sleepwell
Phase III: Prototypes and User Testing
Sleep Well
UX Team Members:
- Caleb Besser
- Derek Bergman
In phase 3 we focused almost entirely on our User Tests. These were used to determine how actual users would approach certain tasks in the app.
Methods
The methods we used were just User Tests. These tests consisted of 5 participants that needed to complete 3 tasks assigned to them. The tasks were to, one, find and go to a fan sounds video. Second, find and use the Timer and Autoplay features. Then last, upload a video to the app. The participants were asked to speak aloud during their thinking to allow us to hear what went through their heads.
Findings
We found that a majority of participants had trouble with the first task. They either did not use the tags page, or did use it, but didn’t use the hamburger icon. However, once the first task was complete. Almost every participant was able to easily complete the last two. Surprisingly the “User” Icon was significantly more salient than the hamburger one. Which we were not expecting. Other than that, we just found that we needed higher fidelity in our prototype. As most participants tried using the search button, or tried clicking on the different times in the Timer. Both features that we could not implement due to the limitations of Adobe XD.
Conclusions
User tests run on our prototype showed us where the design was well thought out as well as areas we need to spend more time. Going forward, the layout and design can be further expanding using the conventions we’ve established as a base for the app. The biggest area in need of more attention is editing the tag system.
We believe a big part of what made the interaction frustrating was the lack of salience for the hamburger button. In order to fix this we suggest removing the videos since no tags are selected and adding a text that says “No tags selected, please edit tags” along with an arrow.
Caveats
The participants in the user tests were all classmates and fit into the demographic of engineering students in their 20s. Along with the sample size being fairly small at 5 participants. Since these students all spent the semester learning good usability practices, they are more likely to know what to look for while navigating an application. Because of the small and relatively similar sample demographic, further user tests will need to be run on a more diverse demographic to get a full understanding of SleepWell’s strengths and weaknesses in the design and layout.