Connection to Autism
A = Autistic P = Parent of someone autistic C = Care for someone autistic/Works with autistic people D = Dyslexic
Connection to Experience
d = direct: experience, suggestion, or opinion of speaker
i = indirect: witnessed or reported on behalf of someone else by speaker
g = general comment
Other
(1), (2) = In case two participants have the same key, they receive a number
With which devices would you probably access the Autistica Citizen Science Platform once it is online? (multiple answers possible)
- Laptop/Desktop: 4
- Tablet: 4
- Smartphone: 3
→ Users have different preferences regarding the input device: It is important that the platform is responsive and works on desktop, tablet and smartphone
- Do you/your children use accessibility tools to access websites etc.?
- d: 4x “No”
- A D d: predictive writing/spell-checking, voice-to-text (on the phone)
- P i: “my son he prefers voice to text rather than typing”, “no one [in her family] uses screen readers”
- Voice-to-text and screen reading
- P i: “The problem with screen readers is that they just start from the beginning and when it reaches the point you need, a lot of time has passed. It would be better if there was a button that would read you a particular block of text that you want. It is for people who can see the text and are not blind, but who feel like this could help them to understand.”
- P i: “None of them likes reading. They [her children] are all very creative about using voice to text, using voice commands. They don’t really use screen readers, but if there is an option to listen, to command, they would rather do that.”
- P i: “Judging by my children, if you use voice more, either reading it to you or input by voice, that would definitely increase participation of types like my children.”
- A D d: “Reading makes me feel really stressed. It is not just reading, but also the anxiety that comes with reading and writing. I think people don’t understand that.”, “It also makes me feel tired”
- A C i: confirms that screen reader is important
- A D d: “I think I would find it quite difficult to enter the experience that I just described, because I have got bad dyslexia. It would be easier for me to speak, because if I would write, it would be very different from what I just said. My spelling is quite limited, so it would be just basic words and sentences. So I could not say what I would want to say, because I would have to write down what I can spell. I would have to think about writing a simpler version, because I struggle with writing.”
- A D d: Would appreciate a voice-to-text function
- A (1) d: “Analysis or summary of what the page is. For example, read by audio or video.”
→ Even though many users are comfortable with reading and writing, a voice-to-text feature for input, as well as a (selective) screen reading function are regarded as indispensable accessibility tools
- Colors, contrasts and fonts
- P i: Suggestion: Possibility to change the colour scheme
- A D d: “I would appreciate pastel colors, because the screen is so bright. It is probably alright, it might be just the colouring. It might be good to have a colour bar to adapt the background.”
- A D d: “As it is at the moment I would probably not use it, because I find the colours too intense.”
- A D d: Theme does not need to be a dark theme, but “just not so bright. I think more about pastel colours. I find it hard to read on. I had a test once and they gave me a kind of ‘pinky’ background, which I found easier to read on.”
- A C d: “[The contrast] is a little bit too heavy for me, but then I am short sighted, I am wearing my reading glasses. I don’t know if other people who got strong visual impairments would need that kind of contrast. I am just learning about this, that people with strong visual impairments do better with black background and yellow. So I don’t know if at any point of this ‘load up an experience’ you could have an alternative one, saying ‘do you have a visual impairment? Would you like to use this template?”
- A C d: “Usually they [people with autism] request larger font sizes, because then there is less text on the site that they are reading and they can cope with it better.
- A C d: positive towards alternative template and fonts as accessibility settings for people with visual impairments
→ Colour, contrast and font sizes need to be adaptable
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Accessibility icon (man with open arms)
- d: 2x not easy to understand
- P s: “If there is any visual accompanying the text, people will always draw conclusions, because it is faster to analyse the visuals than to read the text. So it gives you a direction. I think for ‘accessibility’ there are other signs that are more self-explanatory.”
- d: 2x not easy to understand
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Help/Visual support
- A (1) d: “A tutorial of how the site works would be an option.”
- A (1) d: “Show a guide/example of how the page will appear.”
- A (1) d: “I think it would be good to have more pictures.”
Landing Page (https://c6q95y.axshare.com/#g=1&p=0-home-light-non-newsletter-lang-drop__1___1_&view=b)
- P d: “It doesn’t look particularly confusing, although I don’t know why there is so much information on the landing page.”
