Forest: User Research

Domain Research Interviews

Protocol
  1. Have you ever wanted to get a service in exchange for something other than money?
  2. Have you ever wanted to provide a service/share a skill in exchange for something other than money?
  3. What do you think of this existing xyz timbanking interface?
  4. Within what communities that you are a part of do you think an app like this would be useful, if any?
  5. Do you see any potential problem with this system of time banking?
  6. What size/radius do you think would be most ideal for a time bank to cover? An immediate distance? Wide reaching?
  7. Think of a community you are a part of. What is a problem you associate with it? What is missing?
  8. Within that community, through what means and how often do you communicate?
  9. What is a really great thing about that community?
Findings
  • There seemed to be uncertainty about the time-credit system because different tasks have different complexities which cannot be measured just in terms of hours required.
  • A problem lots of people brought up was trust/selfishness, etc. People may not trust strangers to complete tasks well unless they have some common group they’re in.
  • People seemed willing to ask for help in areas where they weren’t experts

User Testing

Protocol

Introduction:  Thank you for testing our timeshare app. This app is intended to connect students on a college campus through the skills they can provide others and request from others. For example, if Person A is really great at baking and needs help in a computer science class, and Person B has experience in that class and enjoys eating brownies, they can exchange their skills through this app. Today, we are going to have you perform some tasks that a user of our app would typically do. Please remember that we are testing the prototype, and not you. Do not worry if you have any difficulty completing the tasks.

Instructions:  You are a student who needs help in 15-122, a computer science course. As someone who enjoys photography, you are on the lookout for someone who is willing to tutor you in 15-122 in exchange for a photoshoot. Your task is to find someone who matches this criteria and send them a request. In your request, you want to exchange one hour of tutoring for one hour of a photoshoot.

Second Task (Used only in Round 2 of testing) :  From start page: You want to see everyone else’s latest updates, what they’ve been doing on the app. Find that.
Should go from Search at bottom to Home on nav bar.

List of user tasks (do not share with tester):

  1. Click on search tab
  2. Choose “Academics” tab
  3. Choose subcategory “tutoring”
  4. Request an exchange (set durations)

Questions to testers:

  1. What parts of this process did you find difficult or unintuitive?
  2. How useful do you feel this app would be for college students
  3. Does this app seem like something that can realistically be used by college students?
  4. What could have been changed to improve the experience of the app?

Closing Comments: Thank you for testing our app prototype.

Round 1 Findings
  • Users felt it would be easier to just chat about when to meet and add it to their own personal calendar rather than be bound to the date selection and calendar function within the app.
  • There was uncertainty around how to request the exchange after finding a profile that matches the needs.
  • The bio, Recent and mutual transactions on someones profile helped build credibility and trust.
  • The overall concept of the application was well received, given that we maintained simplicity in functionality.
  • Call To Action buttons were placed very differently on each screen, which made the usage of the app a little difficult. A user suggested having a more linear flow, with CTA buttons around the same area on the screen for ease of use.
Round 1 Testing Notes
Interviewee 1

Task Performance
  • Got up to Max Sanderson very quickly but took time to request exchange
  • Was looking for somewhere to input that she was looking for photography
  • Make request exchange a different color or bigger
  • Difficult / unintuitive?
  • First part to click academic was good to need a tutor
  • CS was right at the top which was good
  • Filter by 122 was good
  • Wasn’t sure what the drop down is supposed to do
  • Liked the extra details on the page (recent activity, mutual exchanges, etc.) when she was looking at things after completing the user story
Useful?
  • Feels like “there’s a market for this, for sure”
  • Nice middle ground between asking a friend and Academic Development
How to improve?
  • Finds pop up screen weird “does know exactly what it is”
    • Doesn’t see the point of selecting Max’s skills when she already searched for this skill
    • Felt that it was cluttering it
Interviewee 2

