Formative usability report on the early prototype of the Go-Lab portal

Résumé 0

The key objective of WP3 is to identify, update and integrate, on an ongoing basis, requirementsfor developing the Go-Lab Portal. Methodologically, WP3 adopts a participatory design (PD)approach grounded in the established User-centred Design (UCD) frameworks, which alsounderpin Usability and User Experience (UX) methodologies. In Year 2 (Phase A), WP3 isresponsible to collect data on usability and user experience of the Go-Lab design artefacts, rangingfrom individual scaffolds to an entire online lab to inform the refinement of the pedagogicalspecifications (WP1) for such artefacts and the improvement on their design and development(WP4, WP5).Specifically, we provide teachers and students with access to prototypes of parts of or the wholesystem in increasing levels of fidelity, some iteratively in different levels of refinement, in order toelicit their feedback in usefulness, enjoyability, learnability, memorability, effectiveness, and otherpragmatic as well as hedonic qualities. Several complementary HCI approaches have beenadopted and adapted for PD data collection and analysis, including:1) Face-to-face PD workshops with a range of engaging activities that encourage participantsto provide feedback on the artefacts under scrutiny. Different instruments were deployed,including traditional paper-and-pen and its software-supported counterpart PDot forcapturing feedback, surveys, audience response system, interviews, and observations;2) Online Core Group Teachers (CGT) involving 17 participants from eight countries inEurope, who are highly motivated in following the development of Go-Lab and are willing toprovide prompt feedback to specific questions posed to them on a regular basis;3) Heuristic Evaluation applied to evaluate some scaffolds and ILs by usability researcherswithout involving end-users; the results have directly been fed to the development team forimproving the prototype before testing it with users.From November 2013 to October 2014, 21 face-to-face PD events of various scales involving endusershave been conducted in nine countries whereas 6 PD activities have been conducted onlinewith the Core Group Teachers. Altogether these PD activities involved 158 teachers and 221students from 9 countries. The PD events took place at schools, research/training centres, andother venues such as the Go-Lab Summer School. The data are predominantly subjective selfreportsof teachers and students on their experiences and opinions after using specific Go-Labartefacts for specified tasks.Overall, the participating teachers and students have highly been persuaded of the potentialbenefits of Go-Lab. However, they have found some of the components in their current form andsome aspects of the integration of the components not intuitive to use. Encouraging is that theyhave provided improvement suggestions as well as ideas for new features; data thereof have beenanalysed, assimilated and communicated to the pedagogical and development teams.The wide variety of PD events with end-users have provided a steady flow of information back tothe project leadership and thereby influenced system development direction and priorities. Apartfrom a set of specific recommendations derived from the PD results, a genera redesign proposal isthe use of a style guide, focusing on visual design, content, interaction design, data handling, andonline help, to ensure consistent look and feel and thus positive user experience.