HCI 2 Blog: March 2007

A principle of UCD is to evaluate designs involving the users, we demonstrated this by using our persona’s to complete a questionnaire regarding our prototype:

http://hci2phone.blogspot.com/2007/03/prototype-questionnaire.html

Participate in analysis and design work in HCI:

Analysis of research into users:

Analysis of feedback on prototype design

http://hci2phone.blogspot.com/2007/03/summary-of-personas-views.html

Design of product from initial ideas to revised prototype:

Demonstrate appreciation of the research literature in one subfield of HCI.

Persona’s from Microsoft (Pruitt & Grudin)

http://hci2phone.blogspot.com/2007/02/catherine-gipson-personna.html

Heuristic Evaluation (Jakob Nielsen)

http://hci2phone.blogspot.com/2007/03/heuristic-evaluation-heuristics-after.html

Conclusion

We have successfully carried out a User Centered Design to design a useful piece of technology to support our target audience, the elderly (approximately over 65).

This involved looking at the users needs and views through various methods, such as questionnaires, observing their environment, general research and the use of persona's. We involved the users in the evaluation of our prototype design, to help us design a more suitable product. As well as following the process of a User Centered Design we have applied various aspects of HCI such as using creativity tools, developing persona's and using Heuristic evaluation.

The result is that we have designed a mobile phone suitable for the elderly, that they will find easy to use, and not be afraid to try using it as new technology, yet still have the features they require.

Summary of Persona’s Views on Prototype

1. All three of the persona’s liked the user friendliness of the phone and how easy it was for them to come a call, and find a contact in their phone.

2. Another bonus was the ability to just have one phone, instead of a house phone and a mobile. It was nice to be able to take the phone where they were in the house or garden without having to worry about missing a call.

3. All three of the persona’s felt that the phone was quite difficult to open.

4. The personas like the fact that the phone could be used with their current phone.

5. Ronald felt that there was a need to display text messages as he often finds that he gets messages from his family when on holiday

6. Deirdre felt that there was a bit of confusion when dealing with a call when both her and her husband tried to answer the phone at the same time.

7. Ronald also felt that there was a need to have a neck strap so that he can access the phone easily if he was doing something that meant his hands got dirty or wet.

8. Catherine and Deirdre felt that the phone sometimes falls out of the holder in the base unit.

Heuristic Evaluation

Using Nielsen's ten heuristic project evaluation techniques: http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html

We created our own set of heuristics to test the effectiveness of the system around the user.

Heuristics: After first prototype -

1. Visibility of system status

2. Match between system and the real world

3. Consistency and standards

4. Recognition rather than recall

5. Aesthetic and minimalist design

6. Help and documentation

Visibility of system status

Function	Issue	Severity	Recommendation
Making a call	Navigating through the numbers on the phone book is arduous.	Low	Hold down the button and time duration increases its scrolling rate.
Reading a text message	No capability	High	Create this functionality in software by, enabling voice retrieval of text message by using 1471 function of BT.
Miss call	Retrieval of miss call	Medium	User will be asked do you want to call back number? . Miss calls can be reviewed using the base unit showing the time and date of any calls made to and from the phone.

Language

Function	Issue	Severity	Recommendation
SMS	No understanding of acronym	Medium	Change to text message.
Phone textual responses	Short hand phone explanation of functions	Low	Leave as general understanding can be adopted over the readability of smaller text.
Multi Language usage	Not yet developed	Low	If design is required to be distributed to a wider market i.e. Europe install the language packages necessary.

Consistency and standards

Function	Issue	Severity	Recommendation
Networks	Home/Mobile differences	Medium	Try to create consistency by letting BT handle network transfer from Mobile to House phone etc, and allow the function to operate as normal creating a transparency.

Recognition rather than recall

Function	Issue	Severity	Recommendation
Volume	Not knowing to increase the volume with the scroll wheel	Medium	Write the function on the phone so its usability is clear.
Internal functions of phone (opening phone required to handle these)	Not knowing to open the phone to access or carry out these functions	Low	General understanding of phone is demonstrated by installer and will be adopted with usage.

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Function	Issue	Severity	Recommendation
Colour of phone	Visibility	Low	Allow a range of medium visibility colours. (Not to brash).
Opening the phone	Grip	Medium	Add rubber-grooved strips.
Opening the phone	Ease of opening	Mediim	Spring installed to allow the last action of its opening to become assisted.

Help and documentation

Function	Issue	Severity	Recommendation
User manual	Length and degree of complexity	Medium	Ensure that there is a user guide (simple functionality for everyday usage) and a user manual (more in-depth functions explained and error awareness and limitations).

