User Testing My Kiosk
In my Interactive Applications class, our assignment was to code and create a fully-functional informative kiosk. For our kiosk project, we got to choose any topic to create an interactive-informative experience at an exhibit. We had to choose a museum to ‘display’ our kiosk at. The kiosk I created is called “Dragons of the World” and is going to be on display at The National Museum of Legends & Mythology in Manchester, UK.
By writing this blog, I want to reflect on my project and user testing. I will go over what areas were difficult for the users and what areas worked, and what was right or wrong about the assumptions I made when designing and developing. From my testing, I will also go over five elements I will be changing.
My kiosk consists of four different dragons from across the world. When you click on each dragon, it then lists where the dragon is from and its history. After four dragons, there is a matching game. In the matching game, you correspond the dragon to its place of origin. That way, the user has an interactive experience, and hopefully, they learn something too!
After I had fully coded my interactive website, we had to test our ‘kiosk’. We had to find 5 users to test and record their experience, what they struggled with, and what they achieved. Through this, I can find what worked for my design, and what didn't.
Here are screen grabs of my kiosk’s current design.
My User Testers:
- Anna, 17, student
- Emmie, 21, student
- Maxx, 22, student
- Catina, 49, dental hygenist
- Tim, 49, postmaster
After gathering data from all of my user tests, I can see where users did well using my kiosk and where there were errors. I can look back on my experience with the project and see what was different about what I thought about my project before I user tested it, and how my thoughts differ now that I’ve tested and looked for refinement. I am also going to be changing five things about my kiosk design. It is important to test and redesign so that your design is more functional.
My Kiosk Changes:
1. Adding a glow animation around dragon images
I found that before my user testing, I thought of changing the main screen. I want it to be more clear that you need to click the image of the dragon instead of its text to get to the dragon info screen. The images already have a surrounding glow, but I think adding a simple animation can make it even more evident.
2. From matching to mini
I think I would like to change the wording on the main page from ‘matching game’ to ‘mini game’. That way the game is still a bit of mystery for the user as they go to click on it. If it stayed named as ‘matching game’ then the user knows what kind of game is offered.
3. Change the instructions in the mini-game
In my kiosk, there is a matching mini-game. In order for the user to understand that you need to click and drag the dragon image to its place of origin, I want to change the wording of the instructions from ‘Match the dragon to their region’ to ‘Drag the dragon to its region’.
4. Add a flying dragon animation
As a simple and fun way to retain attention during render, I think that adding a simple dragon animation as a loading screen would add some charm.
5. Map swap out
I find when looking at the map image of Egypt, the colors of the map and window background image are very similar. By swapping the image out, it will result in a better read for users; especially on a physical touch screen kiosk.
I think that by going by my plans, I will have a better version of my project. I look forward to seeing the end result of my product. As I continue to work and advance within this project, I will be updating its domain. Visit my current ‘Dragons of the World’ site here.
