Date Time Picker Paper Prototype User Testing - Round 2

Completed January 2009 by Erin Yu, Allison Bloodworth, Daphne Ogle & Judy Stern

Summary

High-level summary to be added after testing has been completed.

Notes

We plan to focus our testing on the time picker this time around, since we got positive feedback on the date picker in Round 1.

Goals

The test should discover:

1. Can users figure out how to close or move the date & time pickers?
2. Do users understand the meaning of the colors on the date picker?
3. Do users recognize the grouping of options (hours, minutes, am/pm) in the time picker?
4. (for the combined date-time field with tabbed picker) Do users understand the tab metaphor and that they can go back and forth between them when needed?
5. Do users use the mouse to select them, or type in dates and times?
6. Do users comment on what good defaults might be?

Success Criteria

A successful design has been achieved when:

Protocol

Method and test coordinator script.

• Date Time Picker Paper Prototype User Testing - Round 2 Protocol

Users

Since the date picker will be used by a wide variety of users, we will attempt to do testing with students, faculty and staff. We attempted to recruit variety of users with ranging technical skills, gender, and age.

Interaction Design

Underlying design patterns and description of component behavior.

Most of the screens in the paper prototype below are shown in the storyboards:

• Date Time Picker Storyboard - Date and Time Separate Fields with Defaults
• Date Time Picker Storyboard - Date and Time Combined Field

Test Environment

Location and version of the environment that was used. Attach a screenshot of the environment at the time of testing if the environment will change over time.

• Paper prototype Scenario 1 - Separate date & time fields - Assignments (Omnigraffle file)
• Paper prototype Scenario 2 - Combined date & time field - Modules (Omnigraffle file)

Results

Full notes and analysis of the user tests.

Date Time Picker Paper Prototype User Testing - Round 2 Results

• 4 of 5 realized they could type or use the mouse to pick a date and time. One user didn't think to type at all, since the calendar popped up right away.
• 5 of 5 knew they could just click outside the calendar or time picker to close it
• 4 of 5 of the users commented that the time picker was intuitive or very straight-forward or (even) pleasing
• 2 of 5 users wanted to be able to enter fewer things in the time picker when it had no defaults (e.g. it should assume :00 or PM)
• 3 of 5 users thought Accept Until Date should change to at least match Due Date
• 3 of 5 users clicked on the calendar icon when it was available. They didn't feel the icon was necessary, as long as the calendar pops up when they click inside the field.
• 2 of 5 users preferred the combined date and time picker to the separated picker.

More...