Introduction

We are Team 20, working to improve people’s experiences with getting out of bed and reducing unintentional screen time in bed through encouragement with social interaction and elements of gamification (streaks). We developed a “two alarm framework,” where the first corresponds to when a user starts their waking up process, and the second alarm is when the user gets out of bed. The number of days a user successfully gets out of bed on time then corresponds to the length of their streak, and users can view their friends’ streaks on a leaderboard, and send encouragement to their friends.

Our clickable prototype includes main functions of onboarding, alarm setting, turning off alarms, and leaderboard/streak viewing. We used Figma because it allowed us to easily integrate our style tile before, and it combines design with prototyping/interaction. Flow 1 starts with onboarding and connects with Flow 3, while Flow 2 is the start of the turning off alarms process. 

Link to our clickable prototype here!

 

Usability Script

THE INSTRUCTIONS

 

Context: The mobile device should be open to something “neutral,” like the device’s Home screen

 

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 if the user interface is working correctly. The session should take about [30 minutes]. 

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.

 

❑ START the SCREEN RECORDER on your laptop

 

Do you have any questions so far?

 

THE QUESTIONS

1. 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 does your morning routine typically look like, specifically with screen time and how long it takes you to get out of bed?

 

What kinds of things do you spend time doing on your mobile devices?

 

Do you have any favorite mobile apps?

 

THE FIRST SCREEN TOUR

OK, great. We’re done with the questions, and we can start looking at things.

 

Context: pull up our clickable prototype.

 

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.

 

You can scroll if you want, but please don’t “click” (or tap) on anything yet.

 

Instructions: Allow this to continue for two or three minutes, at most

 

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. Again, as much as possible, it will help us if you can try to think out loud as you go along.

 

Instructions: 

• Read the first scenario to the participant

• Allow the user to proceed until you don’t feel like it’s producing any value or the user becomes very frustrated.

• Repeat for each task or until time runs out.

 

Task 1: Onboarding

Imagine you are opening our app for the first time. For this first task, I want you to walk through the onboarding process of our app. Remember to think aloud.

 

Context: Show start screen.

 

Task 2: Alarm Setting

For the second task, imagine that you want to set up two alarms for tomorrow morning, as you have class. You also want to add a few apps to your app list. Show me how you might do that, and remember to think aloud. 

 

[Going back to this screen, what did you think about the experience of setting your alarm?]

 

Task 3: Turning off Alarms

• Subtask A: You wake up in the morning to your first alarm and want to turn it off. Show me how you might do that. [After they turn off the first alarm, prompt them with the list of apps they picked out from the previous task.]
• Subtask B: Show me how you browse through the apps you listed. [Prompt them with the second alarm screen when time is up.]
• Subtask C: The second alarm has started ringing and again, take me through your process of turning it off. 

 

[Going back to this screen, what did you think of the interaction with this button? (to turn off alarm)]

 

Context: See if they understand why they’re setting a pair of alarms.

 

Task 4: Leaderboard

Now let’s say that you are done setting your alarms and are curious about your wake-up streak and the streaks of your friends. Show me how you would view your own and your friends’ streaks.

 

Context: See if they can navigate to the streak and leaderboard page.

 

PROBING

Thanks, that was very helpful. That’s it for our tasks. Do you have any more feedback that you would like to share with us about the tasks or the app overall?

 

We will also ask questions directly following each of our above tasks:

1. What did you like about this task? / What did you not like about this task?
2. If they hesitated on anything, ask them about why they did.
3. What would you change about the interface?

 

WRAPPING UP

Do you have any questions for me, now that we’re done?

 

Great, thank you so much for your time. Your feedback today will be extremely useful for us. If you would like to see the finished product, we will send the information over to you once we complete the final app. Thank you again and take care!