Clickable Prototype
The WasteNot app helps college students reduce their food waste in buffet-style dining halls that often feel overwhelming by increasing agency in the meal-planning process. Drawing upon insights gathered from our diary study and intervention study, we designed a mobile app that allows users to visually plan out their meals each day and see how similar their meals were to other students on campus. In addition, users may interact with an animated avatar during their meal. At the end of their meal, users can log their food waste and view their waste reduction journey on a summary tab.
We developed our clickable prototype in Figma, based on our sketchy screens and the style tile we had created earlier in the class. This prototype mainly focuses on the key interactions we expect users may have with our app, which are meal planning, logging waste, and browsing their previous waste.
Usability Script
THE INSTRUCTIONS
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Hi, ___________. My name is ___________, and I’m going to be walking you through this session today.
Before we begin, I have some information for you, and I’m going to read it to make sure that I cover everything.
You probably already have a good idea of why we asked you here, but let me go over it again briefly. We’re asking people to try using a mobile app that we’re working on so we can see how it works. The session should take about an hour.
The first thing I want to make clear right away is that we’re testing the app, not you. You can’t do anything wrong here. In fact, this is probably the one place today where you don’t have to worry about making mistakes.
As you use the app, I’m going to ask you as much as possible to try to think out loud: to say what you’re looking at, what you’re trying to do, and what you’re thinking. This will be a big help to us.
Also, please don’t worry that you’re going to hurt our feelings. We’re doing this to improve it, so we need to hear your honest reactions.
If you have any questions as we go along, just ask them. I may not be able to answer them right away, since we’re interested in how people do when they don’t have someone sitting next to them to help. But if you still have any questions when we’re done I’ll try to answer them then. And if you need to take a break at any point, just let me know.
With your permission, we’re going to record what happens on the screen and our conversation. The recording will only be used to help us figure out how to improve the app, and it won’t be seen by anyone except the people working on this project. And it helps me, because I don’t have to take as many notes.
Also, there are a few people from the design team observing this session in another room. (They can’t see us, just the screen.)
If you would, I’m going to ask you to sign a simple permission form for us. It just says that we have your permission to record you, and that the recording will only be seen by the people working on the project.
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Do you have any questions so far?
THE QUESTIONS
- Before we look at anything, I’d like to ask you just a few quick questions.
- First, what’s your occupation? What do you do all day?
- What kind of mobile device (or devices) do you use, like smartphones or a tablet?
- What kinds of things do you spend time doing on your mobile devices?
- How much time do you spend on mobile devices?
- Would you consider your relationship with food to be difficult?
- What kinds of facilities do you usually eat at?
- What apps do you use regularly? Do you use any of those apps particularly before or while eating?
- Have you ever used any apps for habit-building or habit-changing?
THE FIRST SCREEN TOUR
OK, great. We’re done with the questions, and we can start looking at things.
First, I’m going to ask you to open up the app labeled WasteNot.
Now, before you start doing anything, just look at the first screen and tell me what you make of it: what strikes you about it, what you think you can do with it, and what it’s for. Just look around and do a little narrative.
You can scroll if you want, but please don’t tap on anything yet.
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THE TASKS
Thanks. Now I’m going to ask you to try doing some specific tasks. I’m going to read each one out loud and give you a printed copy.
And again, as much as possible, it will help us if you can try to think out loud as you go along.
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Task 1: Planning
Imagine that it is right about dinner time, and you’re getting ready to get something to eat. Open WasteNot, choose a dining hall closest to you, and plan what you are going to eat for dinner today.
Task 2: Logging Your Waste
Imagine that you have finished up dinner. Your plate looks like the paper prop you should’ve received. Your task is to log your waste into the app.
Task 3: Browse Your Waste
You have particularly busy mondays, so review your food waste for the past two monday dinners. What insights do you notice? What kinds of food did you waste?
PROBING
Thanks, that was very helpful.
If you’ll excuse me for a minute, I’m just going to see if the people on the team have any follow-up questions they’d like me to ask you.
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WRAPPING UP
Thank you for participating in our usability study. To wrap up, I have a few questions for you.
- Do you have any high-level comments or feelings about the app?
- Which task seemed the most seamless? On the contrary, which task seemed the most difficult? Why?
- What did you like about the app? What didn’t you like?
Once again, thank you very much. Now that we’re done, do you have any questions for me?
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