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phaseII
In this phase, we focused on refining the interaction design of our application and developing wire frames to reflect user workflows. The primary goal of Phase II was to improve the usability and clarity of the user interface based on what our team learned from previous research. The team focused on improving certain parts of the app that caused users the most trouble. We also focused on improving design features.
To achieve this, our team conducted cognitive walkthroughs using defined user scenarios and personas to evaluate how new users would interact with the application step-by-step. In addition, a demo was performed and students were posed questions about the design. This feedback provided insight into real user design problems and what the user might expect.
Based on these findings, we refined the flow and created updated wireframes to represent new layouts that would conform to user expectations. These wireframes show how users move between key pages such as login, home, and question screens. They serve as a foundation for future UI development and usability improvements.
In the 2nd phase, we used the cognitive walkthrough as our research method. Our current set of our wireframes, along with the progress of scenarios developed in Phase 1, we were able to post our wireframes for other UX users criticisms. There were different UX evaluators for each team that volunteered to evaluate one of our related scenarios. These UX evaluators were tasked with listing each step that the persona would take to complete each task that was given in the scenarios using the information and the actions that were detailed in the wireframes. For each step for the cognitive walkthrough, the UX evaluators had to answer two questions: What does the user do at this step? And, If the user does something correct, will the user know that they did the right thing and were able to make progress? The UX evaluators were able to submit their list of steps and answers to both of the questions for each of the steps for the Unstuck team to review.
The results of the cognitive walkthrough allowed the Unstuck UX team to understand what takes the users found difficult in completing a task, and it helped highlight some incomplete functionalities with the app. All of the evaluators were able to complete their tasks which made some tasks more difficult than others. We found that there were some tasks that matched the expectations of the app, as well as adding items to what services they were looking for. The cognitive walkthrough also revealed that the app was the ability to go to the dashboard and the home page, the backout button, and the return buttons to go back to the dashboard. It was also discovered that the questions were expected to have a functionality to make it where it was the least important to the most important to 'sort' their questions so they can see which is most important or not. Our research found that not having these details made it difficult for the user using the app.
The findings from our evaluation highlight key usability problems and places for improving the user experience. Users benefit from clear navigation and immediate feedback when interacting with the system. Difficulties observed during navigating the program suggest a need for better designed workflows and highlighting certain visual elements.
Based on this we recommend simplifying the navigation structure and providing clearer feedback during user actions such as login and submission. Also we should enhance consistency and reduce unnecessary steps. The recommendations should guide future design to better support user needs and improve their experience.
This research method, Cognitive Walkthrough, was not performed by professionals, but by other UX students who did not have experience in performing walkthroughs. At the time that the Cognitive Walkthrough, the set of our wireframe was done with could have been a complete set, they were missing some dialogue and overall could have been improved than they were.
While users were ultimately able to complete the tasks, main issues were related to navigation clarity, feedback and task flow. Missing features such as navigation controls and question priority, helped cause some of the confusion.
These findings highlighted the need for a clearer navigation, feedback improvements as well as greater design consistnecy. Improvement in this areas will help create a more positive and friendly user experience.