Establishing Requirements for Low-Fidelity Prototyping - Assignment Example

Establishing Requirements, Low-fidelity Prototyping and Proposed Data Gathering Introduction Shopping, especially in shopping malls, has become an integral part of the contemporary world. However, it has often been seen that shopping malls tend to be confusing for the shoppers, who constantly need direction and guidance inside a mall to find the right shop. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a dependable guidance service that would help the customers to visit their requisite shop in a minimum timeframe. Most of the malls are found to use physical guidebooks, large layout of the mall in the form of a map or a customer service help desk to counter this issue. However, a guidebook and maps need constant upgradation due to an addition or shutting down of a shop. Further, a help desk needs to be managed at all times, which means spending additional resources. Thus, it is important to create a user-friendly guide for the visitors of the mall. In this paper, the researcher would develop an interactive directory for the owner of a local shopping mall, MaxiMart. The paper would further identify the needs and establishing requirements of the user experience expected in the proposed design of the MaxiMarket interactive directory. This would also include usability goals and user experience goals. Further, alternative designs would also be given and two versions would be presented as low-fidelity prototypes using hand-drawn sketches. The paper would also elaborate on a detailed proposal on how the data gathering process to support the acceptance of the designs would be undertaken. As this design would be totally consumer driven, it is important to involve the feedback from the consumers as well. Therefore, as part of the formal design process, the end-users would also be involved at some point. The details of their involvement and how their involvement influenced the decision making process would also be analysed in the paper. Background Interactive directories in a shopping mall help in reducing the limitations of paper guidebooks. Such an interactive directory is not just used to provide information to the people but also to be used as a guide by the users for finding out directions for the shops they are looking for or to find the closest possible exit from the mall. This interactive directory would perform four main functions. These include providing information about the shops and their major products, helping users to find directions in the mall, showing the particular direction through a map and providing administrative tools to help users interact with the management of the mall (Preece et al 2007). With the use of this interactive directory, users would be able to receive all the information regarding their shop and the products that they intend to buy, along with a direction map towards their destination. The most important feature of the entire interactive directory is the direction search option, which would help customers to reach their destination without getting lost in the mall. Further, the direction would be calculated in such a manner that the shortest possible route between the current location and the target location would be provided to the customer. Further, a complete virtual tour and view of the entire mall would also be provided to the customers to give them a better sense of the entire place before they start their shopping experience in the mall. This interactive directory would also provide information about the various promotional events going on in the mall. This information would be mostly updated on a fortnightly basis, once the shop owners provide the required information about their activities. Due to the generic nature of the design, this system can be installed in other similar shopping malls as well. MaxiMart is a shopping mall consisting of 87 shop outlets within its confines. 24 of the outlets are located on the ground floor, 30 on the second floor and 33 on the third floor. The goods and services offered by the outlets range from bookshops, home appliances, gardening, electronic entertainment, clothing to pets and many more. Due to a very limited budget, the interactive directory can only be installed on hardware with the following limitations: It has one display monitor. The monitor is capable of displaying pictures and text, but not animated graphics or video. The monitor can only display a selection of four different colours (not including black and white). However, these colours can be combined to render a picture. A cluster of physical push-button keys is available that can be arranged in any configuration. The monitor is not touch-screen capable. There is no mouse support or any type of pointing device to perform point-and-select actions. Selection and navigation is mainly through the reliance on the physical keys listed above for cursor control. Identifying needs and establishing requirements of the user experience During the design process for creating this new interactive directory, the researcher first of all studied various other existing interfaces that were in use in other malls. This helped the researcher in understanding their adaptability in the shopping malls and how they could improve the currently used interface and customise it as per the requirements of MaxiMart shopping mall. This was also an effective method to benchmark the design created by the researcher against the other currently used interactive directory designs. As the project has to be done under strict financial limitations, it is also essential to conduct a benchmarking study to find out the best practices used in designing interactive directories in a cost-effective manner (Dumas & Redish 1993). However, even before undertaking the design process, the researcher would conduct a qualitative analysis to find out how the users find the existing interactive directories. This would not only provide information about the benefits of creating interactive directories but would also provide a list of potential improvements that the user might look for in a new system. Creating prototypes In order to find out the applicability of the proposed design, the researcher would create a low-fidelity prototype. This prototype would be a horizontal prototype as it was found in the qualitative analysis that such a prototype was better accepted than the vertical ones. Further, a horizontal prototype is easier to be implemented and has better variety of functions as compared to vertical prototypes. Further, it was found that the tasks to be undertaken by the interactive directory are simple in nature and horizontal prototype would be the best fit in such a circumstance (Rettig 1994). However, one of the most important parts of this prototype is to find out how the users would use this system and whether they would find the functions useful in their shopping experience. Thus, the key component of this research is to attract the users and helping them discover the features of this new system. For this reason, the researcher used low-fidelity prototyping as it is a cost-effective method to provide prototypes to be used for testing