Express your kindness!

Overview Introduction Method for Study Test Measures Tasks Study Results Recommendations for Design Changes Summary Introduce the talk

Team Members Alisa Yamanaka Danny Kitt Haochen Wei Jared Jones Yuna Shim Say “hello” to TEAM AWESOME!

Pilot Usability Study Observe a handful of users with upLift Evaluate the current interface Evaluate the usability study Draw conclusions based on observed data Overview of the study purpose, etc.

Method - Participants UW students New to upLift Participants in the study were new to upLift’s interface.

Method - Participants A variety of ages and evenness of gender.

Method - Participants Majors CSE – undergrad CSE – PhD Biology English Unspecified Variety of majors.

Method - Setup Two laptops Two observers Location – CSE 218 Prototype only Notes Two observers Location – CSE 218

Method - Process Clean Slate Intro Task cards and post-task surveys Home screen and empty My Events Intro Script Consent form Task cards and post-task surveys Exit Survey Compensation Oreos

Test Measures Quantitative Qualitative Stopwatch for timing length of tasks Success/Failure of tasks Qualitative Observation of participant Subjective questionnaire

Tasks - Simple Perform a random act of kindness for a stranger Task 1: Please imagine yourself a person who always volunteers with a school group, and really enjoys helping others, but now you don’t feel capable because of your limited schedule and budget. While out and about during the day you want to do something nice for a complete stranger, without interrupting your normal patterns. You would like to see suggestions on what to do to help.

Tasks - Moderate Join an event happening within a specified time window. Task 2: Let’s say you’re at home on a Sunday and find you don’t have anything planned for the afternoon. You would like to use this unexpected free time to do something charitable. You decide to look for an activity that you could participate in within your window of free time. Search for an event based on the time it starts and find an event that begins at “10:00am”. Then choose an event of your choice.

Tasks - Complex Create an event that you want other upLift users to attend Task 3: Imagine you are the president of a school volunteer service organization. You have been planning a service event for the members of your club, but would like to advertise the opportunity so that you can have even more volunteers. You already have the time, place, and other such logistics decided upon, and would like to broadcast these to a pool of interested parties beyond your normal group of friends and acquaintances. Create a listing for your event. The details of your event are as follows: Name: Bake Sale Date: May 25, 2012 Location: UW Red Square Start Time: 1:00pm End Time: 4:00pm

Results Users rated most tasks as easy Users generally liked the simple design and color scheme Greatest confusion was still over home screen choices Confirmation screens were confusing Users wanted lists sorted and with more information available at a glance Results of the study

Suggested UI Changes Home Screen Confirmation Screens Clearer descriptions Organize Others -> Create Event Confirmation Screens Change to popups Suggested changes.

Suggested UI Changes Find Events Include event details in list view Consider other options for the logo of user-created events Include all events in the list, but clearly identify events already joined by user Add sorting options Consider contrast between Browse and Search tabs Suggested changes

Wrap-up Pilot study provided very useful feedback on the current prototype design We successfully resolved some issues from previous iterations. Some design issues in upLift continue to be a challenge We learned the value of piloting a usability test before going full scale. Conclusion