What was your research objective?
Our research objective for Open Arms was to answer the question of whether our app’s interface creates feelings of anxiousness for the user. Open Arm’s goal is to help a governmental core issue of homelessness, with that in mind, having a comfortable UI was the optimal choice for us. We also hope to find if users can navigate through the app easily and can access functions with ease.
On whom did you conduct your research?
We conducted our research on eighteen participants who were between the ages of fourteen and twenty-six. Twelve of the participants were males and six were females who for the most part, are still in school. These eighteen participants were in the same demographics of being dependent on their parents. Each participant took the UI test from the comfort of their own homes within March 15th through March 17th. All participants completed the test.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative data is data that measures values or counts that are expressed as numbers. This is a collection of how many, how much, or how often. Through our research, we found that while most of the testing was completed with 100% success, that wasn’t the case for the mobile. Mobile had three out of six tasks that weren’t 100% completed. Task 1 was 77% completed while Tasks 2 and 3 were 88% completed. The completion rate for task 1 was due to the users not knowing how to use the TryMyUI program. This went into the task duration of task 1, causing it to have a higher time on task of 182.6 seconds. With task 2, having one of the highest times on task for mobile and tablet, due to some users having difficulty locating the maps button or going to the resource page looking for a home to stay at. This shows us that we should make the button more visible or change the icon to something clearer for the user.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative data is data that is a collection of categorical variables. This describes a ‘quality’ or ‘characteristics’ of a data unit. With our user testing, we found that users gave us feedback on what they liked and what could be better done for the app UI experience. Users had trouble with finding the map feature and gave suggestions of either making the color palette of the app different and easier on the eyes or having the map also located in resources seeing that a user would expect to find a home in resources. We also found that users want to make the share button of the messaging page more prominent. However, the biggest feedback was the resources page, in which users found it was lacking and wanted it to be more appealing. The qualitative and quantitative research we found was put into a Usability Test Report.