesday. There were two guys that looked like COS majors sitting next to each. The third person was a girl sitting by herself (unknown major). I noticed that most people either talked to their friends or procrastinated on their computers. By procrastinating I mean they were checking their email, facebook, reddit, etc. I figure that between smartphones and laptops, most people in class are internet connected. This opens the door to class wide apps and online collaboration. Sometimes the professor was busy preparing for class and not necessarily available to engage in a group activity. The last reminding group of people is students arriving late. I think it would be hard to help this group, because most of them are hurrying from other classes across campus. Even if they had smartphones, most of them are probably too busy rushing to engage in some kind of activity.

3. Brainstorming group members: Bereket Abraham, Andrew Ferg, Ryan Soussan, Lauren Berdick

Note: For late people, we can’t have anything mandatory or that affects your grade at all. We want something relatively fun and relaxed, as a break between two mentally intensive lectures / class periods.

1. name game, get to know your neighbor

2. talent show

3. professor story time

4. joke telling contest

5. applications/videos of what you’re are going to learn in order to generate interest

6. crowdsourced music making. everyone gets to contribute a beat to a song, entire thing gets compiled

7. Current events related to the class. Example, speakers, new books, important figures, etc

8. One tough problem that everyone collaborates on and if they get it then the entire class gets extra credit

9. Crowdsourced, collaborative art project that everyone contributes to

10. Personal subreddit for the class.

11. Class votes on interesting questions for the professor, i.e. about his work or life experiences

12. Professor gives a brief summary / update of his current research or the state of his research field.

13. Riddle of the day, Google interview questions

14. class wide scrabble game

4. Top Two

1. Professor gives a brief summary / update of his current research or the state of his research field.
Description: A scheduled time when the Professor talks with the students about cutting edge research in the subject, possibly as simple as a brief description or a demo.

Something that points curious students in the right direction. One thing people always say about Princeton is that our professors are the best in their field. However, if you are in an intro class it hard to find out more about the more complicated / interesting stuff. Also, this is probably what interests the professor most. Finally, most grant seeking professors had a wealth of advertising or informational material about their work.

2. applications/videos of what you’re are going to learn in order to generate interest
Description: Over the course of the semester, students post and rank cool, class-related videos, links, news articles, and research papers.

Less motivated or interested students can browse the reddit-like aggregator before class. The problem here is that most students learn how to do something, but not why it is done. Giving real world examples will motivate them and give purpose to their work. The professor or TA will have to moderate the links, and students will post under their real names.

5. Picked #2 (course-related social aggregator)

Card 1: frontpage

Card 2: registration page. Added for realism.

Card 3: Menu of links

Card 4: List of scholarly papers.

Card 5: List of cool videos

Card 6: List of related news articles. Like / dislike functionality is shown.

Card 7: Submit window for a new link.

6. Tested prototype on 4 people. They included Ryan Soussan, Brandon Lewiston, Katie Knorr, and Sherene Agama.
Ryan instantly understood the interface and commented that he was familiar due to his experience with reddit.
Sherene got pretty far but didn’t realize that content was user-generated. She was also worried about trolls.
Brandon (a politics major) dully flipped through the links, but expressed interest in a version for his American politics class.
Katie (a lit major) also was un-interested in physics links, and wasn’t sure how the site could be adapted for a literature based class.

Image of Ryan Soussan, one of my test subjects.

7. Feedback

The feedback I received is divided into two camps: what I saw people doing wrong and what I they told me about their experience.
When I handed people my cards, everyone was able to register, login, and navigate through the various menu options. However, the finer points of the website were lost on most people (3/4). Most people knew it was a links / news aggregator, but few of them realized that the content was meant to be student-generated. Thus, only 2 people understood what the submit button was for, probably because they were familiar with reddit. As a result, I added cards 8 and 9. Card 8 occurs when you’re clicking the more button and finally run out of links. It asks you to submit more links to share with your classmates. I also redesigned the submit button into one that says Add a Link with a big plus sign (Card 9). Hopefully that is more self-explanatory.
The other thing I noticed is that very few people used the like/dislike arrows, even when they had clicked on the link. 3 out of 4 said they knew what they were for, either from reddit, princetonfml, or facebook. They all suggested color coding the like vs dislike option, and showing how many votes each link had. That would probably help with the 1 person who didn’t know what they were for.
Finally, one person cited lack of interest in the links. To be fair, my example person was in intro physics and had only physics related links. Everyone expressed interest in links related to their area of expertise, but were a bit blasé about other areas. On the plus side, everyone wanted to post stuff related to their own major. Also, everyone at least wanted to click on fun stuff like the videos.
One person brought up the fact that trolls might create fake email accounts to sign up and post ridiculous content. However, I pointed out that the system would be like piazza, where you’re email address determines what classes you can sign up for. People have to sign in with their real name and the TA or professor will probably moderate.

