1
“A New Way To Fight Obesity”
http://www.geocities.com/cs434_dot
FINAL REPORT
Members:
Joshua Cordova: Joshua.cordova@gmail.com
Hana Lee: hana.c.lee@gmail.com
Seong Joon Lee (Nick) : sjnicklee@hanmail.net
December 8, 2005
2
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ……………………………………………
Abstract ………………………………………………………..
Credits …………………………………………………………
Introduction ……………………………………………………
Presentation of Design …………………………………………
Transition Diagram …………………………………….
Login Screens ………………………………………….
Main Menu Page ……………………………………….
Navigation ………………………………………………
Contact Doctor Screens ………………………………...
Development Process …………………………………………..
Concrete Task Examples ……………………………….
System Requirements ……………………………………
Development of Low Fidelity Prototype ………………...
Development of High Fidelity Prototype ………………..
Usability Testing …………………………………………
Usability Test Subjects …………………………………..
Post-Test Questionnaire Results …………………………
Usability Test Conclusion ……………………………….
Conclusion ……………………………………………………….
References ………………………………………………………..
pg. 3
pg. 4
pg. 5
pg. 6
pg. 7
pg. 7
pg. 7
pg. 10
pg. 12
pg. 13
pg. 17
pg. 17
pg. 20
pg. 22
pg. 29
pg. 29
pg. 29
pg. 33
pg. 33
pg. 35
pg. 37
3
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr. Ben Shneiderman of the University of Maryland Computer
Science department for his continuous support throughout this project. He has been there
since step one of Digital Obese Tracker and has given us guidance throughout the entire
development process. We are thankful for his patience and experience during DOT.
The Digital Obese Tracker development team would also like to thank all the participants
who tested and gave us instrumental feedback. It is because of their help that this project
has turned from an idea to a reality.
4
Abstract
Digital Obese Tracker (DOT) is a proposed application that could help people who are
suffering from obesity. DOT is designed to be installed on a mobile device with Internet
capability such as cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). The main focus of this
application is to help those who are obese to keep track of their diet and exercise on a
daily basis. From extensive research, it is shown that by simply keeping a "diary" of their
diet, an obese person can make significant progress in their fight against obesity. With
DOT, we hope to accomplish this "diet" like interface, and have a few extra features such
as communication with the user's doctor.
5
Credits
The following are responsible for the development and testing of Digital Obese Tracker:
Joshua Cordova: Team Leader, Lead developer, System requirements, Concrete Task
Examples, References, Task List And Questionnaire, Pre and Post Test, Login
Implementation, Main Menu Implementation, Main Integration, Usability Testing,
Presentation of Design, Web Page, Tutorial, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Interface
Layout, Presentation: Demo
Hana Lee: Secondary developer, Concrete Task Examples, References, First Design,
BMI Calculator Implementation, Usability Testing, Development Process, Conclusion,
Acknowledgements, Design of Images and Logo, Button Designs, Presentation:
Development Process
Seong Joon Lee: Secondary developer, Introduction, Concrete Task Examples,
References, First Design, Dr. Feedback Implementation, Usability Testing, Abstract,
Final Status and Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Presentation: Introduction, Intended
Users, and Conclusion.
6
INTRODUCTION
Obesity is the second leading cause of death in the United States according to American
Obesity Association, and will be the leading cause by 2030. In accordance with this, our
group has decided to target those who are suffering with obesity. Our project will allow
obese people to use their mobile device, more specifically a cell phone and/or PDA to
communicate with their doctor through an online database.
As for the database, when the user enters the food he or she ate for the day, the user can
either enter the number of calories or name of the food the user ate. Of course, the user
can do this by either mobile device or computer. If the user decides to enter just the name
of the food, the online database will calculate the number of calories and relay it back to
the user for storage on the user's cell phone and user's profile online. The user can also
access this database through a web browser if he or she is at home and does not wish to
use his or her cell phone at the time.
The mobile device will have the program, "DOT," and through "DOT" the user will enter
information related to obesity. Information includes: weight, food consumed, body
measurements, physical activity, etc. When the user enters this information, it will be sent
to an online database where their doctor can access and review the patient's current
condition. As a result, the doctor can provide feedback such as a prescription or
suggested diet for the day/week/month through the online database. When the doctor
does provide a prescription it will be sent through the database, and then the user will get
a message through his or her cell phone, similar to when a person gets a text message.
This message will inform the user to check his or her profile either through "DOT" for
the online database.
So for this project, the main concentration will be with the interface relating to the mobile
device. We will assume that the database explained earlier does exist, and we will create
"DOT" that will connect to the online database. All the input from the doctor's side will
be assumed and if needed we will create a mock up of the doctors side of the proposal. Of
course, this project is concerned will the mobile device side.
As for users for usability tests, we have a good number of connections. For example,
Joshua Cordova knows about 7 people who are suffering from obesity. Nick Lee and
Hana Lee also have connections such as people from church that can test out this product.
The way our users will test our product is through a mock-up we will create on the web.
The web-based application will mock a cell phone and the user will use DOT through
their web browser.
7
PRESENTATION OF DESIGN
Transition Diagram
Login Screens
Upon startup of the program you will come upon the login screen, as shown in figure 1.