- A (1) d: “I like the detail and the layout of this section.”
- A (2) d: “For me, it is just too much information. I mean, I realize it is really simple, but I guess that orange login-button is like a life-preserver, I would go for that.”
- A (2) d: “I am sure the purpose of the website would be clear if I had the energy to read it. It is simple, but people get frustrated that it is not even more clear.”
- A (2) d: “Visually it is very clean, but it is not very clear.”
- A C d: “It is very distracting, because you tell me what the aims are, now I just want to login and upload. Why would I need to see all this straight up?”
- A D d: It is not clear that you can enter experiences on this site
- A D d: “I would go on this website to find out things about autism or to help with it, but I cannot see where I could search for something. Normally you can see a search function right away.”
- A (2) d: “This landing page is giving you an overview of the site, but really it is trying to make it clear that you need to log in to begin. I think one thing that could be made better here [...] is to change the label ‘login’ to ‘ready to begin’ or ‘proceed’ or something. [...] It is like when you are doing a questionnaire, like one of these surveys for your company, and it is going to be like 100 questions and you just click ‘proceed’. It is very linear thinking, it is like ‘Ok, now I am just going to the next page.’. It proceeds in a linear fashion. As opposed to being on this landing page, and thinking ‘Alright, there are 12 sections and I don’t know where I want to start. I guess it is up to me.’ Like, I don’t really want to choose my own adventure, I want you to tell me the order [...], because that is easier for me. When I am at home, organising my bookshelf, I get to choose how I am going to organise it. And there are a million ways to do it and that is my choice, and I can struggle with that and use my energy for that. But when I am coming to this site, I just want you to tell me where I need to go next. Like with this session: Just tell me what I need to do. I need to save my energy for after this session.”
- P d: “I would probably go to ‘login’ and register.”
- A D d: Next step he would take: click on ‘Login’ button
- A (2) d: Reads first the aims, then ‘How it works’
- A (2) d: “Then I would have to log in, which is a bit stressful, because I don’t always know what all my login details are.”
- P d: “The first thing I read was the slogan. [...] Then I looked at ‘aims’, read them, and I didn’t really pay attention to ‘How it works’, ‘Configure’ and ‘Get involved’, because it looks like technical information, and then I went basically to ‘Login’.”
- P d: “I spent some time reading the slogan, because I was trying to understand whether it summarises everything or why it is there.”
- A C d: “I want to look only at ‘how it works’.”
- A C d: “‘Authorise project’, what does that mean? Is that the consent-thing?”
- A C d: “I would maybe put ‘authorise project’ in brackets and write ‘give consent’, because that describes in plain English what ‘authorise project’ means.”
- A (1) d: “I would use the ‘How it works’, definitely. And I would like to see an example of how you would write that experience. It could be anonymous, but it could have a picture of how it would look. That would be useful.”
- A C d: “The ‘get involved’, I would rather like that as a postscript, later, and the ‘configure’, again, more like a postscript.”
- A (1) d: “I like the ‘Configure’ and ‘Get involved’-parts. I think it is not overcrowded and it is not too long.”
- A C d: “I would probably try to ignore the ‘get involved’ bit, because you can get distracted by that.”
- A C d: “So I am not sure if I would put the ‘get involved’ and ‘configure’ together with the ‘how it works’, because that is for the people who are more technical. As someone who only wants to login and enter experiences, I would not want to see the ‘configure’ and ‘get involved’.”
- A (1) d: “I like how it is broken down into smaller sections, with borders around each box. I like the fact that they are separate, and that the links are highlighted.”
- A D d: “I find it quite glary, because it is really white and really bright. And I am strained looking at it, it is a bit too bright for me. It makes me want to look away.”
- A (2) d: “The text in the ‘How it works’ box should be one font size bigger.”
- A (2) d: “There are different options to design it, I am just saying it is not the best it could be yet.”
- A (2) d: “I think one thing that could be made better here [...] is making that login more centered [...]”
- A C d: “The ‘how it works’ - it means, you have got to login to Open Humans, that is part of the login. That would be straight underneath ‘aims’, before the login-button.”
