Overall Reaction
My user testing experience went about how I expected it to. The person who participated was already familiar with my concept so it was a bit challenging to get an authentic reaction but we still had a productive conversation about what steps I need to take to improve. Although he was aware of my concept, I did not prompt him with any steps on how to run the software. Therefore, I was quite pleased that he was able to navigate it fairly seamlessly but am considering altering a few of the prompts just so users have a better idea of what to expect when they choose a location.
Areas for Improvement
One thing he highlighted in our discussion afterwards was the quality of my mappings. Because you are viewing the same thing on the screen (with brief instructions) and what you touch on the paper, it is clear that you should press a button to generate that location’s music. Right now my biggest concern in terms of improvements in finishing adding the switches to the map. This weekend I focused my time on finishing the software but now realize how that limited the user experience for testing. To help remedy this, I plan to conduct user testing again this Saturday to get a full critique of the design.
Another feature that we discussed would be beneficial in adding is a small screen where users can see themselves dancing to help promote full interaction with the piece. Given that my user already knew the intended goal of my design, he danced for the sake of full participation but I’m not sure it’s clear to users that I also want them to dance on their own. Thus, in terms of next steps, my immediate goals are: finishing the hardware, adding the video capture component, and creating another tab with specific instructions of how to use the program.
Testing Video