User workshops, which were extremely instructive - and fun
In November and December 2022, the Buddy4All prototype was put to the test again. Younger and elderly adults as well as professionals provided feedback and input, which was directly incorporated into the further development of the prototype. The workshops were hosted by the end-user organizations in Austria and Switzerland: Gedächtnistrainingsakademie, Jugendinitiative Triestigntal and terzStifitung.
Younger and elderly participants testing the various prototypes
Goals and test subjects
In this first official round of testing with primary (elderly/senior and younger/junior adults) and secondary users (family members, caregivers, social workers, experts in the field of life coaching for older adults), the overall goal was to clarify the following questions:
What are the users' motivations and doubts about Buddy4All?
Do the users understand the basic functions of Buddy4All?
Which functions are interesting for the users?
Are the users able to use the interaction design as intended or are there usability problems?
These prototypes were put to the test
Three different "sub-prototypes" with different functions had been developed, which were tested by each of the test subjects:
Prototype of the overall platform look, on which the home page, navigation, and game scheduling and health tips functions were tested
Functional prototype, which had the chat, pinboard, and profile setup and notifications functions in test focus
Mixed reality game prototype for testing a first anagram game
Screenshots from the social app prototypes focussing on different functions
The workshops took place between November 8 and December 3, 2022, with a total of 26 senior and 26 junior test subjects and 20 secondary test subjects participating. Participants were recruited by end-user organizations in Switzerland and Austria.
Most important results
During the workshops, a lot of valuable insights and feedbacks were gathered. Here are a few examples to illustrate the different types of feedbacks:
The main change requests that target all parts of the Buddy4All app is the desire for tutorials that simplify the use of the app and its different functions as well as the wish to be able to customize the app.
Ethical issues were also raised again among users, which the consortium partners will need to discuss again, for example how to protect both younger and older adults from inappropriate content.
On a more functional level, various inputs were provided on how to make the app more user-friendly. Some examples include:
Reconsider the concept of health tips and offer the possibility to track individual goals.
Review the function of the buddy profile to make it easier for users to enter and make adjustments
Adapt various icons to make them easier to understand
On the “wall” where you can post questions, be able to change visibility only to your own buddies (and not to all users)
Next steps
The technical partners (AIT, KRESK, Salumentis and soultank) are now working hand in hand and iteratively on the further development and improvement of the prototype, based on the insights from the workshops. In the next end-user workshops, planned for spring 2023, an overall-prototype will be presented to test participants from the various user groups.
The entire Buddy4All project team is already looking forward to this renewed review by the users, after this first round brought so many valuable insights.
At this point, the Buddy4All consortium partners would like to thank all participants who volunteered as test subjects for the workshops: You did a great job and enriched us with valuable insights that are extremely helpful for the further user-centered development of the project and the app. And: It was really fun with you :)