Photos of Meeting Regarding Re-Design

Here the main points that were agreed during our meeting regarding results of our first evaluation.

Wednesday 28 March 2007

Summary of First Design Features

Phone:

The 3 Buttons: The idea behind these was for simplicity. Each button is big and easy to press. The big circular middle one has a phone symbol on it; the main use of this button is to begin a phone call, when a number is selected on the screen using the other two buttons. It is also used to turn the phone on when it has been switched off due to loss of battery. The other two buttons are either side the middle one and are labeled with <> arrows, their main functionality is to browse the phone book on the phone. Occasionally the screen will ask the user questions and the buttons dictate the answers to these questions, with the '>' arrowed button meaning no and the '<' arrowed button meaning yes.

Under the main button there is the following text: On. [new line] Press and hold to turn on

Under the '<' button there is the following text: No

Under the > button there is the following text: No

The Inside Screen:

The screen is located on the top part of the phone it is slight inward of the phones sides so that the buttons can stick up more and so that the screen is more protected.

When the user presses one of the arrow buttons it displays the a contact name in alphabetical order, if the user presses the left had arrow button it will show the last alphabetical name in the list (e.g. Zara) however if the user presses the right arrowed button it will show the first alphabetical name in the contacts list (eg Adam). When in the contact name view, at the bottom of the screen in the corners are the words next (on the bottom right) and previous on the bottom left. If the user goes past the last contact in the list (right or left) then the normal screen is presented.

In the normal screen there is a battery bar which goes up the side of the screen. At the top of the screen there is a description of the current signal strength. So in a Strong signal area the phone displays the words Excellent Signal. However when in a low signal area it will display the words; Low signal. In the top right hand corner of the screen the current time is displayed and in the bottom middle the date is shown.

When the phone is open and the user scrolls on the volume control, a volume chart is displayed showing the current volume level. Scrolling up will add more bars to the chart (until the maximum is reached) and down will take them away.

When the user has missed a call the phone will display a message saying:

n Missed Call(s) (the s is added if n>1)

Name of contact on phone

Time of call

Call Don’t Call

n represents the number of missed calls, the missed calls are added on top of the previous so the last missed call is the one represented first. If the user selects don’t call then that missed call is deleted from the list and all the other missed calls from that contact are also deleted, the next missed call is then displayed. If the user selects Call, all of the missed calls in the list from that contact are removed from the list and when the call has finished the next missed call is displayed on the screen.

The Outside Screen:

When the user has missed a call, the words: Missed Call is displayed.

When the use has an incoming call the name of the contact is displayed on the screen.

When phone has none of the other information then a clock is displayed.

Volume Scroll

When the volume scroll is used with the phone shut, it does nothing. However when it is open the volume is increased when the scroll is moved upwards and it is decreased when it is moved downwards.

The Main Unit

The key unit has the following buttons: a standard 12 button phone keypad with slight larger than normal buttons, so 0-9 + # and *. On the bottom left of the keypad is a button for clearing the last entered number, is red with a c in the middle of it, it has the words cancel/clear underneath it. At the top of the buttons there are 4 quick call buttons each can be edited using the assign quick call button on the left of the main keypad. In this section there are 4 buttons in total and they read: Assign quick call button, add new number, delete number, and phone book. The buttons * and # are also labelled with the arrows <, > respectively. These are used to scroll though the contacts in the phone book, after this button has been selected.

When the phone book button is selected, the main screen for the unit displays the first name of the contact list in bold at the top of the screen with the number of the contact underneath it. If at this point the delete button is pressed the screen will show the following message: do you wish to delete this contact? If so press the * key if not press the # key. This prevents the user from accidentally deleting a contact from their phone. If the assign quick call button is used when a contact is on screen the software will display the following message on the screen: “Do you wish to add this as a quick call? Press the * for yes, # for no” followed by the next message if yes is selected: “Please select a quick call button to assign this number to”.

If the Add new number button is selected then the screen will first ask the user to put in the name of the new contact, this is done by entering each letter using the keypad, where 2 has the letters abc associated to it, so entering Adam would require one press of 2 then 3, 2, 6.

When a call is made the screen shows the current call in progress with a phone symbol and the name of the person being called.

The phone sits in a grove to the left of the keypad.