Card 8: New more page. Highlights the fact that content is user-generated.

Card 9: New submit button. More clearly communicates its purpose.

Observations:

The first thing I realized when I was trying to think of whom to interview was that Computer  Science undergrads are not the typical end-users and most of the Princeton undergraduate population that has Princeton Time to spare isn’t from this specific demographic. So I decided to interview people in other disciplines and majors – Economics, EEB, Politics to get a better understanding of how they utilize this time.

• Christine – At the end of previous class, find people who are in last class/who are going to similar place to walk over with. Like to get to class early , mostly play games on my phone and respond to urgent emails if I have any. More mindless the games the better.
• Estelle – Browse facebook on the walk between classes, like getting to class on time. In class, Use the time to check email for managing schedule for rest of day – tutoring students, meeting for club, dinner with friends. No facebook in class.
• Russell – On the phone while walking to class, reads news, emails (only reads, does not respond to any on my phone) Tries to find coffee/tea to pick up Get announcements/slides and reading for next lecture.When in class, respond to urgent emails, no facebook
• Adoley – Chat/text friends to relax and disengage with class for a bit. Go to the bathroom and freshen up. Try and get reading/slides in order for the next lecture, take out notebook, pdf’s, pencils, silence my phone. Get prepped and in the zone for class

These interviews gave me an idea of the kind of users and the problems that they face. I also made independent observations of people in classes –

• Reading today’s lecture, reviewing past notes
• Bringing up slides of the lecture on their computer and their note taking program, lot of people would go to the course web page/blackboard, and the syllabus, and then find what they needed for this lecture.
• Listen to music
• Browsing Facebook, Reddit, news (no active creating of content)
• Check calendars and schedule appointments
• Browse email. Not many people were actually writing emails
• Eating/drinking (mostly coffee)
• Chatting with friends in class
• Looking at flyers
• Relaxing with their eyes closed
• Playing games on cell phone or computer
• Doing homework for other classes
• Go to the restroom

Based on these interviews and observations I think i want to design an interface for the organized student who tries to prepare for lecture. I want to help this user be better prepared and organized for lecture. This is deliberately broad since this can be approached in many different ways, which will be explored in the next section –

Brainstorm Ideas: (with Kuni Nagakura)

1. Meditation Helper: An application that plays soothing and calming songs to help students meditate and prepare for the class
2. Brown noise emission that blocks out sounds so you can take a nap, and wakes up before lecture.
3. Food/Coffee based path generator – Finds routes to next class which have coffee/free food places on the way so you can pick up on the way to class.
4. Best Path Finder: Maps out the best route to the next class, looking for diversions etc. on the way
5. Flashcard generating app for reviewing the material covered in last lecture and preview of concepts coming up.
6. Class organizer: A simple lists of tasks you need to do before each class – call someone, open certain pdf’s, silence your phone, check laptop battery.
7. Syllabus condenser – App that generates a list of all the readings for a day from the syllabi of different classes and let’s you access them quickly in one location without having to go through other places. Also print them.
8. PrePrinter – Be able to send the readings for the next class to a printer cluster right at the end of the current class, and then show the nearest cluster where you can pick them up. Use 10 minutes to get your readings on the way to class.
9. Outline reader – Professors create quick outlines that early students can access from mobile app.
10. Survey for research, paid -Fill out quick 5-7 minute surveys and even split longer surveys across different Princeton Times and get paid for taking them.
11. QuickMeetup – Find friends in other classes around you, and in your class, to walk together to your next class.
12. 10 minutes around the world. an app that shows you a different country every time you’re early to class
13. MealPlanner – Easily coordinate lunch/dinner plans for the week from one location with easy input for people you meet on the way and say that you should catch-up and get a meal sometime.
14. Language Learner – 10 minute lessons. Listen to conversations/ lessons on handheld while waiting. Served in small bits so doesn’t get boring and still has good retention.
15. Estimated Travel Time Calculator – Pools in information from number of people in class around you, construction/diversions and calculates the estimated time it will take to get to the next class. Includes maps for display
16. Turntable.fm for class – Have classroom playlists that people can access and play the music on the class speakers before lecture as a community builder to meet people, and encourage not sitting with personal headphones.
17. InTouch – Reminds people how much time they have gone without calling specific members of their family and helps them use the 10 minutes between class to stay in better touch with people back home.

