1. Are they able to figure it out? Where do they get confused and why? Do they understand the mapping between the controls and the experience?
When I tested my project with different people, I noticed that the overall interaction was very easy for them to understand. The three buttons were clearly labeled “Past,” “Present,” and “Future,” and the potentiometer automatically felt like a control for changing between morning and night. I designed the layout to be very straightforward on purpose because I wanted even younger users like my younger brother to be able to use it without help.
When I let my friend try it without any instructions, she was able to figure out the basic interaction immediately. She understood the mapping between the labeled buttons and the changes on the screen. The design helped guide her because I placed each label directly under the button, and the screen clearly showed the UAE environment changing based on the chosen era.
The only part that took her a bit longer to discover was that each button could be pressed multiple times to cycle through three different images. She eventually figured it out on her own by experimenting and playing with it. Most of my friends had the same experience: they understood the main controls right away, but it took some time to realize the buttons could be pressed repeatedly to see more images. Even though it wasn’t immediately obvious, they still learned it naturally without any instructions from me, which made me feel confident that the interaction was intuitive.
2. What parts of the experience are working well? What areas could be improved?
Overall, the system worked exactly the way I intended. The clear labels, simple design, and straightforward interaction made the experience smooth for almost everyone who tested it. People enjoyed seeing the UAE change across the past, present, and future, and the morning night movement using the potentiometer worked very naturally.
However, one area I think I could improve is adding a small instruction guide or a simple on-screen hint. Even though most people figured it out, some took longer to realize they could press each button multiple times to explore all the images. A very small, minimal instruction (like “Press again to see more”) could make the experience clearer from the very beginning.
Other than that, the core interaction and design felt strong and easy to understand.
3. What parts of your project did you feel the need to explain? How could you make these areas clearer to first-time users?
At first, I thought I needed to explain everything especially the fact that there are multiple images per era. But when I stepped back and watched people interact with it without saying anything, I realized that they figured it out on their own. The project ended up being much more self-explanatory than I expected, and most of the clarity came from the very clean design and labeling.
The only part that consistently required a moment of discovery was the “multiple press” feature. To make that clearer for first-time users, I could add a small visual cue or a short line of text somewhere on the screen that hints that the user should “press to cycle through images.” This would make the experience smoother for absolutely everyone, even if they don’t experiment as much.
But overall, user testing showed me that the project communicates itself pretty naturally, and I didn’t really have to explain much which was exactly the kind of interaction experience I wanted to create.