Technical Hardware

If the phone is to be successful then it will need to be part of the BT home fusion service so that it can reach the masses, for this to be successful the phone must use the same technologies currently offered by phones on the BT fusion service. These hardware abilities include: Wifi and Bluetooth. By using these technologies the phone can offer cheaper rates when in BT Wifi zones, in their house or when the user is around a friend’s house that also uses the same service. However this does mean that the rate for mobile calls not in these areas will be larger.

Monday 12 March 2007

Deirdre Questionnaire response

1. How easy was it to open the phone: [b] - comfortable

2. On opening the phone how easy was it to read the contact names: [a] - easy

3. When operating the key pad how easy was it to press the buttons: [a] - easy

4. How easy was it to maneuver through the list of contacts to find the one you wanted: [b] - comfortable

5. How easy was the phone to hold, to your ear, when making a call: [a] - easy

6. After pressing the middle button to make the call how easy was it to hear the person on the other end: [b] - audible

7. How easy was it to close the phone to finish a call: [a] - easy

· Adding a new number from contact card:

1. How did you find adding a contact to your phone: [b] – comfortable

· Dealing with a miss call:

1. How did you find handling with a miss call: [b] – comfortable

· Using the volume button:

1. How easy was it to locate the volume wheel: [b] – comfortable

2. How easy was it to use the volume wheel: [b] – comfortable

These are questions for the base’s functionality:

· Recharging the phone:

1. How easy is it to place the phone onto the base: [a] – easy

2. How clear is the beep that signals a connection with the base when the phone is placed on its holder: [a] – clear

· Adding/deleting a new contact:

3. How easy is it to use the buttons on the base to type in a new name and number: [a] – easy

4. How easy is it to read the text displayed on the screen of the base: [b] – comfortable

5. How easy is it to add a new contact to the phone: [b] – comfortable

7. How easy was it to pick up the phone from the base:[b] – comfortable

Any other comments:

The phone itself looks very modern and I have never encountered a flip phone before so this was a completely new concept for me to grasp. The phone was a little bit tricky to open as especially when receiving a call i could get it half way, but then i sometimes lost my grip and the phone shut, ending the call and not leaving any evidence of who has called. Once i got used to it the phone got a lot easier to use. The address book is really good as it means that I don't have to remember peoples numbers, and makes my life easier. Entering the numbers on the base is a very good idea as it means that I don't have to mess around with menus on the phone itself. The base is very good and will be a good replacement for our current cordless house phone, however i'm glad that we can still use our old phone as it has taken me long enough to get used to it! As I didn't have a mobile phone before, I didn't think that I would benefit from having one, but now when i go to the hairdressers I can give my husband a call when I have finished, which saves him waiting around. It also enables me to get in touch with him when he is out walking the dog, and my piece of mind has increased as a result. I think that the phone is a great idea and taking it out is mainly just for emergencies at the moment, but as the phone doubles as a house phone it has encouraged me to just keep it in my pocket all of the time. Having one for me and one for my husband is quite tricky as when someone calls and we both try to answer, I didn't know whether he was going to pick it up as well. Calling out doesn't have the same problem though with multiple outgoing calls being possible, and I think that this is a great feature.

Cath's Prototype Questionnaire

· Making a call/ Answering a call:

1. How easy was it to open the phone: [c] - difficult

2. On opening the phone how easy was it to read the contact names: [b] - comfortable

3. When operating the key pad how easy was it to press the buttons: [a] - easy

4. How easy was it to manoeuvre through the list of contacts to find the one you wanted:[b] - comfortable

5. How easy was the phone to hold, to your ear, when making a call: [b] - comfortable

6. After pressing the middle button to make the call how easy was it to hear the person on the other end: [a] - clear

7. How easy was it to close the phone to finish a call: [b] - comfortable
· Adding a new number from contact card:

1. How did you find adding a contact to your phone: [b] – comfortable

· Dealing with a miss call:

1. How did you find handling with a miss call: [a] – easy

· Using the volume button:

1. How easy was it to locate the volume wheel: [b] – comfortable

2. How easy was it to use the volume wheel: [b] – comfortable

These are questions for the base’s functionality:

· Recharging the phone:

1. How easy is it to place the phone onto the base: [a] – easy

2. How clear is the beep that signals a connection with the base when the phone is placed on its holder: [b] - audible

· Adding/deleting a new contact:

3. How easy is it to use the buttons on the base to type in a new name and number: [b] – comfortable

4. How easy is it to read the text displayed on the screen of the base: [b] – comfortable

5. How easy is it to add a new contact to the phone: [b] – comfortable

7. How easy was it to pick up the phone from the base: [a] – easy

Any other comments:

(The following was received by post)

Dear Matthew,

Thanking you for letting me take part in this free trial, my friend and I spent a good hour setting the phone up, It looks very swish! I currently have a Nokia mobile phone and I find it a bit confusing, it takes me a couple of minutes to make a call and text messaging seems way beyond me.

