Test plan

Test plan

We want to test several different ideas on meeting up with friends. We want to see what system works the best. To gather the best ideas we use the parallel prototyping method (method 58 from the book) and we want to know how the end users react on them. We will have them perform a task and do an interview afterwards.

To answer these questions we let them use our three prototypes. We have Meet Up (a card based app), Catch Up (a tinder like app) and Lazy Friend (a more traditional app with a twist). Before the prototypes are handed out we explain the idea of the test and the reason why we want them to participate. After this explanation we let them perform the tasks needed. In the end we ask them our questions.

After the initial test we use all the gathered data to combine all the good ideas into the next prototype. This prototype is tested again with real end users.

Planning

Welcome the participants

Explain the reason why we are doing this test

Explain the rules and ask them to be as vocal about their thoughts and feelings as possible.

Split the group evenly across the prototypes

Explain the tasks from the prototype

Help performing them and ask questions at the crucial points

Switch the participants and the prototypes and repeat.

Ask the following to the group:

• What idea/prototype was the best? Why?
• What detail in the prototype did you like? Why?
• Will you use it for catch up meetings? Why?
• How will your ideal app look like? (app to organise spontaneous meetings)

Prototype Meet-up (tinder variant)

Travel Remedy Kit review

My personal travel experience

When I travel I have loads of things I can do. I don't pay that much attention on my travels, but most of the time I am pretty pleased with the travel. My problem is not so much the travel but the time of arrival. If I’m running late, a longer trip is only making it worse. During the trip I listen to my music and read some articles on the internet. If I can't read them, I get restless. Sometimes I try to do some work, but generally I don't. When travelling with friends I can really catch up with someone in a short time. This article didn't learn me that much more, except to plan my trip with longer travels. Actually, what bothered me was the smug attitude from the participants, that they learned to enjoy their trip more and that they are so much more productive...

Prototype or Kit

When researching a new topic you should start with a kit. Using the kit with subjects will inspire for a solution. With this solution a prototype is made. In this way the solution is tested with users. In this particular situation the switch is a good idea too. First provide the travelers a kit to experience their trip and to enable them to use every possibility of the transportation system. After using the kit, the respondents will be experts on travelling and using travel time to the limit. Then use the card sorting tool to gain this insight from the users and to build a prototype.

Insight from the article

It is very easy to focus on making things effective, but this article reminds us that just reducing the time traveled is the wrong way of looking at the problem. If you try to enable people to have a better trip, the first question should be about what that better trip would look like. Similarly, when designing for smart life rhythms it is important to avoid the easy option (trimming time spent) and look for the real reason why something is a problem.

Prototype plan

PROTOTYPE PLAN

WHY

We want to build our prototype for the following reasons:

• How will people react on our new ideas?
• Would they use our product for meetings?
• Why, why not? How are they using it?
• Is the prototype easy to use?
• Would they answer quicker with this than others?
• Will the frustration from planning a meeting decrease?
• Will users experience our ideas as convenient?
• Did we reach the goal?
• Do we complete the challenge?
• Is adding fun to plan a meeting with planning software more important than increasing speed and simplicity?
• Who is the testing group?
• How familiar are they with design and prototyping?
• What is their level of knowledge and is it important?

WHO

Our target group for our ideas are groups of friends. We are going to test our prototype on that same group. So people who want to have spontaneously catch-up meetings with friends with ages ranging from 16 until 50. They should be familiar with the standard ways of how designs and patterns are used as well as with the present version of datumprikker. They need to be computer-competent.

WHERE

Our prototype will be tested at school (in the lab) and at the people homes. It needs to be both in real context and in simulated context.

WHAT

The prototype will be a (simulated) app as paper prototype and as digital prototype. We need to simulate the experience of having to meet with friends and getting reactions from friends.

“Creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions” (Summary)

The current generations live in a place of constant distraction. Where people juggle tasks every day and   try to be creative amongst chaos.  Positive distraction can be a great method to use when trying to accomplish certain goal. Stanford   University concluded that people who embraced positive distraction had better results in the long run.   There are many ways to trick your mind into surpassing the negative distractions but one first must   learn what they are. In doing so he must be fully immersed in the process.  Self-control is an ability, which is key for every individual in order to maintain a level of regulation in his   life style. According to Roy Baumeister, willpower is not somewhat that people are born with or have by   talent, it is a skill which is studied and adept, so that the result would be in contrast with the   commencement. A simple alteration in the daily routine of a person can benefit his self-control levels.   Similarly, playing strategic games can open the mind of the user involved.  There is difference between mindful and mindless work, but there is a unique connection between   them. One can’t really work without the other. The human brain is not used to working for long hours   and then resting. It needs to work for certain amount of time and then engage in mindless action, so   that it can create those special cells that are born when we learn and get inspired. It is inevitable how   the good aspects in life come hand by hand with the bad, time wasting ones.

Tuning into you

Nowadays, we eagerly jump into the communication stream, tuning in to the world instead of tuning in to ourselves. We rarely—if ever—think about the cost of doing this. Diving into the devices can engage individuals to find their inner selves. In contrast, doing nothing during these moments of downtime feels less intentional.

Arguing that taking time to experience the other side of connectivity, intentional activity to disengage from the stream and truly be present in the now—is crucial to the well-being and performance of creative minds.

Tuning in to the moment,activates recognition the world around you and the true potential of your own mind. Many of us find very little time to casually explore, follow our whims, or think big, but this capacity is a major competitive advantage in the era of constant connectivity.

Chance encounters can also provide enormous benefits for your projects and your life. Adjusting in to our devices during every moment of transition, we are letting the incredible potential of serendipity pass us by. The greatest value of any experience is often found in its layers. Valuing the power of serendipity, you start noticing it at work immediately. In order to develop serendipity one must first posses rational discipline.

Today’s challenge is to keep your focus and preserve the sanctity of mind required to create, and to ultimately make an impact in what matters most to you. Be aware of the cost of constant connection. Recognize when you're tuning in to the stream for the wrong reasons. Create windows of non-stimulation in your day. Listen to your gut as much as you listen to others. Staying open to the possibilities of serendipity can steer your own potential.

Originally from: Scott Belsky  Summarized by Joerian Lazaroms

Idea Posters

Expected Experience Flow

summary Q&A Understanding our compulsions

Q&A Understanding our compulsions

Summary

The article consists of questions which are being answered by the writer. First of all the author writes about how unintentionally bad decision making can impact on us in the workplace. People sacrifice their productive morning time for email and calendar tasks. Another bad decision is aligned with opportunity costs. When someone is doing some task or spending some money then this time and money will not be used for other purposes. Email is a great temptation because email works as random reinforcement. The excitement of getting emails makes us check our email all the time. Three basic things makes us to make bad decisions. The world around us tries to tempt us, we listen to the world around us and we don’t deal very well with temptation. The next question the writer answers is what to do about it. Email temptation is very hard to resist, the best solution is to tell the IT department to not distribute email in the morning. Our ability to exercise self-control to resist temptation is limited. It takes energy to resist a temptation and during the day when the energy levels get lower you easier give in to temptation. The focus that we should have to manage our time better is to work with progression markers. We must make our self like we are making progress at then barriers will become smaller.

Most valuable advice for me personally

The most valuable advice for me in this article is that making a way to feel like you are making progression is important to plan your time in a good way. At some projects I already did that by making a very good planning and crossing off things that I did. This will give me the feeling of progression. I will try to give more progression markers specially while working on big projects where the end is not clear.

What advice is most relevant for students and should be included in the coaching? Why? 

In my opinion the coaching misses a part of planning and looking towards the end product. Every week we get new assignments and things to do but if the whole planning would be available from the start then groups can better organize their own time.

Insight related to Smart Life Rhythms

Temptation is of course a big problem in Smart Life Rhythms in general. Instead of getting a good night sleep a lot of people are tempted by things like Facebook, twitter and YouTube. It is not only a problem because in the context of the new way of working the 24/7 availability of social media is a great advantage. Life is full with temptations and that has a big effect on everybody’s life rhythms. This article shows us that it is possible to find ways to resist a part of the temptation but it will never work for 100%.

