Atefeh Jamilpour Portfolio

ATEFEH JAMILPOUR
ABOUT ME
RESUME

Usability Test: MeetinVR Application

My Role: UX researcher

Timeline: November 2022-December 2022 (6 weeks)

Tools used: Oculus Quest, Pen and paper, Google sheet

Team: Atefeh JamilPour,  Olivia Weinzapfel, Sunny Clark, Ayeh Aid, Cameron Beteet 

Overview:

Conducted a comprehensive usability test for the MeetinVR application, an excellent VR app for hosting business and workshop meetings. The primary objective was to test and evaluate how easy the interface was to understand for novice users. We employed three qualitative and two quantitative methods to ensure the data were accurate and reliable.

 

What is MeetinVR?

The MeetinVR application is one of the best-in-class applications for meetings and collaboration. This application provides a way for users to meet with their colleagues and customers, and it is also a convenient platform for workshops and educational events. Users can import any media into this VR workplace, including images, videos, presentations, and 3D models, in order to create a space that encourages people to feel connected. This application environment has adopted various versions, such as Windows Desktop, iOS, and Oculus Quest.

The usability test method

According to the research question, we designed protocols for testing usability based on usability methods. Here are the usability test methods we used:

Participant Recruitment

10 students who have never used VR or have little experience.

Test Setup

Used VR hardware with hand-tracking controllers and set up a controlled testing environment for testing VR and also a computer for testing the Desktop users

Testing

The project kicked off with the Contextual inquiry. Participants were asked to do 3 tasks to test the Oculus Quest and desktop interface versions through contextual inquiry.

  • Task 1- Create 3-dimensional mind maps using media files of various formats (images, videos, PDFs, 3D models) 
  • Task 2- Choose a  purpose-driven, diverse workspace for a specific kind of meeting 
  • Task 3- Grab a pen from behind you and draw in 3D 

The participants demonstrated different actions through accomplished tasks during testing. In total, only two tasks could be tested with the desktop version. Additionally, three planned tasks were testable with an Oculus Quest. Additionally, we provided five questions for users to answer and tried to ask the user questions whenever they needed clarification or did something unusual during the test. 

We then developed and assessed the following two parts of the Heuristic Evaluation for this test: 

  • Domain-specific heuristics for the VR  interface 
  • Domain-specific heuristics for desktop interface 

The heuristic evaluation I conducted individually is as follows:

And this is the average of all group’s heuristic evaluations:

Heuristic evaluation violations included:

  •   Visibility of system status
  •   Accessible controls
  •   Immersion

Our last test was a Virtual Ethnography that analyzed MeetinVR’s online channels. The results show are as follows:

  • There is a niche online community that can not answer the novice’s question in various problems that may have as the few discussions and engagements they had. 
  • There are no engaging materials available on the application’s online community to encourage novices to explore more

Key Findings

Based on the data collected, I conducted a thematic analysis, which led to the following results:



  1. 40% of the participants found that the interactive components could be better and need to be improved.
  2. 25% of the participants found the latency of the application had a negative impact on their experience as well. 
  3. 32% of the participants found that the guidance of the application was not clear.
  4. 75% of participants found that the icons did not match their mental models.  

Recommendations

  1. Enhancing the tutorial section can make it better to guide first-time users.
  2. Adapting each component’s visual (label) to the user’s mental model can improve accessibility.
  3. Providing clear instructions and tutorials for users, as this experience could have been more straightforward and involved complex interactions.

Personal learnings

 

Virtual reality (VR) has enabled me to understand better the challenges faced by international students who do not speak English as their first language. Emerging technologies like VR can often be intimidating, particularly for those unfamiliar with the virtual environment. Some users may feel hesitant to interact with VR applications due to a perceived language barrier, which presents an important issue to address. This experience has taught me the significance of patience and empathy as crucial qualities in bridging language gaps and making technology more accessible.

Furthermore, as I had to analyze qualitative data, I learned how to categorize them best. Moreover, I learned about the value of stories and how human needs are the only thing that matters through human-centered designs.