- A C d: “I am not sure personally that I like the icon for ‘how it works’, because it looks like a ‘settings’ icon.”
→ There is a tendency towards the perception that the landing page contains too much information that is irrelevant for the general user. Mainly the ‘get involved’ and ‘configure’ parts are criticised. The aims, ‘how it works’ and the login should be highlighted and the ‘how it works’ possibly illustrated with an example or images.
Open Humans Login page (https://c6q95y.axshare.com/#g=1&p=oh-login&view=b)
- A (1) d: “I like the plain but simple access to login. Plus, logging into other supported pages.”
- d: 3x not confusing, 2x confusing
- A D d: Unclear what Open Humans is and why you need to login there
- A D d: “Having to login to Open Humans makes me a bit nervous. I would like more information before signing up and logging in, because you don’t really know what you are logging in for.”
- A (1) d: “I don’t find it confusing. I like the fact that it allows you to use your username or email. I would recognize these, it is positive.”
- A (1) d: “I believe it [that you need to login via Open Humans] was mentioned beforehand to me.”
- A (2) d: “I struggle with the organisations. I mean there is Turing..I don’t really know what Open Humans is. I have heard that phrase many times, I am sure that I have been told, but I don’t know. It is some kind of platform - but I don’t even know what a platform is, I am not a technical person. So that is a problem. But I would think here, if I had already signed up before, I would just look up the login details in my notes. I wouldn’t know what Open Humans is, but I have heard this terminology before.”
→ Open Humans and why you need to login via this platform should be explained. The fact that the majority of the participants was not confused by the redirection to Open Humans might be explainable by the fact that they had heard about it before in prior contributions to the project.
- A (2) d: “It is pretty straight-forward. [...]I have come to expect these alternative logins with Facebook and Google, that is just how things are these days, but I usually try to avoid third-party logins. But now I would have to find my login details.”
- A C d: “I am lazy, I would go straight with ‘continue with Google’ or ‘Facebook’.”
→ Third-party logins were not criticised by any participant
‘Enter experiences’ page (https://c6q95y.axshare.com/#g=1&p=3_-_add-event-across-device&view=b)
- A (2) d: “What I understand from the site is that the main essence of it is that it was created to log people’s challenging experiences.”
- A D d: “I find it quite confusing.”
- A D d: “The question [‘Talk about any experience in your daily life’] needs to be more highlighted, because I didn’t really understand right away what information you were looking for.”
- P d/i: “What is important to understand here is that I think everyone on the spectrum has their daily life heavily adjusted to avoid situations which they could describe here. So like for example, we don’t go to hotels or restaurants anymore, because they are not suitable for highly sensitive children. So when you ask about ‘daily life’, our daily life is very different from what you probably think about daily life. But I can enter events from the past, which influenced these decisions, like meltdowns or anything that leads to basically rejecting attendance to those places. The thing is, that after you’ve had those ‘failures’ and you understand that it is just not adjusted to you, your life is very different, and only when you do something new, you can get in some sort of ‘trouble’ on a daily basis. But living with sensory sensitivities means, it used to be almost like some kind of military operation, that was carefully calculated and evaluated. So I wouldn’t say ‘daily life’, because our daily life is highly structured, or ‘protected’ in any way possible. No one takes risks.”
- P d/i: “Yes, there are daily things, but what you have to expect from many people is that they have adjusted their life, because it would be too traumatic to have a meltdown on a daily basis.”
- P d: Ideas for alternative formulation: we should specify what we are looking for, e.g.: “general experiences that influenced your attitude to life”
- “What makes something a barrier or accessible” (Comment from moderator)
- A (2) d: [...] you could decide if only negative experiences are being requested (if so make this clear), or both positive or negative. (I think only negative experience should be captured [...] If both, then the first question should be: “Was this experience positive or negative?” → “Any experience in your daily life” might not be precise enough to capture what we are looking for. Do we accept positive experiences? Can people enter experiences from the past that made something a barrier or accessible for them?