As you can see from the layout screen we have the presentation of the Digital Obese
Tracker (DOT) logo and a number of options to begin the users session.
8
Figure 1 - Main Login Screen
For instance, the user will have a chance to login as one of the previous users listed in the
Select User List, which can be seen in figure 2. As the user highlights each user in the
list, the name and age of that particular person highlighted will be displayed above this
list. This is to give feedback to the user of the person selected on the list. Once the user
has highlighted their preferred profile, they will have to click Login to proceed to the next
screen.
Figure 2 Select User list and profile display
If the user's name is not in the list, they also have the option to add in their profile in the
list. This can be done in the Create New User section (Figure 3) below the Select User
section. In this section of the login screen the user must enter a last name, first name and
age before he or she can click the Add User button.
9
Figure 3 - Create New User section of login.
The text boxes for last name, first name and age are protected from entering wrong text.
For example, you can only enter numeric characters for the Age field, and you cannot
enter numeric characters for the Last Name and First Name fields. The program also
checks that you have changed the respective text fields from the previous Last Name,
First Name, and Age texts. If they are not changed, the new user will not be entered
(Figure 4 and 5).
Figure 4 Close up of feedback indicating directions to proceed.
Figure 5 Successful addition of a user upon filling in Last Name, First Name, and Age
fields and then clicking Add User button.
10
Main Menu Page
Once the user clicks Login they will come upon the main page of the DOT interface
(Figure 6). At the main menu page, this is where the user can keep track of all of their
statistics concerning their diet and exercise. All of which are essential to reaching the
user's goal of losing weight and fighting obesity. These options include checking and
changing body mass index, weight, calories eaten, calories burned, and getting feedback
from their personal doctor. As you can see the profile is always displayed so as to not
confuse the user of whose profile they are viewing. The reason being, that someone other
than the person under the profile name can assist the person who is obese and might have
problems using devices such as a PDA or cell phone.
Figure 6 Main Menu for DOT. This is where all the functions of DOT are accessible to
the user.
11
The main focus of the main menu is the calendar located right in the center (Figure 7).
The DOT project team decided to put a calendar as the main focal point for the obese
user because after extensive research it was decided that obese users needed some way to
keep track of their fight against obesity. Since fighting obesity can last several months to
years, a calendar was the best way for users to keep track of their progress. Upon
highlighting a date on the calendar, information such as Body Mass Index (BMI), weight,
calories burned and calories eaten are displayed for that certain date (figure 7).
Figure 7 Calendar and statistics for user. BMI, Weight, Calories Burned, and Calories
Eaten are displayed for date shown.
The numbers in each of these four statistical categories are fully editable. When wanting
to change the stats, the user simply just has to enter the number they want and it
automatically saves it for that certain date. For example, if we want to change calories
eaten for November 1 to 2,300, we would just simply type in 2,300 in the box labeled
Calories Eaten (figure 8).
Figure 8 Calories Eaten Category
12
Navigation
To get through the various screens in DOT, the interface provides a navigation section,
which is located on the top of the main menu, dr. feedback screen and other various
screens (figure 9). These screens specifically designed to help the user to go back easily
between the different screens in order to complete certain tasks. The basic function of
these three buttons are back, home, and help, with a back arrow, home image and a
question mark representing each of these functions respectively (figure 9).
Figure 9 Navigation Bar
The back button always goes back to the previous screen based on the transition diagram
(Figure A). The home button always goes back to the main menu. Since the main menu
screen will probably have the most traffic, a quick way to get back to this main page was
needed. The help button will bring up a pop-up window that has information regarding
the DOT interface that will hopefully help the user when they have a question (figure 10).
Figure 10 Help pop-up window
13
Contact Doctor Screens
One of the most interesting features in the DOT prototype is the ability to communicate
to the user's doctor through email and the ability to keep track of notes that the user has
received from their doctor. The way they can access these features of DOT is by clicking
the Contact Doctor button, which is located on the left side of the calendar in the main
menu page (Figure 11).
Figure 11 Dr. Contact button
After clicking the Dr. Feedback button the user will end up at the Dr. Feedback main
page (Figure 12) where they will have two options. Either they can click on the button
Ask For Feedback where they can email their doctor regarding anything or they click on
Previous Notes where they can check previous emails their doctor had sent them during
their use with DOT.
Figure 12 Contact Doctor Menu page where you either get information from your doctor
or send information.
14
After clicking the Ask for Feedback button, the user will come upon a page that looks
like a typical email program such as hotmail or yahoo! (figure 13). At this page they must
fill out the standard information in an email such as To:, Subject, and the actual message.
Figure 13: Email your doctor main page
One aspect of this feature that was added is the pre-set list of doctors to choose from in
the To: category (Figure 14). The reason we added this feature was so that the user would
not have to remember exactly their doctor's email and they could keep a list of up to 20
doctors so they could keep in contact with. It also cut down on the time the user has to
actually use the keys on their PDA or cell phone. At this moment we are trying to keep
most of the interaction with arrows and a PDA pen. Though at this moment we have not
implemented a way to add doctors, and their email address directly, we do have plans to
add this feature in the final prototype in December 2005.
