Blog Update #5a Rationale of prototyping approach

One interface prototype was chosen to be developed to be able to compare to an existing application in the market. Because of this one-to-one comparison, we chose to develop one prototype. To scope the implementation of the prototype, we chose to vertically implement only the functionality that will be utilized by the participants in the field study. Features such as creating a profile, messaging other users, or editing the setting of the application, while being very important for a full implementation of the app, were horizontally implemented as they were not features directly used by the participants. Functionality that was chosen to be vertically implemented was carefully evaluated by analyzing our field study tasks and procedure. From that, it was determined that functionality related to exploring other musicians profiles was needed to be vertically implemented.

To limit the scope, we chose to simulate the proximity feature of the application by pre-populating the list of matches in the application for the user. While this list would be dynamically generated in a full implementation when the users would cross paths, we simulate this behavior by still having the participant walk around to generate this list of matches. From the user’s perspective, this functionality looks identical to them within the app.

In terms of appearance, since we will have the user give a rating of preference using a Likert scale, we chose to create a prototype that appears “market ready” to avoid any influence that appearance may cause. By utilizing Axure to create the prototype, this allows us to create a visually appealing prototype while also taking advantage of our previous experience with Axure from CS 344.

Blog Update #5b Prototype Demonstrations

Link to video of prototype: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-DflbkztNycVDFuZUFFamkwcFk