Wireframe and Prototype

Working with the Peter, UX Content, I produced a wireframe and eventual prototype based on the recommendations made by Peter in his summary of the results using Axure.

The website that everyone had the most problems with was the Samsung website, so it was decided that we should focus on a redesign of that website.

Peter produced a low res prototype in Balsamiq.

The major problem participants had whilst using the site was trying to find phones. After going to the phone page, the user is presented with a long page filled with smartphones and accessories. Phones made in more than one colour appear as a separate item. The page presented to the user has 233 items on it.

Filtering is possible only on a few metrics: Operating system and whether or not the item in question is an accessory. As 59 of the 60 phones for sale are on the Android operating system, this filter is next to useless.

As each phone is listed separately for each colour shown, many phones appear multiple times with only the colour as the difference.

To better filter the products, check boxes were used to filter out ‘family ranges’ of phones. This makes it easy to include or exclude phones the customer knows they are not interested in. Checkboxes are not mutually exclusive, so limitless combinations of what is desire can be shown.

Secondly, the ability to filter on Price, Display Size and Memory was included, in the form of range sliders. Range sliders are particularly useful for price, as the prices of the phones are not values set a discrete intervals but over a wide range.

Previously, each phone was listed separated for each different colour that model was available in. Seeing as it is unlikely that one of the major deciding factors for buying a smartphone would be the colour, each phone is listed once, with small coloured boxes along the bottom that can be pressed to see images of the phone in different colours. This cuts down the number of items displayed and allows the user to easily see the colour options without scrolling through several phones.

A style guide was also produced, and is shown below.

Results

After writing the Best Practice Model methodology document, we conducted a usability test based on it. From this we gathered some interesting results.

One for the most interesting things is that after using the website, users personal biases towards brands overrode some of the gathered metrics. One participant with a strong affinity to the Apple brand rated their website above that of HTC, despite completing the tasks quicker and easier than on the HTC website.

The other interesting result was that the participant with the lowest baseline emotional engagement was the only one who significantly changed their view on a website after using it.

The next step it to write up a report that covers what we have done and our conclusions on the project as a whole.

UX Usability Testing for Emotional Engagement

This week marks the end of the usability testing. After the methodology document was written, it was necessary to test to see if the theory stood up to practice.

The testing was broken down into two phases. Phase One was an emotional engagement test. Research has shown that it is common in the advertising world to measure participant's emotional engagement level so they may be grouped into sets of high, medium and low emotional engagement. Doing so allows a greater understanding of the results gathered.

To measure baseline emotional engagement, users were shown adverts for three brands, whilst being video recorded. The video recording was then run through FaceReader 6 software which gave a readout on the emotional response of the participant, who were then grouped accordingly.

Originally it was proposed that a Neurosky Mind Reader would be used, which measures brain waves to gauge emotional engagement. However, the group had issues getting this to work. As a results, the FaceReader 6 software was used instead.

Phase Two of the testing was a standard usability test. Afterwards, however, the video recording made of the participants was run through the FaceReader 6 software to measure emotional engagement. The purpose of this was to see if participants grouped as high, medium or low engagement produced similar readings. If this was the case, it could be strongly argued that pre screening participants for their emotional engagement is worthwhile, and helps to contextualise the results gained from usability testing.

In addition to making participants watch adverts and partake in usability testing, participants were asked their thoughts on both the brands featured and their overall perception of brands general. This was measured before viewing the adverts, after viewing, and after UX usability testing.

Results of the testing will be analysed this coming week.

communicate like a cat? brain wave cat ears

While we trying to use Neurosky as one of the method to understand branded ux,
I find an interesting product using the same technology on the internet, it calls Necomimi,
means cat's ears in Japanese, let's see how it works.

http://www.necomimi.com/HowNecomimiWorks.aspx

Well, don't know if the real cats express their feeling that way, a real good example of commercialization of researching equipment. However, for our research, don't know simple reading indicates that user is focused or relaxed can be interpret in to emotional engaged or not, anyway, we will try to find out.

Emotional Engagement Technologies

The group has now tested both the Neurosky, Eye Tracker and Face Reader technologies. The FaceReader shows a range of emotions that the user experiences whilst being filmed. Problems were encountered with calibrating the software so that it measured neutral when the participant's expression was neutral. This was best evidenced by myself, when I used it the emotion that was read was 'angry' a lot of the time!

The FaceReader analyses a section of a recording of a person's face, showing what emotions they are currently displaying. However, it does not show how emotionally engaged a user is, which is want is more important for what we are trying to measure.

Tomorrow we hope to look at the technologies and make a decision as to which best serves our needs.

NeuroSky

So for our usability test we decided to use NeuroSky as one of the methods to measure emotional engagement. It was my part to arrange NeuroSky and test it so I contacted Tim from the Sony Team as they were also using NeuroSky for their project. Tim helped me to get in contact with one of the team members who was handling the neurosky device. We contacted each through email and once they were done with their work we got our hands on the device. Hurrayy!!

But the sad part was when Dave and I started testing is it didn't work accordingly. We wanted a wireless one and this was not what we were looking for so we had to cancel the NeuroSky. 

Wireframing - Using Axure

As part of our final deliverable, we have decided to include a prototype website that has been redesigned with respect to feedback gained during the usability testing portion of our proof of methodology.

As architect, my role encompasses the creation of wireframes for this prototype. Therefore, it was important to gain some experience in wireframing tools.

Axure is used by over 40% of UX professionals, and a educational licence is available for it - it seemed to be a good option for this project. A basic wireframe for a different site has been started. This is just to learn the basics so a decent prototype can be made later on once the recommendations for improvements to the website have been made.