15
Figure 14 Drop down box of list of Doctors the user can email.
After completing their message to their doctor, the user simply just has to click Send,
which is located at the bottom left corner of the page. Shortly thereafter, there will be a
confirmation telling them that their message has been sent.
The other feature of this Contact Doctor interface is the ability to store notes that user's
doctor has sent them (figure 15). Since the device that will carry this application is
targeted toward Personal Digital Assistants with internet connectivity or mobile phones,
doctors would be able to email back their patients through this application and their
emails would be viewable from this Doctor's Notes page (figure 15).
16
Figure 15 Previous Notes and your emails can be accessed at this page using the calendar
In order to view notes the user must click on a certain date on the calendar. After clicking
on a certain date, text will appear at the box labeled Notes where it will display the
message from their doctor (Figure 16). If they have no notes for that day, the text in the
"Notes box" will simply say "(none)".
Figure 16 Previous notes from doctor.
17
Development Process
During the first stage of the development process, we created a list of tasks that we
expected DOT being used for. By creating task examples, we were able to build a low
fidelity prototype, which helps achieve all the tasks written below.
Concrete Task Examples
Concrete Task Example #1:
Daniel Nguyen, who is a 21-year-old immigrant from Vietnam, used to be slim
back in Vietnam but he gained a huge amount of weight after he came to the United
States. He is now 5’6’’ and weighs around 200 pounds. His parents realized that his
condition is severe, so they took Daniel to their family doctor, Dr. Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki
tells the Nguyen family that Daniel is considered obese, and suggests Daniel that he
installs DOT on his PDA to manage his weight from now on. Daniel launches the DOT
application after downloading and installing the program. Since it is the first time
running the program, DOT asks Daniel to provide his information. Daniel types in his
height, weight, gender, and age, and then presses OK.
Discussion: This task is very important, but occurs only once. Providing personal data is
very important for the application to manage patients’ condition.
Concrete Task Example #2:
John Charles, who is 28 years old and works full time for Samsung electronics,
has been using DOT for a month now to manage his weight because of his doctor’s
suggestion. At this point, he wants to check how he has been doing by looking at the
graph of his weight. He launches DOT on his PDA and chooses Weight Diary from the
menu. He selects Previous Records, which DOT gives the graph of his weight based on
the previous data. John looks at the graph and realizes that his weight tends to increase in
weekends. He realizes that he has been eating with his colleagues in weekends. He
determines that he should not eat at restaurants in weekends.
Discussion: This task is of moderate importance and occurs infrequently. The ability to
view a graph could be helpful to analyze user’s tendency more efficiently.
Concrete Task Example #3:
Jane Woods, who is a senior computer science student of the University of
Maryland at College park, is a little chubby. Spending most of the time sitting on a chair,
Jane realizes that she is chubby because she is lack of physical activities. So she decides
to lose weight by running on a treadmill at the recreation center everyday. On the first
day at the gym, she checks the amount of calories she burned from running by looking at
the numbers displayed on the treadmill. Jane takes out her PDA and turns on the power.
After launching the DOT application, she chooses Exercise Diary from the menu, and
types the amount of calories into the diary.
18
Discussion: This task is important and occurs frequently to someone who is willing to
lose weight and who wants to keep the record on a regular basis.
Concrete Task Example #4:
Anne Lee, a full-time computer analyst is concerned about her weight and tries to
lose some pounds. She is not overweight or obese but her weight has increased
drastically. Since she is a computer analyst she spends most of her time in front of
computer implementing code and testing it. She often does work out and try to balance
the calories she gains and calories she consumes. It is difficult to memorize all the
activities she does and all the foods she has had, so she writes on a notebook whenever
she has foods or does exercise.
Discussion. The “user” has an ego to be in shape and wants to carry out this task more
conveniently. We expect her to keep the records well using the target system. The task is
routine and frequently done.
Concrete Task Example #5:
James Kim, a full-time office worker, weighs more than 300 pounds and is
looking for what kind of exercise is good for him. His doctor says that whatever he does
he needs to watch out for the imbalance of calories he consumes. James wants to write up
the food he has and exercise he does, and wants to find out how he is doing at the end of
the day. This information is kept in his notebook until he sees the doctor once again. If
James is out of control eating, there must be a warning given by someone.
Discussion. Keeping the record is routine and frequently done but reporting to the doctor
and giving a warning sign is infrequently done.
Concrete Task Example #6:
Jessie Gonzaga, 50 years old, is married and works full time for the
Environmental Protection Agency in Northern Virginia. Everyday he leaves for work
around 5:30 AM and gets to work at about 6:30 AM. When he gets to work he always
goes and gets a bacon, egg and cheese bagel from his favorite shop near his work. As he
is about to eat the sandwich he remembers his wife telling to him that he should be
careful what he eats because he isn’t getting any younger and skinnier. Currently, Jessie
knows that he is about 210 pounds and is 5’ 8” tall and wonders if he is considered obese.
All he knows is that there is some ratio of height to weight that could give him a brief
point of reference to his overweight problem. But he doesn’t know the formula and of
course, he doesn’t know the official name of the measuring scale that could help or
motivate him to change his eating habits.
