Toilet App : SUMMATIVE REPORT

1.    ABSTRACT

I made a design for an app called Toilet. To make use of the technology this app is designed.  I used Balsamiq wireframe to design the mid fidelity of app to know what can be improved in app and its features. Later, using the concept applied to Balsamiq wireframe I designed high fidelity wireframe in Adobe XD. Everything was taken in consideration like App there, fonts, features and community to help people through app. Prototype was made to simulate real app like mobile environment.

Whole purpose of building app is to provide people facility with ease. Modern problem needs modern solution. It removes hassle of asking someone for help. 

Here this app provides information of toilet. User of this app can see the location of toilet and know if the toilet is paid or free. This app is also telling if disable has facility in toilet or not.

People can view their timeline and they can also download offline maps as they wish. Main value from this app is that they can get information from this app and also contribute to app which again benefits user.

2.    INTRODUCTION

I like to travel for photography. In many cases I felt very difficult to ask someone where the toilet is. So, I was thinking if there was any app for our country to be specific. I luckily found one app “Any Time Toilet “. Soon that happiness turned off. I found that app incomplete. Data of toilet were very less. And so, the design of app, we couldn’t take a direction to the nearest toilet.

Offline maps could come handy but there was no option.

I learned Adobe XD to design the usability of that app from ground level. UI design was simple but to make UX it was quite time consuming and tough.

This app has importance of its own. This app can help Nepal in “Khulla disha pisab mukta”. It can come in handy to many people with various age group. It is importance for Sociable, outgoing people who follow travels and trends. The app uses location from the mobile device using GPS and helps to find the toilet nearby.

I used the usability method to make new upgrade possible. User testing was done on this prototype. Search were added in order to find toilet and its location. You can easily have this app simply by going to Appstore and installing it.

The final output of this app is great. User can find toilet and its details. User can also save their money if they can find free toilet nearby. They can use location or search feature. They can tract their activities. They can contribute to the community which will benefit them. People can actually rate and review the toilet. This app is can also be used as accessibility. There were lots of feature missing in the original app. This prototype can be the science of making technology work for people. On the basics of learnability, user can access important data at first and other at few or less taps. This app is designed in the sense of efficiency, usability and satisfaction in mind.

3.    BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION

Toilet app can come handy to all the people of Nepal. We can find the nearest toilet with details. Once downloaded offline maps toilet app can run offline only requires GPS to be turned on. App is designed to complete task in few clicks. This app can be useful to various age group. This app can also come handy for disabled people. This app was basically created to increase our self-esteem. Many people find difficult to approach other person to ask and only to listen no we don’t have toilet or I don’t know.

So, this could address the problem of modern society and impact the old ways of awkwardness. User now can know if the toilet is paid of not, even when they are not nearby toilet. Download offline maps were not available in ANY TIME TOILET app so, its was added to address problem. User have can also contribute by adding, rating and reviewing toilet, which will directly benefit others.

3.1 Problem space

Here idea is that if user enters data which will populate on explore tab and if others enter toilet data then it appears in individual user and can be benefited. Which is win-win situation for everyone. It should be lot easier to find toilet.

The app standard was taken to consideration. Suitable color palate theme was chosen with font.  Lots of feature were recommended and were tested and examined later. Critical evaluation of an object was carried out.

This app does some basic stuff to users like previewing toilet on maps and also in list view. User can preview their contribution through app. They can get their points

App theme is chosen for UCD. Font were used like normal ones but with little tweaked ones like ‘nexa’ font. And app animation to make impression on users. Shows cool animation on refresh/ reload.

4.    METHODOLOGY

4.1 UCD

UCD (User-centered design) is mainly about designing user friendly interactive technologies to meet potential users needs or demand. An optimistic approach to invent new solutions are User-centered design. UCD different stages are establishing requirements, understanding user needs, evaluating designs, prototyping alternative designs, etc. System that were used for app and designed were considered to design/ build something beautiful and useful. It can improve productivity, reduce human error.

Understanding the user needs data were gathered by user research method. By observation, interview, questionnaires, focus groups, participant analysis data gathering techniques were applied. While developing any project there are methods used for the goal of the project, in this project research method is used. It can help in build a new product, fact validation and solving problem. Asking user question or task to perform, gathering information and developing as UCD.

Story board can be any visual representation of sequence of story or film and break down of any sequence of action into individual frame. It can be from drawing of pen and paper or digital drawing with direction and dialogues to unfold the story.

4.2 PERSONA

5. FORMATIVE USER STUDY

5.1 Formative study on Toilet app was done by PACT Analysis:

People:

To all individual who will be user of new toilet app:

•             users will be in the age around 12 to late 40’s.

•             travelling people who follow travels, trends and are more sociable,

•             Traveler or normal people.

