Test session
notes:
Participant 1:
Enter specifications left had panel,
Enter points of interest.
Did not see the need for 2 blank boxes for POI being shown.
Also said that he didnt always have exact addresses at hand so it would be helpful if the box took addresses like downtown SF or Oakland airport instead.
Did not understand why the
list box selections were also called POI, suggested they sould also
include freeways.
Show blob, ask them what does that mean.
Thought that it meant it
was central to both locations, would have liked to see
some estimate of nearness..
Tell them they do not have a car so what do you do to modify your results
Participant didnt really know what to do, he said he thought about changing the left hand menu bbut refrained from doing so since he did not want to loose the results he had.
When directed to the
checkboxes
said that it was lost inside the map and he had no idea that was an
option also.
Tell them they want to see were the grocery stores are in this area
Same as above
.
Modify your search area to be closer to the malls/shops, but you dont want the computer to do it for you so how would you do it manually
He did not think that the map it and navigate it labels conveyed anything informative.
He said he would prefer
to click on the city names shown in order to include them ( in a toggle
like fashion)
Did you find this task easy/moderate/hard
Moderate
Other general comments about this interface:
Thought that it had all
the required features but were not well represented or easy to find.
He felt confused and lost several times and did not think that there
was enough direction on what to do
Liked the fact that hovering
brought up the details.
Next interface2:
What do think the sliders are for?
Guessed that the sliders
were to move the blob towards or away fom the blob, but was not sure
if they were independent of each other or not. Also he said he would
have preferred to see just one slider for point of interest so that
it would directly co relate to the blobs movement
You want to move your search area to POI A, how would you do that.
Moved the slider closer
to A
Did you find this task easy/moderate/hard
moderate
General comments
Likes the idea of the distance
being shown, bit did not know why the
sliders still appeared on the page sine they had no connection to the
distance. Also didnt see how he could bring the distance info up
( modes?)
Next interface3:
Categories: are they helpful, what do you like about it /not.
Theough the categories were very helpful. He said he would have preferred to see tabs since the rest of the categories obscured his view of the entire list, and he would have liked to eye-ball of of them at the same time.
He also suggested additional
categorization as sorting by price, by bedrooms etc,
Did not understand what
the date in the listing converyed. ( 11/20?)
Did you find this task easy/moderate/hard
easy
------------------------------
What did you like the most
Said #3 and #2 were unrelated.
But he defiantly found #3 more helpful and #1
Dislike the most
Confusing, could not find
the functionalities easily
Suggestions:
Would have like dto see the suggested cities in a diff font/ italics so that he knows what areas are the suggested areas.
Did not like the separate
POI boxes. Would have preferred to enter different points as key words
separated by commas.
Comparison with home finder and Craigslist:
Defiantly thinks it is an
improvement since none of them offer searching by POI.
Participant 2:
Task - enter cities, don't have a car
- said would first want to enter in a city
- but saw needed an address
- so typed in work address for Walnut Creek and Freemont
- also saw Public Transit points of interest on left panel right away, selected
-
said would enter other filter criteria, like lowest and highest
price
- when asked to interpret the results:
- saw the orange squares, assumed possible apartment locations
- saw the T's, assumed was transportation stations
- but bart? or bus? wasn't sure
- the blob was:
- 1st instinct, was to call attention to the areas
- but said that it was obviously city boundaries or county lines
- said would now like to click on the hyper links on the left
-
but wants to sort by price, # of bedrooms, etc
Task - show malls
- clicked on the mall checkbox
- but then was confused why
the public transit
checkbox wasn't clicked, since they were shown
Task - recluster by malls
- said would assume that if she clicked on the M marker, would show the address of the mall
- then she would enter the address as a point of interest in the address box
- Otherwise, would open a separate
browser to look up mall address
Overall, adding addresses task was
easy, but reblobing was very difficult
Task - Sliders
- what are they for?? not really sure
- When asked to move closer to A
- then thought could move the slider to closer to A
- wasn't sure that the sliders would move or actually do something, thought they were static to indicate the set positioning
-
Overall, once given task, easy
Task - Categories
- Not sure if she's used to it, but likes the blob, doesn't like the design without the blob
- gives better context, because now she says doesn't know what cities the apartments are in (esp for apartments she says are on the borders of cities)
- finding apartments closer to A, etc, easy
- but would like to have
mileage to see how
close the apartment is to the point of interest
General comments:
- hard to see the association of apartment marker to the listing
- wants to have numbered markers to numbered listings
- wants sorting functionality
- when explained what the blob was, thought was cool, but it wasn't clear
- wasn't clear that she could manipulate the blob on design 1, but it was a lot clearer that something would happen in design 2 with the sliders
- overall, likes the slider design the best
- thinks there should be FAQ's or help of some sort. A quick, "how to"
- thinks if the blob isn't city boundaries, maybe there should be dotted lines to around cities
- hard to tell she could add more addresses
- suggests that maybe if there were some kind of cues when hovering over the blob that it could be changed, it would help. Like in Microsoft word, when you hover over an image, and you see those little markers showing you could resize
-
if the shape of the blob was more of a polygon, might not have thought
it was a city boundary.