Discussion: This task involves a man who knows he’s overweight but never really
measured himself to check and see how overweight he really is. Or for the fact that the
measuring scale, which in this case is the Body Mass Index, is the scale which could help
him determine what range he is categorized in. This is important because if he has no
idea that he is either “overweight” or “obese”, he’ll continue to do his daily routine and
continue to gain weight and body fat, which will increase his risk for diseases.
19
Concrete Task Example #7:
Tom Cortez, is 25 years old and works for the local Starbucks. All his life he has
been overweight and knows that he is considered obese. He is 5’8” and weighs
approximately 220 pounds. He has gone to his personal doctor, Dr. Hwang, to see what
he can do about being obese. After Dr. Hwang calculates that his Body Mass Index is
33.4, which is considered obese, Dr. Hwang advises him to go on a 1500-calorie diet for
the next 6 months. Tom acknowledges this advice and is determined to follow this diet.
So the next day, during his lunch break at work, he decides to have a strawberries and
crème frappuccino and a brownie. He then remembers that in the morning he had eggs
and rice and if he had gone over his 1500-calorie diet for day. With no way of going back
home and reading the labels at the moment, he has to contemplate whether or not to
sacrifice dinner or have a light dinner to reach 1500 calories.
Discussion: In this task, Tom wants to add up his calorie intake but has no idea
how many calories he ate for each meal. If he could only some way look up quickly the
calorie count for each of the things he ate so far and record them he could be on his way
to keeping track on the amount of calories he ate so far, which in the end could help him
be below or around 1500 calories a day. One of the best ways to keeping your diet is to
keep record of it to see if you’re progressing or digressing and would be the best way for
Tom’s doctor to keep track of him.
20
System Requirements for “Digital Obese Tracker (DOT)”:
Note: Implementation for “Mobile Device” only.
Must Include Items:
1. Hardware Requirements: PDA
2. Software Content:
a. Body Mass Index (BMI) check/diary: calculates and records BMI for the day.
Allows user to see where they end up according to the BMI scale. Then store
it in profile.
b. Weight Diary: allows user to enter weight for the day to make sure he or she
keeps track of her progress in fighting obesity. And then allows them to store
it into their personal profile.
c. Calorie check/diary: allows the user to look up the foods they ate and then
input them to check how many calories they have eaten for the day. It then
allows them to record this count and see if they are within their personal goal.
d. Exercise Diary: keeps track of the amount of time and type of exercise they
did for the day and also allows the user to enter the amount of calories they
burned doing that exercise. It then allows them to record this data into their
personal profile.
e. Personal Profile: tracks all the above content so that the user can view his or
her progress. Then if added, has the option to send it to the online database
where their doctor then has access to view their data, then if needed, make a
prescription or recommendation to the user.
21
Should Include Items:
1. Network: Online capability.
2. Software Content:
a. Ability to send personal profile to database: Allows doctor to review user’s
progress in fighting obesity.
b. Calorie warning: tells the user that he or she has gone over her limit of calorie
intake. Sends signal to right away to doctor if the user has gone over her limit
by 300 calories.
c. LogIn: If network is available, allow user to login to database and “read-only”
her profile throughout her use with DOT.
Could Include Items:
1. Software content:
a. list of links for tips of what to eat and how to exercise
b. graphs and charts for a visual representation of progress
c. ability to schedule appointment through the network with personal doctor
d. record of body measurements such as: waist, chest, arms, shoulders, and wrist.
22
First Design
Development of Low-Fidelity prototype
By gaining appropriate knowledge about obesity and the device that were already
made for the weight control, we came up with the device called the DOT. The DOT
basically handled all the features that manage the weight of the users and informed the
users they were doing. These features were mainly divided into four areas. – Today’s
management of the calories, doctor’s note, Calendar with all the intake and outtake of the
calories and BMI calculator. These features were listed in the order of frequency of the
use. Certain features listed before were eliminated due to their impracticality.
Although much emphasis on design was placed on practicality, innovation and
creativity was not lost. The DOT had combined a few functions such as the weight
management program and the diet program. The first function, today’s management of
the calories mainly showed what kinds of food the users had and what kinds of exercise
the users did. This also calculated the total calories taken or consumed for the day. The
second function, the doctor’s note was sent by the doctor and warned what was wrong
with the users and how they should deal with it. The DOT was implemented in the PDA
and therefore could be connected to the Internet. The Internet connection helped the
doctor to access the information about the users and could give out the advice. The third
function of the DOT was calendar with all the intake and outtake of the calories. This
could be the log of what was happening to the body and the result of recently started diet
program or exercise. Graphing the calories for a month was planned work we would
implement later. The last function was the BMI calculator. This was rarely used function
but very critical since BMI was the number that measured the obesity level. Now let me
explain how these functions and the DOT was used generally.
Fig 1: Login page – this page was only seen once
23
Fig 1 showed the first page the users would see when they turned on the DOT software.
First they need to sign in to the system by typing their personal information such as the
name of the person and the weight of the person. The weight of the person was critically
information because that was what the DOT dealt with and showed the management of it.