All targeted users of above ages would already have the level of skill to use this app, as this app is similar to almost all apps in Appstore. All targeted audience know where they are going or travelling and they are motivated. I see my audience as a healthy people who are always on the go with fast life styles.

Activities:

This app will be used for short period of time. People will use to navigate to near toilet. They can also see their activities in their timeline. User can still use app to know more about same place with more description. Target people can make their collection to share it or to keep it for themselves. The app will have responsive layout so that user will be able to view all content on different screen size. There should not be any latency in app as the user wants quick updates with less data consumed. User will be able to download for offline use.

Context:

App is designed to use anywhere at any location. It can be used at home or on the go. To find the nearest toilet you may use Wi-Fi or need a cellular connection. As the app lets user to choose username and password of their choice which adds security to the app and user’s data. The timeline section of user will be private. User can download offline maps while in Wi-Fi to use it later.

Technology:

Toilet app will not be easy wasting on the battery or consuming more battery it will access data and location while on the app, After the application is closed or in background it will use nearly zero power and data. The design of the toilet app makes it easy for usability and the look and feel of the toilet app is simple and productive. The application will be smooth and reliable to the user, by this giving an excellent experience to them. User that wants to use this app can easily download from play store or Appstore on their mobile devices.

5.2. HTA

HTA stands for Hierarchical Task Analysis. Hierarchical task analysis (HTA) is a widely used type of Task analysis where a high-level task is decomposed into a hierarchy of subtasks. An HTA is sometimes referred to as a hierarchical decomposition. When designing a new system, hierarchical task analysis lets you explore various possible approaches to completing the same task. When analyzing an existing system, it can help you to optimize particular interactions.  (Hierarchical Task Analysis, 2020)

0. Using Toilet App

   1. Get your own location         

   2. Search toilet

   3. Select toilet from the list    

               3.1 Get direction of toilet

               3.2 Check toilet status paid or free

               3.3 Check if it is available for disable people

               3.4 Rate and then Review the toilet

               3.5 See rating and Read reviews

   4. View used toilet history

               4.1 Sorted by recently

               4.2 Sort by most visited

  5. check offline maps

               5.1 click download on any state map to be downloaded

               5.2 Refresh to check map availability or expiry

5.3 Turn on auto update to automatically update offline maps on background

5.4 Turn on download over cellular data

plan 0: do 1 if you need your location, do 1 and go to 3, if you cannot get location then to find the toilet

do 2 and go to 3

Plan to download offline maps on cellular data

Do 5 go to offline maps tab, do 5.1, 5.2 and 5.4.

5.3 Story boarding

6. FIRST PROTOTYPE

A software is tested using technique in which a certain part of all part is repeatedly tested to ensure that the app or website is correctly placed or tested or not. Gorilla Testing is suitable for this method for thoroughly examine prototype. Five users were taken for usability testing. Mobile prototype was used for testing. App technology were tested and so the app design. Both qualitative and quantitate data was captured. An approach to recurring guide testing procedure is taken.  We can clearly see that we can developed an android app first. Gorilla testing can be helpful cause it is neither unique nor performed without preparation.

6.2 USER EVALUATION OF FIRST PROTOTYPE

Methodology is best way to evaluate prototype for usability testing. In this prototype Gorilla testing is done since it doesn’t require sum of money and does not require specific research skills. It can be used as a demonstration the value of research and user testing.

After completion of first prototype usability test should be performed. We need users to perform usability testing. Usability test consent form were made so that user participating in testing can know what’s the drill. After user consent form was signed users were asked to perform task listed below.

A. Task

1. Can you show me how to register using email?
2. Can you show me how you find the nearest toilet?
3. Show me details of nearest toilet?
4. Share the nearest toilet.
5. Save nearest toilet to your collection.
6. Show me your most visited toilet?
7. How do you upload display image?
8. Show me how to add a toilet?
9. Download offline maps of state 1?
10. Create new collection.
11. Finally, can you show how to logout?

B. Look and feel

• Do you like theme of app?
• Is this well-organized?
• Is this app complex to use?
• Do you think you need technical person to run this app?
• Do we need app onboarding?

6.3 First usability test: data capture sheet

The researcher should fill in:

6.4 Satisfaction

The app was pleasant to use (please tick as appropriate)

Look and feel

1. Do you like theme of app?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2					✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Is this well-organized?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2				✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Is this app complex to use?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1				✓
2				✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Do you think you need technical person to run this app?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2				✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Do we need app onboarding?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2					✓
3				✓
4					✓
5					✓

6.5 Requirements for user evaluation of first prototype

Tester marked word

1^st tester performed well; he was confused on direction button as share button.

