Question

In doing several paper prototype trials before break we noticed several flaws we had with our design.  First and foremost was the drawings of our icon raised countless questions from our users. We instituted pop-ups that appeared when you hovered over a certain icon. The next problem we ran into was when someone initiated a video chat the user and the initiator received notification of a friend wanting to begin a chat and if a friend accepted your video chat request. Our main question has been whether to have a detached pop-up box from our facebook main page when using the chat application. We understand that having the availability to detach is a nice feature but problems would arise with your contacts you are currently chatting with having to detach as well. We want to run a few more prototype trials to get more feedback and decide what would be the most efficient and convenient way to implement the facebook video chat application

Design Question

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Design Question

The one question that I have for our design is how people will know that the tabs and icons represent on our interface. I feel that there will be a lot of trial and error occurring. To solve this problem we have used pop up boxes that will be displayed if the tester holds their finger over a certain icon for a couple of seconds. These pop up boxes will give a short description of what the icon represents. We will have to explain this process to the tester before they begin attempting the paper prototype. We are hoping that this will limit the amount of trial and error that will occur and it will be easier for the tester to understand the interface better.

Question Blog

Will users be able to access their chatting features quickly and easily?

By doing the paper prototype I found how difficult and/or easy the one task was.  The user that I did the experiment on felt more like exploring.  I told her to start a video chat with her friend and she did that quite easily with no problems.  Once she was in the video chat she wanted to mess with all the options and asked if I had more options for her to customize the video chat experience.  All in all though she was able to quickly set up the video chat which was the task appointed for the experiment.

Question

The question I want answered is: “Will users be able to understand the button concepts easily enough to efficiently navigate the chat feature?”
Our paper prototype will help answer this question by presenting the potential user with an interface very similar to the product. When the user tests the interface, text bubbles display what each button concept is. By setting up these display bubbles, I believe the user is overwhelmed with information and repetitive tasks of confirming and ‘hovering’ will ultimately drive users away from daily use. To help counter this we took design concepts from existing chat messaging systems. If a user has had an experience with a number of popular (at least in the US) messaging systems then the user would be using their pre-existing bias to help navigate through the site before they are bombarded with pop-up windows and repetitive tasks. Using the user’ s own bias to allows the user to more efficiently and effectively navigate the site.
Finally, the most direct way of finding an answer to this question is by comparing what the user was able to recognize before the bubbles/windows pop-up. With the use of a camera and observation notes we can record each test with data to interpret where each user hesitated/messed up.

My Prototype Question

The question I want answered is:  “Will users be able to figure out how to start a video chat session in a timely manner?”

Our paper prototype will help answer this by presenting the test user with an interface very similar to that of the final product.  By setting it up properly, they should be able to navigate in much the same way any normal user would.  We have even included ‘hover text boxes’ made from post-it notes for the buttons which may not be as easily recognizable.  All of this should help the user complete the task more quickly, by eliminating unnecessary clicks and keeping him or her on target.

Finally, the most direct way of finding an answer to this question is by timing the test subject.  With the use of a camera, we can video-record each test and interpret how long each subject took to complete the task.  It should be safe to assume the total time would be even less in a high-fidelity prototype or the real environment, because there would be no extra time spent for the researchers (us) to find the proper piece of paper for each task.

the question

Will our design be easy to use by users?

On Tuesday, We ran our prototypes to several people in order to get feedback from the users about our design in Facebook Chat. The task for the user was how to find a certain people of your friends on Facebook and start a video conversation with that person. It seems to be easy for the users to get the task done since it took 2-3 minutes to figure it out but during the process, users still confused with the icon/symbols in the conversation box. In this case is how to find the video chat button to start webcamming.

After the prototype study, we found that we need to redesign especially on the icons/symbols to make it more self-explanatory. It also gave us an idea which features/functions should be added or taken out from the design. For example, we added volume/speaker bar, took out the “add friend” button, etc.  Hopefully, our second design will be more user-friendly.

The question

The question that I want to know about our prototype is: “Will the user find our new design easier and clearer to use that the old facebook chat?”

After numerous changes that our group applied to the new chat it might be like new world to facebook user. Basically after the study that we did last class the answer to this question was positive. Mostly, all the participants in our research that we asked to do particular task (to start a video chat with an online friend) had no problem with new design and it was self explanatory for the all users, which is great. They were only aware about certain icons that were unclear to them. So, now we know that we need to change icons in our paper prototypes in order to make our design clearer for the users.

In sum, we had used paper prototypes as a way of exploring our ideas and checking requirements in more detail, referring what new facebook chat to do for facebook user.

Paper Prototype Question

Our design for the facebook chat application relies heavily on illustrations and symbols to help guide the user. I was wary about some of the illustrations we had chosen to represent certain functions, such as the button to start video chat or the button to block an individual.
During our paper prototype study, the task given was to initiate a video chat with a certain online friend. This seemed to be a fairly simple task, almost no one had problems getting to the chat window. However, once they were in the chat box, they seemed bombarded with icons which some were unclear what they represented. Every participant eventually found the video chat button, but hesitated for some time.
This confirmed my suspicions that we may need to redesign a few of our button graphics. During last week’s class we already came up with an alternative design for the video chat button and the block button which I think will be more self-explanatory and solve our problems during our second paper prototype testing.

PRInCiPleS blog

Predisposition
Facebook users would like some form of extra privacy/usability features with Facebook Chat.

Research
Distributed online questionnaire via Survey Monkey.  Got responses back for analysis.

Insights
People wanted more of what actually works.  More of the stuff from current IM software and programs as well as more features regarding connecting all of these IM services together.

People do not want to switch to Facebook Chat as their only source of IM because they would lose connection with some other friends that do not use Facebook Chat.

Concepts
Incorporate a way to integrate other IM services into the Facebook Chat.  This way people will no loose the connection with other friends.

Incorporate a more user friendly feature listing.  This can be done by adding more privacy features and asthetic variances.

PRInCiPleS

Predisposition- All facebook users are interested in a group chat feature.

Predisposition- All facebook users are concerned with privacy features regarding there account and if they are visible in chat.

Research- Through surveys we have created then edited and redistributed many users are not interested in group chat. Few people would actually use the application and the majority of the time group chat would be for academic purposes, but users prefer email. Many users are interested in video chat, file-sharing, and privacy features. Privacy features currently exist regarding who can and cannot see your profile and different aspects of your profile (i.e. pictures, friends). Users are interested in privacy features allowing you to be online but invisible to others in chat or available to user specified preferences in chat.

Insights- Video chat is a viable alternative to enhance facebook’s current chat application. File-sharing can be considered but concerns me with lawsuits regarding DRM because many users would use it to share music. Maybe they could form a contract with iTunes or another company to prevent any legal ramifications. Privacy is very important to all users because of the pervasiveness of the internet. These additional privacy features are feasible and would please the majority of facebook users and not inhibit their overall experience.

Concepts- Enhance the current facebook privacy features and make them more easily accessible. Add a video chat feature to the current chat application.