So it was nice to a simple phone that I could use around the house and take out with me when shopping in town. I do keep every thing in my hand bag and sometimes I struggle to find it as the insides of my bag are black and I often miss the call. However the ring back option is rather useful and it helps me a great deal.

The fact that is acts like a house phone when I'm at home is marvellous as I don't need to rush to get to the phone and Its good to feel secure that if I have fallen over I can contact my family with ease without needing to do much movement.

I do find at times the phone seems to slip out of the holder on the base unit and fall on the floor! no worries it still works fine!

Yours Sincerely,

Catherine Turner

Ronald's questionnaire

Prototype Questionnaire (Ronald):

These are questions for the phone’s functionality:

· Making a call/ Answering a call:

1. How easy was it to open the phone: [b] - comfortable

2. On opening the phone how easy was it to read the contact names: [a] - easy

3. When operating the key pad how easy was it to press the buttons: [a] - easy

4. How easy was it to maneuver through the list of contacts to find the one you wanted: [a] - easy

5. How easy was the phone to hold, to your ear, when making a call: [b] - comfortable

6. After pressing the middle button to make the call how easy was it to hear the person on the other end: [a] - clear

7. How easy was it to close the phone to finish a call:[b] - comfortable

· Adding a new number from contact card:

1. How did you find adding a contact to your phone: [b] – comfortable

· Dealing with a miss call:

1. How did you find handling with a miss call: [a] – easy

· Using the volume button:

1. How easy was it to locate the volume wheel: [b] – comfortable

2. How easy was it to use the volume wheel: [a] – easy

These are questions for the base’s functionality:

· Recharging the phone:

1. How easy is it to place the phone onto the base:[b] – comfortable

2. How clear is the beep that signals a connection with the base when the phone is placed on its holder: [a] – clear

· Adding/deleting a new contact:

3. How easy is it to use the buttons on the base to type in a new name and number: [b] – comfortable

4. How easy is it to read the text displayed on the screen of the base: [a] – easy

5. How easy is it to add a new contact to the phone: [b] – comfortable

7. How easy was it to pick up the phone from the base: [b] – comfortable

Any other comments:

(the following was left on the answer phone)

Hello Matthew,

I was just finishing my crossword when Jen, our lovely postlady (must remember to ask her how her new born is doing) delivered your phone. The first thing to say about it is the base unit seems to extremely large compared to our current phone. However it still fits on our trusty table near the front door.

It seemed very easy to setup, and i was most pleased with the healthy sized screen, i didn't need to take my glasses off to read to it! (Most impressed). One thing that we are not so sure on is whether our other house phones can work along side this device there was no mention of it in your letter.

Once running we seemed to be getting on alright, we did the first test with me at the end of the garden, Shelia's voice was so clear. This phone will be ideal for when we out in the garden, as we can never hear our current phone and we don't like to think that we have missed important phone calls. We also felt that we would like to be able to have the phone around our neck, so that if we are in the garden that we do not forget it in a rush, say if it was starting to rain and having to go inside quickly, or so that we get to it in time before the call is ended, as i can see this happening if it is in one of our pockets. (That blasted squirrel is back again, hang on.........).

I had no trouble opening the phone but alas my wife could open it but not with great ease she could not get a proper grip under the top side of the phone to get it open and often ends up moving the volume wheel (not sure if this does any changes, I always make sure that she rolls it back just in case).

I not sure if the phone allows for text messages, but i often get these from the family when they are on holiday! I admit that I hate texting relatives and prefer to call them so sending them is not really an option! I was just wondering whether if the phone allows for me to read text messages that I get sent? this was not mentioned in the manual and would be something i would miss from a normal mobile phone.

Overall I think the phone is very useful as I no longer get in trouble for not leaving in time to pick up Shelia when she is doing one of her many guide meetings and I can keep in touch when out walking or shopping without getting confused with all the buttons on these new mobile phones!

Hope to hear from you soon

Tuesday 6 March 2007

Prototype Questionnaire:

The design of the phone is now complete so to test the phone’s functionality and ergonomics we have devised a questionnaire to give to the end user. We will evaluate the feed back and make modifications to our prototype.

Under the demonstration that the installer gives to the user and their helpers (children or friend) 5 simple tasks they need for the phones general use also shown to the user.

