Our Walk Through Beccles – Friday 1st February 2019
Off to a prompt start, we were in the van and on the road by 9:45am and arrived in Beccles at roughly 10:50am. The user group for the Beccles trip was the Women’s Institute. They regularly go walking together, roughly once a fortnight, if not more, as a way to keep active and fit. We met three ladies, Bella and Richard. The women arrived at 11am so we introduced ourselves, wrapped up warm and set off.
Wrapped up warm!
The quay itself was cute and reserved with boats moored and a few local men fishing. I can only image how busy it gets during the Summer time as it really is a quaint, attractive and hearty English spot.
Parked boats by the bridge from the road to the quay
Not long after we set off we came across our first signage board. It was filled with information about The Beccles Fens which the ladies love. They commented on how much they enjoy finding out information about where they are walking. They weren’t specific enough for me to pick up on a particular theme they enjoy and wanted to leave questioning for later in the day. Interestingly, one lady commented on details of the map, namely the fact that the map is the right way up and includes a “You Are Here” dot.
Discover Beccles Fen information board
As we walked on, the environment and terrain slowly became more rural.
The landscape became more grassy and natural
Keeping the river to our left, the path took us past a field of reeds. Richard informed us that this field was the first to be worked by women in the area and is very significant to the cultural history of the Beccles broads.
The field of reeds
Just before we turned right to lead us onto the Red Walk of 3 miles, we spotted a second information board. It was exactly the same as the one before but with different imagery. We discussed how it might be nicer to have a more welcoming sign for visitors to view on their way into the quay.
The second information board
Whilst walking down the Red Walk, I noticed it was a reasonably rough terrain. There were a lot of puddles and big rocks, therefore experience wouldn’t be as accessible to the general public as somewhere like Breydon Water.
Walking down the path
Leading up to a flood bank
The flood bank now acts a footpath between Oulton and Beccles
The terrain continued to be rugged for the duration of the walk.
Sticks, stones, puddles and mud
Along the way, I had several chats with the ladies and observed their actions as well. They were very familiar with these particular surroundings which leads me to think they are a niche group. My hypothesis is that most people walk quite casually around the Broads whereas these women knew exactly where I was talking about when mentioning spots related to our project.
Nearing the end of the walk, about an hour and a half later, the path started to look more like a road again. With fields on either side, this was the highlight of my trip because my tutor spotted a Chinese Water Deer for me! I’ve desperately been wanting to see one in the wild for some time so this was a really special moment for me. It made me feel passionate about preserving the ecology and biodiversity in the area.
The road became smoother
User Interviews
To conduct our user interviews, we stopped for lunch in a quaint antique/coffee shop in little quiet Beccles. It was nice to sit down for a warm cup of tea after being out in the cold. The ladies were happy to sit with us and, luckily for us, were a very chatty bunch. The comfortable, relaxed and familiar environment gave the interviews and A/B testing of paper interface design testing an ethnographic feel.
Firstly, we asked them some general questions about the walk, their thoughts and brought in a few questions from last week such as “What’s your favourite thing about the Broads?” and “Do you think the Broads walks could benefit from a digital app or service?”. Their main comments were:
- They go walking at least once a fortnight.
- They love walking in groups.
- They love visiting/walking around new places.
- They love to learn hear new stories about the history of the area.
- (In the context of looking at a phone whilst walking) They usually have to look at the ground due to the rugged terrain. Be careful of rocks etc.
- One of the ladies didn’t have a phone at all but uses an iPad when at home. The others have mobile phones (iPhones).
- If there’s an information board, they will stop!
- The information board is better if it is facing the right way and has a “You Are Here” symbol.
- They all consider time over distance when planning a walk.
- The digital service would be especially beneficial to them if it showed where local amenities are (toilet, pub, café)
- Even though they enjoy having the Broads, they like having a guide more.
- Don’t overcomplicate things!!
