1. PRELIMINARY TEST
By observing the user interacting with the relatively new phone I could immediately notice how he seemed to have problems understanding how the main structure of menus and sub-menus worked and how to navigate them. He seemed very uncomfortable not being able to go where he wanted. It took a bit of time and effort to start warming up and understand the basic functions of the buttons, associating them with the information on the screen and orient and find his way through the various menus. It was a new process for him, but one thing was almost immediately and intuitively understood: the navigation up - down - left - right. It was the same as on his previous mobile he said. Memory does play a key role in the learning process. As far as I have noticed almost every mobile utilizes multi directional pad shaped like a diamond, with the cardinal points indicated by arrows, for the navigation. This is a very intuitive button which has a natural mapping immediately perceived and assimilated. Like Donald Norman says in the book The Design of Everyday things "A natural mapping reduces the need to memorizing information, which results in facilitating the user and so his user-experience."
Interview questions
By continuing to watch the user I started writing down the following questions for the interview.
Q. What don't you like about the phone?
A. Wayne finds this mobile phone in general more complex and difficult to use than the previous model he had. "In the old one the menu button - which is the main button you access all the functions of the phone - was placed centrally, while in this one the menu button is unnaturally moved to the upper right side of the phone, just below the screen.
Although he finds its minimal design and the white creamy color pleasing, and believes the shape is tight and compact, he thinks its size is too small and "gets lost in his hand". He complains it's difficult for him to visualize things as everything is way too small both for his hands and for his eyes. He has to wear glasses to see clearly and proceeds cautiously for every operations he has to make. If he could change anything he would make both the screen and the buttons bigger like his previous generation cell. He doesn't find particularly hard to compose a number but yet he is very slow because he is afraid that his fingers will overlap the numbers. He thinks that the buttons are also much too small for his thumbs."My thumbs cover the entire keyboard". He would be more comfortable with a larger keyboard that he could also see better without having to wear glasses.
Q. Do you find difficult or easy to navigate the menu?
A. W. doesn't find particularly difficult to navigate up and down, left or right the central menu and in fact he figured out pretty soon both the multi direction and the back button. What he seems to have difficulties with is attending the entire symbology used by the phone. These icons seems not to mean much to him. He can recognize only a few of them (the self explanatory camera, the WWW for the web, the envelope for the messages..) and the rest remains obscure. Even to me to a closer look some of these symbols looked a bit odd. He finds the entire process of using and navigate the phone menus unnatural, overly long and not as direct as he might wish, and this seems to frustrate and confuse him the most. He also finds difficult in understanding how to jump from menu to menu and how to go back to the home page or to the initial central menu from wherever menu level he is at. He understands the upper part of the keyboard is dedicated to the menu navigation while the lower parts is for dialing numbers only, yet he doesn't seem to see an interelation between the buttons pushed and their icons, and the information that comes on the screen.
2. USABILITY TEST
Pre-defined tasks
— I asked the selected user to make a phone call using his new mobile phone
W. was able to make the ph one calls successfully by remembering the number and than pressing each single digit on the phone's keyboard. He didn't use the address book function or wasn't aware he could memorize numbers in his phone and then call them by accessing the agenda and scroll the list down at a later time.
— I asked the selected user to compose and send me a message
He was a bit frustrated as he said he had done it only once. He showed some problems in finding his way to the message section. He seemed to push buttons randomly trying to guess the right one to find the message section without following a logic. Eventually once he got to the messaging section he really seemed to be lost and clueless as how to compose a word. He knows there is a certain way how to write but he doesn't remember it. He now has to pay extra attention to the buttons he pushes. The small flat keyboard makes it hard for his big thumbs to select the right button. He proceeds very cautiously and slowly. After a bit of effort and testing he is able to understand the working process and finds out how to write. Button 2 ABC one push writes A, 2 pushes B, 3 C, 4 2. Now he doesn't know how to put space between words. After the message is completed he looks puzzled by the two options he has to choose: CONTINUE or MORE. Both mean the same to him and don't make much sense. Continue to write or write more? where is the send button?
— I asked the user to read a message
Again he wasn't able to find easily his way to the Inbox messaging section. The problem seemed to be recognizing the message menu section's icon in the main menu. Once the message section is found than he was able to select and read the message he wanted, but he was completely unaware on how to delete or forward such or any message.
User-generated tasks
With his phone Wayne would like to be able to make and receive phone calls easily, send and write messages, and eventually extend his capacity to take pictures with and send them to his clients.
2. DEFINE YOUR PERSONA
NAME: Wayne Mahler
AGE: 63
EDUCATION: College BA English Literature
ETHNICITY: Caucasian
FAMILY STATUS: Single
JOB TITLE: Assistant Sales Manager
GOALS AND TASKS IN RELATION TO THE INTERFACE:
Wayne would like to being able to make and receive phone calls and send or write messages, and maybe extend his capacity to take pictures with the phone and send them to his clients.
Wayne is new to the cell phone technology. He purchased one mainly for his job. He works as a Sales person in a fashion boutique store in Upper East Side. His use and need of a mobile phone is strichtly confined/limited to being able to receive calls from clients wherever he is and in any moment of the day. He has been using a cellphone device only for a year and a half now, but this particular model (SONY ERICSSON) only for a month. He is still very unfamiliar with the device and its interface. Because he belongs to a generation which wasn't used to these devices he says he doesn't feel the need of having one at all costs with him all the time and if it wasn't for his job he would not have one. Although he appreciates and recognizes its value in certain situations for instance when you are running late and you need to contact somebody, or in an emergency case, unlike the rest of the society he consider his cell a work or an emergency tool only, not a regular necessity or a status symbol and he firmly refuses to become intimate with it. I respect him for his firm stand and point and wish I could do the same setting myself free from the slavery of a cellular device always with me.
Since his use is limited to basic operations, the best interface for W. I believe it would be one of easy intuitive use, featuring basic operations for beginners which eventually would lead him to go further and extend his device use to more complex functions and operations it can offer.
QUOTE: "I have a block about any kind of technological device or machines in general. I don't retain memory of how to do these things because I don't really care. I find, it reduces the world to a very small landscape".
TASKS:
*********
1. SENDING A MESSAGE
> MENU
> MESSAGING select
> WRITE NEW select
> MESSAGE select
> WRITE MESSAGE
> CONTINUE
> ADD RECIPIENT
> SEND
*********
2. READ A MESSAGE
> MENU
> MESSAGING select
> INBOX select
> VIEW
> REPLY
*********
3. MAKE A PHONE CALL
3. MAKE A PHONE CALL
> MENU
> ADDRESS BOOK select
> SELECT CONTACT
> CALL
4. PHOTOS
4. PHOTOS
Sony- Ericsson
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