LOW-FI PROTOTYPING AND USABILITY TESTING
 

Vocabulary [Updated]
Team Tasks [Updated]
New Sections
Introduction
Prototype
Method
Test Measures
Results
Discussion
Appendices 1. Kit Experiment: Instructions, Tasks and Satisfaction Questionnaires 2. Demograph Data & Satisfaction Questionnaires Results: Tester 1 | Tester 2 | Tester 3  3. Observation Log Data 4. Creating the Lo-Fi Prototype [images] 5. Prototype and Experiment Testing [images] 6. Prototype Elements [PDF]: some of the elements used in the prototype. The layout changed a little after converting to PDF. Unfortunately in it was not possible to refine the layout after conversion.

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Introduction

SFnight is an information centric website that provides nightlife information about San Francisco bars and clubs, and events that the venues host. SFnight plans to provide customization capabilities that highly enhance the experience of frequent SFnight visitors. The design team has been researching the following: 

• Personal lists to help any user planning events
• The registration process, including a short cut to sign up for a generic newsletter which bypasses the registration process
• The actual customization of the MySFnight page
• Incorporation of customization features and functionality throughout the SFnight website to create a seamless and high quality experience for each visitor.

SFnight needs to overcome high user-resistance to give away personal information. The features need to be useful, easy to access and easy to use. Users should only be required to provide minimal personal identifying information in order to take full advantage of the services offered by SFnight. All of the features and capabilities also need to fit well within the framework of overall SFnight design. 

Purpose and Rationale of Low-Fi Prototype Usability Testing

Using a paper-based low-fi prototype at an early stage of the design process has many advantages. Paper protoype is fairly easy and cheap to create and change, even on the fly during testing. Test users are more comfortable discussing their thoughts and ideas when interacting with rough model that can be changed immediately to reflect their input. Using this method the designers can quickly gain a good understanding of the desired interactions and information/features needed to accomplish defined tasks.

Up to this point of the project, the design team has

• Interviewed several likely users of SFnight
• Created a cast of personae with respective goals and tasks
• Reviewed academic and industry literature dealing with the above outlined personalization and customization issues
• Conducted competitive analysis of major websites that also provide customization features
• Developed some preliminary design addressing those issues 

Based on the existing SFnight prototype, we designed and tested with several users a low-fi prototype incorporating some preliminary customization design concepts. The process is to help us gain a better understanding of user needs and behavior, as well as how they are affected by some of our designs. 

 

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