- On entering text
- d: 4x preference for text input, 1x preference for voice-to-text function
- i: 2x suggestion to offer a voice-to-text function (for other people, even though they are comfortable with entering text themselves)
- A (2) d: “I would generally be ok with this format, but I can see how some people maybe would want to just speak to describe the situation rather than having to type it all. Either because they are not so comfortable with writing or because there is a lot of nuance in the situation they are describing and they could give you that much more colour by doing it on audio. In that way you could take from it what you wish.”
→ A voice-to-text function would make this form accessible to a wider audience
- Choice of form fields
- P d: “This form gives you the impression of ‘don’t go too deep with your thoughts. Just tell very briefly, very easy to understand and follow what you think’.”
- A D d:‘Where’ and ‘What’: “It took me some time, but I would understand it eventually.”
- In relation to that: A D d: “The ‘talk about any experience in your life’ needs to be bolder, because you don’t see it right away.”
- A D d:“I suppose ‘where’ is where you live, but I am not sure.”
- A D d:“The ‘what’ - I would put my experience in there.”
- A (1) d: “For the entering experiences. I like the use of where or what. But, would it be worth adding how, why. As well as time of day - what I mean by this was weather. For e.g. sunny, windy, rainy, cold?”
- A (1) d: “I do like the layout of it and the content of the site. Maybe a field for ‘other’ would be useful, because maybe if there is something you can’t fit into the ‘Where’ or ‘What’ section, you can maybe add that to that ‘other’ part, which would be useful. I do like it overall.”
- A (2) d: “It [the choice of input fields] is pretty good, it covers the basics.”
- A (2) d: “I think you don’t want the word ‘what’ to be used twice, even though they are in different sections. Because it is in different sections, I think it is ok, but I think you could probably improve it by changing the second ‘what’ maybe to ‘how’, to even make it more clear that it is a different section.
- A (2) d: “The question in the second box could be something like ‘How could this situation have been different?”
- A (2) d: “I guess there is always more that you could add, you could add more questions, but then it gets too long for people. So I think it is ok.”
- A C d: “It is fine as long as the ‘what’ will expand itself as I type in.”
- A C d: “I think in an early version it said something like ‘Did you find your own solution?’ or ‘How did you solve it?’, but you simplified it with ‘What would you have wished to be different?’, because some people were believing that we were exchanging points of view, putting in suggestions for the people, like ‘this is how I did it’. I think that is something that we should end up exchanging [...].
→ Overall, the form fields are understood intuitively by most participants. Some suggestions for improvement: ‘What’ should not be used twice, an ‘other’ field could be added, the ‘where’ should have an explanation so it is less ambiguous
- Tags
- A C d: “It would be nice if there was some form part that was like ‘transport’, ‘hospitals’, ‘school’, whatever it was, and people would go in and get advice from users. But I don’t know if that is the intention. You probably create the data and then it goes off into a report and then people at London transport will access it when it is finished.”
- A C d: Would like a tagging system to tag categories like “transport”, “hospitals” etc.
- A (1) d: tags that would be useful: transport, covid (at the moment), other, not applicable
- A (1) d: “A word or phrase [referring to tags to allow more options] – drop down selection with explanation of what it means.”
- A C d: “Just the fact that, obviously, this only being a flat process of putting stuff in, I would like at some stage for someone to sign it, so some of the experiences can be going into thematic categories. [..] So that everything that is related to transport or health, for hospital environments is extracted, so we can actually go in and look at that.”
- A C d: Would like symbols for e.g. tubes, busses or hospitals as a support when picking tags
- → On the PECS symbols used on the ‘non-verbal’ site (https://c6q95y.axshare.com/#g=1&p=3-add-event-non-verbal-home-final): A C d: criticises ‘shop’ symbol (no text on sign) and expressions (hard to understand, “I think even emojis are better than that”)
→ Tagging systems were not thematized in all user tests, because they were originally not part of the session’s schedule. However, when thematized, participants were positive about the idea.
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The label “upload” is confusing
- P i: “What is important to remember about autistic people, is that they question everything. You think it is obvious? It is not. They will give you ten different explanations on how they understood it.”
- A (1) d: “I think once you entered the event, you can upload it to the database.”
- A (1) d: “If you would have an upload-section, I would rephrase it to something like ‘Upload by image only’ or ‘Upload by text only’ or ‘Upload by audio’.”