Participant 3:
Task - enter cities, don't have a car
- said would want to click on a city, say Danville
- would expect to be able to drill down by city. When you click on it, it would zoom in and show the apartments in that city
-
needed some verbal instruction to know should add addresses of points
of interest
- when asked to interpret the results:
- pink blob, city limits
- completely didn't notice the apartment listings to the right until later
- thought those results should be below the map, like Yahoo Maps driving directions
- right area is advertsing, so he ignores them
- at this point, looks at the listings
- would like to click on the listings to get more details, do sorting as well
- isn't understanding that the blob is somehow showing equidistance
- (I didn't explain that's what would happen, no cues explaining that's what he's looking at)
- now that he sees the form is important, says that the map takes up too much screen real-estate. distracts from the task of entering in points of interest as the starting task
-
but likes the form as a "enter all your criteria in one
step"
- when told doesn't have a car:
- looks to the form. Would expect that they were check boxes for public transit
-
clicks on that, hits go
- Task - add malls
- doesn't notice the checkboxes on the top, said it would be nice if there were checkboxes to add things to the map, like Yahoo Maps
-
so instead hits that as a point of interest in the form
-
hardly knows what the T's and M's, and even the 1's and 2's are
- hits Details on Demand
-
doesn't really like this, would want to get more details from craigslist,
not just pictures
- is saying that it's really difficult to compare apartments, because no sorting, no connection from the apartment marker to details
(brushing
and linking doesn't seem very obvious to anyone, maybe needs more
attention)
All tasks in design 1 are
difficult
Task - sliders
- knows immediately how to use this
- task is very easy
-
but confusing when the pink thing moves ... not sure if he's looking
at the same apartments or if the apartments are moving somehow (just
not clear what happened, this might be more clear in real
animation)
Task - categories
- says that apartment markers should be numbered to the apartment listings
- likes the categories, but wasn't obvious that he could drill down to closer to shops, etc
- just saw the categories and wanted to immediately see details about each listing by clicking on the listing
-
this task is easy
general comments
- likes the categories the best
- says easiest to compare apartments
- would be great to combine categories and sliders
- once learned could add and map multiple points, thought it was useful
- BUT be very careful, no application like this at the current time, and the form doesn't help him understand that it would map 2 or more locations on the map, since never seen something like this before. The wording of the form didn't help him understand this at all
- thinks should be much more emphasis on the form at the start of application use
- sliders much more intuitive than manipulating the blob directly
- wants to easily see more details, when clicking on the apartment (from both the side listings and the orange squares)
- thinks that icons for T and M should appear on the form next to the option, so clearer what he's looking at and helps him expect what will happen
-
thinks the sliders should be on the top right of map, this is a visual
hot spot
Participant 4:
Interface 1
Enter specifications left had panel,
Enter points of interest.
Show blocb, ask them what does that mean.
Was not sure why there were 2 POI being shown, it confused him with driving directions. This is especially since the interface shows the add another link, he said in that case 1 should be enough.
He suggested that add addresses should have a plus sign next to it
Was not sure what
near meant, 10 miles, 5 miles?
Tell them they do not have a car so what do you do to modify your results
Participant chose to look at the public transportation; however, he clicked the left hand panelinstaed of the checkboxes.
He also expected a change to happen as soon as he did that, instead of then clicking go.
Was confused about why the selections for public transport, schools , shops etc appears in both the list box as well as the check box options on the top. He seemed to think they were duplicates for each other.
Also was not sure
why selecting more grocery stores etc
overrode his previous settings (about the addresses entered). He did
not expect the blob to change shape, rather he just wanted the stores
to appear on the blob.
Tell them they want to see were the grocery stores are in this area
Did the same as above since he did not think the distinction was clear between the 2 functionalities.
After clicking on the left hand panel and clicking go, he was surprised that the blob area had changed. He said he expected it to be the same
.
Modify your search area to be closer to the malls/shops, but you dont want the computer to do it for you so how would you do it manually
He did not think that the map it and navigate it labels conveyed anything informative.
He was confused if navigate it ment getting driving distances or something else>
He did a click-and-drag from the edge of the current blob.
Had no indication what
Mapit meant
Did you find this task easy/moderate/hard
Moderate
Other general comments about this interface:
Thought that the blob does not accurately convey the nearness aspect.
Thought that 2 blobs should be shown that representa the radial distance from a POI and their intersection if any should be the blob.
Within the blob, would like
to see color coded ranking for nearness ( most near ones should be green,
father ones in the blob should be red etc
Liked the fact that hovering brought up the details.
Said he would also like
to have seen distance information for the selected apartment from grocery
stores, bus stops etc.
Next interface2:
What do think the sliders are for?
Guessed that the sliders
were for shifting the blob, but again was not sure what near, far meant,
how many miles they indicated by moving it left and right.
