Experiment Abstract and Materials
Pilot Test
We ran two sets of pilot tests, in which the full experiment was run on two participants. Both participants were immediate family members within the same household. Through the pilot testing, we were able to reveal the functional issues of our prototype in regards to completing test trials. Namely, we discovered that some frames did not transition appropriately based on the user’s input, affecting the response times and general feedback with the prototype.
After conducting the surveys of each section in the experiment, we also found that it was easier to conduct a semi-structured interview using the questions from the survey rather than have the participants directly write their answers down. Two issues we found were that some questions required further explanations and that some questions relied on a specific response from the participant. One example of the latter issue was that one question asked “What factors made you think one page was more trustworthy than the other?”, but one participant rated both pages equally. As a result, we shifted to using the coding sheet as a ground for a semi-structured interview to allow for more adaptable questions.
Experiment Abstract
We introduce MealUp, a mobile app for food sharing and community building within apartments and similar building complexes. MealUp is designed to facilitate easy sharing for those providing and receiving food and encourage a better sense of community.
In our experiment, we hope to discover:
- The level of information in postings to maximize trust between users
- Whether a close mapping between building layout and interface layout supports stereotypical search tasks
After conducting our experiment, we found no significant results between high and low level of information for both food posts and profile posts. Although, the level of information is more important to users in profile posts than food posts.
Additionally, we found that the list layout shows to be significantly faster for both visual search tasks. Participants also preferred the list layout in regards to enjoyment and satisfaction, but the apartment layout has a more community aspect to it.
Revised Supplementary Experiment Materials
None of the materials we used in our experiment has changed from MS III, such as consent forms or evaluation instruments. However, due to COVID-19 Pandemic and self-isolation rules, all the material was delivered online to participants.