- A (2) d: “I don’t know what ‘upload’ means. I think I have to upload in the end. I don’t know how ‘upload’ is different than ‘submit’. ‘Submit’ speaks for itself, so ‘click it in the end when you are done’, but I don’t know why there is an upload there.”
- A (2) d: “The upload images-function should be more within it [the input form]. Because when it is within it, it implies ‘add more specificity’ to what you have written. When it is outside, it looks like you are changing the accessibility settings of this page.”
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Possibility to upload media in general
- d: 2x appreciate (Other participants did not thematise that question directly)
- A (1) d:“I think pictures can be useful. I think somebody mentioned it to me before, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. It takes you back, but in a good way and could help other users to engage.
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Video upload
- A D d: “I would not like to upload a video of myself. Maybe just me talking, but not a video of my face.”
- A C d: “As long as I am not in it and I am just showing the environment, possibly I could try. [...] Whereas when I am writing, I’m trying to take someone through a story. When I am doing a video, I tend to get over-excitable and say all sorts of stuff that might not be entirely useful. So, I don’t know. Other people maybe shoot a video and never say a thing.”
→ Tendentially media upload is seen as positive, but not essential (except for voice-to-text). Towards the idea of uploading videos, the participants who commented on it were rather skeptical. The ‘upload’ button should be relabelled and possibly be placed more within the form.
- A D d: “I am trying to work out what ‘Template’ means. I would like to have a picture of a template, so you actually see what a template is, so I don’t have to open it. Because if not, I would probably just ignore it, because I wouldn’t know what a template was if you didn’t explain it to me.”
- A (2) d: “I am not really sure what that means. It suggests to me that maybe when I am not comfortable from an accessibility standpoint with typing in all these boxes, then maybe if I click on ‘templates’ there was another format in which I could enter my experience. But I probably would not click on that, because I am quite comfortable with using the format which is right in front of me, which is just a typing box.”
- A C d: “For me no, but other people might want some prompting. But I don’t even know if I’d ever press the ‘template’.
→ We need to communicate clearer what a template is and what kind of help it offers.
- P d: “experience is good”
- A (1) d: “I do like the wording of ‘event’ or ‘experience’. I think people tend to use ‘experience’ more, but ‘event’ can have the same kind of meaning.”
- A (2) d: “Throughout the platform, sometimes you use the words ‘event’ and ‘experiences’ synonymously.”
- A (2) d: “I think ‘experience’ is better than ‘event’, because ‘event’ sounds a bit more formal, or it is like ‘you went to an event’. I think out of those two, ‘experience’ is a bit better. My advice would be to use ‘experience’ instead of ‘event’, that is my first point. My second point would be, if it is not implied in the first point, ‘don’t use both throughout the site’, try to eliminate the other, whichever you choose. And is there another word that would be better than either of them? I have to think about it.”.
- A (2) d: In regards to the points on terminology of “Event” or “Experience”, I still think the latter is preferable (“Experience”). Furthermore, you could decide if only negative experiences are being requested (if so make this clear), or both positive or negative. (I think only negative experience should be captured, but I suppose this is dependent on the predetermined scope of this overall project. If both, then the first question should be: “Was this experience positive or negative?” (tick appropriate box)
→ Tendentially, the term ‘experience’ is preferred over ‘event’.
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A D d: “The ‘talk about any experience in your life’ needs to be bolder, because you don’t see it right away.”
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P d: Interpretation of the disk-symbol in the left upper corner: ‘data storage’
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P d: “It looks a bit old fashioned - you have an input, and then it is presented to you as a table.”
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P d: “This form doesn’t reflect any sort of achievements in visual representation made for autistic people, I mean, when design encourages you to think. When it is not only words, which tell you what to do and what the person is looking for, but also some visuals, like something that helps.”