Here we showed two different low-fidelity prototypes. One was the DOT implemented
on the cell phone and the other one was the one that could be accessed on the Internet.
Fig 2: Start-up page - This was where you start up the DOT.
The fig 1 was skipped if it was not the first time of using. Fig 2 showed the startup page
and this was the page that showed up when the DOT was turned on after setup. This
began with showing all the information about the users and how they were doing. This
page was very simple but extremely important since this showed how the users were
doing on the weight and the BMI.
After the startup screen you will end up at fig 1, which is the main menu.
24
Fig 3: Main page with all four options
Above is a display of the main menu for Digital Obese Tracker (DOT).
After startup page was displayed for a few seconds letting the users know how they were
doing, the DOT’s main page shown in Fig 3 was displayed automatically. Each option
took the users to their own separate pages making the functions available to the users.
Fig 4: Today’s log page – this showed all the activities related to the calories and the
BMI done today.
Here, the first option, ‘Today’s log’ was chosen. This gave some functions implemented
under ‘Today’s log’ available. The option called ‘Food’ took the users to the page where
they could record the calories of the food taken in. This information was taken and
recorded onto the database they had so that the users could access this information on
25
Today’s log page and in the calendar page. The second and the third option each took the
users to the exercise and the weight page where they could record the number to the
database and these numbers were seen in this page and also in calendar page.
Fig 5: The exercise and the new food information page
Fig 5 showed how the new exercise and the new food information page were set up. This
was a very simple input taking page. The users could just type in the calories they took in
and burnt. Three interfaces were shown here. First two showed the interfaces available on
the Internet and the third one showed the interface that was available on the cell phone.
Each interface had its an advantage over the other. Internet access gave the users an
opportunity to see the result of their diet or exercise on the Internet where no PDA or a
cell phone was present. The PDA or a cell phone could be hand-carried and could be
accessed anywhere the users wanted.
26
Fig 6: Doctor’s note page
This was the second option available on the main page. This could be used a lot by the
doctors and could give the important notice to the users. The users also don’t need to go
see a doctor for a tedious question and can ask about themselves online right away with
this feature. The important doctor’s message could arrive with blinking sign and signal
just like the message received for a cell phone.
27
Fig 6: Calendar mode
This calendar would be fully interactive. Through the arrow buttons of your mobile
device such as the PDA or Cell Phone, you could scroll through each date and the
information for that day would be displayed in the info window at the bottom.
At the info window, you had 4 categories being displayed: calories-in, calories burned,
BMI, weight. Each category was fully editable by pressing the right button on the bottom
right hand corner. Then through the arrow keys you could go up and down and edit using
the number buttons on your phone or PDA. Then to go back the calendar just pressed the
left hand corner button.
The use of having a calendar like interface was so that the user would get quick access to
the date they wanted. That way they didn’t have to scroll all the way down or enter a
wrong date just to go to the day they wanted.
The user could also go to “options” menu by hitting the center button above the arrow
keys. There they could find a number of options such as: “BMI calculator, Food Lookup,
Email to doctor”. That menu was in figure 2, which would be explained later.
28
Fig 7: BMI calculator
The BMI calculator was the mode that was used rarely and this only calculated the BMI
using the weight. It probably used once to set up the DOT for the first time. Or this could
be used when some of the user’s friends wanted to find out the BMI.
We were going to implement the database for the food and exercise at the beginning but
we realized that was too ambitious and impossible to implement for the whole food and
exercise. So we ended up allowing the users to put the numbers and this could cause
inconvenience to the users. However, this guaranteed more exact result and made the
users think about how they were doing with the calories.
29
Development of High-Fidelity prototype
While the low fidelity prototype was created using Photoshop 7.0, the high fidelity
prototype was developed in Flash MX 2004, using the low fidelity prototype as a guide.
It was obvious that we had to change the interface and design. One of the main changes
was that after logging in to DOT system, users see a calendar on the screen and that will
work as the start-up screen of the system. In addition, instead of having two separate
menus for entering food and exercise information, we combined them into one and put it
onto the main screen. In that way, users can type in the information from the main screen
right away.
On the main screen, there are three icons and two buttons. We realized that users could
not go back to the previous menu, and help was also unavailable, so in the high fidelity
prototype, we included three icons for back, home, and help. By clicking “home” button,
users can go back to the main screen from anywhere. And by clicking “help,” a pop-up
window comes up and helps users find out the way to use DOT correctly. In addition,
There are two buttons on the main screen which include “Dr’s Feedback” that allows
users to send and receive feedbacks from their doctors, and “BMI calculator” where users
can calculate their BMI. For the “Dr’s feedback” menu, we included a calendar to view
all the previous feedbacks from doctors, when users click on a specific date, users can
view previous feedbacks given by doctors on the corresponding date.
Once the high fidelity prototype was created, the usability test was initiated.
Usability Testing
Individual team members conducted usability tests with their respective test subject.
Before each test was conducted, each individual test subjects were briefed on their
purpose during the usability test. They were told that the prototype interface, and not
themselves were being tested. That way, they would be more relaxed during the usability
test.
