Prelude to the real world exposure - Pilot Evaluation

It is today that we tried to practise to test our system with a user for the first time. We thought it would be better to get a sense of evaluating through using one of our own colleague who is not blind at all.

Date: Wednesday - 23.11.2011
Location: 3rd year Lab
Started time: 2.45 pm.
Ended time: 3.30 pm.
No of participants: 01

First the environment needed to be settled and system to be configured to the level which we could expose it to an external person. This procedure took about an 1 hour and 45 minutes (from 1.00 pm to 2.45 pm). Sound card had to be borrowed from a friend as our existing hardware were unable to handle the system properly. And we used four speakers to get the surround effect.

We have decided directly to give an opportunity for the user to get hold of the system while explaining the functionality overriding the agreed procedure. This task was handled by Kanishka while record keeping was handled by my self and Malshika took care of the photographing stuff.

Then the user was asked to make a sketch of the homepage which she done with high accuracy as well. Afterward the user was introduced to the registration part by Kanishka which then accomplished by the user solely without the assistance.

Anyway we were unable to stick to our pre defined procedure as this is an initial experiment. Nevertheless the feedback was far more encouraging.

And there were some very important points as well;

• Proper placing of the buttons (Logout should be in the top left).
• It is better to use "Tab" key to traverse in forms.
• Don't use "Esc" key to focus out as it will incur an additional step in the process.
• Make the movements clockwise than in unfamiliar patterns.

My thoughts;

• It is important to stick with the predefined procedures in the next evaluations as it will standardise the whole evaluation effort.
• The group members should strictly follow the guidelines given.
• All the details should be documented properly.
• Users should be given prior understanding of the system.
• We can't depend on the feedback given as it is from only one person still.