designs. This type of prototype looks like an actual interface that one is planning to install, with similar applicability (Snyder 1996). Low-fidelity prototype help in getting feedback from the users about their experience in using the system and whether the interaction with the system was a satisfactory one or not. As low-fidelity prototypes are not expensive, and does not consume too much of a time, it could be used repeatedly to conduct the tests on various users or using different prototypes (Virzi et al 1995). As such prototypes would also help in integrating various media interactivity tools in a user-friendly manner, the feedback from the users would be easily gained as well. Further, the suggestions and feedbacks given by the users on the prototype could be incorporated in the other versions of the low-fidelity prototypes and can be tested again among the users. This would help in reaching a perfect design that is tested with the users, without having to invest into and improving the actual product repeatedly. This would definitely bring down the cost of the project as well. Evaluation of the design After conducting the design review in the first meeting with the supervisor, the researcher found that feeding text for conducting detailed searches in the system may be done through various ways. They found that this was one of the major areas that the researcher has to work on for designing their final low-fidelity prototype. After many sessions, it was decided that a letter selection through a keypad would be used to input the data into the system. It was found that such as data input system does not require the user to have certain capabilities or knowledge about using specialised input devices, instead they can use a keypad and input the data in an error-free manner which would also generate low error rates. Other than the input method to be used by the users, the researcher was also faced with other problems to deal with before creating their final low-fidelity prototype. One of the major problems that the researcher could find out is that in their first prototype, they found that the users were not able to change the display floor that was shown on the screen. There was a bug in the program that did not allow them to move from one floor to the other floor. Further, the users were not able to choose an exit as per their requirement. They were shown all the exits and had to grapple through the possibilities to find out their nearest exit point. Similarly, while choosing a particular store, the user was presented with the entire listing of the stores and had to scroll through to reach their choice. Developing alternative designs that meet those requirements In order to address the gap areas in the original designs, the researcher created some alternative designs that met those requirements. For instance, in order to provide easy navigability between floors, the researcher provided the three levels at every design layout, so the user can input the required floor number and view the design outlay for that particular floor without having to exit the window first. The below given image showcase how the design was modified to accommodate this feature: Further, the previous design did not have the language icon and therefore, the user was not aware of the language that one was using or can switch on to for using the system. Therefore, the researcher introduced the language icon which helped the users to decide what language they might want to use for this system. Further, it might have so happened that a user may have used a particular language to navigate the system and has not logged out. In such cases, the next user would be clueless about the language used and may not want to use the system at all. The use of back button was prominently displayed in the new design to increase ease of navigation. The displaying of the full directory was also tailored as per the user needs. The small scroll bar used in the first design was replaced with a bigger scroll bar to help users view that the down key is able to function properly. Building interactive versions of the designs Design sketches Even before building the interactive design of the system, the researcher was required to create some common sketches of the system. Some of these designs are illustrated below. Sketch of the home screen This sketch clearly shows the layout of the entire mall, the search options and various little icons at the end of the page. The researcher has given three search options and the user may search the entire director or search it through name and category. Further, some small icons are given at the end of the screen for giving quick access to common areas such as washroom and eateries. Similar icons are also made on the keypad to correspond with these icons. Further, the language icons are also given at the right hand corner of the screen. How to find a store In this screen the user can select a certain store that are listed as per alphabetical order and get more information on it. Further, the screen would have similar features such as search options and different icons that were shown in the home page screen. Finding store by name using keypad In this design, the user can use the full twenty-six letters to input the name of the store in case the user does not want to select it from the list of stores given in the full directory. As soon as a corresponding key is pressed on the keypad, the letter would be highlighted on the input box and with the pressing of the enter key, the results would be provided to the user in an instant. This design also offers the flexibility to the user for not entering the entire name of the store. The user can in fact just enter the first four letters of the store and then hit the enter key to get the list of the store starting with those four letters. This not only helps in narrowing down the results from the full directory but also make it an easier user experience for the shoppers. Further, the design also integrates the backspace button which would help the users to delete an alphabet in case they make some mistakes in entering a character. However, one of the major disadvantages of the system is that it is complex to implement and it also decreases the system performance (Virzi et al 1995). Low-fidelity prototypes In this section, some of the updated low-fidelity prototypes used for this project would be showcases and discussed in detail. The errors that earlier designs had were fixed in these prototypes before they were being used in the real life situation. The illustrations of these prototypes focus on the horizontal prototypes used for this project. All the prototypes used for the project was however, not used in this paper. Only a few prominent ones were included in this study due to lack of space. As required by the owner of the shopping mall, these prototypes are based on the actual demands of the owner. Further, they only use two-three colours as the actual system would also be able to support only these many colours. Further, the icon saying you are here is prominently displayed in every prototype so that the user is aware of his or her whereabouts in the mall and can find his or her way easily by