#Effective Techniques for Exploratory Testing in Mobile App Development | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yahan105 · 6 years ago

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Evaluation

It is believed that people who often visit museums and galleries have experienced the situation of children shouting and running in the open and quiet spaces. Weiner (2004) noted that Children under ten years of age experience art in a physical way; they are loud, run in the open spaces, and are curious and interactive. This means that for children, it may be their unique way of participating and experiencing. Most of the user experience that traditional museums and galleries bring to children is lack of interest and interaction. Bennett (1995) considered one of the effective elements of the bad experience of visiting museums for the schoolchildren is that children were a conundrum for early art museums because they were often too young or ‘untutored’ to engage effectively with their pedagogical aims and technologies (of labels and guides).

Today, children's use of mobile App is becoming more and more common. In China, many primary and secondary school courses are required children to participate through mobile App. Some children's proficiency and learning speed for mobile applications often exceeds the middle-aged and older people in a family. Kaye (2017) argued: “Therefore, children's scientific and technological experience will have a significant impact on their future life.” And Augmented reality technology, because of its strong interactive characteristics, has the potential to be widely used in children's life and learning in the future.

A definition given by Ding (2017) of how Augmented Reality effect museum experience is that AR is a mobile technology that is receiving increasing attention from museum professionals, researchers, and educators because of its capacity to increase engagement and add value to the learning experience. Museums facilitate schoolchildren’s experiential learning, and when combined with Augmented Reality (AR) applications, schoolchildren can beneﬁt from interactive, engaging learning experiences. Considering the increased importance of learning as part of the museum experience, how AR can be used in order to create novel, interactive and highly motivational learning environments.

As a designer, I need to think about how to use new digital technology to enhance the experience of the art gallery or exhibition in such an era background. The children as the generation grew up in the digital age which are the group of most sensitive and closely connected to technology is chosen for my target audience.

I define the target audience and potential users of my mobile apps as school children, probably aged between 6 and 14. They are a large number of people who need to learn in museums, galleries and other places. And art education is indispensable for them. Children routinely visit art museums as part of their educational experience and family time. Museums are ideal environments for facilitating children’s experiential learning. Morentin and Guisasola (2015) noted that Museum ﬁeld trips are consistently integrated into many primary schools’ curriculum because they are considered a powerful learning resource given their recreational and educational potential.

The traditional museum experience is too boring and dull for children of this age range.

Because children of this age are generally active and curious about things, it is difficult for them to receive knowledge calmly and attentively by quiet content. I began to think about how interaction and guidance can make schoolchildren more focused to complete the whole tour.

I added 4 highlights in my App, which are:

01 Colorful interface display: Simple UX guide design, as well as cute UI design which to make the users learn with more fun.

02 AR Narrator: When the user scanning the artworks or exhibits, there will be AR narrator which is a cute 3D avatar to make children feel more interested to better understand artworks. (Optional avatars make users feel more ineractive)

03 Dialog box form: The text narrative is divided into dialogue forms. Make reading easier and smoother

04 Reward system: After browsing the content of an artwork, user will get a small reward in the App, which make users more interested in reading content.

However, after Alpha testing and some feedback from 2 schoolchildren, I also see that my works are full of inadequacies.

Firstly, the design of the characters used as a narrator is too simple, and there is not enough background and story to make it have personality characteristics. The number of characters is enough to have a choice, but still can be more. In the future, the design of characters and the of animation of the characters can be further improved to make them more vivid and lovely.

Secondly, there are only six of the artworks can be successfully recognized and applied by the App. Some school children think that it is better a certain range of works in the exhibition hall could be applied to this App, in order to have a more exploratory sense like a game. There are two reason that I didn’t achieve that: One is the image recognition method of Vuforia could not be well applied to paintings. Another is I was unable to go to the exhibition hall because of the accident, which made it difficult to collect and test the images of artworks.

Another thing sometimes is it can’t be smoothly recognized because the problem of the Vuforia platform itself. There is a way to avoid the recognizing problem which is : When testing, please don't focus to the image directly when open the camera. If recognize fail, please move the camera to focus on other things or block the camera then open the camera and move the focus on the image again.

In the future, I will further improve this work if I have the opportunity. Research on other recognition methods and try to add the three-dimensional recognition of sculpture and other works. Further adding map function makes the whole tour experience more perfect.

Third, the reward system in my application is incomplete. My original idea was to randomly provide different rewards and accumulate them. Cumulative to a certain number of the rewards, there are animations can be generated accordingly. However, due to the urgency of time and lack of technology, it was not achieved in the end. Now the reward system seems too simple and monotonous.

In the future, if there are opportunities, I will further improve my work. The Museum and gallery experience of schoolchildren will be further improved. Maybe I can work with artists, galleries and schools. To further improve the experience of schoolchildren using digital technology (AR, VR and others) for learning and in life. Enlarge as much as possible the interactivity, fun and the corresponding positive effects brought about by digital technology.

Reference & Bibliography:

Bennett, T. (1995) The Birth of the Museu. London: Routledge.