1. Open phone to start any communication.
2. When phone is open to make a call, press '<' & '>' keys' to find the number you want to call then press the middle button to make the call.
3. To stop all processes close the phone.
4. To recharge the phone place it closed on its holder and wait for the beep.
5. To answer a call, open the phone.

These are questions for the phone’s functionality:

· Making a call/ Answering a call:

1. How easy was it to open the phone: [a] - easy [b] - comfortable [c] - difficult

2. On opening the phone how easy was it to read the contact names: [a] - easy [b] - comfortable [c] - difficult

3. When operating the key pad how easy was it to press the buttons: [a] - easy [b] - comfortable [c] – difficult

4. How easy was it to maneuver through the list of contacts to find the one you wanted: [a] - easy [b] - comfortable [c] - difficult

5. How easy was the phone to hold, to your ear, when making a call: [a] - easy [b] - comfortable [c] - difficult

6. After pressing the middle button to make the call how easy was it to hear the person on the other end: [a] - clear [b] - audible [c] - unclear

7. How easy was it to close the phone to finish a call: easy [b] - comfortable [c] - difficult

· Adding a new number from contact card:

1. How did you find adding a contact to your phone: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] - difficult

2. If difficult what part of adding the contact did you not understand: [a] – The fact that a person had sent you a new number and name to add to the phone contacts, [b] – The operations needed to add the contact to the phones contacts, [c] – another reason

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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· Dealing with a miss call:

1. How did you find handling with a miss call: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult

2. If difficult what part of handling with a miss call did you not understand: [a] – the fact that you did not understand that someone had tried to call you [b] – the operations needed to reply to the person who you missed or cancel the operation, [c] – another reason

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………..............................................................................

· Using the volume button:

1. How easy was it to locate the volume wheel: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult

2. How easy was it to use the volume wheel: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult

3. If difficult, what part of using the wheel did you find difficult: [a] – the concept of turning on the function by clicking up the wheel then altering the volume, [b] – the size of the wheel is too small, [c] – another reason

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………........................................................................................

These are questions for the base’s functionality:

· Recharging the phone:

1. How easy is it to place the phone onto the base: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult.

2. How clear is the beep that signals a connection with the base when the phone is placed on its holder: [a] – clear [b] - audible [c] – unclear

· Adding/deleting a new contact:

3. How easy is it to use the buttons on the base to type in a new name and number: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult

4. How easy is it to read the text displayed on the screen of the base: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult

5. How easy is it to add a new contact to the phone: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult

6. If difficult, what part of the process did you find difficult: [a] – the process in which a number is added, [b] – the ability to add a name using the keys, [c] – any other difficulty

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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7. How easy was it to pick up the phone from the base: [a] – easy [b] – comfortable [c] – difficult
Any other comments:

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Monday 5 March 2007

Interface Ideas

Hi guys,

Just thought I would post some ideas to outline the behaviour of the interface, let me know what you think. Matt I have built on your points specified in the hardware section of the blog.

Sunday 4 March 2007

BT's current home mobile service

Current BT phone options

BT have a service called BT Fusion which was launched in June 2005, which was then offered to businesses in September of that year. The service offers customers a phone contract that works as a house phone and a mobile phone, when the phone is in the house it works off the house's land line, but when the phone is outside the house it works off the mobile network. In order to do this the phone uses two technologies, first blue tooth, this is installed to the customers house so that the phone will connect to the blue tooth signal when in range. This allows for cheaper calls as it does not need to connect to the mobile network and therefore reducing the price of calls for the customer. The second is the mobile network, which works the same as any normal mobile phone. However as BT do own any mobile masts it has to pay for the use of them to the big mobile companies, this has lead to the price for a call when using the mobile network (Global System for Mobile Communications) to greater than it would using a normal mobile phone contract.

In December 2006, BT released Wifi with its BT Fusion service meaning that any calls made in a BT OpenZone (a area that has Wireless Access controlled by BT) will be cheaper meaning that their phone contracts are more appealing to customers. This access to Wifi also allows the phone to access the internet, and as the service is Wifi is this cheaper than that of the 3G service currently offered by the big mobile companies.

The current BT Fusion hub also allows friends (who have the same service at home) to use as well, providing a pin is inserted, they can get cheaper minutes whilst at a friends address. The current phones being offered by BT for this service are: Nokia 6136, Motorola A910, Samsung P200(coming soon). All phones support Wifi, a 1.3m camera and have a mp3 player.

HCI 2 Blog

Thursday 29 March 2007

Learning Outcomes