Non-Linear Narratives 0405 Group A

usability testing experience

2005-01-29T17:06:00.000Z

I sat in on a couple of the tests and I think overall the usability tests went well. As this was the first time I've seen usability tests performed on users on an interface I've taken part in creating, it was interesting to see their reaction to the product.

The testers seemed a bit confused at first, but I think with most interfaces, especially to do with games and/or mobile phones that is the case. By the second time the users played the game, they got the hang of it and they actually choose to play again. There was confusion w/ using the buttons instead of clicking on the screen, but they realised that between re-reading the directions to the left of the mobile and playing around with the mouse...how the interface worked. This would be something that would be taken out if this was actually on a mobile phone, which the users also agreed.

I found doing the tests were not quite as painful as I thought they would be. They are a bit awkward and asking random people to do you a favour is not exactly an easy task. I'm rather shy when it comes to things like this, but offering tea and penguin cookies does help. The users seemed happy to help and enjoyed taking part in testing out our interactive movie game.

One of intents in doing this project in this manner to try create something that is potentially an item people could use and enjoy on their mobile phones.I feel that it is not far off from being an interface to pitch to a company like Nokia.

Usability Testing

2005-01-29T13:54:00.000Z

We have tested 3 people

Q1: Please have a look at this page and tell me what do you think this site will be about. (Test the intro)
All 3 users understood that the site will be something about a murder, or a cop/detective operation.

Q2: Before clicking on anything could you please tell us what do you think is clickable?
Two out of 3 users thought that "Next" on the mobile screen would be clickable. One of them understood that the mobile buttons were clickable. However, during the game he tried to click on the screen too!

Q3: Did the instrunctions make sense? (Inspector's Instructions)
All 3 users were able to understand the instructions but they were not sure about the way they should handle the game. How would they be able to find evindence.

Q4: Whenever you are ready please show us what would you click on first. Why?
Two out of 3 testers clicked on "View Info" button because they wanted to find out information about the chacters. One of them clicked on "Connect" because he wanted to start playing.

Q5: Why do you think the video stops?
One of them wasn't sure why the video stopped. After playing for the second time she understood as she had the chence to read inspector's instruction for the second time.

Q6: How did you feel about the end part?
All three users were unable to find the right answers as they were not taking any notes. Because of that they all wanted to play again and two out of three answered the questions correctly.

Q7: Were you confused at any point? Did something make you feel frustrated?
All of them didn't realise that they were watching the videos live, even though "live" was flashing on the screen. One of them said that would like to be able to go back and view the same video again. Another user said, after playing for the second time, would like to go at the end section as soon as she found the answers for the quiz. One of them also said that it might be more helpful to have the seconds running on each video because otherwise time didn't draw her attention.

Q8: Would you like to play again?
All of them wanted to play again.

Q9: Would you use this one your mobile phone? Why?
All of them would like to have this game on their mobile phone because as one of them said people now "enjoy" watching other people's life (reality shows). Another one said that it would be very interesting if the story changes every week.

Q10: In what section of your mobile phone would you expect it to be?
Games, Entertainment,Online Games

Q11: Would you recommend it to someone else? Who?
All of them answered yes. They would recommend it to friends.

Q12: For what age group do you think this game is?
-"11 and upwards"
- "20-30"
-"14 and upwards"

Usability - Paper Prototype Testing

2005-01-23T20:46:00.000Z

We have tested 3 people.

Q1: Please read this (inspector's instructions) and let me know if it makes sense.
Two out of three users could understand the instructions, for one of them the text was not very clear maybe because English was not his first language.

Q2: Whenever you are ready please show us what you would do first. Why?
The first two users clicked on "Connect" rather than "Profile". When they've been asked why, they answered that they wanted to start playing immediately and they were not sure what "Profile" was. After doing 2 tests we changed "Profile" to "View Info" to see whether it would attract the next user. The third user chose "View Info" indeed. When she has been asked why, she said that she wanted to have more information about the characters before start playing.