Ideas chosen to Prototype:

1. MealPlanner – This solves a very frustrating problem faced by many students, including myself and this scenario is one of the most commonly faced during the 10 minutes between class.
2. Syllabus Condenser – Widespread use-case across all majors and disciplines which drastically improves and speeds up access to information used on a daily basis.

Prototypes:

Meal Planner

Syllabus Condenser

User Testing:

User 1: Eleanor

User 2 – Danielle
-> Could not understand the reason for other sources besides Blackboard.
-> Got confused about what to do after setup. Pressed the new of the class and not the Go To Today button.
-> Tried to swipe down for next page.

User 3 – Megan
-> Could not understand the options for adding courses, and faltered in choosing.
-> The Upload text option was unclear
-> Asked if ” Choose Source ” meant “import from”
-> Flicked page down to go to next page.
-> Tried to find the other readings from the current reading by looking for a small list in the botton left.

Insights:

• On the overall all users felt like the app solved a problem that they faced on a daily basis.
• There was a concern raised by some people about the source of information for the app. Some classes don’t have strict syllabi on blackboard, but a website where the professor posts readings. Revision could use webpage-scraping as well as a source for the readings instead of just Blackboard.
• The “Choose Source” page was a problem for many users. They found it hard to understand what the various choices represented since the idea of the syllabus is inherently only linked to Blackboard. The original design idea was to source the syllabus and readings from Blackboard, the schedule from ICE or SCORE, and allow for an option for the user to upload the PDF or text file for courses that didn’t have it up on the web. User feedback suggests that I should redesign this page to have a “import syllabus from” label which has Blackboard/Course Website/upload file, and a separate “import schedule from” label which has ICE/SCORE/Google Calendar option.
• On the View Courses page that comes next, one user got stuck and did not understand that the next step was to click “Go To Today”, and clicked on the class. In the revision, clicking on the class should go to the next occurrence of the class in the calendar.
• Most users (All of whom were Iphone owners and very used to the Iphone style of navigation) intuitively swiped down to go the next page of the reading. The current mapping has that swipe for going between readings and should be modified to match user intuition which has left-right swipe for navigation between documents and up-down swipes for going between pages.
• Some users also were seeking a way to jump to a certain reading when viewing another reading. The revision could have a simple pop-up list that shows the list of readings with the current reading highlighted and easy one-click navigation to any reading.

Netid

• kyal@

Observations

I conducted my observations during the 10 minutes before COS 333 (11:00 – 12:20pm) on Tuesday February 19^th, PHI 322 (1:30 – 2:50pm) on Thursday February 21^st, and COS 340 (3:00 – 4:20pm) on Monday February 25^th. I arrived early to these classes on said days and noted the behavior of my fellow students and professors. In the process, I was able to interview a number of students.