Subjects were also told to act as if the administrator of the test is not present. This is to
make sure that the subjects could figure the interface on their own and not get any clues
from the administrator. At the completion of each task, the administrator would tell the
subject to move on to the next task on the list. The reason for this is to make sure the
subject knew when they had completed a certain task.
Usability Test Subjects
Subject1: (Age: 22, Weight: 190lbs). Based on his pre-test interview, User1 is a frequent
Internet user, so he is very familiar with common interfaces such as a web browser, and
30
online video games. Another factor that was important is his use of glasses for the past 10
years. During the test he did wear his glasses, but it was asked if he could see without
them. He responded, “No” and thus he had to wear his glasses during the usability test.
- Eyes and mouse moved around the screen a lot while looking for a way to
calculate BMI (Importance: 2, effort: 2)
- Took some time to figure out stats for yesterday (Importance: 2, effort: 2)
- Tried to click “send” many times after sending email to Doctor (Importance:
3, effort: 3)
- Was looking for a way to get back to home page.(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
- Need a confirmation after sending email(Importance: 2, effort: 2)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, he said the system was overall good
and efficient.
Subject2: (Age: 20, Weight: 179lbs). Based on his pre-test interview, Subject2 uses
Internet in a regular basis, and spends considerable amount of time on video games every
week. Thus he is very familiar with common interfaces. Peter has been wearing glasses
for 11 years, and he wore glasses during the usability test.
- He clicked tab button to move to next field when creating a new user. He
complained that Add User button is being selected after First Name field
where Age field should have been selected. (Importance: 1, effort: 1).
- After adding a new user, he didn't know the name was added, he said there
should be a notice telling that the new user has been added.(Importance: 1,
effort: 1)
- He filled in weight in the weight field of the main interface to calculate BMI
instead of opening up a pop up window for BMI calculator (Importance: 3,
effort: 3)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, he said the system was overall good
and efficient. He especially liked that users could get Doctor’s feedbacks.
Subject3: (Age: 17, Weight: 190lbs). Subject3 is currently a senior at Walt Whitman
High School. Based on his pre-test interview, subject3 uses Internet everyday, and he
plays video games often. Thus he is very familiar with common interfaces. Subject3
wears glasses but he could see while he was doing the usability test without his glasses.
- To add a new user, he clicked File menu of the Flash Player to look for
New/Add user. (Importance: 2, effort: 1)
- He complained that he had to delete the field before entering data (Name, age,
and weight). (Importance: 1, effort: 1)
- After introducing himself to the doctor, he found it difficult to go back to the
main menu. (Importance: 3, effort: 2)
- He didn't know he has to click the calculator button to calculate his BMI.
(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, he said the system was overall good
and efficient. He especially liked that the pretty design.
31
Subject4: (Age: 20, Weight: 192lbs). Based on his pre-test interview, subject4 uses the
Internet 2 hrs a day. So he is familiar with common interfaces of web browsers.
Subject4 wears glasses but he could see without the glasses during the usability test.
- He clicked Add User 3 times. Since his last name starts with "S," he couldn't
see his name on the list right away after being added. So he didn't know the
user was added to the user list. (Importance: 4, effort: 3)
- After introducing himself to the doctor, even though there was a notice that
the message had been sent, he didn't believe the message was sent because the
window didn't close after being sent to the doctor. (Importance: 3, effort: 2)
- He didn't know he has to click the calculator button to calculate his
BMI.(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
- He found it difficult to go back to the main interface; he once brought the
cursor to the Home button, but he thought it would bring him to the login
page. He was nervous about the possible errors so he just clicked back button
several times.(Importance: 3, effort: 2)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, he said the system was overall good
and efficient. He especially liked the design and the color. He also liked that the
response time overall was short.
Subject5: (Age: 15, Weight: 183lbs). Subject5 is currently a freshman of Walt Whitman
High School. Based on his pre-test interview, subject5 uses the Internet in a regular
basis, and plays video games often. Thus he is very familiar with common interfaces.
He has been wearing glasses for 2 years and he couldn't see without the glasses so he
wore them during the test.
- He wasn't sure about his weight in pounds so he wanted to use Metric system.
He didn't know he could calculate BMI using Metric system because the box
for English system was taking most proportion of the BMI calculator.
(Importance: 2, effort: 2)
- He didn't know he has to click the calculator button to calculate his
BMI.(Importance: 3, effort:3)
- He complained that he had to delete the field before entering data (Name, age,
and weight)(Importance: 1, effort: 1)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, he said the system was overall good
and efficient. He especially liked that he could get Doctor's feedback through DOT.
Subject6: (Age: 21, Weight: 170lbs). Based on his pre-test interview, he uses the Internet
in a regular basis, and plays video games often. Thus he is very familiar with common
interfaces. Subject6 has been wearing glasses for 10 years and he couldn't see without
the glasses so he wore them during the test.
- He pressed Enter after entering Calorie information, and the input disappeared
(textbox changing lines) making him confused. (Importance: 3, effort: 3)
32
-
He couldn't locate the Dr's feedback button because "it was hiding on the
left."(Importance: 3, effort: 2)
- He didn't know he has to click the calculator button to calculate his
BMI.(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
- He complained that he had to delete the field before entering data (Name, age,
and weight) (Importance: 1, effort: 1)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, he said the system was overall good
and efficient. He especially liked the design and the organization of the main interface.
