6.1 Usability Test Report
After the second round of iteration, on October 16th, 2018, the department of Integrated Digital Media at NYU Tandon has held a Demo Day that helps all the thesis students to test their projects. I was also able to find six participants and test out my product. There are several features that participants mentioned about the app that need to be changed. One is the first page of the app. People are confused about whether they are getting an actual pet when registering for an account. They were also asking to be able to see the level of importance when calculating budget. Besides those features, there are some minor adjustments I need to make such as font size and copies.
Three out of six people pointed out they didn’t know the first page of the app can be interacted. In the first prototype, I made it simply by putting the icon of dog and cat under the questions. However, I think this way does not feel like it is the first page of the app. That is why I have changed it to two images both showing half of it and piecing together into one page. When users tapping on either image, the other image will get pushed and the image will take over the whole screen. For example, when the user taps on the dog side of the screen, he will see the cat image being pushed away and the screen becomes an image of dog. Then he can choose dog as his pet by tapping the arrow button. The user can tap the screen one more time to go back to the previous choice. That is also something confused by the users. That is why in the third iteration I decided make everything more obvious by adding buttons of cats and dogs indicating tapping on that means choosing one of the pets. When the user chooses on pet, there is also a back button locating above the arrow button so that they can always come back if they change their minds.
The other thing people mentioned a lot is that they don’t know if they are getting a virtual pet, a real pet or will get a real pet after seven day challenge. Especially when they have reached the point of giving pet a name. In order to fix that, I made it extra clear that it is a virtual pet that people are getting. For example, I have changed the copy from “Give your pet a name” to “Name your virtual pet.”
When doing the budget calculation, some users have mentioned that they would like to know the essential level for those cost. They were wondering if there are some costs that are optional. Otherwise, there is no point for them just to add all the cost up. Unfortunately, all of the costs that being listed are essential. However, some costs might not reach average based on everyone’s location and preferences. So I decided to change them into sliders so that people can adjust themselves. When the user first enter the page, the points will be set at average level and if the person would not want to spend a lot of money on “toy,” he can manually move the slider to the left. The average point is still there for him as a reference so that the user will have a general idea of the cost.
6.2 Audience feedback
By doing the usability tests, I was able to receive feedback not only on the function and the flow of the project. I was also able to see users’ opinions on the app. One comments I received a lot is that when people were using the budget calculator, they were shocked by the amount of money that is going to cost them to take care of a dog, not mentioning the amount of money of dog sitting and dog walking. I am satisfied to see people having this reaction because cost is an issue that pet owners have to face and most of them don’t actually try to figure out. My goal is neither encourage people by giving the wrong information nor discourage them by scaring them away. Showing them numbers is one of the best way to help people know if they are ready for their pets.
Another feature people often commented on was the dog walking experience. A lot of participants mentioned that it was nice to know what is around the neighborhood. It is also nice to be able to follow the random route that the app generates every time so that people and their dogs would not get bored. Besides that, because the time period is determined by the breed of the pet, people don’t have to worry about the time being too long or too short. However, in my opinion, it is a shame that I didn’t have chance to let people really spend the time to walk during the demo day. Otherwise, they will be able to have deeper understanding of how much effort do they need to keep their dog getting exercised.
During the process of testing, two participants were having totally different opinions on one thing, the time period of the challenge. One participants who claimed that he wanted to have a dog said seven days are too long and there was a big chance that he could give up anytime during the process. In the meantime, a dog owner insisted that the time period is way to short. She was proposing twenty one days because twenty one days form a habit. She didn’t think people can realize how difficult and how much responsibility they need to take to be a pet owner. I don’t know which person was right, and it is one of the problem I want to test out in the next step.