General Activities

• Students talking amongst themselves
• Professor playing classical music and taking pictures (B.W.K.)
• Students checking and responding to email
• Professors trying to set up equipment/distribute materials for lecture
• Students getting out notebooks and pens for lecture
• Students sleeping
• Students staring into space (i.e. relaxing)
• Students listening to music
• Students texting/making phone calls
• Students doing/reviewing homework
• Students surfing the web (on laptops and phones)
• Students shopping online (mostly female students)
• Students and professors reading (academic/non-academic materials)
• Students drinking coffee/eating snacks
• Students eating meals (mostly graduate students)
• Students charging phones/laptops
• Students checking dining hall/eating club menus
• Students playing games (on laptops and phones)

Subject Interviews

• Student 1 arrived early to COS 333. When I asked Student 1 what he/she did during 10 minutes before class, he/she indicated, “Not much apart from checking emails and surfing the internet.”
• Student 2 arrived late to PHI 322. When I asked Student 2 (after lecture) what he/she did during 10 minutes before class, he/she indicated, “Nothing, usually it is hard to utilize the 10 minutes before 1:30 class because it is lunch time, there is much dining hall/eating club traffic and it takes some time to get from dining halls/eating clubs to class buildings.”
• I passed Student 3 (whom I know is in COS 340) on the way to COS 340. Student 3 was a smoking a cigarette outside the lecture building. When I asked Student 3 what he/she did during 10 minutes before class, he/she indicated, “I usually require the 10 minutes to get to my next class, but sometimes I smoke a cigarette on the way.”

Review

From these observations, it is evident that people like to spend the 10 minutes before lecture in one of three ways: socializing, entertaining themselves, or working (in some fashion). Therefore, my design should look to cater to those who are looking to socialize, those who are simply bored, and those who are trying to be productive. Furthermore, my design should improve their lives by enhancing such kinds of activities.

Brainstorm Ideas (collaborated with Kuni Nagakura and McLean Shaw)

1. “Tracktor” – An app that integrates with your music library and chooses a customizable playlist, whose duration is less than or equal to a specified length of time (perfect for your walk to/wait for class).
2. “CourseView” – An app that integrates with ICE and offers students high-level summaries of past lectures/materials and upcoming course deadlines.
3. “PitStop” – An app that finds food/drink (e.g. coffee shops, fast-food restaurants, vending machines) on your way to class based on tank status, which is user specified.
4. “The Outside Initiative” – A proposal to introduce more outdoor social spaces on campus. A greater number of benches and trash cans outside (of which there are very few) on campus, for example, would allow more opportunity for socializing outside the classroom (something that is pretty tough to do in the school week).
5. “Flag-A-Friend” – An app that integrates with ICE and your contacts so that users can let their friends know when and where they get out of class, thus enabling you to run into your friends even when swamped with class.
6. “Docket” – An interactive device with both multiple sockets and screen interfaces that serves as both a charging dock for mobile devices (e.g. cell phones, laptops) and an info center for campus activities and schedules (e.g. dining hall/eating club menus, facility closing times, conference times, social events, student performances and so on).
7. “BrownSound” – An app that generates brown noise (deep ambient rumble) that serves as a sleeping aid for those looking to catch some shut-eye before class.
8. “Achilles” – An app that finds the most efficient routes from source to destination on campus including routes through buildings taking into account any congestion.
9. “LunchBag” – An app that allows you to order meals-to-go from dining halls/Frist food gallery/eating clubs for pickup at a user specified time for students in a rush.
10. “CampusLife” – An app that serves an info center for campus activities and schedules (e.g. dining hall/eating club menus, facility closing times, conference times, social events, student performances and so on).
11. “ResourceFinder” – An app that finds the nearest restrooms, printers, scanners, computer clusters, convenient stores, coffee shops, vending machines, prox scanners (for updating prox privileges) and so on.
12. “PrincetonTrivia” – A gaming app that quizes users on Princeton trivia.
13. “PresenterFace” – An intuitive presentation interface for lecturers and preceptors that allows hassle-free pre-lecture/precept setup.
14. “GymTime” – An app that offers 5-10 minute simple workouts that can be done in any environment.
15. “CourseQuiz” – An app that integrates with ICE and offers multiple choice quiz questions on course material.

