My final artefact attempted to bring together all of my previous research, taking the concept from the previous two and applying it to a mobile website. I originally planned to hold a focus group for this artefact but due to time constraints I was unable to, and so had to create a survey asking the same questions. I only managed to get four responses to this survey, again due to the time constraints. However, I still think the responses I got were useful; it just would have been more beneficial to have more. All of the participants were accepting of the mobile website, saying that they could imagine that people would use it and there were no usability problems, giving a good indication that playful mobile websites can work. When asked directly if novelty aspects could affect usability of mobile websites, the participants said if this happens you should question whether the novelty aspects are needed. One user confirmed results from my research, saying it depends if the website is an appropriate place for novelties. Despite these findings, half of the participants thought that the mobile web should stay information based, due to constraints such as small screens. The other half said that they would like to see more novelty websites, which indicates that opinion may vary should more novelty mobile sites be created. I feel that this question would have been more useful if I had managed to get more responses. Overall I think this artefact has been useful, allowing me to realise that novelty can successfully be applied to mobile websites, without compromising the usability, though user opinion may vary. However I do not feel this artefact has managed to resolve my research project. Hopefully once I come to present my findings a useful narrative will be apparent.
Artefact 6 – Mobile Website Prototype
I’ve created a prototype for my final artefact. It is an interactive mobile website focused around the idea of a collaborative story. When you were a kid did you ever play the game where someone would write the first line of a story, then someone has to follow it on? Then someone follows that on? On and on until the story is finished.. that is the general idea for this website.
I’ve created a fictional background for the website to give participants a more informed idea about it during testing. This is intended to avoid all the unnecessary questions I have received when testing in the previous two focus groups! So here it is -
Background: This website has been created as part of a joint advertising campaign between Waterstones.com and The Reading Agency. In a world obsessed with MP3 players and smartphones they are aiming to get more people reading on the go, whether they’re on a bus or train, waiting to meet friends in a bar, or just enjoying a coffee in their favourite cafe. The idea behind the website is based on a game you may have played as a child, where you start with one line of a story and have to write the next part, then someone else writes the part after that and so on, until the story is completed. The screenshots below will give you an idea of the design and how it works. The website is designed to be minimalistic so it loads quickly and is easy to use.
The first screenshot displays the homepage of the website. The user taps the word ‘comfortably’ to start the game, and a random story will be displayed on the next page as shown in the second screenshot. The user then can write the next part of the story in the text box using their mobile phone. To make it more challenging there is a limit of 140 characters. Once the user has written their part of the story they simply click the button to submit it, after which it will be approved then displayed under the previous entry to be continued by someone else. As this is just a prototype the website is not fully operational and though you can type your part of the story in you can not yet submit it. This prototype is designed to give you an idea of how the website works so the participants are able to answer some questions about it.
Can be seen at http://story.jennoefur.co.uk!
Artefact 6
I feel as if my last artefact should somehow bring all my research together, and hopefully answer something about my original research question.
My last two artefacts have looked at apps, and whether there can be some balance between usability and novelty or ludic design, so whether apps that are playful can still focus on user experience. Artefact four suggested that they can, but artefact five suggested otherwise. This leads me to believe that users are accepting of and would be willing to use playful apps if the actual purpose of the app is playful in itself, for example for entertainment or leisure. Users are not so willing to use playful apps if the purpose of the app is to gain information about something, for example in my study using the weather forecast. However, in general the users were quite accepting of the app and liked the idea, they were just not willing to actually have it replace a regular weather app. Overall these two artefacts have suggested there is a place for usability and user experience within novelty mobile apps. To bring my investigation together I am going to use my last artefact to ask the same question of mobile websites – can a novelty mobile website still focus on usability and user experience?
I love strange, playful and novelty websites, and the internet is rife with them. Some of my favourites are -
Singaporeasy
Mouchette
Subservient Chicken (previously mentioned)
This is just a select few but there are loads more strange, mysterious and seemingly pointless novelty websites out there. However I have yet to find any similar sites made for the mobile web, and I am surprised no one is yet taking advantage of the medium. Therefore I intend to prototype or create such a website, then test it accordingly.
Exhibition Images
To be honest I’ve been finding it quite difficult to create images to represent my work in the exhibition, as it’s all web stuff and not meant for print. Here’s what I’ve got at the moment and I’m still not really sure abou them, and I’m running out of time!
