User Testing
For user testing, I let my sister test out my project. For this test, I didn’t give her many instructions beforehand, so I could observe how intuitive the system is.
User Testing Video:
Observations
My sister was confused at first because the mapping between the physical buttons and the actions on the screen wasn’t obvious.
I had to explain the concept of the project and how the buttons work, which shows I still need to make the controls more self-explanatory. Once explained, she understood the idea of selecting a year and choosing between music or news.
My sister suggested adding a sound effect when the selected decade changes so that the user is aware, she also suggested increasing the value range between the time periods because she felt that they were too close to each other (as seen in the video, she overturned the potentiometer and reached the last time period when she meant to only go to the second one).
She also criticized the play button (plays the music/news) and said that I didn’t really need it since the potentiometer changes the sounds anyway, so it would be redundant. Instead, she suggested having an activation button that “activates” the machine after the start screen.
Overall, it was clear where the experience worked and where it could be improved.
What’s Working Well
- The music playback is smooth now, with no lag (that was a big issue until an hour ago).
- The LEDs on the breadboard respond nicely to the potentiometer.
Areas to Improve
- The “news” button currently requires a long press. I plan to fix this so that a single press triggers the news playback.
- I want to add a clear response from P5, for example: the LED on the sketch lights up along with the LED on the board.
- I also need to display the selected year on the P5 screen so that my sister could see what they’ve chosen without instructions.
- The buttons need labels (“music” and “news”) so users immediately understand their function.
What Needed Explanation
The most confusing part for her was how the selection process works:
- How the potentiometer selects the year
- How the buttons choose music or news
To make this more intuitive, I plan to:
- Clearly display the current year on the P5 sketch
- Label the buttons on the breadboard
- Possibly add visual feedback cues (lights, animations) so users know their input is registered
Next Steps
- Improve the user interface on P5 to show selections clearly
- Fix the news button to work with a single press
- Add more intuitive labeling and feedback on the hardware
- Look for more audio files to make the selection more vast
User testing was extremely helpful: it showed me what’s intuitive, what needs clarification, and how the experience can be improved for someone using it for the first time.