Expert Evaluating

Sooo, I decided to meet up with Martin on the 22nd since he had time after his internship. We met up at HPU's Downtown Campus's Computer Lab in the Mac room since they have gigantic iMacs and there wouldn't me a lot of people at the time we met up.

Here's a lovely video of our antics as I evaluated the prototype for his "Joke Around" app:

As you can see there was a lot of laughs to be had, even unrelated to the app itself.

I pointed out a few things that could improve the app in the video, but let's elaborate:

• Design-wise for the first prototype, I wish the buttons were organized a bit better; perhaps all three stacked on top of one another and center-aligned. Two then one is awkward for me. (Aesthetic and minimalist design - Severity Rating: 1)
• With knowing nothing about the app, the home screen was a bit confusing with just the title of the app and three vague buttons -- Read, Create, and Saved (Recognition rather than recall - Severity Rating: 3)
• Back buttons. I don't know what to do next. (User control and freedom - Severity Rating: 4)
• Back buttons. I don't want to stay stuck on this screen. (User control and freedom - Severity Rating: 4)
• Back buttons. I made a mistake. (User control and freedom - Severity Rating: 4)
• Or at least a home button once you navigate away from the home screen (User control and freedom - Severity Rating: 4)
• For the second prototype, since it's all in one screen, it seemed a bit cramped; can that much information be comfortable on a tiny screen? (Aesthetic and minimalist design - Severity Rating: 3)
• In addition to that, you couldn't really tell where the three sections started or ended. (Aesthetic and minimalist design - Severity Rating: 3)
• (At least you didn't need a home/back button anymore)

I did like the concept of saving jokes so you could see them later. But perhaps there could be an option to share the joke electronically through social media instead of just by word of mouth? It's not necessary, but it'd be nice. (User control and freedom - Severity Rating: 1)

I really liked the option to filter the viewable jokes in the second prototype. That option was kind of missing in the first version. The user was more restricted to the single category chosen, disregarding the vague random button. What if I wanted both animal and food jokes, but not human jokes? Still, the option to view the joke by category was a nice touch to keep things organized. (Flexibility and efficiency of use - Severity Rating: 2)

The option to submit your own jokes is clever as well so users can help build the app and contribute to it. Is there a voting system to filter what jokes can be published? If so, can there be an option on the app to vote for them or a separate site to do so? I know sites like fmylife.com and mylifeisaverage.com ask readers to send their stories that they think qualify as FML or MLIA worthy before the best stories are published on the site or app. (Help and documentation - Severity Rating: 3)

In error prevention, especially with submitting/creating jokes, what if someone submitted a blank one? An error screen would be nice to prevent blank jokes from taking up memory space. (Error prevention - Severity Rating: 3)

I think this app has a lot of potential after some cleaning up.

Let's have the laughs continue as Martin evaluates my app:

Planning Prototypes

Sorry about this post being late (as explained here), buuuut, here it is!

STEP 1: Point of View

If there's anything I've learned from working at Walt Disney World, there should be a reason to celebrate today, whether it's actually your birthday, unbirthday (thank you Mad Hatter), anniversary, or you're spending time with family. But why not see what actually happened in history, backing up your facts on why we should celebrate today or any other day of the year?

Or you can just find out what happened today (or any other day) in history because you never know when you'll be on Jeopardy or some random buy tries to mug you on the street and the only way you can escape is answering what celebrity's birthday is today? (Highly unlikely, but plausible.) 

STEP 2: Storyboard

Scenario #1: Nothing to celebrate with cake.

(Whoops, forgot to make the word bubble for the second to the last panel. Got too excited and jumped the gun into drawing the party, hahaha.)

Scenario #2: Use of most likely useless information as a distraction.

STEP 3: Prototypes

I chose to prototype the fact app since I was pretty familiar with the layout.

(Whoa, what? I actually have index cards this time and not ripped paper?!)

So, I added more buttons to the fact screens than my previous prototype of this app. Um, ignore the button colors for the first version. I accidentally grabbed the wrong Sharpie when creating the second row and I just went with it. The final versions of the colors will most likely be different. I added more sharing platforms to the share page. Another big thing is that I made an error screen for when an invalid date would be entered, like February 30th.

The "big" difference between the two prototype versions is just the button organization. *throws confetti and steals Alan Rickman's cake for such an accomplishment*

STEP 4: Youtube

About 6 minutes of babble time.