Artefact 5 Summary
Artefact five was similar to its predecessor, using a prototype for a fictional app and a focus group. On this occasion however, the results were rather different. Participant opinion of the app was generally positive, as they all thought it was an interesting way to add a twist to a weather app while still allowing it to achieve its purpose. This opinion seemed to be just on the surface however, as it was soon recognised that the app was quite impractical. While it was agreed that interactivity could improve user experience, the participants thought that in this case it didn’t really enhance the experience of checking the weather, but it didn’t harm it either. While some said they might use it, the reason for doing so was mostly just to show their friends, like most novelty apps. While the group understood the purpose of the app and didn’t think there was anything majorly wrong with it, it was generally decided that they would all still use a regular weather app to access the forecast. This was simply because it would just be quicker and easier, allowing the user to gain the information they were looking for without being hindered. It was suggested that to make people use the app there should be an option to turn of the interactive features, but really this would make the app redundant. Overall this artefact suggests that a mixture of novelty and usability does not really work when applied to information-based apps. Whereas artefact four showed there was an area that combined the two, it seems to apply more to apps where the purpose is for fun or leisure. My final artefact will go on to bring my research together somehow, hopefully allowing me to reach a conclusion related to my original research question.
Search Engine Optimisation for Petal
Throughout the duration of this project I have been learning about SEO techniques to incorporate into the website for Petal School of Motoring, to enable the website to be easier to find using search engines, thus hopefully increasing the client’s customer base. Using numerous guides found online, I’ve discovered there are many basic things I can do as a designer to make my client’s website easier to find.
Keyword Density
It is important to use the correct keywords on a website, so when people use these words to search they are able to find you, and also they are finding the content they are looking for. Keyword density is the number of times a keyword appears on a webpage compared to the total number of words, but it is important not to over or underuse the keywords. Too little and fewer people may be able to find you, too much and your website text may start to sound unnatural. As well as this, if you fill your website with too many keywords the search engines may penalise you for Keyword Stuffing, which adds no value to web rankings. Using variations of the same word is a good way to get keywords into the website’s content, while still sounding natural. Also, search engines measure keyword relations to determine relevancy.
The <title> Tag
Many mistakes are often made in the title tag of a webpage, notably using the same title for every page, making the title too long, or stuffing it with keywords. According to SEOmoz the optimal format for a title is like so -
Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
or
Brand Name | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keyword
Artefact 5 Prototype
I have designed my 5th artefact in the same style as the previous one, using a prototype for a fictional app for which I will hold a focus group to discuss it. I decided in the end to use the weather forecast idea, as I think it is an area people would be more accepting of if there was novelty added to it.
I’ve created an interface for the app though the design is for illustration purposes only, which I will stress to my focus group. One of the problems I had with the last artefact was that the focus group kept talking about the design, when it was the concept itself I wanted them to discuss. So by pointing out it is for illustration only, and asking the group to imagine the app has the same kind of features as any other app, hopefully I can avoid this problem.
The idea for this app is that the user will have to interact with it somehow in order to view the weather forecast. In the first example below the phone’s microphone is utilised (like in the Ocarina app by Smule, which is pretty amazing) so that the user has to blow away the clouds to be able to see the weather forecast.
In this second example the user has to protect themselves from a wasp attack, tapping on the bugs to ‘swat’ them, and again once they’ve done so they will be able to see the weather.
Artefact 5 Research
I’ve been looking at existing weather apps to see if there is anything already out there that incorporates novelty or playful aspects. I’ve found that the only thing that really strays away from the typical weather forecast is this app, Outside -
Using a bright and attractive interface, Outside gives you a view out of a ‘window’, showing you what the weather is currently like in the location you choose. It also allows you to set up custom notifications to let you know when it’s going to be a certain temperature, so you can choose for it to alert you when it’s warm enough to wear a t shirt for example.
It’s not massively different from a regular weather app though, it’s just a bit prettier.
jQuery Image Gallery
I’ve used the jQuery plugin FancyBox to add an image gallery on the ‘about’ page of my client’s website.
You simply click the thumbnail to see the photo full size.
Available at http://petal.jennoefur.co.uk/about.html