Personal Research Diary

Group Number: 15
Group Name: Team 15
Group Representative: Syed Hassan Sajid (17020328@lums.edu.pk)
Project Phase: Final - Evaluation Phase

Name
Syed Hassan Sajid

Maham Anwar

Ahsan Hameed

Contribution of Individuals
Contribution Statement
Contribution in Brain Storming
Session
Contribution conducting Interviews
Contribution in writing research
document
Contribution in developing low fi
prototype
Contribution in writing research
article
Contribution in application testing
Developed Pitch Video
Contribution in creating poster
Contribution in conducting interview
Contribution in writing research
document
Brainstorming Session
Developed Story boards
Contribution in Sketches, Scenario
writing
Contribution in developing low fi
prototype
Contribution in finalizing hi fi
prototype
Contribution in writing research
article
Developed evaluation document
Contribution in finalizing poster
Contribution in writing research
article Contribution in writing
document article
User testing of the final design
Application interface ideas and
brainstorming session participation
Low-fi and HI-Fi prototype testing
results
Organizing group meetings to meet
the deadlines of the project

Picture

Hi-fi Prototype
Hi-fi prototype is developed in Html, JavaScript and jQuery. The Hi fi is developed to
create a system that would help researchers manage their experimental activities.
It has 5 main modules:
Sign In: User will sign up the application using with his basic information and
Gmail id.
A main dash board: To give an overview of a researchers activities. It consists of
a calendar with dates to important events highlighted. Agenda for that particular
day and a to-do list that a researcher wants to create for reminder. It also
highlights the progress of the top most high priority projects. Main dashboard
also has a news feed side bar that shows the most important and relevant
activates other researchers are performing. The feed bar is used consistently
throughout the hi-fi prototype and it gets specific according to the module, the
feed on home page however represents most relevant events among different
activates. The idea behind these items is that a user can know important aspects
of his research at a glance.
Projects: A researcher can be involved in a number of projects. This module gives
the list of all projects researcher ever worked on. The list shows the name,
instructor and state the project is currently in which can be active, completed
or suspended.
Details:
A project details include the list of experiments in the project, files associated with
the project and its members.
Experiments: A project may have multiple experiments in it. On clicking the
experiment button list of those experiments appear.
Files: Files associated with project are important part of the project. This files
section shows list of files shared by all researchers that may be working in that
project.
Members: A project can be a research project that involves a lot of students and
their supervisor. This tab shows list of all those members.
Phases: Subdivision of activities and their timeline is shown here to manage the
progress of the project.

Groups: This module is to manage research groups. It Shows list of groups that
researcher is a part of.
File: File sharing was an important aspect of research pointed out by researchers in
user research phase. This module gives list of all files that have been uploaded to
by researcher and also the list of files experiments or projects shared with the
researcher. The idea behind this module was to connect it to Google Drive. The
files uploaded would go to google Drive and the application will get the list of those
files from their as well according to the users google id.
Account: Here user can view and modify his basic account setting information like
name, email id and password.

Horizontal Prototype
Horizontal aspects of hi-fi prototype are:
DashBoard:

1. Side Bar to navigate to other modules

2. Calendar to show important events
3. Agenda list to keep track of important events of that date. New work items

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

can be added with the plus button at top right

To do list for reminding important list of work items.
A notification button that notifies important events that just occurred for
example a meeting that just got added.
A search button to help navigate the system.
A feed bar that shows most important news feed relevant to researcher.
Progress of projects with highest priority.

The Project Home:

Project:
1. Add a new project.
2. List of all projects researcher is associated with.
3. General news feed related to the projects (experiment, related files,
deadlines) researcher is involved in.

The Details of Project:

1. Progress of the project.

2. List of Experiments in that project.
3. Files associated with that projects uploaded by the user or other members of
the project.
4. List of members including supervisors and students.
5. Break down of project activities with their time durations.

The Experiment Home Page:

1. Option to add new experiments.

2. List of experiments within a project.

The Experiment

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

The details of experiments.

Thumbnails of files uploaded with experiments.
Notes and reminders to add to experiment.
Meeting schedule related to experiment.
New feed related to experiment.
User can upload and view files by clicking on Files button.
User can upload and view literature related to experiment by clicking on
Litrature button.

Groups:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Option to create a new research group if the user is a supervisor

Option to request for membership of an existing group if user is a researcher.
List of groups joined by user
Feed related to groups user is a part of.

Files:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

List of folders and files uploaded by user

List of folders and files shared with user
Option to upload create a new folder
Option to add new files
Option to upload existing files from computer
Feed related to files shared by other users.

Account

Account:
1. Details of account setting
2. Basic user information which can be edited
3. Change password
4. Option synch local account setting with Gmail setting.

Vertical Prototype and Active Paths:

1. Adding new project

1. Go to project Module.
2. Click on Add new Project
3. Add title, PI (Project Instructor) Name, Brief Description of Project and
starting and ending date to New Project popup and click submit.
4. A new project will appear at the bottom of project list.
2. Add New Experiment.
Experiments are part of project. When clicked on any particular project from
project list, elements associated with that project appear one of these elements is
the list of experiment.

A new experiment can then be added on Experiment home page

1. Click on Add New Experiment button.

2. New Experiment popup will appear with necessary which the user has to
fill necessary details i.e. Title, Description, Protocol (Template of experiment),
starting and ending date.
3. After clicking on the Create button the experiment will appear in the list of
experiments

3. Add New Protocol

New Protocol can be added to be used in an experiment.