Ding, M. (2017). ‘AugmentedRealityinMuseums.’ ArtsManagement and Technology Laboratory.

KAYE, L. (2016, 2017). Young children in a digital age: supporting learning and development with technology in early years. London: Routledge.

Loïc, T. and Kevin, W. (2008). Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience: Handheld Guides and Other Media. Culture-AltaMira Press.

Lynn, D. (1989). ‘The Family Museum Experience: Implications from Research.’ Journal of Museum Education. 14 (2).

Moorhouse, N., tom Dieck, M.C. & Jung, T. (2019). ‘An experiential view to children learning in museums with Augmented Reality’. Museum Management and Curatorship.

Morentin, M., and J. Guisasola. (2015). ‘The Role of Science Museum Field Trips in the Primary Teacher Preparation.’ International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 13 (5).

Moorhouse, N., tom Dieck, M.C. & Jung, T. (2019). ‘An experiential view to children learning in museums with Augmented Reality’. Museum Management and Curatorship.

Lai, C. H., J. C. Yang, C. F. Chen, C. W. Ho, W. T. Chan, and J. S. Liang. (2009). ‘Mobile Technology Supported Experiential Learning.’ International Journal of Instructional Media 36 (1).

Lee, H., M. Billinghurst, and W. Woo. (2011). ‘Two-handed Tangible Interaction Techniques for Composing Augmented Blocks.’ Virtual Reality 15 (2).

Piscitelli, D., and D. Anderson. 2001. ‘Young Children’s Perspectives of Museum Settings and Experiences.’ Museum Management and Curatorship 19 (3).

Sungkur, R.K., A. Panchoo and N.K. Bhoyroo. (2016). ‘Augmented Reality, the Future of Contextual Mobile Learning.’ Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 13(2).

Weiner, K. (2004) ‘Empowering Young Children In Art Museums: letting them take the lead’. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. 5 (1) 106-116.

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appdeveloperzone-blog · 5 years ago

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sualkmedeiors · 7 years ago

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Alexa: How Can I Create a Voice Experience People Will Use?

In 1962, at the Seattle World’s Fair, IBM demoed the ‘Shoebox’—a machine that could understand 16 spoken words in English (10 of them were actually just digits, from ‘0’ through to ‘9’, but at the time, this was genuinely groundbreaking stuff).

Four years later, an early episode of Star Trek aired, featuring a conman trafficking mail-order brides. But the episode was notable for another reason—this was the first time viewers would have seen the crew of the Enterprise talking to its computer. Straight away, the technology played more than a passive role; the computer contradicts the episode’s eponymous villain Harry Mudd during his interrogation, to which he responds “Blast that tin-plated pot!” You can see the full dialogue, including some brilliantly blunt contributions from Computer, here.

In an era long before Apple or Amazon existed, a voice-enabled future was already beginning to loom large in the popular imagination, but for decades, these early experiments and sci-fi fantasies remained exactly that. Computers got exponentially more powerful, the internet changed the world, and mobile technology put all of this in the palm of your hand, but visual interfaces still ruled in this emerging 21st-century ‘screeniverse.’

But just as screen-centric mobile UX is reaching maturity, a new age of interaction is finally upon us. Siri has been softening us up for a while to the idea of speaking to our devices in a conversational way, but the experience remained clunky in many respects. Today, though, voice-assistants and conversational UI are quickly becoming the norm, and these interactions are becoming more seamless and satisfying every day.

So just how pervasive are voice interfaces right now?

40% of adults now use voice search once per day, while voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are growing fast, vying for dominance of this fast-developing space. 50% of US homes are expected to have voice assistants within five years. Some say the future is voice-activated. I’d argue that future is already here.

In this blog, I’ll share what consumers think about voice assistants right now from our own 2018 CX trends research, how you can get started with voice, and what that means for marketers.

Our Recent Research Findings on Voice Assistants

We recently carried out some research around 2018’s top digital customer experience trends and found that more customers say they want to use voice assistants this year than other key technologies that are changing how we interact with brands.

Interestingly, people are far more comfortable speaking to a virtual voice via a speaker than they are messaging a virtual participant in an online chat.

This may be because voice assistants are able to remove friction from some everyday interactions that didn’t involve another human in the first place (such as checking the weather), whilst chatbots are often used for customer service and communications, where people still value human contact. Despite the healthy appetite amongst consumers for using voice assistants in 2018, nearly one in 10 people said ‘anxious’ was the word that best describes how they feel about this technology.

Finally, we found that the biggest thing consumers wanted from digital in 2018 was improvements to the products and services they already use, rather than flat-out innovation.

For those thinking about developing a voice experience (e.g., an Alexa Skill), the takeaway is clear—don’t do it just for the sake of doing something new; think about how you can use voice to remove friction for your users and help them accomplish the things they’re already focused on.

Perhaps surprisingly, the proportion of people looking for disconnection (i.e., less technology in their lives) actually dropped compared with our 2017 findings—this adds to the evidence that people will be increasingly open to bringing devices like the Amazon Echo or Google Home into their living spaces over the coming years.

