Group 4 - Neighbouring App

Goal and Objectives of Contextual Inquiry

The Contextual Inquiry is aimed at expanding our knowledge on each of: (1) the User, and (2) the Application.

1) User

• Understand the user interests regarding main topic of the application

• Understand the profiles of user who would use the application (i.e identify target group)

2) App

• Identify and decide on possible functions the app provides

• Identify details relevant to the features and layout needed for app such as color, display...

Brainstorming Ideas for the App

During the first lessons of this discipline, we were asked to discuss what type of Application we would like to work on. In this sense, we needed to figure out the idea behind the app. All the members of our group had a lot of suggestions, but one idea stood out for everyone - an app about creating community, made for neighbours, that would stimulate them to get to know each other, have fun together and give and receive help with day to day activities.

Description of the App

In a world where people tend to interact more with their phones than with other people, Neighbouring App aspires to build a sense of community, turning neighbours into people you can rely on. The app seeks to create relationships - by asking people to save a package for you, offering clothing items that you don’t use anymore, or just by getting together for a hike on a sunny morning.

Our app is about fighting urban loneliness with affection.

Goals of the App

1) To give and to ask for help within the neighbourhood

2) To reduce loneliness

3) To create a sense of community within the neighbourhood

Main Functions of the App

1) To create online and offline events:

Neighbours could get together in person or schedule a fun activity to do online.

2) Offer and receive help from Neighbours:

Neighbours could do an "ask for help" post so people within the neighbourhood could understand their needs and decide wether to help or not.

But how would these functions work?

We realised that, in order for the app to reach its goals, we would have to connect people in the neighbourhood who have similar interests and that can help each other in some way. For that reason, we got inspiration from the Meetup App, and decided to ask the users some information regarding their hobbies and in which ways they can help the neighbours when they sign in the app for the first time. In this sense, the app would automatically provide a few options related to interests and offers in ways to help.

Interests: gaming, board games, cooking, sports/fitness, music (definition of genres), movies, hiking, tech, beauty, shopping.

Offers: pet care, plant care, home repairs, save your package, companionship/friendship, second hand items.

Methods, Recruitment and Sample Size

1) Survey Steps

a) Agreed on the goal and objective of survey

b) Agreed on Method ( Online survey easier because of quarantine)

c) Each person worked on possible questions

d) Agree on the final questionnaires and target group

e) Define consent note

f) Agree on tool to be used for online questionnaires

g) Design online tool to share (Google form)

h) Agreed to find 3-5 users each

i) Results - 40 Applicants

j) Data helped to design observational interview guideline and identifying users for the interview.

     

2) Observational Interview

a) Agree on finding 2-3 users per person

b) Most users would be interviewed online but were able to observe 2 users physically

c) Understanding how to formulate questions which can be asked or not(privacy respect)and also how to phrase them during an interview

d) Undergo through the consent and flow of interview before starting

e) Observe different tasks within the application and followed by some questions

f) Understand purpose and important features within the app from a user perspective

g) Document all observations and findings.

Observational Interview Guideline  

Insights and findings OF C.I

1.Analysis of Survey

         

2.Analysis of Observational interview

3.Insights of C.I Process

a) A better understanding of users/ people like and dislikes.

b) Identifying some restrictions in some applications, which could be an advantage in our future app.

c) Identified that the design of the interface such as colour, simpler fonts for users is also important.

d) Identified also that some users might feel comfortable to use the app possible activities due to similarity

(since they all do not know anybody, hence all are open to get to know each other).

e) Got advice on how icons can be simple to facilitate usability and recognition

f) Also identified what feature might useful for app for large range of users such as anonymous (hence people can write their feelings and thoughts..)

Personas

Based on data collection	Based on our wished user
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Focus Group

Purpose & Objectives

- Explore desired functions within the app's general topic

- Elaborate on these functions

- Understand the user needs to achieve the functions successfully

- Understand what would work and what would not work for potential user

- Explore the user's expectations on the processes of functions

Participants

As participants for our Focus group we contacted different persons with the goal to recruit at least 5 participants. The idea was to make it as much confortable and clear as possible for the attendants and the observers. We also tried to recruit two more person as backup. As final constellation the participants were mixed group of men and females from Mauritius, Germany, Lebanon and Cambodia in the ages from 25 to 30 years old.

Procedure & Activities

We explained the participants the process of the focus group through a PPT. Here some screenshots:

Findings

General Learnings

Takeaways for Application

Using Heureustic Evaluation

Another group (5 experts) of the class test a similar App to ours, to check its usability.

Purpose and Objectives

• Let experts of usability to test the App MeetUp
• Let experts to compare the usability of the App with their knowledges in the topic
• To identify problems in the App MeetUp so we would avoid these in the development of our App
• Test usability heuristics, as: suitability for task, error for tolerance, etc...

Explanation of Product

We created a slide in the Power Point in Google Drive for the experts to have a quick overview of what the App MeetUp is about. For example, which are its purposes and some details, such as price and functions. Next a screenshot of the slide:

Evaluation Criteria

For the evaluation we needed to choose some evaluation criteria. In our case we though the following were important to test the App MeetUp for further use in our research for the development of our App:

This criteria was evaluated in a protocol sheet which included the following categories of priority: cosmetic (very low), minor (low), major (high) and disaster (urgent). Also the experts needed to clarify why they chose one of these options and suggest how the problem could be solved.

Results

The results can led us realized which are the problems (violations of a heuristic) in the App, that need to be arranged. Next the results of the heuristic evaluation:

Based on the table above, we could conclude that the heuristic suitability for task had a really big problem: "safety". The experts were corncerned that they might be possible fake profiles. This would be something, we will try to avoid for our App, so as suggested, an ID verirication could be implemented in this case. A major concern was the fee policy, so for our App, we will be clear from the beginning. Our business model will be Freemium (1st month free and then they would need to pay a monthly fee). The price would not change, even if our App becomes very famous.

Use Cases

Draft a small (3-7) number of use cases you want to implement in your service or tool.

Requirements

Draft a table of requirements derived from your focus group and CI findings and your intelligent common sense.

Prototype

Prototype Planning

Simulation

We wanted to simulate a virtual cooking event, to test if it actually works and could be something feasable for people to do.

Planning

To plan it, we realized that there are some things important when planning a cooking event:

The ingredients and recipe was very important to have it forehand, to buy the thing that we were missing.

Realization

After we plan the event we just needed to start cooking :) Each of us was on their own place and with their own utensils. So we began with the videocall, where Melina was guiding us through the process. We had a lot of fun and we were spending also quality time with our friends even if it was virtually. It was a whole new experience, which we really appreciate it!

Results

At the end we had 3 delicious typical Mauritian dishes:

Based on our experience we did an analysis and we came up with the following results:

Task Completion:

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