A high fidelity prototype is a prototype that is quite close to the final product, with lots of detail and functionality. From a user testing point of view, a high fidelity prototype is close enough to a final product to be able to examine usability questions in detail and make strong conclusions about how behaviour will relate to use of the final product.
This high fidelity prototype I am creating is an app which is based on a problem that first year university students are having. My app is being created on a great website called InVision. InVision allows you to upload a wireframe to the site and than you can style and create the app how ever you like. I created my wireframes in InDesign first than uploaded them to than complete it. Today I spent most of my time making the app feel like a real app by creating buttons that jump from one page to the next and so on.
Usability testing is a very important aspect but the low fidelity prototype that we created in the first assignment has already addressed the usability issues.
The high fidelity prototype should;
1. look and feel very close to the finished product. And have
2. some functionality to test interactivity.
The next step is usability testing and they are;
1. Heuristic evaluation
2. User evaluation.
User experience evaluation is a very important step as it evaluates the high fidelity prototype and helps with finding problems and fixing them. Most of these evaluation tools help capture abstract indicators of experience.
Than we get to the user experience: emotional response.
Emotions are important in the users everyday lives and it is important to have an emotional impact on them.
We can ask ourselves questions like;
Is it fun? Is it exciting? Is it innovative? Is it engaging? Is it motivating? Is it desirable? Is the visual layout attractive? Is the visual layout creative? Will the design delight the user visually, aurally or tacitly? Is the first touch point exciting? Can the product add the the users self esteem? Does the product convey the branding and organisation?
And these are all questions we need to ask the users to make sure we are hitting the mark with our apps.
When we measure emotions we can use a simple creation like this.
Unpleasant Pleasant emotions
Indignation Desire
Contempt Pleasant surprise
Disgust Inspiration
Unpleasant surprise Amusement
Dissatisfaction Admiration
Disappointment Satisfaction
Boredom Fascination
There are 2 dimensions of emotion variants and they are pleasantness and activation.
- Pleasantness to unpleasantness
- high activation to low activation
This is a diagram that helps with the measuring of emotions, called Circumflex of affect.
And this is just a simple quiz like thing to help know what the users are thinking emotionally.
There are three dimensions when dealing with measuring emotions and they are;
- Visual and sensory: Pleasant to see, feel good to handle, easy to use, looks and feels like fun.
- Sociological: Makes you proud to use it, enhances your social image.
- Idealogical: Make you feel better to use it and makes a statement about you.
And to find out how well your app creates these things you need to use a simple questionnaire to give to the users to find out. An example is a questionnaire like this;
When receiving this type of questionnaire back we need to take into account how the users are feeling and work with it. If they are not content with the colours you have used, than use different colours, if they feel it is boring, add some excitement into the app. Its all about testing and evaluation with products we create.
High fidelity prototype
Visual and information design is another important step in this application process. Hierarchy is created based on users expectations. Schemas patterns e.g., going up (increase) going down (decreasing).
Another important part is to use conventions when designing products. Design conventions are important as they are a flowing design elements that continues through peoples work. You use design conventions so the users can understand what they are doing.
The principles of this are:
Consistency:establishing or adopting appropriate patterns
Hierarchy: calling attention to the most important things
Personality: choosing appropriate expressive characteristics
There are always common mistakes that are made. Some elements to take note of are;
- Don't provide too much information, just the right amount
- Align elements unless emphasising difference
- Group like elements
- Position elements to help make hierarchy clear
- Use one clear typeface with a variety of weights
- Use type styles as the grammar of your visual language
- Pick colours that draw the eye
- Use colour to emphasize similarities and differences
- Only interactive areas should feel interactive
- Apply design to form controls.
These are the main elements you need to think of when creating a product for visual effect.
My product is very brightly coloured as I want my users to feel happy and excited to use it. The font is Arial, with different weights. All the elements on the page are aligned in a nice style. My app helps first year university students of fixing their problem they are having with time management between studying and socialising. The app is exciting to use as it gives out free vouchers when you earn a certain amount of points. The app encourages students to want to do well with their studies. All these elements on my product are positive, and will hopefully make the users enjoy using it. I will be doing my testing and evaluation sometime through this week, as I have only just finished putting my app together in InVision. This assignment is enjoyable and I've have fun making my own product.
References
Gudue, Raghavendra. (2015). 9291 User interface and experience. Lecture 10, week 11: High Fidelity prototype and user experience evaluation. [powerpoint slides].
Usability, (2015). Prototyping. Retrieved from
http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/prototyping.html
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