Case Study
Hostel World’s product designer, Emmet Fërdle has posted a case study online of his thought process whilst redesigning the website for use on an Android mobile device. The company was going through a rebrand at the time and he soon found that if he kept adding new icons and actions to the old interface, the design soon became cluttered and ugly. In turn he decided to redesign the app interface and usability standards to fit a modern, mostly millennial audience. I will be taking this on in my design and will try not to clutter the interface too much. This is very important to consider on a mobile device as there isn’t a lot of room to work with in the first place. His main 10 points in the article are:
- Question Everything
- Know Your Audience
- Know Your Team
- Start Messy, Tidy As You Go
- Prototypes Are Invaluable
- Try It In German
- Take It One Step At A Time
- Pull Your Weight
- Test Relentlessly
- Do It All Again
The point that stands out for me the most is No. 6 Try It In German. This has inspired me to include a language and and currency tab in my design for ease of use in different countries. I want my app to be versatile and available worldwide and this means it must be designed in a careful way to cater for a huge audience.
What is a Prototype?
A prototype is defined as ‘a first or preliminary version of a device or vehicle from which other forms are developed.’ It is usually made after an idea has been wireframed as a stepping stone to a final product. Many iterations can be made to a prototype until it is finalised, it is very rare that the first prototype goes live. Prototypes can range from a low to high fidelity and can be paper, digital or made in another medium entirely. For the context of this project however I have made a digital version of my mobile app.
“A prototype is a draft version of a product that allows you to explore your ideas and show the intention behind a feature or the overall design concept to users before investing time and money into development. A prototype can be anything from paper drawings (low-fidelity) to something that allows click-through of a few pieces of content to a fully functioning site (high-fidelity).” (Usability.gov, 2017)
Methodology and End Goals
I am looking to create a questionnaire to help the user establish which extreme sport would suit them best. Due to strict time constraints I will be using a simple yes/no quiz construct and include a fun fact finding element where the user will see facts relating to the question to peak their interest. I will be using A/B testing to reach 2 main end goals. Firstly I want to see how best the user retains the factual information displayed in front of them. I will be testing this by conducting a face-to-face multiple choice questionnaire after the initial session. Secondly I want to measure how pleased the user is with the experience both aesthetically and with usability by using the ‘I Like, I Wish and What If‘ criteria. The idea of the quiz letting the user know which sport would suit them best will produce no results and will merely act as a skeleton for the dataI will be collecting about the way my service functions.
For elements in the functional design I will adding slight attention to detail to help make the whole experience that little bit more believable. An example of this is demonstrated in the languages drop down list where I have taken information from Fox News Point about which top 10 languages are most spoken around the world in 2017. After including these I made up some currencies to include in the next drop down list.
Facts and Questions
Sky Diving
Are you afraid of heights? Y/N
- The youngest person to accomplish the feat of skydiving was a four year old. The jump was a tandem jump (skydiving while being harnessed to a trainer), and was made from an elevation of 10,000 feet.
How old is the youngest sky diver? (4, 12 or 5?)
Do you mind travelling by plane? Y/N
- One of the most daring sky dives recorded was a solo jump completed by a 90 years old woman who skydived from 12,000 feet to celebrate here birthday.
From how far up did the 90 year old woman do her solo jump in honor of her birthday? (10,000, 15,000 or 12,000?)
Snowboarding
Do you mind cold weather? Y/N
- Snowboarding was invented in the 1960s and started out as snurfing. Sherman Poppen, an engineer living in Muskegon, Michigan, strapped two skis together and added some rope for steering. His wife called it a snurfer, or snow surfing.
What was snowboarding called before ‘snowboarding’? (Skiboarding, Snowrowing or Snurfing?)
Did you skateboard when you were younger (or now)? Y/N
- In 2000, snowboarding was the fastest growing sport in the US. It has taken over globally like wildfire.
In 2000, in what country was this the fastest growing sport? (France, USA or Germany?)
Parkour
Do you enjoy running? Y/N
- Parkour originated in the early 1900s in response to a volcano emergency. Lt. George Hebert became intrigued by the way humans would avoid obstacles and in turn created a new method of training that became standard in the French army.
Which country’s army does parkour originate from? (Portugal, Russia or France?)
Do you own a comfy pair of trainers? Y/N
- A person who partakes in parkour is called a traceur, and when directly translated from French means “tracer”.
Traceur directly translates from French as which of the following? (Tracy, Trancer or Tracer?)
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/traceur#
Rock Climbing
Do you have a substantial amount of upper body strength? Y/N
- The most technically difficult rock climb ever completed by a female was by Ashima Shiraishi, a 13 year old girl from New York. She set the record by conquering Open Your Mind Direct, a famously tough climb in Spain.
How old is the girl from New York who completed Open Your Mind Direct in Spain? (8, 14 or 13?)
Do you like being out in nature? Y/N
- The world record in climbing speed was set by Czech climber Libor Hroza, ascending a 15-meter (49-foot) speed course in 5.73 seconds, during a competition in Arco, Italy.
Of what nationality was Libor Hroza who set the world record in climbing speed? (Czech, German or Serbian?)
Scuba Diving
Can you swim? Y/N
- Sharks are safer than coconuts. Roughly 150 people are killed every year by falling coconuts whereas there are around 10 yearly fatalities from shark attacks.
Which animal is quoted as ‘safer than coconuts’? (Sharks, Giraffes or Octopus’s?)
Are you scared of water? Y/N
- A broken toe is the most common scuba diving injury due to a combination of the tanks, lead weights and bare feet and slippery hands. According to ER staff, these can go largely unnoticed for days after a dive.
Which limb is the most commonly broken during a scuba dive? (Finger, Arm or Toe?)
Bibliography
Emmet Fërdle. ‘Hostelworld Android App’, Emmet.is. Available at http://www.emmet.is/a-product-designer/ (Accessed: 30th October 2017).
Interaction-Design. ‘I Like I Wish What If’. Interaction-Design. Available at https://public-media.interaction-design.org/pdf/I-Like-I-Wish-What-If.pdf (Accessed: 30th October 2017).
Fox News Point. (2017) ‘Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World 2017’. Fox News Point. Available at http://www.foxnewspoint.com/top-10-most-spoken-language-in-the-world-2017/ (Accessed: 30th October 2017)
SkyDive Long Island. (2013) ‘Skydiving Fun Facts’. (Fact 2 and 9). Skydiving Long Island. Available at http://www.skydivelongisland.com/about/articles/skydiving-fun-facts/ (Accessed: 30th October 2017)
Eliana P. (2015) ‘7 Fun Facts and Tips You Didn’t Know About Snowboarding’. (Fact 1) Intel. Available at https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/success-story-snowboard-party (Accessed: 30th October 2017)
Cat North. (2017) ‘How To Become A Free Runner’. (Paragraph 1). LiveStrong. Available at https://www.livestrong.com/article/286974-how-to-become-a-free-runner/ (Accessed: 30th October 2017)
Planet Air. (2015) ‘5 Cool Rock Climbing Facts’. (Fact 2). Planet Air Sports. Available at http://planetairsports.com/5-cool-rock-climbing-facts-2/ (Accessed: 30th October 2017)
Thomas Gronfeldt. (2014) ‘Fun Scuba Diving Facts’. (Fact 2.) Scuba Diver Life. Available at https://scubadiverlife.com/fun-scuba-diving-facts/ (Accessed: 30th October 2017)
Affairs, A. (2017). Prototyping | Usability.gov. [online] Usability.gov. Available at: https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/prototyping.html [Accessed 30 Oct. 2017].