Task Performance
  • Only cared in first case that it had 15122, not about other info. Course is priority when seeing which profile to click.
  • Very useful for college students, don’t have to spend a lot of time saying do u know this person who can help me? But people would have to be actively engaged.
Changes?
  • It’s good that the skill searched for is bolded, if not there it’d be good to have it show alternatives. Maybe either make it really obvious, or have it say “match” or “partial match”.
  • Helpful to see what their activity is so maybe you can ask that person (if you knew them)
  • I tend to look at the top of the screen so I thought that’s where I should search it.
  • A linear system could help, where the places you click are consistently around the same place on screen, rather than starting at the bottom, etc.
Rating System?
  • Problem could how you would measure what you trade
  • Have a page that explains how it works.
  • Place to edit you needs as they change.
  • Maybe post that your need changed or that you need it by certain time?
Interviewee 3

  • Was skeptical when she heard about the concept in our previous interviews, but it makes more sense if its in a college setting
  • Went straight for the chat button from the first page
  • Liked that you could see the persons major, helps build credibility for the fact that they’re good at what they’re doing
  • “Ah it’s sort of like tinder”
  • Not sure what I would offer on this app, do I have any skills that would work?
  • It's cool that I’ll probably end up learning some new skills as I try to offer them to people
  • It would be helpful to have the names of the courses instead of just the number
  • (What do you think is the best way to decide when to do the tasks?) -We’re college students, we’re flexible, it might be easiest to just talk about when we’re meeting
  • Very Clear, did not need much instruction, knew how to navigate
  • Liked familiarity of the interface
  • Would be nice if the skills were more specific. If I’m offering photography, can i specify what kind of photography?
  • Had trouble with choosing number of hours (thats probably just a prototype issue)
  • Would have to maintain simplicity for it to work for something that could also be done with just a conversation
Round 2 Testing Notes
Interviewee 4

  • While on the feed, wants to click on profile of Grant because it says tutorial and wants to see what he tutors, “maybe he tutors 15-122”.
  • First thing that she goes to is the hamburger menu or message button. Goes to the top of screen first
  • Finds search, then academic right away. Looks at the profiles and then sees none are 15-122, so she clicks CS and apply.
  • Sees he needs photography and has 15-122 bolded, wants to contact him but isn’t sure how. (Maybe add a click here to view)
  • Request exchange was easy to see
  • Chooses 1 hour, but didn’t know where to close it.
Interviewee 5

Task 1
  • Hit academic quickly (few seconds hesitation)
  • Search was intuitive
  • Might help if side arrow was a bit darker, bolder color
  • Colors “make sense” but didn’t intuitively know what they mean (e.g. skills shared vs skills requested)
  • Didn’t immediately figure out where request exchange and hours was
Task 2
  • Found home page after a hint
Unintuitive?
  • Selecting the amount of time (Figma prototype problem)
Useful?
  • Doesn’t know if he would use it
  • Could see somebody using it -- somebody who does a lot of stuff and doesn’t have a lot of time to do certain things (e.g. cooking) -- could be useful in marketing this app to stakeholders
Improve?
  • Doesn’t understand why these are the six categories
  • Have broader categories
Interviewee 6

Task 1
  • Hit academic quickly
  • Hit 15-112 instead of 15-122 but then took her to 15-122
  • She likes the categories (compare with previous)
  • She recognizes that Max is 100% match and that’s why he chooses them
  • Thinks mutual exchanges are anonymous bc of icon
  • Request exchange - intuitive
  • Notes that assets are prefilled
  • Hours filling intuitive
  • Likes the automatic message
Task 2
  • Not intuitive without having direction to go to a screen where there are icons at the bottom
Unintuitive?
  • Liked initial categories, helps you structure your idea of the help you need
  • Compares home to Venmo history page; likes it to gauge if what she’s offering
  • Likes personal activity feed where you can see exactly what you did; makes sure you didn’t do anything accidental
  • Doesn’t understand why Max has a handle
Useful?
  • Thinks it would be really helpful
  • You get told in college to reach out to resources but it’s hard to motivate yourself to take that step, app motivates you to take that step in a fun way