Subject7: (Age: 21, Weight: 170lbs). Based on her pre-test interview, subject7 does not
use the Internet as much as regular college students. Moreover, although she possesses a
cell phone, she does not use it frequently. To make a user like Rachel be comfortable
using the Interface would be DOT team's goal. Also, Rachel has been wearing contact
lenses for 6 years.
- She was confused what to start with when she got to the main Interface. Her
eyes moved a lot to find the field for Calories.(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
- She didn't know he has to click the calculator button to calculate his
BMI.(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
- She didn't change the Doctor's name from Dr. Sony Toshiba (default value) to
Dr. Kodak. (Importance: 4, effort: 2)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, she said the system was overall
somewhat difficult to get comfortable. She liked the design of the main interface. She
said that it should be more informative to help a user like her.
Subject8: (Age: 21, Weight: 160lbs). Based on her pre-test interview, she uses the
Internet in a regular basis. Thus she is familiar with common interfaces.
- Among all the test volunteers, she was the only one to click on the Help
button, but she says that it does not really help to figure out the Interface.
- She says it the Metric field of the BMI calculator is annoying, she says the
programmers could include a button that leads the users to use the Metric field
and take the field out of the BMI calculator interface. (Importance: 2)
- She didn't know she has to click the calculator button to calculate her BMI.
(Importance: 3, effort: 3)
Overall, after debriefing and a personal interview, she said the system was overall good
and efficient. She especially liked the design of the system and she said it was easy to
select one of the doctors
Subject9: (Age: 29, Weight: 165lbs). Subject9 is studying computer science at University
of Maryland at College Park and he is going to graduate this semester. He is a very good
programmer and is expected to be familiar with common interfaces such as a web
browser, and online video games.
33
He complained a lot when it didn’t work as he wanted, but he still figured out
quickly what to do.(Importance: 1, effort: 2)
He liked the graphical icons and said they are very attractable to use the system. At the
beginning, he seems to be bothered when the system didn’t work as well as he wanted but
since he was a computer science manager, he could figure it out easily.
-
Subject10: (Age: 30, Weight: 165lbs). Subject10 is currently a freshman at the UMCP
and is majoring in computer science. He is a frequent Internet user. Since he majors in
computer science, he is very familiar with common interfaces such as a web browser, and
online video games.
- Every function was easily executed. (Importance: 4, effort: 4)
- He was a quick learner (Importance: 4, effort: 4)
- Tried to click "send" many times after sending email to Doctor.(Importance:
4, effort: 4)
He said the system was overall good. He did not have any difficulties to execute the
program’s functions and he especially liked the calendar function.
Post-Test Questionnaire Results
The possible scores ranged from 1 – 9.
1. Overall reactions to the system was (Terrible – 1) or (Wonderful – 9)
Average Score: 6
2. You can accomplish tasks (With Difficulty – 1) or (Easily – 9)
Average Score: 6.1
3. Learning to operate system (Difficult – 1) or (Easy – 9)
Average Score: 6.5
4. Characters on the computer screen (Hard to read – 1) or (Easy to read – 9)
Average Score: 7.2
Usability Test Conclusions
The usability test seemed very helpful in trying to find bugs and other potential problems
that us developers of the system could not find. As a group we looked at each comment
from the usability test and tried to find the most common problems. This way, we knew
which problems could arise again if we conducted more usability tests. From all the
comments, we found these to be the most important in redesigning the system.
“BMI Calculator”
For a number of users, clicking the calculator symbol to calculate their body mass index
was difficult for them to recognize. Though as of right now, we have not yet discussed a
34
possible solution to this problem, we will take this into consideration. We know for sure
that this aspect of the system will be redesigned.
“Add New User”
For the most part, the functionality of this option was efficient, but it needed some way to
give feedback to the user that a “new user” was added. We can simply do this by adding
some text after the user has entered the new user information. Another part of this option
that will need adjustment is the tabs. Most efficient users use the “tab” button to move
around the screen.
“Message confirmation after Email Sent”
A confirmation page after the email being sent to their doctor would be most useful to
solve this problem. Most of our test subjects were looking for a new page saying that
their email was sent. They did not notice the message at the bottom saying “message
sent”. This issue can be handled by having a new page for confirmation. Another aspect
related to this issue is that the “Dr. Feedback” button was not very noticeable. Many
users were looking for this button during this test.
“More Help Menu”
We simply need to add more to the help menu. Users said that the help menu was to
simplistic and needed more depth. We’ll put more options and a possible table of
contents to help users use the “help menu”.
35
Conclusion
The interface was developed with Flash MX and it didn't run on any kind of portable
devices. However, the size of the screen and the icons were made considering the use on
portable devices such as PDA and cell phones. After the usability test, the final interface
now started with the users entering their names.
The calendar option ended up being the main page and other options such as BMI
calculator and Dr's feedback can be accessed from that point. The calendar being one of
the options did not seem right since the calendar would be the first one the user would
check whenever they log onto the interface either putting in the information or recalling
the information. The main page with the calendar had four entries to put the information
in. e.g. BMI, Weight, Calories Burned and Calories Eaten. Each one of these entries had
a limit and restriction on what information could be written. E.g. no letters could be put
in for weight entry. All these information could be stored for the right dates and this
information could be recalled once the user clicked the right date.
