VB Prototype 2

Screenshots | Explanation

Screenshots

MetroViz: Start Screen

 

MetroViz: One Metric Selected, Line Graph

 

MetroViz: Multiple Metrics Selected, Bar Graph

 

Explanation

MetroViz: General Use

Once we had our structure for the tree browser decided, we went forward implementing the rest of the interface, including using NPlot, an open source application that works with VB to create the graphs within MetroViz. Once all components were functional, we focused on getting more feedback from users outside our group. We wanted to get a feel for how users create graphs with MetroViz, namely, will they know how to use the different components of the interface to create graphs. Some of the questions we were looking to answer are:

• Can they navigate to the required metric?
• Do they even use the search function?
• Can they do multi-selection with the tree structure?
• Can they change the labels for the graph?
• Will they know how to export the graph?
• Will they be able to create multi-metric, multi-year, multi-division graphs?

We conducted "man on the street" user testing, going out to coffee shops, libraries and student centers to recruit users and get raw feedback on the usability of our interface.

High-Level Findings

There seemed to be many problems with multi-selection interaction (ctrl-click). The search function and expand / collapse buttons were largely unused. Although the users were not familiar with the language used for the metrics, they did not seem to have any problems finding them in the tree. While the users found graphing total values to be fairly easy, switching to comparing years or divisions proved difficult. This was such a problem that it caused us to focus some of our efforts on making this section easier to use for the next design iteration. Some of these problems may be a result of poor labeling, for instance, many users didn't realize years and divisions could be found under "Graph Options". This finding caused us to rethink our labels and possibly add some training on how to use some features for the next round of user testing.

See User Test 2 for more details on our testing results.