Q3: Do you understand why the video suddenly stops?
All of them understood that the connection was not good.

Q4: What would you do next and why?
All of them chose a different character for the second see in order to find more evidence.

Q5: Were you confused at any point? Did something make you feel frustrated at all?
"I would like to be able to go back to the inspector's instructions to make sure that I'm doing what he is asking me to do."
"I think that the videos shouldn't be interrapted because is confusing."
"It's not clear that I was watching the story live so it was hard to understand what was going on."

Q6: What did you feel about the end part? (report part)
"I was not sure what kind of report was the inspector asking for, so I didn't pay attention to the time and place of each scene."
All of them felt that it wasn't clear on what they should pay attention.

Q7: Would you play again? Why?
Two out of three would like to play again because they found it very interesting/ engaging game.

Q8: How would you approach it next time?
"I would take notes."
"After watching 1-2 clips I would view each character's info (" View Info").
"I would pay more attention to the information given on each video clip."

Ella's Usability Tutorial

2005-01-20T14:15:00.000Z

These are the things that need to be changed after the tutorial with Ella:

- Buttons: Change some of the buttons so it gets clear to the user what's it for

- Provide more clues that it is a live video (show the time passing - seconds, make the policeman, enphasize it, blinking live at the screen...)

- Make it more clear for the user that he/she has to pay attention to the details showed in order to make a report at the end.

- Discussion about the questions for the usability test.

Radan Storyboard Tutorial

2005-01-19T16:45:00.000Z

These are the main things we need to change after our Storyboard Tutorial:

Role of User: needs to be more clear. Can indicate this during introduction, ie, say they are in the Police Technology & Surveylance dept.

Character Profiles: use these to give user more clues (OR to mislead).

Ending: Provide a proper ending/conclusion. Make user write and submit a report at end (game like)

Theory for Product

2005-01-19T13:58:00.000Z

Time & Place:
Time:
Order of Events is 'Congruent' In both Story and Discourse.

Place:
Main Location- Murder Scene,
Other Locations- Palls house, Weses Office, Mrs Wese House, Street before corner, Mrs Wese street.

Focalisation:
Focalisers: 4 Internal Focalisers (the 4 main characters).
Focalised Objects: Each other (ie Schmar focalises Wese)
Manner of Focalisation: Combination of both Perceptual and Psychological
Psychological-Schmar, Wese (from where he thinks about Julia onwards, looking at stars etc), Pallas (only when showing shock, satisfaction), Mrs Wese (worry, love)
Perceptual-Pallas (for most of story), Mrs Wese (when aware of time, looking for husband)

Space:
Not panoramic perspective, OR simultaneous.
More as with Narrative Games, the user has to find out where they are

Role of User:
Common Frames (from real world): Peoples experience of Murder stories/films, Adultery stories/films/real life
Intertextual Frames (from intertextual context): From characters, ie, If users watches a clip of Schmar and he is talking about Wese, user may choose to view Wese next, as the user now has a context for that character.

Linearity/Non Linearity:
The balance of these two is up to the user, they can either follow any one character through a linear path, or choose any combination of the characters, to make the focalisation non linear (the story in itself is linear as it has a beginning and end)

Product ideas - latest

2005-01-18T13:38:00.000Z

We are including the character of Policeman to introduce the story.
We are changing the way it works so the user doesn't call the characters mobiles as such, they are using the mobile number to locate the characters positioning and 'hack into' the nearest networked video image of that character. This could be from a CCTV, security camera, videophone, whatever.
I've adjusted the script accordingly.
We are also including character profiles within the product.

