Saint Mary’s University

Human Computer Interactions Portfolio for OMOU App

Submitted by:

Alejandro Gutiérrez, Alexander Hope,

Mohammad Alsalman, Methew Guda

Course Details:

CSCI 3475: Human Computer Interactions

Submitted to:

Dr. Sageev Oore & Dr. Yasushi Akiyama

Due Date:

11 - 12 - 2015

1. Problem(s) to solve/research questions

Brain is a vital part of the body. Brain fitness is the next step in that

revolution. Just as someone can exercise their abs, delts, and quads,

same as they can exercise their memory, attention, and more. As with

physical exercise, brain exercise can help someone test their brain and

improve their performance in order to feel best. So our questions were:

● Is there any brain training apps which has an attractive interface for

students and young people?

● Are those apps are simple, easily accessible and fun to use?

● Are those apps are free?

● Are those apps have a game environment with progress goals?

● Are those apps other too technical?

2. Stakeholders/Target Users:

Based on our research, one of the most important question is “who will

be the stakeholders of this app?”. Here is a list of potential stakeholders

who will be involve with this app directly or indirectly.

Directly:

● Students with concentration & focus problems.

● ADHD patients.

● Any person interested in training the brain.

Indirectly:

● School teachers.

● Medical Doctors.

● Family parents.

Consent Form:

Questionnaires for Users:

Revised Questionnaire After doing few surveys, we have noticed that most people are uncomfortable to include their name on the survey. So we decided to opt-out participants name. Also we wanted to know participants opinions about the paper games we gave them. We wanted to know that those three paper games we gave them, whether it is complicated or fun for them. Based on these two issues we produced a new revised questionnaire for targeted users.

Revised Questionnaire for Users:

3. Description of development processes/phases

Initial Sketches

Prototype 01 Sketch

Prototype 01: Mock-ups

Heuristics Evaluation: Prototype 01

Prototype 02: Sketches

Heuristics Evaluation: Prototype 02

Prototype 03: Sketches

Heuristics Evaluation: Prototype 03

4. Description and demonstration of the prototype system  New design proposal: Based upon the heuristic evaluations we done with first three prototypes and the feedbacks from the test:

● Several elements on previous designs were missing/incomplete ● Missing of return buttons ● the actual games ● menus ● instructions/tutorials for the app ● informations of developer team

The new design will use an interface similar to the OMOU prototype focusing on the four games that can help people who have problems with concentrations and focus. Four games:

● GEARS - Problem solving games with rotating gears ● COLOR MATCH - Focusing game using mismatched word colors ● PLANET HUNTING - Attention game where users have to

remember which planet was shown previously ● VOYAGER - Concentration games using disappearing Tiles

Identified issues to be fixed in design:

● Return button to go to the previous screen ● Reset button to reset the game if the game is paused ● Implementation of game play music ● Implementation of menus ● Add several game levels with more difficulties ● Add tutorials for each game ● Error handlings ● About informations for the OMOU developer team

A link to the POP app for the final prototype: https://popapp.in/w/projects/564d870f710a7b4d5cb10c64/mockups

Final Prototype

A link to video showing user testing: https://youtu.be/hlCJuB1n_6s

5. Description of user-studies ● Participants

○ University students, aged 18-25 ○ Has trouble concentrating ○ Has severe time constraints for doing activities ○ Has a smartphone

○ Ideally at least one hundred different testers ○ People outside the demographic could be useful as a control

group

● Conditions ○ Primary focus of studies should be on how effective the

games are at improving focus ○ Secondary focus for how easily the menus are to navigate

● Tasks

○ Have the user use the app and record what they do, possibly by keeping a record of their actions while using the app

○ Optional-have a series of goals for the user to meet while using the app

● Procedure

○ User receives a smartphone with the app pre-installed ○ User uses the app, while data about their experience is

collected ○ Interview the user afterwards about their experience to get

additional feedback about

● Apparatus ○ Location-somewhere that disruptions to the testing process

will be minimal ○ Setup-a smartphone with the app installed on it, along with

other software to record ‘clicks’ and time ○ Post-test-a series of pre-written interview questions to ask

the user once testing is done

● Variables, Independent/Dependent ○ Variables that should be recorded

■ Time-how quickly the user can move through the app ■ Clicks-how many ‘clicks’ the user has to make to move

from one location in the app to another ■ If possible, record what the user feels at each step of

the process.

○ Other factors that could influence things ■ Outside distractions ■ How fatigued the user is ■ Familiarity with smartphones ■ Ease at which they can learn to navigate the UI ■ How quickly they take to the individual games

● Hypotheses

○ It is expected that users will find some error that we had missed while creating the app

○ That they enjoy the games themselves and find them mentally stimulating

○ Expected that users will want more levels for the games, independent of the levels apparent or actual difficulty