- Their favourite thing about the Broads are the birds and flowers. (Unfortunately, when they want to find out more, the wildlife is gone too fast to inspect.)
From this we were able to gather that they would benefit from being able to access more information during their regular walks around. This could result in these types of regular walkers becoming bored of the app easily because of their regular engagement and its narrow scope of services. Additionally, the service would have to be developed for older phones and default browsers.
Concepts
When presenting our concepts, we gave them a little bit of background but tried to keep it as user-centric as possible by asking how they would initially interpret the titles.
An Adventure For The Senses
All of the women were in agreement that this was the weakest concept idea. They thought they might enjoy it if it were for exercise but strongly felt that the word “adventure” is over promising. Even though walking around the rural areas of the Broads may be considered an adventure for them, a younger audience may be disappointed by the ordinariness of the trails.
Discover What Nature is Hiding
They didn’t have a lot to say about this concept and it didn’t spark any significant reactions. They said it would definitely be nice to know more about the surrounding, but this was already mentioned a few times during the general questionnaire.
Escape to Explore
We thought this concept would have been the weakest but it turned out to be their favourite. They displayed a very positive initial reaction and knew straight away what I was aiming to portray. The idea of letting people escape their “normal” lives and explore nature came across as comforting to them and they were interested in turning this into a fitness app. They commented on maybe switching the phrase round to “Explore and Escape”.
A/B Testing a Paper Prototype
To test functionality of my idea, I presented my prototype as printed sheets of paper. I showed the women each screen, one by one, and asked them about their initial thoughts along the way. I let them comment on what they felt best but prompted an opinion for the A/B test of the location and season selector.
The main points from the meeting were:
- The women understood how to scan a QR code, making screen one easy for them to understand.
- Screen 2 isn’t necessary. Their has already been an introduction to the experience and they want to get into it quicker.
- (A/B test) They much preferred the conventional menu options over the dial.
- (A/B test) Having said this, they saw a use for the dial for children using an iPad to learn about interactivity.
- (A/B test) The dial could also be worked into an experience for the children at a wildlife centre (an office hub at national parks, like at Carlton Marsh, for professionals to host talks for the school children).
- The location and season selector should be brought together onto one screen.
- The experience may not be beneficial for helping mental health issues because the habitats are hidden so you wouldn’t be able to go and find them anyway.
- Confusion about “sub terrane”. They had no idea what they would find underground? (I told them that this section would include bugs, moles, fossils etc.)
- Where is the line between enough text and not enough text? This was tough to discuss because I don’t have enough knowledge of wildlife to comment.
- The experience would be much better on desktop as there would be more space to showcase content.
- It is great for reading information whilst planning a new walk.
- Without any prompting, they guessed it was for Carlton Marshes!!
Conclusion
Good overall design but, unfortunately, it would better suit a different platform (desktop), audience (children) and functionality (identifier).
Due to the outcome of this test, I decided to pick their brains about the idea of a species identifier. They were in agreement that the service would be great for plants, because they don’t move. It can be frustrating when you want to find the name of an animal and they go out of sight. However, it could be used for animals too but it would need a more selective search criteria. This includes a database of the specific plants and animals in the area and an adequate search query builder for the user to navigate it. This service would have to be as intuitive as possible to appeal to them as they have no issue going home and having a look on Google if they are still interested by then. One women told an interesting story of when she was out walking and her walking partner saw a hornet, took a photo and instantly found out what it was. I can not vouch for the accuracy of this service, but we assumed it was a type of reverse image search. I am almost certain that she wouldn’t have found out what it was because she seemed absolutely baffled by the technology used. If it was simpler and easier to use, I believe she may have been more comfortable with using a species whilst on a walk.
Research Map
To present all of the research conducted so far, I have created a research mind map. The content has been broken down to the main user groups and stakeholders and their pain points, motivations and goals.
The high quality PDF of my research map can be found here.
User research map