Experimenting With Voice

Our first public experiment with voice UIs as an agency was an Alexa Skill for The Higher Lower Game—the App Store-topping game we developed based on Google search data. This was a perfect entry into the world of voice for a few reasons:

The game was already successful, so we had an established audience to tap into

The simplicity of the game’s mechanic was ideal for a voice-based experience

The game is our own IP, so we didn’t have the pressures we might have on a client project

Here’s a quick video of the Skill in use, complete with some top trash-talking from Alexa:

youtube

Following that, we got an opportunity to work on an exploratory project for a major client, looking at how we might use Alexa to deliver interactive learning/coaching experiences for young people with under-developed communication skills. We had some fantastic audience research from the client to work with and assembled a small team (developer, UX consultant, and content specialist) to quickly design and build a prototype.

We began with a set of questions around what the technology could or could not do, and, with some rapid prototyping off the back of this, very quickly established that the vision we and the client had been so excited about wasn’t realistic right now. However, we still managed to create a demo that showcased, with a bit of smoke and mirrors, how our imagined interaction might work once the technology has moved on a little. Although we didn’t come out of this with a user-ready product, the project was still valuable:

The client was smart enough to treat this as a discovery project, rather wasting thousands of pounds commissioning a full build

The project helped all stakeholders understand what the technology can do, which will help inform better briefs in future

We’ll be ready to hit the ground running as and when voice assistants evolve

As our Design Director Tom Bradley explains, “We see so many businesses still approaching this type of work with an end product in mind, rather than viewing it as an experiment. It’s hard from an agency perspective too, as an answer of ‘not yet’ can feel like a failure; but sometimes the right thing to do next is to do nothing at all.”

The key is to test and learn quickly so you can pull back when necessary, without missing opportunities to get a competitive edge.

More recently, we’ve been involved in a developing a hotel-booking experience for Alexa, which came with its own set of challenges around use cases, scope, and API integrations. Once again, taking an MVP approach and avoiding a big-bang release has allowed us and the client to test the technology in a low-risk way, without large-scale investment.

After designing an initial conversation flow with nothing more than post-its on a wall, we were able to begin testing the basic UI with people using a role-play approach (being Alexa is always quite good fun!) This allowed us to refine the flows and the copy before we went anywhere near Amazon’s Developer Portal to begin building it for real.

Whilst this was a very effective way of working internally, it didn’t give us the best set of outputs for sharing progress with the client at the early stages. If you’re in a similar situation, I’d suggest getting the client involved in the project as early as possible and, ideally, have them working with you in your space to simplify communication and ensure the brief and objectives remain clear.

Ultimately, though, we were able to deliver successfully against the brief, thanks to:

A small, multi-disciplinary team

Low-fi prototyping and testing using role-play techniques

A client who understood the value of an MVP approach

If you’re interested in getting started with designing for voice, check out Amazon’s guide here and Google’s here. I’d also recommend reading The UX of Voice: The Invisible Interface.

Looking Ahead

So what’s next for voice experiences?

According to Gadgets 360, the big trend at CES 2018 was “a voice assistant in every corner of your house.” Whilst there continues to a be a big focus on the rivalry between Amazon and Google, we can expect to see voice interfaces breaking out beyond smart speakers into TVs, PCs and other home appliances. How well all of these devices can integrate is unclear—while Amazon and Microsoft have taken steps to get their voice assistants playing nicely together, Google and Amazon are showing no signs of wanting to cooperate.

Beyond the home, voice will also become increasingly central to in-car interfaces, perhaps even before manufacturers ever figure out how to do touchscreen UI properly. Major brands like BMW and Toyota will be integrating Alexa into their cars this year, whilst Hyundai have linked up with Google Assistant. In the car UI space, there’s basically a three-way fight playing out between Apple, Amazon, and Google. Again, it’s a messy situation for consumers to make sense of right now, but the overall trend is clear: voice is the new paradigm.

My own background is actually in SEO, and I’ve barely touched on the implications of voice for search here—that’s something for another blog—but what I would say is that if Alexa manages to monopolize the voice space, that could have serious implications for Google’s search dominance. Whilst the outcome of that particular battle is out of our hands, you can and should be optimizing your content for voice search right now.

5 Key Takeaways

If you want to create a voice experience that people actually want to use, remember these five things:

This is a fast-moving space. Keep up-to-speed with the latest research, or, even better, do your own.

Start learning to experiment as soon as you can, ideally on an internal project that doesn’t need to deliver a return.

Approach voice projects with a lean mindset—create a small, cross-disciplinary team with UX, content, and build skills, and test and prototype fast. Role-playing is your friend.

If you’re agency-side, talk to your clients about discovery projects, where it’s ok for the outcome to be “do nothing yet.”

Remember that while ditching the screen is a big deal, many of the same basic UX principles apply. If your voice experience isn’t making someone’s life easier, it probably shouldn’t exist.

Have you considered incorporating voice experiences into your marketing plan? What potential do you see for voice assistants for marketers?

The post Alexa: How Can I Create a Voice Experience People Will Use? appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

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racheltgibsau · 7 years ago