Today we conducted usability tests on our newest iteration of our app. Armed with $5 Starbucks giftcards, we approached students hard at work studying for midterms and managed to recruit five participants. Above are screenshots of the iteration we tested, as well as photos of the notes we took.
Our largest take-aways were as follows:
The initial screens are not providing enough information on the value of the application.
All of our users didn’t pick up on what we were planning would separate our app from photo-sharing apps: that you can use it to share photos and texts with people nearby, regardless of Internet connectivity or cell reception. Because of this lack of fundamental understanding about our app, users reported they found many parts of the interface confusing: for example, they assumed friends were invited from their phone or Facebook contacts (rather than propagated from people nearby). Once we explained that the app requires friends to be nearby, many users suddenly understood our “bubble” model and stated they found the concept pretty cool.
Possible Solution: Communicate the value and, in particular, the context of use using more pictures and less text (which it seems users did not fully “get,” even if they had read it). Suggested contexts by the users were: concerts, hiking, parties, and others.
"Add person button" was unclear.
When the button could be found at all, there was hesitation in selecting and pressing it.
Possible Solution: Please the button more ergonomically (as one person suggested) near the center of the screen. We could also place the “waiting” bubbles inside the main bubble graphic, rather than outside of it.
Participants were unclear who they shared photos with.
In particular, participants wanted to confirm where the photos with going and who was receiving them. 4 out of 5 commented that sharing felt “abrupt;” only 1 out of 5 noticed the activity feed at the bottom confirming the action (though this participant did like the activity feed and thought it was cool).
Possible Solution: Incorporate user feedback with the bubbles: for example, when a photo is shared, show a photo icon above the others in the bubble or even just make the bubble “flash” somehow to show who received it. Also consider making the activity feed take up more space so people will notice it. The bottom bar in the “Share photo” flow should also have information on who the user is sending photos to; for example, “Send to 3 people.”
Participants were confused when they saw non-chat activity on the “Chat” screen.
We tried a different visualization of non-chat activity (such as “Someone has been added to your bubble” or “Someone has shared a photo”) mixed in with the Chat feed; however, this still confused people as before. Additionally, though we tried to show the current members of a user’s bubble above the feed, people assumed that these were similar to Facebook “chat heads” and thought that you could speak to people in a bubble individually, instead of all at once.
Possible Solution: Use visuals to make it clear that chat is a group chat, not someplace where people can be chatted to individually. Additionally, separate out “chat” and non-chat related “activity.”
Another thing we were testing this time around was whether anyone would have any objection to the bottom toolbar. (We had heavily debated this toolbar internally.) Turns out, people either didn’t comment on it, or commented positively on it. So, it’s staying!
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