Favorite Ideas

My favorite ideas were “LunchBag” and “CampusLife” (#9 and #10 respectively).  I chose “LunchBag” because I think, based on my observations not only for this assignment, but also in general, a to-go food service at dining halls and eating clubs would greatly benefit students. Due to large queues and limited time, it is hard for a lot of students to get meals and to class on time. Students shouldn’t have to make this choice (especially when the majority of meal plans are paid upfront). I chose “CampusLife” because I think such an app would both serve as an extremely useful centralized resource for students and faculty alike and help to instill a greater sense of community on campus, since if people are aware of what’s going on, people are more likely to get together. Furthermore, both these apps can benefit from the student prox/netid system, thus making them rather simple to implement.

Prototypes

LunchBag

LunchBag homepage

Dining halls page

Eating clubs page

Frist food gallery page

Butler menu page

Terrace menu page (check box to select)

Mexican menu page

Order page (where user specifies pick up time)

CampusLife

CampusLife homepage (integrates with LunchBag)

Culture page (daily/weekly student articles)

Facilities page (daily hours of operation)

News page (University news)

The street page (what’s open tonight + passes required)

Student performance page (on this week)

Tigers page (sports events on this week)

Feedback

I completed user testing with 3 different people.

LunchBag Photos

Home to Frist food gallery

Frist to Mexican menu

Mexican menu to home

Home to Eating clubs

Eating clubs to Terrace menu

Terrace menu to Order

Specify pick up time and submit order

CampusLife Photos

Home to The street

The street page

The street to home

Home to Student performances

Student performances page

Users who tested “LunchBag” and “CampusLife” found the interfaces extremely simple and very easy to use. One user at first was unsure of how to go back a page on “CampusLife”, but shortly after discovered the “home” button (prototype is one level deep). Users in general remarked that they thought both apps would be extremely useful. Specifically, users indicated that “LunchBag” would be of great help to students in a rush and were confident that students would use it. In addition, users indicated that “CampusLife” could be the kind of fluid centralized service for campus activities and news in general that students are really looking for. Users also like the idea that “CampusLife” could integrate with “LunchBag”. One improvement suggested with regards to “CampusLife” was to allow users to purchase/reserve tickets for student performances and sports events. What’s more, generally users indicated that they would prefer more visually pleasing interfaces.

Insights

From the user testing, it is evident that clear layout and simple symbolization is key to the intuitiveness of a design, and therefore its accessibility. In general, users commented that both apps were successful because of their ease of use. Neither idea was particularly innovative, yet the ease of use coupled with clear organization of information seems to be of great value to the user.

Given the suggestion to allow users to purchase/reserve tickets for student performances and sports events through “CampusLife” (which I think is most definitely a good one), another point to take away from the user testing is to always remember who you are designing for. In my Brainstorm Ideas, I envisioned “CampusLife” being a kind of campus info center and as a result unknowingly narrowed the scope of the app’s functionality from an app that could provide users information and ways to use that information to an app that simply could provide users information. In any revision of “CampusLife, I would certainly add ticket purchase/reserve functionality for student performances and sports events.

Lastly, the user testing illuminated that even when using paper prototypes the aesthetics of an interface should not be completely ignored. People in general like to use things that are easy to use but also things that look nice. While, of course, when in the paper prototype stage, functionality is a designer’s primary concern, aesthetics is always a concern for the user.

Observations:
The bulk of my observations were made in various classrooms before and after class, although I did devote some time to observing students in transit between classes. For the most part, the activities conducted by students were indicative of idleness, such as socializing and resting: which activity in particular depended primarily on the size of the group the student was in. In larger groups (3 or more students), students most often were chatting with friends. At one point or another, nearly every student that I observed took out materials to take notes for class beforehand; likewise, after class, people packed up their things. The activities of students in small groups (alone or with one other person) were much more varied, including texting, eating, playing games on their computer, and checking emails/social media. After class, students were observed standing up and stretching out, and infrequently students were asleep at the end of a lecture.

In between classes, the set of activities was even smaller, limited to things that could be accomplished on a mobile device or in person. Most often, students were simply walking with their bags, sometimes with a phone in hand. When asked, these people were most often checking Facebook or texting other friends. In groups, chatting (varying from somewhat quiet to quite raucous) was often conducted, typically with at most two members of the group using their mobile phones at one time. Additionally the occasional running student sought to make it to class before the bell rang on time.

