Invasive Species Finder Usability Evaluation Design

Introduction

This document describes the usability evaluation design for the Invasive Species Finder app. The purpose of this usability evaluation is to identify usability problems in the app and to collect feedback from users to improve the app. The usability evaluation will be conducted by the developers of the app. The usability evaluation will be conducted in the form of a think-aloud test. The participants will be asked to complete a series of tasks while thinking aloud. The developers will observe the participants and take notes.

User Goals

The user goals of the Invasive Species Finder app are to:

1. test if the forum and post will satisfy the user’s need to share their knowledge about invasive species.
2. test if the camera page will satisfy the user’s need to take a picture of the invasive species, then either try to identify the species by AI or ask experts to identify the species.

Scenarios

Scenario 1 for User Goal 1

1. Image you want to share your knowledge about invasive species with others or ask questions about invasive species. Where would go from the homepage?
2. What would you do to share your knowledge about invasive species?
3. What would you share about invasive species? Is the fields are enough for you to share your knowledge?
4. image you found your post has a typo, how would you edit your post?
5. image you want to delete your post, how would you delete your post?

Scenario 2 for User Goal 2

1. Image you want to take a picture of the invasive species, where would you go from the homepage?
2. What would you do to take a picture of the invasive species?
3. What would you do to identify the species by AI or experts? (if experts, what would you do to identify the species?)
4. What would you do to share the picture of the invasive species with others?

User Types

1. Regular: who might have no idea about invasive species and want to learn more about them. For example, any person in campus.
2. Middle: who have some knowledge about invasive species and want to share their knowledge with others. For example, hikers, farmers, and gardeners.
3. Experts: who have knowledge about invasive species and want to share their knowledge with others. For example, professors, researchers, and scientists.
4. Organization and companies: who want to help clear the local invasive problem. For example, local government, local parks, local farms, and pest control companies.

Recruitment

The participants will be recruited from:

1. the University of Hawaii campus, posters will be posted on the campus. also will ask professors to help recruit such as extra credit for students that did the evaluation.
2. non-profit organizations: contact local non-profit organizations to help recruit. such OISC (Oahu Invasive Species Committee).
3. local companies, such as pest control companies (Termitex, Kilaueapest, and Aloha Termite Kauai) and local farms (Kahuku Farms, Aloun Farms, and Waimanalo Country Farms).
4. local farms, such as Kahuku Farms, Aloun Farms, and Waimanalo Country Farms.
5. local parks, such as Koko Head District Park, Kapiolani Park, and Ala Moana Beach Park.
6. local government, such as Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, and Hawaii Department of Health.

Consent Forms

The consent form I used is consent form. All participants will be asked to sign the consent form before the evaluation. A signed copy of the consent form for each participant has been collected and stored carefully.

Description of the participants

• User A: She is student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is a regular user. She has no idea about invasive species. She wants to learn more about invasive species.
• User B: He is a hiker. He is a middle user. He has some knowledge about invasive species. He wants to share his knowledge with others.
• User C: He is a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa learning biology. He is an middle user. He has knowledge about invasive species. He wants to share his knowledge with others.
• User D: She is a farmer. She is a middle user. She has some knowledge about invasive species. She wants to share her knowledge with others.
• User E: He is working at pest control company. He is an expert user. He has knowledge about invasive species. He wants to share his knowledge with others.

When & Where

• User A was evaluated on 11/28/2023 at 13:00 in the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. Using a Samsung tablet I provided.
• User C was evaluated on 11/28/2023 at 15:00 in the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. Using his own device Google Pixel 6.
• User E was evaluated on 12/02/2023 at 16:00 in Ewa Beach (Ewa by Gentry). Using a Samsung tablet I provided.
• User B will evaluate on 12/13/2023 at 11:00 in the Moanalua Valley Trail Start location. Will use his own device Samsung Galaxy S21.
• User D was evaluated on 12/14/2023 at 14:30 in the Kahuku Farms. Will use the Samsung tablet I provided.

Script

The script I used is script.

Raw data

1. User A raw data: raw data
2. User C raw data: raw data
3. User E raw data: raw data

Results

1. They all mentioned about the adding post is not very friendly. Such as not a dropdown list for the category. All fields are single line text field (especially for content should be bigger field).
2. The camera is able to take picture, but not able to upload the picture to the post.
3. The forum is able to show the posts, but posts are not clickable to show the details, also would be nice people can comment on the post.
4. It would be great to have the map to show the location of the invasive species.