Week 9: Testing Ideas

Before I started this post, I went over to Allison's post to see what she had to say on the subject. After reading the post, I realized that everything that I was going to write about testing, has already been said.

I agree that we need to have a pilot study of a small group of people to see if there is any immediate problems that happen. We have to then ask the questions of time spent in a specific section of the app, how long can we retain their attention, and of course where does the app fail.

I also agree that after finding the answer to those problems, to expand the amount of participants to ensure that the problems do not arise again. 

Again I do agree that we need to have those follow up questions of simplicity and functionality. The one thing that I would add to the questions is visual appeal. Does the app have visual appeal?

Other than that question, I totally agree with what Allison said for the testing.

Week 9: Display of Information

The two patterns that I chose to provide examples for were the Gird display and the Infinite List display.


The Gird Display


This screenshot is from the main applications tab of my phone and it obviously shows a gird layout. Also this is an example of it because each application has its own individual icon and title. This example is pretty self-explanatory.

















The Infinite List


This screenshot is from one of the Joke apps that I compared with my prototype. When reading about the infinite list, this app immediately came to mind. The screenshot is of the app as it says "Loading Jokes". This window shows up after the user has scroll down for some time. It seems that like, what is explained in the Infinite List section, the app has a database else where and after a specific number of jokes have been scrolled through, the app will pull more jokes from the database, which is why this screen on the left shows up.

Week 8: Mobile Implementation Part 3

I am going to be teaming up with Allison Diller to do the “Joke Around” App. We have not finalized the OS we are going to work on, but I think we are leaning towards iOS since Allison owns an iPhone which will allow there to be testing done.

Below is a week schedule, but I am meeting Allison this upcoming Saturday and this schedule will for sure change once we meet and talk. So this is a very rough outline, not the final schedule. Once Allison and I meet, I will post in the comments the finalized schedule.  

*The dates displayed are Saturdays.

Week 1: 3/23 – 3/30:  Start on the Reading section, since we will be creating the lists and the different category tabs.

Week 2 : 3/30 – 4/6: More work on the Reading section if necessary, Start on the Saved section since it is a similar layout as the Reading section.

Week 3: 4/6 – 4/ 13: Continue on Saved section if necessary. Make sure that Reading is finished.

Week 4: 4/13 – 4/20: Start on Create section. Finish Saved section and link it with the Reading section.

Week 5: 4/20 – 4/27: Finish Create section and link it with the other sections . Start on splash page.

Week 6: 4/27 – 5/4:  Put the whole package together, test, and make sure everything operates properly. Fix bugs why it applies.

Week 7: 5/4 – Presentation day: Figure out when we present and use those last days to final testing and modifications

Again this schedule is a very rough outline and will most likely change once I meet up with Allison. I will post in the Comments the final schedule that we agreed upon.

Week 8: Mobile Implementation Part 2

Heuristic Evaluation

My heuristic evaluation was on Allison Diller's scoring app. The video Below is my evaluation and the text is what I touched on in my video.

Visibility of the System Status

The main thing was the How To page that will keep the user informed on what game the app keeps track of. This will allow more experienced players to explain the rules to new players easier.

Rating: 3

Match Between System and the Real World

Being able to change the position of the players will help because sometimes people change seats between games or new players replace previous players.

Rating: 2

Being able to change the number of players will help if more people want to play. Plain and simple.

Rating: 1

Having a new game and previous game button will allow the players to continue an already established game from another time.

Rating: 2

User Control and Freedom

Back Button needs to be put in so that the user can fix a mistake that they made.

Rating: 3

The X button can become the home button so the user can restart a game if they desire.

Rating: 3

Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

A adding/subtracting button on the sides of the inputs with allow users to input score faster.

Rating: 1

Another suggestion is instead of a selection of numbers to input, just have the user input the number they want with the use of keyboard.

Rating: 1

A finished button and a next round button will allow the user to proceed to the next roundor a finish a game quickly.

Rating: 2

Week 8: Mobile Implementation Part 1

Composition Patterns from 4ourth.com

The two patterns that I chose were the Interstitial Screen and the advertising. 