In reflection, I decided to focus my brainstorming on ways to keep students more active during this intermediary time period. I postulated that being more active before/in between lectures would help students pay more attention during lecture and perhaps make them less likely to fall asleep during lecture.

Brainstorming:

The following are my one-line ideas for the brainstorming component of the project:

1. Remind yourself of assignments/projects/readings/etc. for classes
2. In real time analyze what people are talking about right after class
3. Check out what’s for lunch today at your respective dining hall/eating club
4. Calculate the fastest path between two classes for high efficiency walking
5. Sleepy tracker – monitor wakefulness during the day as a function of sleep/naps
6. Princeton trivia game – cool facts you never knew about Princeton
7. Fun music player – plays bassline/guitar/drums, and you can play along with it
8. Save the day’s lecture slides to your computer
9. Jeopardy-style game about lecture, featuring material covered in class
10. Reminder to make sure you don’t leave any of your belongings behind
11. The 5-minute trainer makes a short workout before siting down for an hour+
12. Add student events in the next three days to your calendar
13. Social game where you score points by interacting with classmates
14. Determine how many students are present so the teacher can begin lecture
15. Scavenger-hunt style game where you get points by going to places around campus

Ideas to prototype:
The ideas I’m picking to design prototypes for are ideas 11 and 4. The idea of
a small personal trainer is interesting because by nature of lecture, we often
spend a long time sitting down, and many people find they can stay more focused
for longer after exercising a bit. A mapping app would potentially help a student like those I observed running between classes get to class sooner and even allow them to see exactly how fast they need to go to make it to class on time.

Prototypes:

For the workout prototype, I decided to use the smartphone form factor because it needs to be on a device that ideally is widely available and also extremely portable, and the smartphone fits both of these needs. When running the workout app prototype, the user is presented with a starting screen, from which they can start a random workout, check out their list of favorited workouts, see their friends’ usage of the app, and adjust their own personal settings. When pressing the random workout button, the user is immediately brought to a workout confirmation page notifying them about the duration and intensity of the workout, from which they can continue on to the workout. The workout duration is automatically calculated based on the starting time for the class and the current time. The workout screen presents one exercise at a time, showing the time remaining on the exercise and the workout and the number of exercises remaining in the workout. Upon finishing or cancelling the workout, the user is brought to the workout completion page, where the workout is logged and the user is given the option to favorite the workout.

Additionally, the user can view their favorite workouts and the number of times they’ve completed their favorite workouts on the Favorite Workouts page. The user can start any of their favorite workouts, or he/she can design a new workout. When making a new workout, the user can rename the current workout, type in an exercise and a duration for the exercise, and add/remove exercises. The total time for the workout is tallied at the bottom of the screen.

When clicking on the friends link on the home page, one is brought to a list of friends. Clicking on one of those friends brings up their profile, where one can view that friend’s favorite workouts, how many workouts they have completed, and the time of their last workout. Clicking on one of these workouts brings you back to the workout confirmation screen, enabling you to try one of your friends workouts.

Clicking on the settings button enables one to change their personal settings. These include: the default difficulty of the workout, the time to end the workout before lecture, the username, sound level, and whether to use vibrate.

————————————————————————————–

For the mapping app, I decided to go with a much simpler layout, simply because the functionality of this program is quite a bit more limited. I figured that it ought to help a user accomplish the singular task of getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. As such, picking points A and B should be a very easy task. On the home page, one can choose the starting point and the destination point by pressing on the corresponding buttons and immediately ask for directions or change settings for the app. The only settings that can be modified are the route type, which can take a value of “Fastest,” “Shortest distance,” or “Late Meal,” which directs the student towards Frist en route to the destination.

Once requesting a path, a map screen is loaded, displaying the starting and ending locations, the path to follow, the current location of the user via GPS, the user’s current speed, remaining distance, and time to arrive at the destination.