Persona Bob Venkel

Pre Research report Datumprikker

Pre Research report Datumprikker

Usability research for datumprikker

- CONCEPT -

- VERTROUWELIJK -

Mr. E Wisselink

Mr. Y. Dokov

Mr. M. Blanken

Mr. J Lazaroms

Students of The Hague University

Researcheport Datumprikker

Usability research for datumprikker

Client:

The Hague University

Johanna Westerdijkplein 75

2521 EN Den Haag

Meggie Williams

070-4458707

m.a.williams@hhs.nl

Client:

Webbeat Products BV

Turfschipper 7-9

2292 JC Wateringen

Mr. Geert  Merkelbach

06 14790677

Geert@webbeat.nl

Researchers:

Eelco Wisselink

eelcowisselink@gmail.com

06 284 63 2 29

Yani Dokov

ysdokov@gmail.com

06 190 84 4 84

Micha

micha_blanken@live.nl

06 364 80 2 36

Joerian Lazaroms

Joerian.lazaroms@gmail.com

06 833 61 3 81

INHOUDSOPGAVE

1 THEORY

2.1 Research question

3 METHODE

3.1 Instrument

3.2 Sampeling & Respondents

3.3 Procedure

3.4 Analyse

4 RESULTS

4.1 Relaibility instrument

4.2 General results

5 CONCLUSIONS

6 RECOMMADATIONS

REFERENTIES

BIJLAGEN

Bijlage 1: HARDCOPY DATA RESEARCH 

1. Introduction

This research is started from the minor Smart Life Rhythms at The Hague University. Students will be doing an usability research of the service ‘’Datumprikker’’. This service provides a service that helps people plan meetings in an structural environment. This helps the user organizing.

Besides that Datumprikker provides a lot of help, it also comes with cons like cooperation in the process. People like using the service for complex and big groups but Datumprikker is too complex for small groups. So the problem Datumprikker is dealing with is probably somewhere an user expercience bottleneck.

2. THEORY

1. RESEARCH QUESTION

The question that was provided:

How can we stay in control of our agenda and at the same time make spontaneous catch-up appointments that work?

The question that is researched:

Where are the critical moments while using Datumprikker

3. METHOD

The methods that were chosen were observation, interviewing and creating a customer journey. The methods came from the book Universal Methods of Design (Martin and Hanington  2012). These methods gave insights of were the bottleneck was of the service design. By interviewing and observation we registered the information of each step the customer was going through.

1. INSTRUMENT

The interview and observation setting was open. There was a structure by giving the respondent the assignment of organize an meeting with Datumprikker and the other respondent with giving response to that particular meeting. The respondents were also interviewed by other services and the pros of these services. But the order of this was completely open.

In the flow chart showed every step colored with an positive effect on the respondent and an negative.

2. SAMPELING & RESPONDENTS

For this pre-research we choosed our envirement of friends and family. This is possible since the target group is so big. These respondent were chosen within our personal cycles A-select. The age could be between 18 - 65 with internet experience. The amount of group was 8 respondent because we did a qualitative pre research. But before there was a research with this respondents, we did a research with ourselve so we investigated the steps frustrations.

3. PROCEDURE

The research took place at an comfort location for the respondent, this could be home. The interview with observation was open for an natural order but had an specific assignment with questions.

There were two assignments, one for the organizer and one for the receiver. The organizer was asked to create an event with the service from Datumprikker. We observed the steps that were taken and asked them to think out loud with every step. There also was investigated with every step what there feeling was. The other assignment procedure went the same but had to give response to an invite from Datumprikker.

As last the respondents were asked about other experiences with other services in similar situations. The focus was at pros of these services so we could investigated there needs.

4. RESULTS

something about merging the results together.

The results from the research are presented in a customer journey. The experience flow is backed with information of thoughts and feelings. The alternative used methods are listed and compared feature-wise.

