User Testing
A- Description of the medium-fidelity prototype
The medium-fidelity prototype follows many of the design decisions made during the development of the figma-based low-fidelity prototype. The goal was to create a simple material-style user interface and set a foundation for the rest of the project. We began to do this by setting up the code base for the browser extension itself.
The main tools/frameworks used are:
- JavaScript
- Django
- Heroku
The two main functionalities implemented are a keyboard-activity indicator, and current tab indicator.
- The code for the keyboard activity indicator can be found here.
- The code for the current tab view functionality can be found here.
As of now, other functionalities are omitted. Some values presented are hard-coded to simulate real-time information being passed from user to user. This also helps for user testing purposes. We hope that in the next prototype, we can have this information be generated by users to engage a more interactive experience. We also will omit some features such as logging in and room key generation since they are out of the scope of the project's intentions.
C- Findings from the user testing sessions
Overall, the users we tested understand the intention of the application. The constant presence of the banner across multiple tabs helps maintain a feeling of people being in a room, and the keyboard activity indicator helps to facilitate a presence from different users. At this stage of the project, it provides a starting point for ideas to be added on to expand the purposes of the application further. Below are some notes from the user testing sessions.
- Users noted that the application would benefit from a 'hide' option
- User's differed in the type of setting they would use the application in, some preferred a work setting while others felt like friends would be a better option for them.
- Users ranged from a preferred room size of 3 - 12 people.
- Users noted wanting to have a fun feature of sorts, such as effects added to icons or a way to play with icons
Conclusion on our current functionality of the prototype:
Things we'll keep:
- The keyboard activity indicator
- The placement and arrangement of the banner
Things we'll change:
- Possibly some color changes
- Spacing within the banner and general UI aesthetics
What we will add in the next prototype:
- Ability to hide the extension upon a button click