ViewPoint Usability Testing

I conducted usability tests that informed the design of a simulation library feature for the Center for Academic Innovation's website, ViewPoint.

Project Timeline

Oct - Dec. 2019

Tools

  • Google Hangouts
  • Google Forms

Skills

  • Protocol Writing
  • Usability Testing / Moderating
  • Scheduling Test Sessions
  • Preference Testing
  • Survey Design

What is ViewPoint?

ViewPoint is a website designed for creating and running role-based simulations. Simulations allow students to take on perspectives that may differ from their own and to immerse themselves in scenarios.

A Quick Overview

The simulation library is a way for faculty and admins to select a simulation to use as a base when creating a simulation for their class. This feature will also allow users to submit their simulation to the library for others to use.

Currently, when instructors want to create a simulation, they have to work directly with the Center to set up the simulation. The Center's ultimate goal for ViewPoint is to commercialize and allow users anywhere to create and/or modify template simulations. The first step towards that goal is designing a library feature that makes sense without needing additional in-person guidance.

Goals and Research Questions

  • Discover any points of confusion
  • Discover what is working well
  • What is helpful information to have on the higher level cards / What and how much information should be at this level? Is it overwhelming/intrusive? What would help someone browse without having to dig deep?
  • What would faculty want to filter around?
  • Also gather thoughts about the interface as a whole

User Testing Interview Protocol

Hi [participant name]! How are you? My name is _____ and this is _____, and we work for the Center for Academic Innovation here at Michigan. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. 

For the next 30 minutes, we’d like to have you walk through a prototype for ViewPoint, and we’ll ask questions along the way. We want to hear your thoughts, and we encourage you to think out loud while you’re clicking around the pages. I want to emphasize that we really want you to be honest, and that you can’t hurt our feelings even if you really dislike something, find it confusing, or think it’s not working. We appreciate you being as direct as possible regarding anything you see because we want to learn how we can make this tool work best for you.

If it’s alright with you, we’d like to take some notes as we’re talking. At anytime, if you feel uncomfortable or don’t want to answer a question, please say so and we’ll move on. If you have any questions as we go along, please ask them. There’s a chance I may not be able to answer since some of them will be regarding what we’re actually trying to investigate on the site, but in that case we can talk through them after we’re done. Do you have any questions before we get started?

Great, let’s get started! 

First, I’d like to hear a little bit about your experiences using ViewPoint. OR (if not experienced w/ ViewPoint) *ask about their experiences with simulations* 

  • What did your class use it for? Who created your simulations?
  • Follow-ups:
    • What are your general feelings about ViewPoint?
    • Anything you really liked or disliked about the experience of using this tool?

If you were to look at a set of premade simulations, what would you want to be able to filter them on?

So for this test today, let’s say that you are interested in using simulations for your class next semester. You’re not exactly sure how to go about this, but you know that ViewPoint is a website where you can build simulations.

ViewPoint’s homepage looks like this. *open laptop and show prototype* 

Task 1 - Homepage:  

  • We’d like you to first just look over this page and share your initial impressions.
    • What stands out to you?
    • (getting at what they think is the goal of this page) What do you think you can accomplish from this page?
  • Feel free to explore the page by scrolling but please do not click on anything yet. Please talk about what you’re interested in looking at, and what you expect to happen when you click on something.
    • Starting from the top of the page, can you explain your interpretation of the different elements that you have not already discussed?
      • Probe: What do you expect that element to do (if anything)?

Task 2 - Simulation Library Page:

  • What would you want to know about a simulation before selecting to use it for your class?
  • Now, let’s look specifically at the column on the _ side.

    • Can you talk about your interpretation of what you’re seeing?

    • How might you interact with anything here?

  • Given that you’re wanting to jump right into using ViewPoint and don’t know how to build a simulation, where might you go to see the options that are best suitable for you?

  • (on Simulation Library page) How do you feel about this page?
  • Again, feel free to explore the page by scrolling but please do not click on anything yet. Please talk about what you’re interested in looking at, and what you expect to happen when you click on something.

  • Starting from the top of the page, can you explain your interpretation of the different elements that you have not already discussed?
    •   

    • Probe: What do you expect that element to do (if anything)?

  • What do you think the tags are for?

    • What do you think about them?

    • Is there other information you’d want to know/have on a tag?

  • If you could filter these simulations, what do you imagine you’d want to filter them by?

  • So, there are two ways that a simulation in the library can be selected: you can select the “add” button right on the card, or you can “review details”, which takes you to the editor for that simulation, and within the editor, you can add that simulation to your simulations.

    • Feel free to click on review details

    • What do you think about the process for each of these?

  • Without having to click into the simulation preview, what information would you want to know just from looking at these cards?

    • What would be the ideal way you would want to be presented with this information?

  • What do you think of these numbers?

  • What do you think about the “best use” bullet?

  • How, if at all, would you use this information?

  • If you create your own simulation, you can also submit it to ViewPoint to be considered as a template. Any thoughts on this process?

Reflection

  • What stood out to you throughout this process?

  • Anything that was particularly challenging, or that worked particularly well?

  • Any additional thoughts, questions, or suggestions?

Well, that wraps up our test! Thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate your feedback.

More About Process!

These tests were 30 minute user tests using an Axure prototype.

We had 6 participants: 4 men, 2 women.

3 tests were in-person (two internal team members, one faculty member who we traveled to visit on campus), and 3 tests were over Google Hangouts with screen sharing.

A Challenge:

Before we had completed all of our usability tests, the design for the homepage was changed. We had completed 4 user tests and still had 2 to go. With the updated prototype, I worked with my supervisor to develop a plan for moving forward and getting equal feedback from all of our participants. We decided to test the remaining participants with the updated prototype, and then we reached out to all participants to see if they would be willing to do a follow-up where we showed them both versions of the homepage, as a sort of preference test.

Some participants were able to do an in-person follow-up (our internal team member participants), one was able to do another Google Hangouts, but the others were not. In order to get their feedback, I wrote two Google Surveys; two because the surveys needed to be slightly different based on which homepage design the participant had already seen. It was important that the wording of the questions was clear about which design I was referring to so that they could give accurate answers about which design they preferred.

Synthesis

After completing the testing and follow-up testing, I put together a Google Slides presentation and shared it with the team. The simulation library is currently being developed!