Producing the high fidelity prototype for the EarFit app...

Week 7

In week 7 we started working on our high fidelity prototype. We were looking at the simple hand-drawn designs and taking them a step further. The software we were using was Mockflow. This allowed us to pull in different assets onto a page to build our designs with something more interactive than pencil on paper.

However we quickly ran into a problem with using Mockflow, it only allowed us to make three pages at a time. We needed more than five, so we found a workaround. We would design a page in Mockflow, screenshot it and then delete it. We would then paste the image of the page into a power point with the intention of using power point's hyperlinking ability to make the pages interactive. The ultimate goal was to get the PowerPoint working on a phone so that the interactivity could be tested on our intended platform.

Week 8

We started week 8 with a few of our pages completed in Powerpoint. We had the home page, the login page and the we'd started our workouts page. 

It wasn't long before we'd finished another few pages because MockFlow seemed to be very accommodating for what we needed, except when it came to the settings page. The settings page we wanted needed to be created from scratch because nothing MockFlow offered matched.

After finishing the layout of all of our pages, we now used PowerPoint's tools to add hyperlinks to buttons to allow us to use the UI as if it were really working. For example, we could swipe up on the music bar at the bottom of the screen and it would open up in full shown in the diagram above. Our high fidelity prototype was now ready for evaluation.

Paper Prototyping and survey improvements

To start off this weeks session, we decided to take another look at the survey we worked on last week. We spent some time adding some additional questions that we felt would enhance our research.

The bulk of the work this week was spent on designing and developing a paper prototype of our application. Obviously, since our product is wireless earphones, we couldn't prototype the physical product, hence we focused on the user experience when using the app. To break down the general user experience, we used our storyboard from last weeks session. The stages for the application were; log in,  or if they didn't have an account they can create one, then the user has the option to connect their earfit earphones. Once logged in the user would be able to select from a list of workouts, and view or change the song. We also designed a basic settings page.

Personas and Scenarios

Today me and Joe were talking about personas.
First, we started off by creating a persona, a Mr John Smith. He went to Northumbria University and is currently 20 years old. He lives in Newcastle and is a Student. His interests include Music, Fitness, Rugby, Football and Running. His current Goals are to get fit so that his rugby season is successful. Concerning the fitness tracker however, he doesn't want to wear anything around his wrists, and does not want to spend any money on both a fitness tracker and some wireless headphones to use while working out.

So, after we created our Persona, we got to work on a Storyboard, just in text, and that ended up looking like this:

Storyboard steps:

1. Put earphones in and turn them on.
2. Connect earphones to phone via wireless.
3. Open up the app.
4. (First time - login to spotify/apple music via app)
5. Select workout intensity.
6. Put the phone away.
7. Work out.
8. During workout use interaction buttons on the headphones for workout data.
9. When workout finished, end the workout on the app.
10. Review Data recorded by the app.
11. Finished, close app.

After we made this we though about how we could put this into a visual form. First we thought of sketches but ended up just taking pictures. We then annotated them and put them in order of how our persona would use the headphones and came up with this:

As you can see, we took a picture of every step and annotated where we thought necessary where the pictures were not enough.

Joe ended up starting an Online survey where we can send people who are interested in the Fitness Tracker.

Brainstorming

For our project, we have to design and prototype a fitness tracker. We started by brainstorming
a few ideas. The initial idea was to build a product similar to the fitbit. This wearable device
would track the heart rate and the steps of the user, feeding the information back to a mobile
application. This information would then be used to direct the user toward a more
health-focused lifestyle. However, we decided against this idea, as it is already a product.
We then discussed a few more ideas such as glasses and just a basic health tracking app.

After a few ideas were bounced around, we began to discuss a concept for wireless
earphones that would track the users' heartbeat. This information would then be used by
the app to create a personalised workout mix for the user based on the heart rate and the
bpm of the music played. The music would be used in place of a personal trainer. Different
songs with different beats per minute could be used to change workouts. Some being faster
paced some being slower.
The app could also be used to monitor abnormalities in the users’ heart rate and could even
make recommendations to the user, such as advising a trip to the doctors.

Below is an image of some of our initial sketches during the brainstorming process.

Ethics

We liked this idea but we also had to consider some dangers with this type of product. For
example, if users are listening to music, there may be some issues with their spatial
awareness. For example, the user may not pay attention when they’re crossing roads, or
they may not be aware of safety measures such as fire alarms. We would also need to
ensure that users don’t overwork themselves, hence it would be necessary to allow the
app to recognise when the user should take a break. This functionality could be something
that the app improves on overtime as it learns the users' health profile.

Recruitment

Our recruitment strategy involves 18-30 year olds of both genders, and they also need to
be interested in fitness and music.

We would start by standing around in a public area and ask random people questions
about the product. If they seem interested ask them for their email so you can send them
more information about the product.