Dr. Michael Rabby and I spent our Saturday at The Old Apple Tree Park in Vancouver, Wash., gathering data about app media forms. Here are a couple of pics:
This first one, I couldn't help but show this Friends of Trees mascot what we were doing. ...
The second one comes from The Columbian, the local newspaper, and its
coverage of the event; I'm standing in the tan vest in front of the tree, looking for the next person to test:
Overall, the research went well. The weather was warm and sunny, definitely a better testing situation than some of my winter research, when, in the rain, very few people want to test outdoor apps. The glare on the screen from the sun did cause some temporary usability issues, and test subjects had to turn to make a shadow, or stand next to a sign that created a bit of shade, to compensate. Otherwise, though, Michael and I were able to run two tests every 10 minutes for five hours, which seemed about as fast a pace as humanly possible. More test devices on site, and more researchers conducting tests, would have increased our data yield at this event, since there were plenty of people in the area to enlist for testing. Next year, as long as it doesn't rain, I think I'll plan to double the staffing and see how that goes. We certainly learned a lot from the experience, including the creation of several new research questions.
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