When creating this project’s first paper prototype for usability testing, I decided to implement an onboarding process to help first-time users learn the process of using the app. Users of many productivity and media mobile apps become disengaged by the seventh day of use, and this could be exacerbated by the potential for users to lose interest due to confusing or challenging wayfinding navigation mechanisms (Kapusy and Lógó, 2020).
In their Case Study of the popular social messaging mobile application, Snapchat, Kapusy and Lógó identify Snapchat’s ‘learn by doing’ approach to onboarding. Snapchat features no tutorials, opting to immerse the user instead. In their research Kapusy and Lógó, found that users who managed to ‘learn by doing’ felt a sense of satisfaction and relief after the onboarding process, although pragmatically it found that users could make mistakes due to lack of instruction, leading to frustration.
Although I hadn’t yet read Kapusy and Lógó’s research prior to designing my onboarding mechanism for the Multimedia Centre AR app, their findings did tie-in with my expectations. I could have implemented a ‘learn by doing’ approach in the Multimedia Centre AR app, especially if I adopted a user interface and set of controls that behaved in a manner that the user recognised, i.e.: a standardised interaction scheme that is shared across many AR mobile applications (Craig, 2013). The success of such a method is proven to function similarly to Jakob Nielsen’s Law of Internet User Experience, which states the users prefer websites to function in the ‘same way as all the other sites they already know,’ by adopting widely used conventions and design patterns (Nielsen, 2004). However, the user’s success in the onboarding process could then be seen as dependent upon their prior knowledge of other AR mobile applications. As my user base may feature students who have motor impairments, and knowing that many AR mobile applications are ’not specifically designed in advance for non-visual interactions’, I felt that relying upon prior knowledge could have been a weakness in my final design (Herskovitz et al., 2020).
When considering an onboarding process for the Multimedia Centre AR mobile app, I initially considered creating a set of paged screens that could be swiped across, otherwise known as a ‘Deck of Cards’ (Joyce, 2020). These screens would only be shown to user on first-launch of the app, and would comprise of short tips, explaining several features of the app in an order that resembled how to use it. Despite using this method in the DM7917 module, I decided against it for DM7903, as I thought that I would need to communicate quite a lot of information to the user (such as object placement, rotation, and movement controls, Freeze Frame information, amongst other interaction guidance), which could lead to memory strain (Joyce, 2020).
In contrast to the ‘Deck of Cards’ approach, which could used for promoting a few ‘need-to-know’ instructions, I resolved that the ‘Interactive Walkthrough’ methodology of onboarding would be more suitable for communicating instructions. This method would permit a ‘learn-by-doing’ approach to an extent, while also providing guidance to user as they follow a potentially unfamiliar and novel design (Joyce, 2020). The interactive walkthrough would only be shown on first launch and follows the the initial steps of placing an object, interacting with it, then creating a freeze frame and reviewing it – all basic functions that would be completed in the same order regardless of whether the user needed the onboarding process or not; for this reason, I believe that my choice of onboarding process does not come with a higher interaction cost or lower user performance (Joyce, 2020).
In justifying my choice of onboarding process, I have undertaken a small journey of research into the world of onboarding. Prior to this, I did not realise the wealth of onboarding methods and relating studies that had already been conducted into this aspect of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). This is certainly an area that I would be interested to explore in the future, potentially in my DM7908: Independent Study module.
References
Craig, A.B. (2013). Understanding Augmented Reality: Concepts and Applications. San Diego: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.
Herskovitz, J., Wu, J., White, S., Pavel, A., Reyes, G., Guo, A. and Bigham, J. (2020). Making Mobile Augmented Reality Applications Accessible. ASSETS ’20: International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. [online] Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3373625.3417006 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2021].
Joyce, A. (2020). Mobile-App Onboarding: an Analysis of Components and Techniques. [online] Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mobile-app-onboarding/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2021].
Kapusy, K. and Lógó, E. (2020). User Experience Evaluation Methodology in the Onboarding Process: Snapchat Case Study. Ergonomics in Design: the Quarterly of Human Factors Applications, p.106480462096227.
Nielsen, J. (2004). The Need for Web Design Standards. [online] Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-need-for-web-design-standards/.