User Testing Recap

[b]My first Day at University[/b]
[i]A short story by an overhead projector.[/i]

It has been a long time since I had been turned on, I was starting to think that nobody loved me anymore :(

But then I got a ride into UQ with this cool guy.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/6ziNTyu.jpg[/img]

Then I got carried around all over the place, talked to some grumpy engineering guys who poked and prodded me. They told me I was not going to explode and put a cool sticker on me so I guess it was ok.

Then I got taken to this cool looking room and thrown on my side. I mean I did not even know I could project onto the floor. MIND BLOWN, and there were cool pictures of bunnies and butterflies.

Today was a good day.

[b]User Testing Feedback Summary.[/b]

Feedback on our first prototyping session was largely mixed, and it is difficult to narrow down how much that feedback was due to the nature of the prototype using an old OHP or the experience itself. While some users enjoyed the scenario we created an the experience, most remarked that it was not very interactive. Having images track users arms (planned) and potentially allowing them to touch the images projected onto them (not planned but interesting) were ideas that came up.

That said everyone who participated in the test stated that they would be interested in experiencing it again, albeit with a different scenario. The theme which came up again was having the ability for users to record their experience so they could share it with others. This is something that we are planning to implement should we get the technology working.

Overall we were interested in testing what kind of emotions or emotive response we could get from users even in a low fidelity test. The overwhelming response was that the image of a bunny hopping along users arms from one participant to another made the biggest connection with people. The scenario was also described as happy and relaxing which is a point in the right direction for our project.

Testers suggested that cute images like the bunny in combination with motion would be a good way to have people interact with each other. Additionally adding in controls for gestures could make the experience feel more interactive and social.

While other suggested scenarios included sci-fi and fantasy themed stories the majority of testers felt that the nature / rainforest theme we had chosen was working well. One suggestion was that we could have the users interacting on different levels of the rainforest dependant on how high or low their arm was. To have for example a sky layer when users hands were higher off the interactive table on the rainforest floor lower down and underground if they were flat on the table.

Overall people liked most the feeling that they were part of the story and the surprise of what was going to happen.