1. First create a new experiment.

2. In the pop up that requires new experiment details click on Add button
infront of Protocol Name.
3. A popup will appear that will require user to add description of that protocol.
4. Click on Add after filling the details.
5. Newly created protocol will be added in the list of available protocols.

4. Create Custom Template

While creating a new experiment a customized template can be added to the
project so that the new project can be recorded according to that template.

To create a custom template

1. On Experiment home page click on Add New Experiment button.
2. New Experiment popup will appear. Click on Design New Template.
3. The Design New Template pop up will show the list of labels and text area in
template which initially will be empty. By clicking on Add New Item button
Add new item popup will appear.
4. Here a user can add a label and the type of text space required for that label.
5. User can repeat the process until his desired template is created.

5. Create new group

To create a new group Click on Group on side bar.

1. Click on Create New Group.
2. Add details to Create a new group pop up. Including Name, Description of
group.
3. To add member type in their Gmail ide and click on add button in fornt.
4. Click Create.
5. A new group will be created and will appear in the list of groups.

6. Requesting Group Membership

A user can join a research group by requesting membership for it to join a
group.

1. Go to groups from side bar.

2. Click on Request Group Membership.
3. A list of Groups will appear. User can request

Final Questionnaire

Evaluation Form (Team 15 HCI)

Please rate the questions (Scale: 1 = unsatisfied to 10 =

extremely satisfied)
1) How would you rate overall usability of the application?
1

10

10

2) Were you able to access the features of your choice?

1

3) Do you think the number of features suffice your requirements as a researcher?

1

10

10

4) Were you able to complete your tasks in the intended way?

1

Further comments or suggestions about the application

THANK YOU FOR TAKING TIME!

Note: The identity of the survey taker will be kept confidential. The results are meant to analyse the
qualitative aspects of the application from a pool of testing users. Usability Testing

Scenarios/Tasks for the usability test

Users were asked to perform the following tasks

Sign Up
Add new items to agenda and to-do list
Add event to the calendar
Create new project
Add new experiment
o Add new protocol
o Design custom template for protocol
Create a new group
Request group membership
Find files
Delete some files

Results:
Dash Board:
Users were able to immediately identify the components of dashboard which
includes a calendar, to do list and status of high priority project however they
wanted a more detailed view of their ongoing activities there.
Integration with Other Platforms
User A and B said that "I also want Microsoft and Exchange calendar, in addition to
Gmail. Because if you are planning to deploy this application in LUMS, you should
connect it with the Exchange Server."
Current On-Going Research updates
Other potential elements that could be added to dashboard were also suggested.
Testing from instructor resulted in the following feedback, It would be great if this
application starts showing RSS feed of important research journals." User C, a
researcher, also added that "I always go to various platforms over the web to find
research-related updates. I should be able to add science journals and news site for
RSS feed."
Project Creation:
Project creation was the most intuitive feature of the application where users were
immediately able to find their way to the project creation; this module received
very good feedback. Other feedback include
Customization
Feed backs were received to make this module more customizable User C said that
"I want to divide my project into sub-projects, and only specific student should be
able to access that part."
Experiments
Users were generally not immediately able to navigate to experiments and had to
explore the application including attempt to use search option to get help finding

experiment section. Working with experiment was however received positive

feedback. Users appreciated the idea that all their files and relevant literature will
be connected to experiments in this manner. Improvements in way users can
record their experiments were made. Users suggested that software should also be
able to assist researchers in writing experiments. User D said that "I will use it
more frequently if your app just recognizes my voice and start writing." User E and
G suggested, "Voice recognition would make it more useful. Because typing is still
time-consuming, but it is safe."

Data Management and Data Sharing:

Users were not able to fully use the data sharing feature since because this part of
hi fi is not fully implemented. Currently only basic files and folders are included in
hi fi, major concerns from users were the ability to include spreadsheets in files.
User B, C, and F said that integration of spreadsheet would make it more
meaningful. In the lab, we produce lots of data which needs to be displayed in
tabulated format.
Data Sharing:
Currently application is developed to use facilities from google like google drive.
Users however who are more accustomed to other technologies suggested their
integration Users A researcher H said that "We use One Drive for backup data,
integration of One Drive in addition to Google Drive would be appreciated."
General Feedback:
Overall most researchers appreciated the idea of application. Most of the users
found the interface easy to use and consistent throughout the application. User
A,I think if I had my experiments accessed like that would be very beneficial. Also
that fact that I could manage my files along with my experiments would ease a lot
of my task. User B, The interface is not that complicated. I mean it can be
familiarized after using it a two or three of times. User F, The idea of
synchronization with features from google is interesting because we are already
familiar with that technology.

Survey results:
After users were asked to test the application, they were given questionnaire to fill
out to get an insight into the qualitative aspects of the application. The user were
to rate the application on four parameters i.e. Ease of Use, Accessibility, Features
and Task implementation. The results collected from the survey were based on the
personal feedback of the user as plotted in the following graph:

Figure 1 Survey results

Based on the graph, we have received a very welcoming response in relation to our
application. However, there is not a solid correlation between user-type (i.e. faculty
or PhD etc.) and their feedback. Most of the users are satisfied with the features
the application offers and accessibility it offers to reach a certain task. However,
the feedback shows us the users were somewhat unsatisfied in implementing their
tasks to a final stage. This could be improved in the next version of the online
research diary.