2^nd user thinks it is very important to have onboarding to an app. She finds it hard to figure out to perform certain task and then later could do any task due to learnability. She wanted to see further process in contribution.

3^rd tester performed all task with excellency and finds theme of app very pleasant. He would like to add automatically updating offline maps on background.

4^th tester took time to figure out detail view of nearest toilet.  He found difficult to unfollow the saved collection which was already followed.

5^th tester finds app is easy to use in few clicks and says people will finds app complexity will decrease as more the user gets using it.

7. SECOND PROTOTYPE

After completion of first prototype usability test were performed. We found users to perform usability testing. Usability test consent form were given so that user participating in testing can know what’s the drill. After user consent form was signed users were asked to perform task in which user found lots of interesting things in the app related to ideas and well app designed. There were also something that user found missing or hard to use. User needed more on contributions so that it could be guided path to earn point. Tester found one critical function was missing in which user has to update maps manually time to time which can be done easily with automatic updates turned on.

There were lots of thought too be added to prototype. Second prototypes was made putting some idea and ease in mind. Share sheets were designed, Automatic updates were made available with simple toogle. Now user can also download maps on cellular network. Guided contribution were added later for user ease. There is now option to unfollow the following collection. User can also further share followed collection. These all above feature were added by which all requirement were addressed. Both qualitative and quantative data were captured in testing.

7.1 USER EVALUATION

After completion of second prototype usability test should be performed. We need same users to perform usability testing. Since usability test consent form were made so that user participating in testing can knew what’s the drill. Tester were asked to perform task listed below.

A. Task

1. Can you show me how to download using mobile network?
2. Can you show me how to turn on auto update?
3. Show me how you can further share followed collection?
4. Unfollow collection of top.
5. Show me how to add a toilet?

B. Look and feel

• Is this well-organized?
• Is this app complex to use?
• Do you think you need technical person to run this app?
• Do we still need app onboarding?

7.2 Second usability test: data capture sheet

The researcher should fill in:

7.3 Satisfaction

The app was pleasant to use (please tick as appropriate)

Look and feel

1. Do you like theme of app?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2					✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Is this well-organized?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2					✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Is this app complex to use?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2				✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Do you think you need technical person to run this app?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2					✓
3					✓
4					✓
5					✓

• Do we need app onboarding?

	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Undecided	Agree	Strongly agree
1					✓
2				✓
3				✓
4					✓
5					✓

7.4 Requirements for user evaluation of second prototype

Tester marked word

1st tester performed well again; now he able to identify direction button as share button. He did every test well.
2nd user likes onboarding thinks it is very important to have onboarding to an app. She did not find app hard to use because of learnability of app. She now likes further process in contribution.
3rd tester performed all task with excellency and finds theme of app very pleasant. He like how automatically updating offline maps on background is added to website. He also compliments on offline maps downloading over cellular networks.
4th tester took no time to unfollow followed collections. He likes the app UI.
5th tester finds app is easy to use in few clicks and says people will finds app complexity will decrease as more the user gets using it. He likes app theme and overall, everything.

8.DISCUSSION AND FUTURE WORK

There are lots of feature to added which will be added in future. There were maps to zoom in and out and list view to show nearest toilet, we could be able to preview it in details view. So even after second prototype are made there are lots of small feature which could make more difference in term of usability:
a. Even though design is good later again usability test can be done to improve design and get access to anything with fewer clicks. Lots of focus to design and features were given to wireframe and then first prototype, after usability testing there were changes to make in first prototype. So, second prototype were made after that there were even more features to bring to the app so it was pushed to future work.

b. Custom maps can be made which can replace google maps used in toilet app. User could tap on maps to get toilet details. A better integration of precise location history so that user can get smarter list in timeline tab. Starred collection should be easy to save if user click in save in detail view of toilet the popup should come in which user can save or create new collection easily.

c. Collection could be sorted by recently, most place added or by alphabetically. Also, for future work user could see each other profiles with point to compete to each other and also a chart board to show top 100 contributor.

d. User should be able to change their name, username which is left for future work. User can share their profile card in which other user can see contribution made by that user. User should have option to open app from last state so that if he/she was on contribution menu nav and exits the app, next time he/she launches app it would directly open contribution menu nav.
Later in future, features should be added and third prototype should be made and tester should be participated, of course with consent form. Testing should be done. Since it is never ending process, there should be more or less changes to survive modern world. In future work we can also raise funds and donations so that we can make public toilet on many busy places at first and later covering the areas.

9.REFERENCES

Usabilitybok.org. 2020. Hierarchical Task Analysis | Usability Body Of Knowledge. [online] Available at: <http://www.usabilitybok.org/hierarchical-task-analysis> [Accessed 21 August 2020].

10. APPENDICES

10.1 Testers

10.2 Scanned consent form