1. RELIABILITY INSTRUMENT

The research is partly reliable. The customer journey comes with pros and cons but

reliability is not as much of an issue for just gathering info about critical moments.

Customer journey

Pros

• Four researchers interpreted, consulted and created as a group the customer journey
• There were  eight respondent used in this research. This an good amount for an qualitative pre research.

Cons

• Unfortunately every researcher had just two respondents.
• There was not a clear criteria for the respondents. But everyone was in the target group.

Alternative used methods to catch up

Pros

• The material was recorded with video, screen-recording and audio

Cons

• One respons
• No one checked the data

2. GENERAL RESULTS

The general results are shown below.

4.2.1 Customer journey

The critical moments are shown with colors and explained with feelings.

Link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pSzzKee3elnCaQVw1uZM4Qsjg3Y-lPBRHxBuGM3gsMU/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true

4.2.2 Alternative used methods to catch up

Phone

Used with max 3 people

Pros

• Immediately organized and you know what you can expect.
• Peronal

Mail

Used with 3 people or more

Pros

• Quick but everyone can still answer in their own time.
• Personal

• Everyone has input:
  Consulation about things like, what to do and when. Not just one organizer.
• More structured than groupchat

When we meet

Used with small group

Pros

• Immediately organized and you know what you can expect.
• Peronal

Chats

Used with a small group

Pros

• Quick but everyone can still answer in their own time.
• Personal

• Everyone has input:
  Consulation about things like, what to do and when. Not just one organizer.

Facebook & LinkedIn

Have no facebook or use it almost not and would not use LinkedIn for these things.

Google Calendar

Small and big group

Pros

• You know more about each other left sparetime
• It is already integrated with my calendar
• 100% by the time; there will be no situation where I first say that I am available and later plan something because I forgot about my input.
• I don’t need to share my personal data with another organisation
• Other users can bring input as well
• You can choose your visualization; list, day, week, month and year.
• Suggestions for mail addresses.
• Quick respond in mail without opening.

Other input

• Create your own layout especially for business (look and feel)
• Add an attachment
• Include also the travel options
• Can I fix a cab for you?
• You will have one hour travel time from your previous appointment with public transport
• If datum prikker would know everyone’s location he could give suggestions about the best location for everyone; make it smart.
• No physical appointment? What does everyone prefer? Skype? Hangout?
• Communicate with my calendar
• Animate; Move answered dates te the left in listview
• Animat; Weekview so you got better comparing with you own calendar (or month)
• Could be more structured, choose wisely what is the most dominant thing on the webpage.
• Everyone can edit.
• Show earlier: Respond later
• Option to give direct notes
  

5. CONCLUSIONS

The initiator finds the biggest problem with picking dates and fill in the e-mail addresses of the participants. The receiver finds the biggest problems to compare his or her agenda with the list of dates. This could be fixed with new dates layout that matches the layout of the agenda instead of the list or by give permission to your agenda and let Datumprikker check your availability. Other pros of methods were that you can start as open as a groupchat like Whatsapp and end as specific as Datumprikker itself. Furthermore Datumprikker isn’t personal and that bothers people aswell.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

The first recommendation is further research to discover more of how these new possibilities practically will work out. But the research need to be focused at the steps picking dates, select participants, create an open way of starting an event and a way to make it personal.

REFERENCES

Martin, B., Hanington, B.,(2012) Universal Methods of Design. United States: Rockport

ATTACHMENTS

ATTACHEMNT 1: HARDCOPY DATA RESEARCH

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xpkjNQ7tZI0Ht7DZqaRZmpXswIX3KWvZfa6MoZgPx10/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11F4dsVQqXI3BjFGHXEwvWUVR4xhhXmzr5kKGZoSH0p4/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vBveEQ-8traPIqjldnL0fo0dFNFA_glalRKXE4-U10s/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kOEKKAMXVbFjhN8B74vKZ5PAqo5Mawg0Y6Y30YruQWI/edit?usp=sharing