You want to move your search area to POI A, how would you do that.
Moved the slider closer
to A
Did you find this task easy/moderate/hard
easy
General comments
baring the near-closer not being accurately defined in terms of distance, liked the interface.
Next interface3:
Categories: are they helpful, what do you like about it /not.
Didnt like the categories
at all, since to him they did not convey anything that the visualization
did not. Also again, near was unclear. If an apartment is 4 miles
from A and 3 miles from B is that midway or near B?
Did you find this task easy/moderate/hard
N/A, did not find it
useful
------------------------------
What did you like the most
Liked interface 2 and then 1, number 3 was most unpopular.
Liked the automated suggestion for area
Liked the fact that the
search was consolidated by distance, saved him having to look for
distances
for each apartment from listings.
Dislike the most
Did not think that allowing
mapping an area ( overriding the suggested area) was helpful
Participant 5:
Interface 1
Enter specifications left had
panel:
What do the drop downs mean?
Where are there no maximum bedrooms
Cats/Dogs good idea
Are the price ranges per
month?
POI on the left correspond
to points above the map so if I select points on the left more boxes
will appear on top that correspond to that
Good that
you can add more addresses
Enter points of interest.
Show blob, ask them what does
that mean.
I can guess whats going on but I didnt set up the range.
Apartment tick should have numbers that correspond to a numbered list on the right
I think the red
circle represents the equidistance from POIs but you need some kind
of a clear legend to explain it.
I dont see why the area
is necessary
Tell them they do not have
a car so what do you do to modify your results
I dont know if the 2 public transits are the same or different.
I dont know why you need duplicates
I dont understand why
the region is a circle
Is the highlighting in the
list persistent or if I click on something else will this one go
away?
What goes under the public
transit category its not clear. All I know is that I have some
kind of public transit
I see the circle changed
based on the public transit criterion so I get more apartment
choices.
Next
Tell them they want to see
were the grocery stores are in this area
I think I know what you
mean simply by the process of elimination but it wasnt clear from
the start
How do you find ALL the grocery stores there are too many to be practical.
I see that the area didnt
change
Now:
Modify your search area to
be closer to the malls/shops, but you dont want the computer to do
it for you so how would you do it manually
Compete confusion.
Navigate it might mean manipulating the map.
Map it might
really no clue. I already see the map
its not like its the difference of satellite vs. map
After explanation:
Ok. Makes sense. Would the cursor change?
I dont see the point
of the blob. How do I get to even that transportation that is showing
up if I dont have a car. Why would I limit myself by the blob? I
guess manual blob makes it more useful but still its way more work than
the conventional interfaces.
Ok
details on apartments are clear. Nice to see the pictures. Clicking
on the link would take me to the original posting.
Did you find this task
easy/moderate/hard
Hard to figure things out
without playing around with it. Its not self-explanatory. I want
the labels. I designate it moderate simply because there are no labels.
Next interface2:
What do think the sliders are
for?
To move the blob closer to whatever poi I want.
Where is the middle of the
slider what if I want to position them all equidistantly?
You want to move your search
area to POI A, how would you do that.
To get closer to 2, move slider 1 to farther and slider 2 to closer.
Are the sliders independent
of each other?
Did you find this task
easy/moderate/hard
Distances:
I see what they are doing.
I see that they used the same color to show directions to both points
of interest a bit confusing. Where do I select this option to begin
with?
Id prefer both POI marks
and the routes color coded. Id also like to be able to see them one
at a time.
The hovering over idea is
not clear how do I know to hover?
Easy.
This is more user friendly
for a beginner than click and drag. You might want to have this as
beginner/advanced
modes.
Routes: Idea is easy. Proposed
implementation difficult. Definitely want to be able to see one route
at a time.
Next interface3:
No blob on the picture but
then how do we know who the apartments are delimited.
Categories: are they helpful,
what do you like about it /not.
Not helpful because the
interfaces chooses for me. I prefer the sliders.
Did you find this task
easy/moderate/hard
Easy to understand but not very useful. I think most people have the capacity to see that one apartment is closer to a than the other without the help of preprogrammed categories.
The routes with the
distances displayed do the job much better if I cant tell on my
own.
Suggestions
Questions
Which scheme would you yourself prefer?
I felt like the level of
control went down as I want through the versions.
If I know what I am doing
than the more control the better. Id prefer version 1 but with the
routing functionality
Is this interface supposed
to be for lengthy exploration. If you are doing anything but apartments
you need people to understand it on the fly, but for a search of
apartments
you might be able to afford a higher learning curve.
What did you like the most
Layout is nice. Positioning
of features in nice. No popups everything in its own place and in
the same place. On the other hand there appears to be no space for
anything
else should you come up with it.
I want to be able to use
it out of the box. I dont like to go through tutorials. So you need
to balance abundance of feature with ease of learning. If I need to
hesitate, Ill just go to a familiar interface.
Dislike the most
No explanation for functions. Id like to know from the start that the blob is there to help me. Have a legend key or some sort of explanation always available.