T&Tnet,
2012-2014, with Center for Usability Research and Engineering (CURE)
The T&Tnet project (Travel & Transport solution through emotional and social networking) was a EU-funded research project (2012-2014) which aimed to create a mobile navigation application for older adults. Users were involved early on in the design process, providing ideas and insights on their information needs (e.g. bathrooms, benches) and describing their hurdles with technology and mobility. The team consisted of eight partners including companies, a seniors' IT organization, a city council and research institutes from Italy, Cyprus, France, Spain, Austria and Norway. I was responsible on behalf of the Center for Usability Research and Engineering, for the User Requirements Analysis and for the User Evaluation planning in four different cities: Zaragoza (Spain), Paris (France), Oslo (Norway) and Vienna (Austria).
The project gave me the opportunity to lead the user research part across four countries. In addition, I got to collaborate both for User Research and for the User Interface Design with a very interdisciplinary mix of people and experience the inner processes of EU research frameworks and thus, a different, more structured way of work.
During this project, I developed a methodology for the User Requirements Analysis which was published at the AAATE conference in 2013. In addition, I got interested in the ways people switch their attention between their smartphone and the environment while they are moving in the city and I later pursued research on visual attention during pedestrian navigation utilizing mobile eye-tracking.
First from left is the screen which offers some recommendations to the user and also allows her to search. The second is a route planning screen: the icons indicate benches, steep slopes or stairs, water fountains, toilets. The third screen shows the route planning settings.
Video from the user observations. Our subjects were wearing eye-tracking glasses and the data collected informed us about their attention patterns.
User Requirements Analysis - a structured approach
At the time we started the User Requirements Analysis, there weren't any commercial navigation apps specialized for seniors and only a few relevant paradigms were available (e.g. wheelchair accessibility map).
First, we set to define the primary end user as 65 years old or older, owner of a cellphone, with a good level of mobility and no specific mental or cognitive impairments. The secondary end users were defined as persons or organizations directly in contact with a primary end user, such as caregivers, family and friends. The tertiary users were organizations which held information valuable for T&Tnet (e.g. public transport) and/or could be part of the business model: e.g. city councils, senior tourism organizations.
We had a lot of questions about our primary end users and had wondered how to make them feel comfortable and share more of their experiences. I identified four central themes on which we wanted to gather insights:
mobility (e.g. hurdles and habits when travelling)
their use of mobile technology (e.g. smartphones)
their use of navigation technology/tools (e.g. car GPS)
interaction preferences on the way (e.g. vibration or audio feedback)
And then I planned the use of four different user research tools to explore these topics.
Focus groups in which participants filled in a questionnaire, took part in discussions and brainstorming took place in Paris, Vienna, Oslo and Zaragoza. After the sessions, user observations were conducted: participants accompanied by a researcher, navigated thinking-aloud towards a destination with the help of Google Maps on a smartphone. Additionally, we interviewed representatives from seniors' leisure & tourism organizations as they had useful input for features, do's and don'ts for T&Tnet. The combination of methods ensured depth and richness in our insights - e.g. we not only heard about precision issues with their fingers on the screen, but we saw them happening. The results were classified in three categories mapping directly to the app design:
content refers to information and functionality needs ("I need to know")
physical interaction describes physical issues and preferences in the use of mobile technology ("I cannot")
user’s attitude and understanding refers to how users perceive mobile technology in relation to their navigation tasks. ("I don't understand")
The results are described in detail in the paper presented in the AAATE conference in 2013. The following slide provides a very short overview.
The above taxonomy served as an evaluation tool during the development phase; it reminded the consortium of the physical and mental limitations older adults face, in a concise manner.
Although we were responsible for the User Research and Requirements Analysis and not for the design of UIs, I provided UI mockups, feedback and expert reviews.
Coordinating prototype evaluation in four cities
The evaluation plan was consistent with the requirements we had set in the first phase. There were three categories of evaluation goals.
The lab and field trials would take place in four cities. I designed an evaluation protocol, based on specific tasks that could be performed on the interface and revised it with the partners from the evaluation sites. To face the challenge of coordinating research in different cities and languages, I took into account my colleagues' advice and used standardised questionnaires (UMUX, HED/UT, TAM3) with validated translations to assess perceived usability and user experience. I also introduced expert reviews as an evaluation tool in order to allow us to act fast, when design was moving in the wrong direction (without involving users for an 'expensive evaluation session').
A paper mockups evaluation, expert reviews, two lab trials and one field trial (in Zaragoza) were conducted. The participants were satisfied with the information categories provided und understood how to navigate, but also pointed out functionality and technical improvements. The T&Tnet project was successfully presented in front of the city of Zaragoza, EU commissioners (by the end of the project), during the AAL forum in Nörrkoping (2013) and in various dissemination events in France, Cyprus and Spain.
Participant and researcher on the go, during field trials, 2014.