Journal 8: Prototype of Major Project Part B

     In Major Project Part B, I mainly take responsible for prototyping and testing.
     

The Purpose of this prototype is digitizing the original concept to a website and testing changes differ with the original one. There three major items we wanted to test in prototype B, including foundational functionality, interactive response, user experience.

    As for foundational functionality, it plays an essential role in testing. First of all, minimum viable functions we needed to test including clickable buttons/timeline, map/pin preciseness, puzzle game interaction and navigation system.

    All of buttons are clickable. After users click the button, it has to provide expected response or link to next page.

    Timeline is clickable. When users select a specific year on timeline, all related events and soldiers’ information should be displayed on the map according their latitude and longitude.

   Map can be zoomed. This function is useful because the database we utilized contains a great number of datasets. Multiple events and soldiers’ information might be shown on the exactly the same location due to the same latitude and longitude happened in. Zooming the map enlarges the specified area, which events and soldiers’ information are crowded in single position, thereby separating these visually.

  Pin should locate the position of each event or soldier’s information accurately on the map. Otherwise, if pin points to incorrect position of events, it would mislead the audience about the place where the real historical event occurred. It negatively influences that the user may understand historical knowledge incorrectly.

   The puzzle game can be played. This game is one of the main interaction methods we designed in order to grab users’ attention. The aim of this web project is that encouraging students to study history and cultivating their interest in learning history subject. For some younger students, history may be a relatively heavy topic. In this case, Searching and reading a great idea of historical information is a dull process. Providing a game-based interaction is an efficient way to promote them to study actively.

   Navigation bar and GO back button can link to the correct page. We hope that our website has clear structure and orientation. Users can easily to use this web and find the webpage they wanted with confusion. Therefore, the well-designed navigation system should be involved and each page should be link correctly.

There is no denying that interactive response is other important aspect for testing. Compared with original concept, some interactive parts have been improved to make them more efficient and close to clients’ demand. Previously, the years had been hidden until user cover on time point. Without clear instructions, some testers confused what is the purpose and usage of this blue line. Therefore, the years are clearly marked on timeline which helps the users to retrieve the event. Side navigation bar is other improvement. We hoped that users are able to go to the expected page via the minimal paths and steps. To achieve that, we add side navigation into each page (except for home page), which offers all page links. If users click the button, it will turn to the expected page. In addition, the search function depended on latitude and longitude was be canceled. It is not a useful function. It is because rare people know the exact coordinates of events happened. In this prototype, we want to test whether these improvements can improve efficiency and overcome problems mentioned in paper prototype section. For example, if testers can understand the timeline by marked years, it means this improvement is quite successful. However, we need to consider other plans to fix these problems.

Another improvement of interaction is the puzzle game. This game requires more interaction and increases the amount of challenge for make it more fun. Therefore, time counters was added. It can record how many times players need to use on completing the puzzle. Less time they used, better performance they got. Also, 3x3, 6x6 and 9x9 scale of puzzle can be selected. Different levels of difficulty may satisfy players with different age groups.

The user experience testing is a relatively strong subjective section. After they use this website, we will ask them what is their specific feelings about this website such as which part not are satisfied or what kind of function is inconvenient. Thus, these feedbacks can help us to improve our project further.