BMI calculator icon leads into the pop-up page on where the user could calculate their
BMI by entering their heights and weights. These entries were available for the English
and the Metric. Just in case when the user made a mistake the 'Reset' button was put in.
As soon as the calculate button was pressed the person's BMI status was shown. e.g.
underweight, overweight.
Dr's Feedback button had lead into the Doctor Feedback Menu where the user could
choose Ask For Feedback or previous notes. Ask For Feedback let the user to write the
email to the doctor and previous notes could show all the notes for the right date. - this
was implemented similar to the main page, with the calendar.
The back button, the home page button and the help button were implemented as it
should be for the user's convenience and to give the user assurance that even though they
made some mistakes they could go back to the previous page. Most of the functions were
implemented, but it did not retain any of the information after the application was closed.
This problem should be fixed if this interface was implemented for the PDA. Everything
else worked fine and was implemented as we wanted. The database we planned to
implement at the beginning was also dropped since it made the project much more
difficult.
For future developers of this system, we would recommend going deeper into the
network/internet aspect of this application. Since today, the Internet seems to be
connected to every device, whether it's a PC or a cell phone, it is only proper that DOT be
more "internet ready". Possible updates could include a direct chat with the doctor, such
as adding AOL Instant Messenger to the system. This functionality would be nice,
because the user would not have to wait long for a response from their doctor. If their
doctor is online, they would be able to get feedback right away.
36
Another recommendation would be to add graphs and food look up in the system. Since
most people don't know how many calories are in a piece a food, a way to look up
calories for a certain piece of food would be a great addition to the system. A possible
idea for this food look up would be to create a search that could go through a nutritional
database in the system. This database could be updatable and it could be connected to the
Internet as well. As for the graphs, the user could benefit from a graph that related to their
statistics and give them a visual image of how they are doing. Since one of the most
important ways to achieve a goal is through visualization, this would be a great addition
as well.
37
REFERENCES
AHRQ. "Managing Obesity: A Clinician's Aid." AHRQ Publication No. 04-0082,
October 2004. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
<http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/obesaid.htm>.
Body Mass Index Formula for Adults. July 2005. Center Disease Control and Prevention.
Oct. 2005 <http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/bmi-adult-formula.htm>
“Breast Cancer; Physical Activity and Weight Control May Lessen Breast Cancer Risk.” Obesity,
Fitness & Wellness Week 13 August 2005: 1287.
“DietOrganizer - Diet software for calorie counting and weight loss” 2005. MulberrySoft.
October 2005: <http://www.dietorganizer.com/index.html>
“Exercise, Eating Right and Maintaining Weight Benefit Oral Health.” Law & Health Weekly 17
September 2005: 86.
FitDay. Copyright 2005. Cyser Software. Oct. 2005 <http://www2.fitday.com/Pc/PcHome.html>
Luo, John. “Portable Computing in Psychiatry.” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. January 2004.
Linear Software. "Body Tracker Software Version 5.0" Body Tracker. 2000-2005. Linear Software.
<http://www.linear-software.com/bodytracker.html>.
Mack, Brenda. "FTC Puts Exercise Device Weight-Loss Claims on a Diet." Project
Workout. 1997. Office of Public Affairs. 17 June. 1997
<http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1997/06/workout.htm>.
Managing Obesity: A Clinical Guide by Gary Foster, PhD and Cathy Nonas, MS, RD, CDE
Medical Dietetics. "Losing Weight Likely a Matter of Getting Your Number." School of Allied
Medical Professions. 2005.
<http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:LmjwTNLsMe0J:www.blh.com/PDF%2520Files/Data%
2520Sheets/lcm-200.pdf+weight+controller&hl=ko>.
“Myocardial Infarction; Obesity Adds Risk of Heart Disease in Siblings with Family History.” Heart
Disease Weekly 15 May 2005: 177.
Noah, Shahrul A. “DietPal:A Web-Based Dietary Menu-Generating and Management System” Journal of
Medical Internet Research 2004; 6(1): e4.
“Obesity; 1-meter Waistline Predicts High Risk of Diabetes and Heart Disease.” Life Science
Weekly 3 May 2005: 1182.
OEI Treatment Guidelines Implementation Tool for Palm OS and PocketPC 2003 Devices. National
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Oct. 2005 < http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/obgdpalm.htm>
“Parents of Obese Preschoolers Unaware Their Children are Fat.” New Zealand Press Association 10 May
2005
Schwarzen, Christopher. “Local teen tests anti-obesity device.” The Seattle Times 7 September 2005:
H14.
38
Weight-By-Date Mobile. Copyright 2005. Quite Healthy Technologies. Oct. 2005
<http://www.weightbydate.com/mobile_overview.htm>
Weiderhold, Brenda and Mark. “The Future of Cybertherapy: Improved Options with Advanced
Technologies.” Internet and Virtual Reality as Assessment and Rehabilitation Tools
for Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience. 2004. Pg. 6.