Final Project: Phase 5

Phase 5: Paper Prototype, My True Phone

We have done many researches and conducted many studies on our target group. Our product was also given a brand name, "My True Phone". Now it is time to design the paper prototype of our website. We started off analyzing several hand phone website to filter off all the negative and confusing parts of these websites, while trying to adopt only their good structure and layout.

Several pieces of paper were used to sketch out the initial layout of the website.

After several drawing and discussion we came to a general agreement on the main layout of the website. At the end, seven piece of paper were used to sketch the brief layout of our website. Of course, the structure of our website was largely based on the analysis of the previous Card Sorting Method.

Next, this paper prototype was put to test. 12 users from the target group were given a set of 4 tasks to perform on the computer

1. Purchase a mobile phone

2. Customize and purchase a mobile phone

3. Sign up for a user account

4. Trade in existing mobile phone

These participants were asked to think aloud, direct observation and recording down usability problems were also performed by the facilitators (who are our group members).

Apart from usability testing, heuristic evaluation was also conducted. Each of our group members tested the prototype indecently based on 10 heuristics, namely Visibility of system status, Match between system and real world, User control and freedom, Consistency and standards, Error prevention, Recognition rather than recall, Flexibility and efficiency of use, Aesthetic and minimalist design, Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors, Help and documentation.

After both testing by participants and out group members, many key findings such as low flexibility/efficiency, highly cluttered website, little or no documentation (help, site map), etc were found. As result, we worked on these key findings and made the relevant improvements to our structure and design of our prototype website.