Tasks

2005-01-14T17:32:00.000Z

We have decided to do the following tasks-

MARCELA-
Video Editing/
Graphics/
Project Manager

CHRISTIANA-
Usability/
assisting Video Editing/
assisting Graphics

LESLIE-
Sound editing/
Flash elements/
assisting Director/
project website (if time)

MAZY-
Director/
writing Scripts
assisting Usability/

WE ARE ALL WORKING TOGETHER ON-
Film/
Research/

AND INDIVIDUALLY DOING-
Personal Websites/
Assets Logs

Radan diagram tutorial

2005-01-14T13:25:00.000Z

After meeting with Radan, he suggested the following for our diagram,
-to include the policeman, as he is a character who affects the story, the outcome would not be the same if Schamr were not led away.
- to add 2 additional time periods, 1 after Wese leaves work, and another as Mrs Wese rushes towards the scene with the crowd, this is because only ONE action per character can take place in a box/time period. If more than 1 action then another time period will need to be created (obviously this relates to the generality of detail we include-we are just including main events/actions)
-to link with arrows only the areas where there is interaction between the characters, so therefore after Wese is murdered, there is NO interaction between him and Schmar (so no arrow connecting). When Schmar is ranting at Wese's body we can include an ONE-WAY arrow, from Schmar to Wese.
-put less detail in the boxes (there is way too much). should just have a couple of words to state the main action occuring for that character/scene.

Product ideas meeting

2005-01-13T23:50:00.000Z

Just to recap what we discussed today regarding ideas for the final product.
-An Interactive mobile phone movie
-We are making the web version, but the idea is that this would be something the V.U.R.P (Sandras term for 'Viewer, User, Reader, Player) would watch/interact with on their mobile.
-The VURP is presented with a mobile phone phonebook menu, featuring the names and numbers of the 4 main characters
-When they scoll down each name, they see a picture of that character.
-They can then choose to phone that characters mobile.
-This links them to a direct view from the characters videophone, so they can see and hear that characters point of view (and the character themself, when they point the camera to themself).
-They then watch 1 min of the action from that characters phone(or so-time limit to be decided/experimented with)
-the call then 'times out', and they are cut off and go back to the phonebook menu.
-They can then select another character to call, or call the same character.
-They then see the next 1min of story, from their chosen characters point-of-view (P.O.V).
-And so on, for 6 mins of story.
-This means the VURP can see the story from any one of 4 P.O.V's OR any combination of the 4 P.O.V's.
-Therefore, the narrative can be experienced/interacted with in a variety of possible combinations.

Things to figue out-
-Script
-Storyboard
-LOCATIONS!
-Filming, downloading and viewing content from our mobiles
-Sounds
-Actors
-Product interface
-Tasks

Group Diagram Meeting

2005-01-12T12:32:00.000Z

Here is what we decided in relation to the group diagram:

As our Individual diagrams were quite similar in many respects, the main issues we needed to address were-
-Level of Generality
-Inclusion of sub-characters
-What to call Times

We decided-
- for level of Generality to go for a 'medium' level, ie, not too much really specific minor detail, but not too vague and general either. We decided this because we wanted to keep the included actions as relavant to the main narrative as possible, and also to include only actions and factual events, rather than thoughts, feelings etc. We therfore decided to include 3 sections after the murder, 'Just After the Murder', 'Aftermath' and 'End'. as we felt it was important to include all relavant actions in their sequential order. We decided to go for medium level of generality, also because if we made it too broad and general, we would have less to work with for our Product.
- for Inclusion of sub-Characters, we debated including 'Policeman' and 'Crowd' as characters, as they are characters which appear within the story and participate in events, however, we decided NOT to include them, as they are not MAIN characters, and their actions do not explictly affect the major narrative events. Also, they are mentioned within the descriptions of the main characters actions. We are undecided as to whether this is correct.
- we named the Times, ie, 'Waiting', 'Bell Rings', etc, rather than putting hours, minutes etc, as exact clock times are not stated in the story (except at the begininng), we feel our naming reflects the moments through time the characters are going through. However, we are unsure whether this is exactly the 'correct' thing to do (discuss with Radan).

hello

2005-01-11T15:41:00.000Z

just making sure this works!