Paper prototyping

From ThesisWiki

1 Scenario and system introduction
2 Tasks
3 Feedback

Scenario and system introduction

You are attending college in a city 100s of miles away from your partner and only get the chance to visit once a month. One of the ways you communicate while living apart is with Hello There, a system that lets you leave a message for someone in a particular place. You can create a text, voice, or photo message on the web or your mobile phone and associate it with a location and time. When the recipient is physically in that location, on or after the time you choose, they receive your message on their mobile phone.

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Tasks

(PDF of wireframes for task 1) web send, location-based: You have just gotten off the phone with your partner who told you that tomorrow morning s/he will be having breakfast with some of your good friends at your favorite diner. Use the web interface to leave a Hello There message for them at the restaurant to say that you wish you could be there.
(PDF of wireframes for task 2) web archive find and view: Hello There stores all the messages you have sent or received. A couple of weeks ago you received an audio message from your partner when you entered the coffee shop near your house. Find the message in your Hello There archive.
(PDF of wireframes for task 3) mobile hifi receive, mobile hifi send, time-based: You are walking past the park near your house when your mobile phone vibrates – it’s a Hello There photo message from your partner. Listen to the message on your phone and reply by sending a text message for her/him to receive after work today.
(PDF of SMS Commands for task 4) mobile lofi send, sms commands, location-based: Create a photo message with your phone and write a note saying, “I miss you, call me when you can” for your partner. Send this message through Hello There so that s/he will get it when they arrive at home.
In previous tasks you had a mobile phone running the Hello There application, but some tasks can also be performed on a regular phone. For this task you will have a regular phone with a camera and text messaging capabilities but not running the Hello There application. Review the SMS command list sheet before beginning this task.

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Feedback

The paper prototyping session with initial wireframes was held on April 9th, 2007 with five participants bribed with cupcakes. These half-hour sessions exposed problems in the system interaction and interface that I am now resolving. Below are some changes I plan to address based on feedback from participants.

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Sending

Who
- Make it clear that only one person can be chosen.
- Where is the “apply” button? How do you confirm a step in the process.
What
- Call me to record not clear
Where
- When typing a location the name is always tried first, not address.
- When chosen by name/address a default area radius should be shown to introduce the idea of an “area” instead of a “point”.
- “Outline a location” not understood; outline an “area” might be better.
- Outlining an area needs to seem like an option, not a requirement.
- How can “favorite places” bubble up from the recipient or through use?
When
- The idea of location and/or time is not coming through at first.
- Naming of options needs to be refined.
- The fact that the options are mutually exclusive needs to be more explicit
- Overall clarification of time based options needed
- Reminder about time zone is unclear – should explicitly say something like “[recipients]’s time”.
Options
- Can expiration be moved into the when section? Time expressed as a range? Could rename options to notification then.
Send
- Confirmation needs to be more confirming