Week 9
I decided to start somehow creating or adding audio to a GPS map. I came across Map Maker which is a website that lets users drop pins with audio on a GPS map but was unable to register and use it - I'm not sure if the website is still working. I then came across Sonic Maps and downloaded the app to give it a go. I recorder some audio and began placing it on the map. I decided to focus my attention on the exhibition space and around the exhibition, along the main street. I recorded instructions that tell the user, as they're walking past the gallery that a project is being exhibited at the moment. The user then has the option to ignore the message or to find out more and if they want to know more they are told about what the opening hours of the exhibition are, if it's busy at the moment and how to get inside the gallery.
I user tested this and found out that the accuracy of the map wasn't the best and the markers that I placed on the map were also too big and so 2 different audios overlapped each other and made it difficult for the user to understand.
The next day I mapped out a route on the ground in the courtyard at college using chalk. Instead of recording instructions and placing them on a map I got 2 phones and through a phone call (me on one end and the user on the other end) I instructed them what to do. I tried to sound like a sat nav which might not have been the best way to do it - the users seemed to prefer the more human contact. I placed obstacles throughout the route and would either tell the user using words that there was something in their way or I beep.. beep... beep beep beeped which also told them when they were getting closer to an obstacle.
One of the difficulties was when I told the user to walk 5 metres ahead and nobody knew what 5 metres was so it would be better to relate the distance to something they know. The language that I used might not have always been suitable and by that I mean that I was too much of a sat nav and less of a human navigator. When turning left and right the users said it would help to include the degree that I want them to turn to make it more specific. The instructions were simple and easy enough to follow. Some of the users had already seen the route mapped out so it helped them navigate and so a more difficult terrain would be better to use in the future.
The next steps are to figure out the features of the visually impaired user's app and the features of the mapping app/ website and to draw up some wireframes. A persona might help me focus as well as a scenario of a specific use case.
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