Interstitial Screen

This Screenshot was taken on a mobile game app that I downloaded some time ago. A quick explanation of the game is that the user is trying to drive a car far as they can before a zombie horde catches it. The user can earn the game's currency on each ride and has an upgrade screen for the car.  When I launch the app, it takes me to the upgrade screen. When i have done all of my upgrades and I select ride in the bottom right corner, this screen comes up because it is loading all of the apps's properties. 

Advertising

This Screenshot is from one of the joke apps that I was researching for my project. There are plenty of apps that have advertising similar to this style, but I just immediately remembered that this app had the perfect example. The advertisement is at the top and the user can choose to ignore it. But if they are interested in the product that is being displayed, they can diverge from their current activity and explore the ad.

Those are my picture examples of the two composition patterns from 4ourth.com. There will be a Part 2, which is the Heuristic Evaluation, and Part 3, which is the plan of attack for this app.  

Week 7: Visual and Information Design

Article

The blog that I went to was beautifulpixels.com and read the article about an app called "Over".

Picture of the app on tablet

Over is an app that allows the user to addd typography to any picture that they have taken.

Example of result

The app comes with 28 different fonts that have been able to change a regular picture into something inspirational, funny, or solem.



I enjoyed reading the article, not only because of the content, but also because of the presentation of the article was great.

The page color and font colors gave a calm atmosphere to the article since also allowed the pictures of the app (as shown above) to pop and grab the attention of the reader.

The article was written well, but the paragraphs seemed kind of long for a blog. If the paragraphs were broken down more, the article would not seemed so dense that the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed with the length.




Peer Evaluation

Evaluation of Jade Storm's Balsamiq

There were a lot of pages and preferences to go through before actually getting to a list of restaurants.
Rating: 4
* Made some suggestions to help fix that in video

No back button that you could change your preference input
Rating: 2
Having a back button for the preferences is so that if the user put in the wrong preference they wanted, they could go back to that page without having to restart the search over.


There is no map.
Rating: 5
* Made some suggestions to help fix that in video

Not showing the opening and closing times of shops.
Rating: 1
This just a minor thing and I mentioned this in the video, so that the user know their options at the current time.


Here is the video of Jade's review on my Balsamiq: Evaluation of Martin's Balsamiq



App evaluation

Awesome Joke - This app is very similar to what I want my joke app to do. The app allows for everyone to view different types of jokes, submit your own, and save ones that the user finds funny.

The problem I had with the app was that the visuals seemed to come out of a pre made template. There is not as much visual appeal to it.

Pros:

• Similar set-up as my app
• Easy to navigate

Cons:

• Visually, feels like a generic pre-made templates
• Not that colorful

 Best Jokes Ever - This app had a little bit more color in the design, but the navigation was not that intuitive as the other app. There were just 3 buttons at the bottom, but in order to get more buttons like a filter, the user had to use the menu button installed on the phone.

The other app had all the buttons for the app on the screen where this one just have a big list of jokes with filters and categories in the installed menu button.

Pros:

• Visually, more appealing and colorful

Cons:

• Non-intuitive navigation bar
• Do not feel comfortable when trying to navigate

Navigation bar

The 3 navigation bars:

1. List menu
2. Tab menu
3. Metaphor menu

1.  The list menu is usually very simple and straight forward for the user, so as not to throw the user in the heart of the app and be confused on how they got there.

2. The tab menu allows for the user to have all the different locations on the same display as the content so that, the user does not have to jump from page to page to get to their desired location in the app

3.  The metaphor menu is visual exciting, by uses an object that is related to the app and make it into a menu. The problem though is finding the right object to use as the menu.

Week 6: Balsamiq

One change that I made to my prototype is that........ I put a navigation bar at the top so that the user can actually go to different pages and not be stuck on one page.
Another change that I made was instead of making extra pages to select the category, I just had tabs so that the user is not changing between so many pages and getting lost.
Those were the changes that I made.

*Note the first save checkbox in animal tab in the read section is the only one that changes. It is meant to show as an example for the rest*