- Paper prototypes:
For the paper prototypes, two iterations of it where created in order to improve the user’s interactivity with the application and an overall redesign of the application for an improved user interface and a generally strong user experience.
For my individual prototype I used ‘Scenario #2’ as my user. I created a simplistic design with an easy-to-use interface for the user. I implemented clickable images to make it easy for the user to navigate and a large surface area for them to accurately click as a lot of the time people tend to click a large image rather than the intended button as a means of navigation.
I also decided to make the design aesthetically pleasing to the user with the use of preloaders, cards and multiple images, with neat spacing and a linear grid layout. My reasoning for this is because it gives the application a sense of friendless, organisation and simplicity.
My Individual Prototype 1:
Preloader
Home Page
News Section & Article
Navigation Side-Menu
Login Form
For the sake of interactivity and scenarios, I conducted a full video demonstration of how the application may be navigated by a user, I done this only using the paper prototypes as an interactive guide as seen below.
2. Evaluation of Prototype 1:
For the evaluation of the prototype(s) I will be using the heuristic evaluation methodology.
Visibility of System Status
The application includes a preloader on startup in order to let the user understand that the application is loading, this is done using a progression bar which counts up to 100% on completion. However, there is no evidence of pages that handle 404 or network problems, these need to be in place as a fallback page incase some error occurs, otherwise the application may crash.
Match Between System & Real World
Many of the icons used within the application are a corresponding real world counterpart to the text that is being displayed, for example ‘Home’ in the navigation side-menu is accompanied with a house icon in order to increase the perception of what section the user is about to navigate to.
User Control & Freedom
Our application implements several interactive features such as a drawer side-menu which the user can either click on or pull out using their finger as a means of navigation between sections. We allow our users to freely scroll pages, navigate sections and return to previous pages using a back arrow where the navigation burger-menu icon is located. However, there could be more evidence of notification control for the user and flash messages for confirmation of a task, for example, exiting the application.
Consistency and Standards
On examination of the paper prototype, we can determine that the application follows a card layout design consistency. The reasoning for this is that the cards split up content within the mobile application for easier readability and organisation.
Error Prevention
Error prevention is not visible on this specific paper prototype, however the fields on the login form are infact validated and prompts the user to please provide the correct credentials just above each field for the actual application.
Recognition Rather Than Recall
From the paper prototype we can determine that many of the widgets within the application are generally known to the majority of all users as they are default Android widgets seen on the majority of applications, for example the “Share” widget is generally known and considered as a 3-connected-points polygon. For these reasons we can conclude that users would recognize the majority of things on our application rather than from memory.
Flexibility And Efficiency Of Use
By watching the above video of the paper prototype being used as an application we can conclude that the flexibility and efficiency of use is straight forward and generally easy to understand.
Aesthetic & Minimalist Design
On inspection of the paper prototype we can discover that the design is neat and concise, however, there is always room for improvement. The article itself looks quite clunked together so there may need to be a few changes to that.
Recognize, Diagnose & Recover From Errors
There are no signs of error recovery on this paper prototype as highlighted in Visibility Of System Status above. The application would benefit from well-designed and user-friendly 404 and network error pages.
Help & Documentation
There is no evidence on the paper prototype for help and documentation, the application would also benefit from a ‘Contact Us’ page if it where to be implemented
(In order to keep the blog max word count to 1000, the group prototype is in a separate blog labelled Group Prototype.
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