Week 12: Evaluation Plan

Goals What do you want to learn? What concerns, questions, and goals is the test focusing on?

I want to know which interface is the most efficient and easiest to use for my events section.  Some of the concerns that I have are:  is it necessary to have both interfaces of the Events section (calendar view or list view).  The goals will be to see how fast the participants can navigate through the different interfaces and find certain events that I choose and give me details about the event. 

Participants Who will you recruit and how?

I will recruit students and instructors from my martial arts class; Hawaiian Kajukenbo Association.

Method Timing, Duration, Location, Process

I will give the participants a maximum duration of 3 minutes and I will time them to see how long it takes to find certain events for both of the view options.  The location of the test will be at the martial arts’ school. 

 

Tasks What will you ask participants to do? Make sure to align the tasks with your goals.

The tasks that I will have my participants perform will consist of them finding certain events that I created and also having them give me specific details of certain events that I select, such as: The name of the event, where the event takes place and what time the event takes place.

Measures Success criteria; Additional dependent variables; qualitative data (will you take pictures or record audio?) 

I will record each test with my video camera that will also provide audio. 

Which two interfaces are you going to test?

The two interfaces that I will be testing will be my Events section, a Calendar view and a List view.

What tasks are you going to have users perform?

The tasks that I will have my participants perform will consist of them finding certain events that I created and also having them give me specific details of certain events that I select, such as: The name of the event, where the event takes place and what time the event takes place.

What follow up questions will you ask them?

Some questions that I may ask when I test my app will be:  what did they like about the calendar view?  What did they like about the list view?  Which interface did they find to be easier to navigate through?  

Will you have all users try both prototypes?  If so in which order?  If not, how will you split them into two groups?

I think I will have all my participants tryout both of the prototypes.  The order will be:  The first participant will try out the calendar view then the list view, the second participant will try out the list view then the calendar view and so on.  I think I will split them into groups by having an adult participant and a child participant in each group. 

AGENDA VIEW

CALENDAR VIEW

Week 11: Implementation from week 1

This week I started kind of late with my alternate version of my app and finally got it to my programmer Makoto.  After chatting with Makoto via skype we have both decided that my alternate version looks better because it seems "cleaner".  Makoto and I have had a pairing session with our instructor on Saturday at 10am Hawaii time and discussed what the main plan for my Kajukenbo app.  After the pairing session I have realized that my main reason and its main use would be for the students and instructors to be kept in the loop with the upcoming events.

So far the alternate version is up but is currently in construction mode.  I am hoping by the end of this week I will have a 3rd party take a look and do some comparisons with the different versions of the designs.  I was busy this week working on the new graphics so the image below is what the new version will somewhat look like.

Week 11: Revealing More Information

For this week in the 4ourth Wiki Site our assignment was to look into the Revealing More Information section of the site to look for more patterns.  The patterns that I chose were the Returned Results and the Pop-up.

Returned Results
The 4ourth wiki site describes the Returned Results as a ,"list that will need to be selected, either as choices for another process, in order to view more details, or to start a process (such as navigating to the selection)."

Yelp on iOS

I love using yelp because it is a great app the lets you locate local business around your location.  This example shows my current location as a blue dot and in the search bar I typed in Sushi and the Returned Results shows other red dots with the nearest business that sells or serves sushi.
Yelp is available on iTunes here


Pop-Up
4ourth also describes Opening a Pop-Up, "can be allowed via a typical link, or as a result of other user or system actions.  There is no univerally-recognized design method to launch or make the user aware that the action will load a Pop-Up.

Seconds on iOS

To me this part of the app is annoying to me, everytime I open this app I always get this Pop-Up which is notifying me to turn my bluetooth on.  The first time I ran this app I canceled this notification but apparently this is the default notification.  I guess I could easily just go into the settings and turn on my bluetooth but I don't want to.  This is the free version of the app Seconds available on iTunes

Week: 10 Update on Hawaiian Kajukenbo App

The first 2 weeks of the app implementation seems to be going smooth so far *knocks on wood* dont want to jinx it.  So far Makoto and I seem to be in pretty good shape and seem to be on track.  The Home screen is up as well as the instructors page and I am very please with the quality of work that Makoto has been putting in.  Makoto and I have been in contact with each other almost everyday via skype and we are on the same page, though he has a lot of technical knowledge of programming that I am very very rusty with the terms and lingo.  Tomorrow I will get him an updated version of the banner in the home screen so the design matches the rest of the buttons throughout the app.

Here are Screen Shots of what we have so far:

HOME SCREEN

INSTRUCTORS PAGE

INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTOR PAGE

The Back and Home buttons will be changed for each page in the coming weeks but right now these will be used as place holders.

