Tag: Testing

Think Aloud Protocol – User Testing Study Design

Elaine KirwanLeave a comment


To test the UX of our application a think aloud protocol was completed, concerning the prototyped section of the application. Participants were asked to complete the tasks below using the application provided to them on our tablet, and think aloud as they are doing so.

Why Think Aloud ?

“Think Aloud (TA) studies provide rich verbal data about reasoning during a problem solving task. Using TA and Protocol analysis, investigators can identify the information that is concentrated on during problem solving and how that information is used to facilitate problem resolution.” (E. Fonteyn, Marsha & Kuipers, Benjamin & Grobe, Susan. 1993). This method involves providing participants with a task and asking them to think aloud as they attempt to complete the task. Participants verbalize their thought patterns as they navigate through the system, and from this we gain an insight into what a user who is unfamiliar with the system experiences when the interact with our UI. The reason this is important is because as designers we have become familiar with the system we are developing and we may often overlook details that may cause confusion to our users. “With the rise of cognitive psychology over the past 30 years, thinking aloud has again become a standard method for studying human thought.  The conditions under which it provides access to silent thoughts are now believed to be well understood..” (Dumas, Joseph 2001).

The purpose of this think aloud study for us was to gain an understanding into how the developed UI is interacted with by users. The aim was to gauge what elements of the application may cause individuals confusion, were users able to navigate through the system, and what elements of the system did people think were effective. We completed this study on four participants, notes were taken while each person completed the task and a screen recording was also captured to record the users movements through the system.

The Study Design

Research Methodology : This study takes a qualitative approach and aims to gather rich data about ‘Let’s Talk’ prototype through the use of think aloud protocol. Participants will be asked to complete a series of tasks with the Let’s Talk Prototype and think aloud as they attempt to complete these tasks.

Methods : Think Aloud Protocol, this allows researcher to gather rich verbal data on a users thought process during the completion of a set of tasks.

Location: The location of this study will be in an environment that is private and comfortable for the individual participants, be it their own home or a classroom, where they can speak freely without fear of being overheard. The task will be completed on a Alba Nou Tablet, provided by the researcher.  

Participants:

Population:  We will be focusing this study on people above the age of 18 due to the sensitive content in the application

Sample Size: As Think Aloud Protocol will provide us with rich qualitative data we conducted this study with a sample size of 4 participants.The participants may have a range of technical abilities, ages and genders.

Study Procedure : Participants will be asked to complete a set of tasks using the ‘Let’s Talk’ application prototype and think aloud while they are doing so.

Please complete the tasks below and think aloud as you are doing so..

  1. Open Let’s Talk Application
  2. Login Using these details….

Username: username

Password: passcode

  1. Select Rosin as your Character
  2. Navigate through the application until you reach the section on period pain

Data gathering : Notepad and paper to take notes of what participant is saying and a screencast to record their movements on the application interface

What was gathered ?

Screencasts :https://photos.app.goo.gl/ULiYdgd5D9gACPcQ6ts

Notes: (See Blogpost on Data Analysis)

References

Dumas, Joseph. (2001). Usability testing methods: Think-aloud protocols. 22/04/2019 via URL https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319130250_Usability_testing_methods_Think-aloud_protocols

E. Fonteyn, Marsha & Kuipers, Benjamin & Grobe, Susan. (1993). A Description of Think Aloud Method and Protocol Analysis. Qualitative Health Research – QUAL HEALTH RES. 3. 430-441. 10.1177/104973239300300403, accessed  22/04/2019 via URL https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249674934_A_Description_of_Think_Aloud_Method_and_Protocol_Analysis

Research on Application Development

Elaine KirwanLeave a comment

My main responsibility for this project is the technical side of developing the application. I have decided to research all options available to us to ensure we choose the right option for our project. This post discusses both the research and the practical work I completed over the first three weeks of the Semester to help me properly understand our options with regards to application development. My work began with desk research and then began to evolve into getting hands on in an attempt to understand the tools that we have at our disposal.

Week One 28/01/2019

IOS Vs Android

This is a huge question that you have to considering when first developing an application and there are numerous factors to take into account. Demographically speaking iOS is a platform generally associated with more affluent users, it is the prominent platform in the US and it’s users and more inclined to spend money on applications. ( Teleman, Costi 2017 ) Android is the prominent platform in developing countries and amongst users who are spend money more consciously. Android is also much more prominent globally. (Katariya, Jayanti 2017)

“You have to consider the whole Android family-from low-range to mid- and high-range iterations when developing and designing your apps. ”

( Teleman, Costi 2017 ). Screen sizes and resolutions can be a difficult aspect of app development for Android because of the open nature system, many different brands and ranges of smartphones exist within the Android family as opposed to iOS which has a more standardised range of screen sizes and resolutions.

Development time is significantly shorter for iOS and hence it is much cheaper. iOS development requires a program called X Code which is only available on Mac. Android development can prove much more time consuming, it requires a program called Android Studio which uses Java and is available on Max, Windows and Linux. ( Teleman, Costi 2017 ).

It is generally agreed, from the resources I have read, that app development is easiIt is generally agreed, from the resources I have read, that app development is easier for IOS. Seeing as we have all got iphones and and ipad this would seem like the most sensible approach for us to take. App Development for IOS requires you to use the program Xcode and the scripting language SWIFT. The issue however lies within the fact that my laptop is a windows laptop, and as I am mainly in charge of the app development side of the project, this may cause an issue.