Evaluation:

I completed testing with three real users. For the mapping app, I introduced the app to the user as they were about to leave one hall en route to another; in one instance, I also introduced the app to a user to simply play around with the app and describe the experience of using the app rather than try to extract any useful information from it. Before each test, I mentioned to the user that every area of the screen with a black box around it was an interactive component, encouraging them to touch those points and see what happens. Nobody that I had asked to demo my prototype had ever used a paper prototype in the past, so they ended up needing an acclimatory period in which they became accustomed to the use of a paper prototype. After that short period, most people were able to navigate the interface with relative ease. However, some users felt like they had exhausted the possibilities of the app rather quickly and became pretty bored with it after a short period of time. One user suggested the possibility of viewing others on the map who were also using the application. Still, there was overwhelming appreciation for the “Late Meal” setting, which I meant to be more humorous than functional.

Insight:

I found that during the actual evaluation of prototypes, it was far more useful to give the user a task rather than simply letting the user play with the application, especially since both of these applications are designed to accomplishing a very specific task, as I found when I tried to give the one user the app without actually using it to find the shortest path between two places. Without a task, this user felt very undirected and said that he could see how the application would be useful for him but didn’t enjoy the experience of using it.

Additionally, most people left me with the impression that they walked away unsatisfied with what the app could have provided them. In the next redesign of the app, I would change the design in order to emphasize the final result of the calculated route. Perhaps because this app targets a very particular user space, the set of people who are interested in getting places efficiently, I might have been more likely to have picked people not in this group, so the reviews were more negative than I would have hoped. However, this does indicate to me that I’m going to have to make the app more enjoyable or useful for people beyond this group if I want to garner more interest in it.

Observations:

On Thursday, I stood inside and around the Friend Center for two different class change periods to observe how different people use the 10 minutes. Of the various people I saw, three particular people interested me and I took their actions and generalized them to groups of people for whom I could design a product.

Candidate 1: Hurried bicyclist

This speed demon is trying to bike as fast as he can through a bunch of people who crowd the walkways during class change. He gets stuck behind a crowd of people and is forced to slow down significantly which probably bothers him. His motivation is unclear (could be late to a class, forgot something somewhere, or just has the need for speed), but his frustration with slow pedestrians isn’t. The one I saw struggled to navigate the walkway between Fisher and Friend, got stuck behind a group of walkers, and nearly hit someone trying to weave through. Maybe I could design something that allows him to navigate crowds better.

Candidate 2: The Early Bird

This individual is the one you see trying to kill time outside the classroom. The one that I observed came out of the Friend Library, went downstairs to the tables, and pulled out his phone. Eventually two students walked into one of the classrooms, and then our subject followed them a minute or two later. My guess is that he didn’t want to be the first into the classroom (it might have been a little awkward to be alone with the professor). Maybe we could design something for this candidate that lets him kill time or even let’s him know if people are in the classroom.

Candidate 3: The Kobayashi (google it if you don’t know!)

This student is the one who unfortunately scheduled class such that she can’t enjoy a proper lunch break on certain days. Walking and eating quickly proves challenging as his person struggles to juggle the bunch of things in her hands. The one I saw walking into the Friend Center was trying to eat from a takeout tray, hold a water bottle against her side with her arm, and open the door. Needless to say, she had to wait until someone came by to get into the building. Maybe there’s some tool that will better enable her to enjoy her quick lunch or receive her lunch more quickly or better interact with her surroundings hands-free.

Brainstorm:

1. Real-time pedestrian traffic monitor and route suggester
2. Bike horn that sounds when it senses proximity to pedestrian
3. Pedestrian avoidance system with sensor and intelligent controller
4. Optimal path navigator based on location and end destination
5. A handle bar shrinking system to enable better weaving
6. Fellow class student locator to see if there’s an empty classroom
7. Refresher material application based on classroom proximity
8. A betting application based on which students arrive to class earliest
9. A scenic route suggesting app to kill time walking to class
10. An estimator app that predicts time to eat given meal
11. A app to order lunch for an eating to be picked up at a given time
12. An app that can suggest how to optimize how to hold your objects
13. An automated backpack zipper opener for handsfree opening/storing
14. A help signaler device that notifies people to help open doors
15. A food carrying tray that gently heats food as you walk

Favorite Ideas:

– I chose the pedestrian avoidance system (#3) because it has the most upside (help bikers everywhere, avoid accidents, etc.) and doable given current technology (see Google cars).