Week 08: Implementation

Late post:

For my mobile app I'm partnering up with Makoto and so far I am very pleased with the ideas that this guy has and I am very excited and can't wait for this app to be up and running.  Since he is the professional here, I have taken his decision to go with a web app which I'm totally fine with.

Here is what our work Schedule would be like:

Week 1:  3/24 - 3/31:  Review and discuss the details of the app (determine the resolution of the app to design towards.  Since it will be a web app the graphics will have have to accomodate different resolutions since every user doesn't have the same resolutions) so 1280 x 2560 is what I will design towards.

Week 2:  3/31 - 4/7:  Jump start on getting the Home Screen up (Layout/ Button Design), start on the instructors page with the button placement and button design.

Week 3:  4/7 - 4/14:  Get each individual instructor page up and start working on the events page with a list view that is clickable and able to add to default phones calendar

Week 4:  4/14 - 4/21:  Work on Photo gallery with a Cover Flow look (If there is time user able to upload own photos/ videos)

Week 5:  4/21 - 4/28:  Find a way to make the app work with facebook app to update status or post in Kajukenbo Facebook page

Week 6:  4/28 - 5/4:  Testing the app making sure everything works.

Week 7:  5/4:  Presentation day or Final app testing day.

Week 10: More Patterns

For this weeks assignment in the "Control and Confirmation" section of the  4ourth Mobile wiki site, I did the exact same process as I did in last weeks blog post, I grabbed my handy dandy iPhone 4s and looked through my existent apps to see which apps I had available to use examples for this weeks post.


Sign On
The 4ourth Mobile wiki site describes "Sign On"as giving authorized individuals access to a device or a site, service or application on the device.  There are also different variations to signing on to your device, such as entering text and or a numeric entry.

Credit Karma app

Credit Karma is an app that allows you to check you current credit score, which is really great and it keeps me motivated to keep my credit up, but besides that I really love the security of this app.  When this app is launched you are prompted to "Sign On" this is where you input your 4 digit pin code that you have set when you first set up the app, when you click on the first box to input the first digit of your code a virtual keypad is provided to input your code.  

Bank of Hawaii app

Bank of Hawaii is my bank and I really do love that they have a mobile app just like the other banks out there now coming out with mobile banking apps.  Just like Credit Karma where you are prompted to "Sign On" you input your username in the User ID box that is provided and a virtual keyboard is provided when you are about to log in.  

Confirmation
4ourth describes that Confirmation as a process in which you created that includes points where the user "must confirm an action or choose between a number of disparate (and usually exclusive) choices."

Bank of Hawaii app

For the Bank of Hawaii app I purposely entered an incorrect User ID for obvious reasons, I don't want to give out that kind of information, I mean I'm a nice guy but..... not that nice.  For education reasons I wanted to show what type of confirmation this app gives when an incorrect User ID is entered.  This Confirmation pattern shows an error which stops the process, so this the user a Pop-Up dialogue notifying the user that my sign-on was unsuccessful and contact customer support if I need assistance.  This makes the user think that something might be wrong, my User ID maybe? or maybe the app itself?

Dropbox app

One of my favorite apps to use is Dropbox, I really do like how the app gives you a Wait Indicator that means a task has started in this case I'm uploading a photo to my Dropbox and it gives a visual of how much further or longer it is going to take for the photo to be uploaded.

Week 09: Patterns

After going through the "Display of Information"  section of the 4ourth Mobile wiki site, I found some patterns in some of my own apps that I already have on my iPhone 4s, so I decided to share with you folks some of the examples that I found.

SELECT LIST

The 4ourth mobile wiki site says that, "You must allow the user to make a selection -- or several of them -- from any of the large, ordered datasets discussed in this chapter.

The applications of this are essentially limitless, and can be applied to the simplest and the most complex of representations, so can be used one way or the other for any type of implementation."

Select lists are usually displayed as a Grid and or a Vertical list.  The default iPhone Photos app displays their select list as a Grid, when you select the photos that you want, your selection turns semi-opaque with a red check mark on the bottom right of the photo.  Unlike the Photos app, the Dropbox app displays their select list as a Vertical List where you select the files that you want and on the left of the selection pops up a blue and white check mark with the title of the file highlighted in light blue color.  

Default iPhone Photos

Dropbox

     

 INFINITE AREA

4ourth describes the Infinite Area as a "complex and/or interactive visual information, which you should be presented as a single image, but is so large it must be routinely zoomed into so only a portion is routinely visible in the viewport."

The Photos app in the iPhone allows you view all the Pins in the viewport and when you zoom in more pins will pop up to show you where the photo was taken.  Maps in the iPhone is another default app in iOS that has this pattern of Infinite Area so, as you zoom in the more information is displayed, such for this app when you zoom in more detailed information is displayed, like street names or landmarks in the  viewport.

Default iPhone Photos

Default iPhone Maps