There are several solutions availible for this issue

  • Use the Macs availible to me in college to complete the coding needed.
  • You can pay for a service which allows you to remotely access a mac os from your PC and hence develop using said virtual OS. The fee for this service is 1 dollar an hour or 20 dollars a month. ”
    Before committing to buying a new Mac, you can actually “rent” one for development. You’ll remotely access the Mac and Xcode through your PC. “(Ching, Chris 2019)
  • We could also use a program like phone gap which allows you to use HTML, CSS and Javascript to develop an application that works on both IOS and Android

Week 2 04/02/2019

Phone Gap

The first option I have looked into using for developing our application is the adobe program PhoneGap. This program allows you to use basic principles of HTML, CSS and Javascript to create an application suitable for both iOS and Android.

I found this software extremely easy to use however I found a slight issue in the fact that the PhoneGap developers app was removed from the app store by apple recently and the issue hasn’t yet been resolved. As I only have an iOS mobile device currently at my disposal I couldn’t test the application on an actual device, only on my browser.

Below is the link to the extremely simple application I created using this software. I created this app to gauge which software will be the best for us to begin to develop our final application.

Pros

  • Applications can be exported to either iOS or Android
  • Relies on HTML, CSS and JavaScript which I already have knowledge of
  • Can use Cordova to access the functionality of the phone hardware
  • Fast and efficient testing using the PhoneGap Developers App

Cons

  • No UI widgets availible
  • PhoneGap developers app not availible on iOS

Phone Gap Test Application

Tutorials Watched

Week Three 11/01/2019

Android Studio

Now, although it is said that android development is slightly harder, it may be the solution to the issues with my laptop being a PC. Android development requires an application called Android Studio which can be used on Mac or PC. This would allow us to develop on any computer however we would have to display on an android device, which we are not currently in possession of. There are ways around that though such as using an android emulator or buying a cheap android device such as the lenovo 7″ tablet for around 50 euro.

I attempted to make a simple application in Android Studio Similar to the one I made in Phonegap However I really struggled with it. Android studio requires the programming language Java of which I don’t have any prior knowledge. to get a handle on Java I completed the code academy course on Java. I also found some manuals on learning Android Studio in the CIT library which would be useful if I were making a full application. I also watched some tutorials on Android Application Development.

Tutorials and Books Mentioned

The main issue I forsee with using Android Studio is the complexity of Learning Java from scratch and understanding it well enough to be able to develop a full application using it. I can follow the tutorials and books aforementioned however I am just copying what hey are doing in the tutorial and I have a very minimal understanding of how this works. This would become a big issue when I am trying to implement our own application as there will be no direct tutorial to follow. I am not confident in my ability to transfer my knowledge of Java from a tutorial and apply it to our own project.

Pros

  • Availible on Mac, Windows and Linux
  • Free Software, plenty of online learning resources
  • Would result in me havng a greater knowledge of Java

Cons

  • Would require me to learn a whole new scripting language from scratch
  • I have found Java very difficult up until this point and doubt my ability to transfer my learnings of onto our project
  • Development Process would probably be more time consuming as I can only use a certain amount of the base knowledge I have as a result of my studies
  • Development for One platform only

Xcode

Xcode development is much simpler and swift is an easier language to get an understanding of . The issue however is the fact that I could only develop for iOS by using a Mac or virtually renting one. As I will be putting a lot of work in both at home and in college into this project, it just doesn’t make sense for me to develop the application using a program I would essentially have to pay per hour of usage at home. So I basically have ruled out the use of Xcode for developing this application but it always there as a backup option it would just require me to use mainly the college computers.

Pros

  • Straightforward Software
  • Developing for a standardised screen size and resolution
  • UI Widgets Available

Cons

  • Can only develop on a Mac (either physical or Virtual)
  • Requires learning swift, which despite being easier than Java is still a new scripting language
  • Development for one Platform Only
  • Requires us to display on apple device (more pricey)

Conclusions

I have decided to move forward and get into prototyping using PhoneGap. The pros of using PhoneGap far outweigh the cons. It will allow me to expand on the skills I have been learning over the past four years, I am comfortable coding in the languages required for using PhoneGap, the software allows you to develop for both Android and iOS platforms and this will allow me to prototype and test efficiently. After speaking to my supervisor and conducting all the above research we decided that this is the most sensible approach going forward for our project and I am happy with this decision.

Bibliography

Jayanti Katariya (2017) Apple Vs Android – A comparative study 2017 [online] Available from URL : https://www.moontechnolabs.com/apple-vs-android-comparative-study-2017/ [ accessed 02/02/2019 13:50]

Teleman, Costi ( 2017), Android vs iOS App Development: A Comparison and Decision Guide [online], Available from URL : https://dzone.com/articles/android-vs-ios-app-development-a-comparison-and-de [accessed 02/02/2019, 14:45 ]

CHING, CHRIS (2019), XCODE FOR WINDOWS (12 WAYS TO BUILD IOS APPS ON PC) [ONLINE] AVAILABLE FROM URL : HTTPS://CODEWITHCHRIS.COM/XCODE-FOR-WINDOWS/ [ ACCESSED 04/02/2019,

18:30]

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