– I also chose the student locator (#6) because I thought it’s pretty neat and potentially doable given the prevalence of smart phones and OIT’s registered data base of devices

Quick Prototypes:

Description: The above picture shows the screen of the device that you’d attach to the front of your bike. The horizontal dashes with arrows shows the detected obstacles and their trajectories. You are represented by the arrow with your direction shown as the arrow. Using an intelligent system that takes in the velocities of the sensed obstacles, the device displays a suggested route through the crowd, signified by the dotted line.

Description: The above picture shows the app interface that you’d open on your phone. People, including yourself, are represented as dots against the map layout of the building or area that you are in. By looking at the map, you can see if anybody is in the classroom or on their way to the room. In this picture, two people are already in the classroom and 4 people are on their way to the building.

Testing and Feedback:

I chose to test the pedestrian avoidance system because it’s my personal favorite and I was really interested to see what people would think of it. I managed to catch up with three people who were extremely kind and gave me 5 minutes of their time.

– Person 1: Jason – I managed to meet up with Jason in the Prospect House garden. I put the device on his bike, as shown in Picture 1, and asked him what he thought he should do. He was a little confused at first, but after I told him to imagine the horizontal lines as people, he quickly figured out that he was the arrow and he go on the projected path. Clearly, the graphic wasn’t intuitive enough for him to pick up without a simple nudging. He also said, “It looks ugly. I would throw it away”.

– Person 2: Stephen – I managed to meet up with Stephen outside Brown Hall. I put the device on his bike and asked him how he would use it. Unlike Jason, Stephen immediately knew what to do and commented that he was familiar with this type of interface from GPS devices. Unfortunately, Stephen didn’t see the need for the device, saying something to the effect of  “why would I let the device guide me when I can do it better with my own eyes?” He also commented that it wasn’t pretty looking.

– Person 3: Roy – When I showed Roy the device and asked him to use it without telling how, he was initially confused. But soon figured out that he was the arrow, but couldn’t figure out what the horizontal lines were. Once I finally told him, he thought it was a cool idea and started telling me about how he could use it. He also asked some pretty insightful questions about safe this would be if multiple people were using it or whether or not this device promotes safety if it encourages weaving through traffic.

Pictures of Testing:

I took some pictures (some of them staged) of the user testing process to show how the testing was conducting and how the prototype was used.

This picture gets at the essence of the problem. Hurried bicyclists often struggle to navigate through pedestrians on walkways, especially when they’re crowded during class change. I designed a tool that I hoped would make that experience less frustrating.

This picture shows how I mounted the prototype to the bicycle for user testing. Typically, I had the tester sit on the bike and I held it there with my hand and asked them to interact with the device. They started to think through it, ask some questions, and eventually figured out how it worked. Then, I got their feedback.

Here’s the ideal usage of the prototype in action. Given a set of obstacles, the prototype maps out an optimal course through them in real-time, and the bicyclists follows the path until he clears the obstacles. When I had my users try out the prototype, I made sure we waited until the walkway was crowded and then asked them to use the bike with the prototype.

Insights:

– Using simple symbols to represent complex objects adds a layer of abstraction that can take away from the intuitiveness of your design. In my example, using horizontal lines to represent people or objects caused two of my users to initially struggle to figure out how to use the device. In my next iteration, I could create a representative symbol, like a stick figure, to show an incoming person, and something else to show an inanimate object. Horizontal lines, while easy to draw, received pretty negative feedback.

– Aesthetics are extremely important. As two of my users noted, my device was definitely not the prettiest interface they’ve ever seen. In my next iteration, I would look to create something much more enjoyable. Color-coded objects and a 3D looking arrow are just some of the things I could use to improve how my device looks.

– Provide something unique. As Stephen pointed out, my device simply does something that a conditioned human con do pretty easily. While there is some value in that, it isn’t as likely  to be as successful as a product that can produce something that humans can’t easily do. Maybe adding some small features to the device, like a flashlight, a speedometer, or a video camera to take some cool footage, could help push my device over the top. While that may stray away from the original purpose of the device, these changes could make it a great product.