I completed my final project for the MSc in Creative Digital Media with Rebecca Love in January 2016. We designed and built an app for people who had relatives involved in the 1916 Easter Rising to upload, share and connect photos of any ephemera that they have from their relatives.
It’s hugely important that the user can navigate through the app easily so in order to understand how users would approach the various tasks that they would seek to perform we had to conduct some user testing.
We chose to make paper prototypes of the proposed screens in the app and ask users to try to perform particular tasks without instruction to see how they navigated between screens and to identify the workflows that result.
Feed
The first screen presented to the user, this interface shows new relevant content that has been uploaded by other users. We wanted to know how the testers thought they should browse this screen and what the various groupings of content signified.
Connections
Central to our proposed app is making connections between content clear and coherent. We designed two different screen layouts to gauge which testers found easier to read or more logical.
'Map' of linked content.
Horizontal swipe.
Browsing Patterns
We also developed a number of possible interfaces for browsing. Again we wanted testers to tell us which method of browsing they found most enjoyable. efficient and logical.
A dense wallpaper of content that the user can pan around.
Clusters of content based on relatives connections.
Vertical scrollers that the user can scroll independently.
Story Screen
In the story screen, which provides a detailed view of a selected card we wanted users to identify various components, to see if they were recognisable and logical. We also wanted them to tell us how they expected to navigate away from the page to the 'Profile page.'
Profile Screen
The profile screen provides information about the family member who was involved in the 1916 Rising. We asked testers to identify different elements of the page, to tell us what they expected to be able to do on the page and how they imagined different types of content to react when selected. We also asked them to describe how they would procede to the upload screen.
Upload Screen
The upload screen is the interface that a user is faced with when they want to add content to the app. We asked testers what they thought of the layout, the types of options available and how they would expect to upload content. We also asked them to describe the process of uploading content as they imagined it.
Slider Menu
This mock-up suggested how a menu might work in relation to the page the user is on. We asked testers to tell us how they would tag the profile of their relative in a photo from the 'More Stories' menu.
We also provided a number of extra tools to help the testers to navigate the prototype. We designed post-its with 'navigation aids' and 'buttons' indicated on them and allowed users to add them to screens where and when they found it appropriate or necessary. We also allowed testers to create their own buttons if they felt that a suitable option was unavailable to them.
Buttons
The navigation aids that we provided for the participants.
The buttons that we provided for the participants
Some of the buttons created by the participants
Testing
"I would expect the same method of getting to add a photo from the profile screen and from the feed screen.”
Tester 1
“It doesn’t feel quite right that anybody can add content there’s a lot of trolls out there.”
Tester 3
“pretty quickly people are going to want to make a choice so enabling them to do that is important.”
Tester 3
"[Map] is beautiful but not clear I'd want it written down. It's beautiful but confusing."
Tester 6
For more information about the development of the project please visit our development blog at: https://the1916repository.wordpress.com/