following the route displayed in the system. Main Screen The main screen is the one that the user would view while searching the directory. It would provide the user not only with the route and display the stores in the location selected, but would also indicate the current position of the user through the icon, you are here, displayed prominently in blue. Further, the user can change the floors of the shopping mall as well and choose between the three floors by selecting the right number from the keypad. Finding a washroom and exits A prominent icon displaying the washroom sign has been added in the design to help the users locate the nearest washroom. Further they can find alternate routes to reach the washroom. There are routes given for physically disabled people as well in the design. It was previously decided to use stars instead of washroom icons, but later on changed due to the universal usage and understanding of the washroom icons by the people. Similar to finding out washrooms, the design also prominently displayed the exit icon and pointed the route towards the nearest exit. Similar to giving direction to the washroom, this screen also gave directions to the physically disable people as well. Evaluating what is being built throughout the process In order to evaluate the user experience, various performance metrics were designed, the criteria of the tasks were defined and some users were chosen to undergo the tests. A qualitative questioner was also built to find out the user experience and evaluate the designs (Preece et al 2007). Users chosen for the study Research found that various kinds of shoppers frequent a shopping mall and they are categorised as per the following characteristics: Shopper A: Someone who shops occasionally and does not use technology too much. Shopper B: Someone who is an occasional shopper but has more than basic knowledge about technology. Shopper C: Someone who is a regular shopper but does not have too much knowledge about technology usage. Shopper D: Someone who is a regular shopper but has more than basic knowledge about technology. Shopper E: Someone who takes a long time to shop and visits many stores and does not follow a particular route or pattern. Shopper F: Someone who shops rarely and does not have much knowledge about the shops or the products in the shopping mall. For this study as well a wide variety of groups were targeted at to find out whether the new system would become successful with the diverse range of shoppers. The researcher found around eight subjects for this study. However, it was very difficult to find someone from Shopper F group and after a few days of consistent search, the researcher was able to find a reluctant shopper who had no idea about the mall and barely completed the tasks. Tasks and data gathering A set of tasks were given to the users, who were asked to finish the tasks using the prototypes. The results of these tasks helped in establishing whether the interactive directory was indeed a better idea than a physical guidebook or a customer service helpdesk. The users were asked to perform some activities using the physical guidebooks and on the prototypes created by the researcher. The time taken by the user to complete each task was recorded and a comparison of the data made to find out whether interactive directories are a better option than physical guidebooks. It took around 30-40 minutes to finish the tasks by each user. This also included the time taken to explain the system and the procedure (Nielsen 1990). However, as with all qualitative research, the researcher took care to only interview users who were willing to participate in the test. A formal written consent form was signed before starting the tests (Preece et al 2007). Notes were also taken in case the user found some difficulties using the guidebook or the prototypes. This study was conducted on a one-on-one basis. As the reaction of each and every user had to be recorded, it was important to let the users test the system one-by-one (Rubin 1994). After conducting the tasks given, the users were asked to fill a qualitative questionnaire. This helped the researcher to evaluate how the user perceived the system. This qualitative data focused on questions such as whether certain features were liked or disliked by the users, whether they faced any problems while using the system and whether they had any suggestions to improve the system further. Data Analysis The data was analysed by segregating the variables in terms of independent variables and dependent variables. The independent variables were the interactive directory system designed for the mall. This remained constant for all the users who undertook the tests. The dependent variables on the other hand were the time taken by the users to complete a task, the errors committed by the users while undertaking a task etc (Preece et al 2007). The major variable for the study however remained the time taken by the users to complete a certain task using both the interactive system and the physical guidebook. The below mentioned table provides a summary of some of the questions asked to the users during the tests: Conclusion The user test revealed that the shoppers were happy with the interactive directory. Most of them had positive reactions about the interactive directory system and found it much easier to be used rather than the bulky physical guidebook. Most of them liked the concept of the map displaying the entire layout of the shopping mall floor-by-floor. They also like the search feature. However, they found it much easier to use the full directory search and search by category options rather than using the search by name option. This was because, while searching by name, they had to enter the name of the store and often made errors in spelling the name, which resulted in wrong results or system errors. One of the major findings of the study was to find out whether using the interactive directory system was stressful for the shoppers. It was found that shoppers ranked using the physical directory much more stressful than using the interactive directory. As the stress level was very low for the interactive directory, it can be assumed that this directory would be easily accepted by the users. Reference: Dumas, JS & Redish, Janice 1993. A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Ablex, Norwood, NJ. Nielsen, Jakob 1990. Paper versus Computer Implementations as Mockup Scenarios for Heuristic Evaluation. Human-Computer Interaction-Interact `90, D. Diaper et. al. (ed.) Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North Holland), 315-320. Preece, Jenny, Rogers, Yvonne & Sharp, Helen 2007. Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Rettig, Marc 1994. Prototyping for Tiny Fingers (Everything I Need to Know About Prototyping, I Learned In Kindergarten). Communications of the ACM. Rubin, Jeffrey 1994. Handbook of Usability Testing. John Wiley and Sons, New York. Snyder, Carolyn 1996. Using Paper Prototypes to Manage Risk. Software Design and Publisher Magazine. Virzi, Robert A, Sokolov, Jeff, & Karis, Demetrios 1995. Usability Problem Identification Using Both Low- and High-Fidelity Prototypes. Read More