Blog Update #6a – Pilot Test

Pilot Study

Overall the pilot studies went as expected, there were no major changes made to the protocol. However, we did implement a few minor changes based on our discovery from the pilot studies. For example, we rephrased some of the questions from interview and questionnaire script to be more specific since we found that some questions were redundant and confusing to the participants. Second, we added a few things to our medium fidelity prototype, such as age, gender and more description in the profiles as a way to eliminate biases and differences that may influence the result of the experiment between BandFriend and Band&Jam that we were not accounting for in our measurements. The time recorded for the pilot studies were shorter than anticipated, but we expect the real field studies and experiments to be longer. Lastly, we did receive useful feedback from the pilot study participants regarding the instructions that were provided to them. There was initially some confusion on how the applications differed between Band Friend and Band&Jam as the proximity versus geolocation functionality was not explicitly and clearly conveyed. Changes were made to the briefing given to participants in order to better convey the differences between proximity and geolocation before starting the interaction with the applications.

 

Blog Update #6b – Experiment Abstract

Abstract

Through observing how musicians interact with each other, we conduct a field study to analyze how musicians connect with each other for the purposes of forming a band or jamming together and reveal the differences in how geolocation versus proximity-based systems assist in interacting amongst musicians. Fundamentally, we compare two applications, one that utilizes geo-location and other utilizing a proximity-based approach. We conclude by analyzing the differences in user’s performance time and preferences over the two location-based functionalities and its influences on their behaviors and comfortability towards other users in the application.

 

Blog Update #6c – Revised Supplementary Experiment Materials

Revised Supplementary Experiment Details

The questionnaire questions provided to the participant were changed from milestone III to reflect the different experiment procedure and goals. The interview questions asked were also changed to pertain to this experiment. Aside from the general beginner questions asked in the questionnaire related to the background information of the participant, no questions were carried over from the previous milestone.

Provided below is the link to the revised supplementary material (Questionnaire and Interview Questions), pertaining to the details above.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwiLLoppv9ngbS15SjhNQjV0bms/view?usp=sharing