Summary
This week, we finished our “Hidden Figures” touch table application, incorporating movie footage, information and books. Before making the application available, we performed user testing, in particular focused on the usability of the application. In the middle of this week, we installed the touch table in the Science Library, in conjunction with an exhibition for the movie Hidden Figures.
Specific activities, including
- Finalizing Hidden Figures touch table application (Dan Michael and Hugo)
- Integrating logging of user activities (e.g. what do they click on, how much time do they spend in the application)
- Integrating a feature which restarts the application after two minutes of inactivity
- Fixing issues based on initial user testing (see below)
- Creating an application using ximpel.net which overlays Hidden Figures movie quotes over a livestream of the International Space Station, to be integrated in the Hidden Figures exhibition in the Science Library.
- Initial usability tests Hidden Figures application.
User test 1.
The participant of user test 1 was a female library employee, working at the library for more than a year. The following issues came up in this session, and most were subsequently fixed by Hugo and Dan Michael.
Regarding videos
- Video clips in the application do not show the time remaining, making it difficult to decide whether or not to see the whole clip. These were added.
Regarding eBooks
- A table of contents for the books would be useful; we added this functionality.
- eBooks can contain links to websites, but these open in a new application tab, making it impossible to proceed. Therefore we disabled those.
- The font size of some eBooks is a bit on the small size. We cropped the pages of one of the books.
- “Scared of finding something interesting”, since encountered materials could not be saved. It would be nice to send a link to a found book to her email. Due to limitations in Windows 7, touchscreen keyboard input is not very practical. Our alternative solution was an indication of a short bit.ly link to download the book.
Regarding images on the homescreen
- It is not immediately clear that you can click on the shown characters. Solution: a “tap me” animated icon is shown.
- The contrast between selected and non-selected characters had to be increased
Physical and touch-screen issues
- It is a bit straining to stand and look at the screen for a long time, also due to the reflections from lights above. It would be nice to be able to sit.
- Sometimes, leaning on the screen, e.g. with a sleeve. leads to unintended touches. This cannot be fixed in Windows 7 (the operating system of the touch table), but works correctly in e.g. Windows 10. We will install this at a later stage.
We fixed various small bugs (e.g. links working incorrectly)
User test 2.
The participant for user test 2 was a female library employee, working at the library for more than 5 years
Regarding videos
- The video size is “very big”. Adding bar stools helps to be able to see it better, but we can investigate other ways to improve on this (e.g. moving the video more to the bottom of the screen).
Regarding touch screen
- Some touch issues; covering screen on one side; double touch accidentally opening “American Women in Science” book; sometimes not recognizing touch. To resolve this we adjusted the sensitivity of the touch screen via its internal menu.
- “Swiping” in the homescreen of our application does not work (only clicking), we will further try out these types of features in future touch table applications.
Regarding eBooks
- The difference between printed vs. e-books should be made more clear in the application. We added a “touch to read” overlay bar on the bottom of each image.
- The table of contents icon is small and unclear. To resolve this we activated the table of contents by default.