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(Note to group: Sorry guys. After the second testing is over, I was too happy and I threw away all the material, including the task cards. Here's what I remembered. -- Ice)
Each of the three task cards corresponds to a main task identified in GR1.
- (Searching) You are Jan _(cool last name here)_. You just knew that you friend Paul Jones has taken an interesting photo on his trip to Joshua Tree. Search for his photo.
- (Commenting) You are looking at Paul's photo. Make a comment that the photo is cool.
- (Posting) You just took a picture of a beautiful sunset in Boston yesterday (March 15, 2011) while going on the Duck Tour. Post the photo.
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- Search Box - The first iteration clearly show the search bar for 4 different types of keyword at all time, while the second iteration puts a smaller search box in the page header. The first iteration also emphasizes the fact that photos can be searched using 4 different keyword categories, while the second iteration introduces only a single search box on the front page.
- Search Mode - In the first iteration, searching by photographer's name and location give two different search result pages, while the second iteration treats all keywords in the same way.
- Mode - The second iteration has a tab interface mode for user's control panel and a normal viewing mode, while the first iteration integrates them together.
- Posting Photos - The first iteration has a single page for selecting a photo and supplying photo information, while the second iteration has two separated pages, which is originally designed for bash uploading.
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Observations
(Question: would you mind if I use bullet points for this section? -- Ice)
Iteration 1
(Observations here)
Iteration 2
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Usability problems you discovered from the testing. Describe what the users did.)
Iteration 1
User A
- Searching
- The user said that he was in the "browsing mood" and chose to click on the thumbnail pictures.
- After he searched by name "Paul Jones", he mentioned that he was confused since he saw no photos in the result page.
- In that page, the user clicked on the number of search results instead of the photographer's name.
- The user suggested that pictures should have different border to indicate different photographers.
- The user tried to post a comment immediately, even before receiving the next task.
- Since the user is not logged in, he asked if he could post a comment anonymously.
- Commenting
- The user suggested that commenters should be able to reply with pictures?
- Posting
- The user pressed "Post a Photo" button without logging in.
- The user tried to drag an image file (from Windows Explorer / Finder) to the empty picture frame on the webpage.
- The user expected the "Browse" button to be on the right of the filename textbox.
- He also felt confused / irritated by the gap between the picture and the submit button.
User B
- Searching
- The user pointed to the four-category search box said "Are these all required for each photo?"
- He made several attempts to search for the photo.
- He put "Joshua Tree" in the "Poster's Name" box. (=> Maybe we should change the wording.)
- He put "tree" in the "Type of Scenery" box.
- He clicked on a thumbnail with label "Nature".
- He made a comment on the top page's thumbnails: "Oh! This is just a random list of photos."
- He asked: if a user has many posted photos, will the photos be organized in categories.
- He wanted to see all information (as opposed to only 1 word) under each thumbnail.
- Commenting
- He asked if the comment textbox will have scrollbars when a lot of text has been typed in.
- He looked for a "cancel" button for the comment box.
- He wondered how to go to other pages of the sites.
- Posting
- He tried to post a photo without logging in first.
- He clicked the filename textbox instead of the "Browse" button
- He saw two buttons, "Browse" and "Upload". He got confused and asked why there are two buttons.
User C
- Searching
- Commenting
- Posting
Iteration 2
User D
- Searching
- Commenting
- Posting
User E
- Searching
- Commenting
- Posting
User F
- Searching
- Commenting
- Posting