by Greg Kalman, Austin Konig, Ananya Navale, Shuman Wang, Jasmine Xu
The document containing our usability script may be accessed here.
Our clickable prototype may be accessed here.
Introduction
College life is a very unique time in an individual’s life – new habits are developed, priorities are weighed on a more serious level, and values shift. This includes with respect to food consumption. There’s a great deal at stake when it comes to the food choices of a college student who has little time to grab meals during a demanding class schedule, who struggles to adjust to the generalized menu options of a college dining hall after the taste of home food for 18 years, and who places education first and health second. Stanford offers students few late-night eateries with some food options to cater to students. However, most of the food available at this time is heavy, fried, greasy, and largely unhealthy.
LunaCart is a food delivery/self-awareness mobile app designed to support mindful late-night eating for college students. When a long day (and night) of work is anticipated, students can use the app to pre-order healthy food to their preferred location on campus at a designated evening time, simultaneously making a pledge to themselves to commit to eating healthy for that evening. The following morning, they are expected to submit a log entry to their progress tracker, acknowledging whether or not they followed through with their pledge and detailing their eating experience from the previous evening. Our goal with this prototype is to test the ease and stress release of the following three user flows: (1) pre-ordering food for the evening, (2) pre-ordering a group order, and (3) completing a log entry for the previous evening’s food. The first and second should feel like a task being checked off a to-do list to give a momentary sense of accomplishment on a hectic day, while the third should encourage the user to experience achievement in something as small as eating the food they committed to.
Usability Script
Introduction
Hey there, [participant’s name]. My name is [interviewer’s name], and I’ll be your guide and resource for this usability test today.
Before we begin, I want to give a few clarifications so we’re on the same page:
- There are no right or wrong answers. We want to see how you choose to navigate the app naturally.
- Feel free to test the limits or edge cases you can think of, it’ll only help with developing our robustness later!
- Since we are different people, I may not logic in the same way that you do, so it would be lovely if you could verbalize your train of thought as you’re moving through the tasks.
Feel free to ask questions – even those will help me figure out how to improve the prototype, and where to add more guidance. I might choose not to answer certain questions because I’d like to see how you might circumvent a problem, but I’m happy to discuss your questions afterwards.
Would it be alright if we recorded this conversation and test? Feel free to decline, this will be solely for research purposes, and your identity will be kept anonymous.
Background Questions
Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a few quick questions:
- What do you think of when I say “healthy food”?
- How would you characterize your eating habits on average?
- Do you eat at night (e.g. past 9PM) on any sort of regular basis? If so, what kinds of food do you eat, from where, and why?
- How do you prefer to deal with stressful moments in your life? What’s your stress-reliever?
Usability Tasks
Let’s start the test now with the first task. Don’t worry about hitting buttons that you think might be wrong, everything is part of the process, for you and for me!
Task 1: Place a Food Order for Tonight
- Let’s say you’ve got a big night ahead with a lot of work (which might very well be the case in Week 10). Assess the mood you’ll be in, what sorts of meals you have ahead of you before then.
- Go ahead and browse the ‘Night Market’ to see the types of food you might like to order.
- Add them to the cart and place your order!
Follow-up Questions:
- What was that initial moment like when you entered the app after getting yourself in that mood?
- How was browsing the food options? What did you like, what didn’t you like?
- How was the checkout process? How did you feel after you placed the order?
Task 2: Place a Group Order and Share with Friends
- First, add some friends! Go to the ‘Friends’ tab in your Profile page and select ‘Manage Friends’ to send out some friend requests!
- Once your friends have accepted (or rejected your requests), navigate to the cart, and begin a ‘Group Order’.
- Send it to some friends, and add your own items.
- Place the order.
Follow-up Questions:
- How easy was it to be the facilitator of this group order?
- What were your emotions during this process? Positive, negative, neutral?
- Does the flow make sense?
Task 3: Complete a Log Entry
- You ordered food last night, and now it’s time to make a log entry in your journal. Either select the notification bar on your home screen or navigate to “Your Vibe” and access the log form.
- Complete the questions in the form and submit.
Follow-up Questions:
- How were you expecting to complete a log entry?
- How was the form-filling experience?
- Were there any thoughts you had about specific questions in the form?
- How was the experience once you submitted the form and “received” the reward?
Study Conclusion
We’re almost done! Just a few wrap-up questions to close this test out properly:
- Overall, describe your experience of the app.
- Did you have a favorite or least favorite task?
- What were moments in your usage that stood out to you as surprising, enjoyable, frustrating, etc.?
- Was there anything confusing?
- Would you use this app in your life? Why or why not?
- What vibes or values did you feel coming through the interface?
- Do you have any suggestions to improve this prototype?
Thank you very much for taking the time to do this test, your feedback is invaluable and we hope to integrate your suggestions into our final product. We wish you happy and healthy late-night eating!
