TESTS IN THE KITCHEN The technical setup and

By admin on October 30th, 2007

TESTS IN THE KITCHEN

The technical setup and the user tests of the appliance took
place in the small kitchen of our lab. The design of the interface
underwent an iterative process. In an early stage of
development 4 members of the design and development team
tested the application with real cooking sessions. Two of them
recorded recipes, and the other two played them back.
Considering that the cooking activity was more or less familiar
to everyone, it made sense to directly involve ourselves in the
test, so as to have a first hand experience. Everyone, indeed,
has her personal way to deal with household activities, which
justifies the direct involvement of team members. These
sessions were concluded by 4 meals in which the team dined
and discussed the application, improvements to be done on the
interface, changes in the setting of the camera and projector,
and the experience delivered by the application.
In a second phase 4 people from outside of the team, 2 men and
2 women at the age of 22 to 45, were invited to test the
application. In this phase a cognitive walkthrough method was
adopted, so as to evaluate the user interface. Testers were given
some tasks and were asked to report and talk aloud when they
did not understand what to do, or encountered any difficulty.
These tests also ended up in meals and discussions, jointly with
the team members: in this setting the discussion addressed both
the User Interface (e.g. whether it was clear how to interact),
and the whole experience (e.g. how they felt about recording or
playing a video of a personal cooking session). During the meal
together with the team, testers were invited to present their
impressions of the application, to think whether they would use
it in their homes, and how it could be improved or done
differently.