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P d: “You could have a face which could indicate ‘Imagine a situation in your daily life, when some experience has happened’ and you could have a thinking face next to it. Or when you go ‘Where, what..’, you could also provide some pictures indicating location or indicating ‘experience’. On the very basic level it could be like the PECS, the picture language used for autistic people. I don’t really like PECS very much, I think they are not very attractive. But the idea is that you add more visuals rather than overload it with words.” → in the sense of “text being complemented by visuals”
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P i: “In my family, autism is high-functioning, so we don’t need serious accommodations. But we did need help with speech and all of that. But the thing is that the senses of my children are different to some extent. So for them, to get the maximum out of information, it is best when they use as many senses as they possibly can. So when you read the text, one brain area is activated, when you look at pictures, another area. If there is voice explanation, it would be a third one. The more resilient the form is, the more ‘avenues’ it uses, the better.”
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A (2) d: “I guess what is in dark blue is active.” (when inspecting the buttons ‘upload’ and ‘non-verbal’)
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A (2) d: “The upload images-function should be more within it [the input form]. Because when it is within it, it implies ‘add more specificity’ to what you have written. When it is outside, it looks like you are changing the accessibility settings of this page.”
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A C d: “The navy is just a shade too dark. It is sort of making me think: ‘What are you? You are not black, not blue. [...] If it was a shade that was more towards a royal navy, that would be better.”
→ Apart from some smaller design issues regarding the interface, visuals or voice should be added to make the form easier accessible.
Rating scales (https://c6q95y.axshare.com/#g=1&p=add-event-messaging&hi=1 → scroll to right)
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Object of rating
- P d: Recommends to rather rate experiences than locations: “Experiences can change, today it was like this, tomorrow it might be better.”
- A (2) d: “Aren’t these supposed to be all bad experiences or can you enter good experiences as well?”
- A (2) d: [...] you could decide if only negative experiences are being requested (if so make this clear), or both positive or negative. (I think only negative experience should be captured [...] If both, then the first question should be: “Was this experience positive or negative?” → Do we rate experiences or locations? Are we only looking for negative experiences?
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Labels/Number of choices
- A D d: would prefer 3 smileys (there would be too much choice if there were more options)
- A (1) d: “Rating scales would be useful to have some comparison to. As well as, give each star or emoticon a brief label or description.”
- A (1) d: “I’d say I would prefer 5 options. If there was a description of what the stars mean, that could be very useful. But I like the idea.”
- A (1) d: If you add explanations, like 1 being ‘not good’ and 5 being the highest, that would help. I like the idea.”
- A (2) d: “I think these binary options with two or three choices are not enough. You won’t get accurate feedback, the data is going to be too skewed. It is like ‘Was it a good or bad girlfriend? I don’t know, we split up, but the experience I had was great, I think she was great, but it just didn’t work out.’. So I think you need to have something with more choices, like 1 out of 10 or something. But even then, like, if you had 5 options, how would you rate it? It could still be problematic, because if I wrote a negative experience, what is the type of the negative experience? Am I rating ‘was it a 1 negative or a 5 negative?’. You would need to be clearer. What I sometimes see in surveys, what I think is pretty good, it says like ‘1 to 10’ and then it has words to explain what it means, like 5 is ‘normal’ and 10 is ‘positive’. It has some words to describe what each rating would mean, in the direction of good or bad. So, I think you would need more choices and also some words to explain, what those mean as well.”
- A (2) d: “There are some good examples of ratings that I have used, they are vaguely in my head. I know it was still hard to decide whether it is a 7 or a 9, because it is a subjective decision, but at least it was clear how the rating system works. I would say that you should keep looking for a better rating system.”
→ Preference for number of rating options varies from 3 to 10. 2 is tendentially seen as too binary.
- Emojis
- A (1) d: “I like the idea of using the emojis. I like the one with three emojis a lot, because I think it is simple, but effective to use to get that kind of feedback.”
- A C d: “Smileys personally, I don’t like them.”
- A D d: preference for smileys
- Stars
- A (1) d: “I think the stars would be useful, I like the stars. If you add explanations, like 1 being ‘not good’ and 5 being the highest, that would help. I like the idea.”
- A (1) d: “I think I prefer the stars over the emojis.”
- A (1) d: “For the stars, I think if you write next to add that 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest option, I don’t know if all people would be able to or would like to use it in that way. So I think the emojis might be the better option.”
- A C d: “Stars are fine.”
- Happy/sad/good/bad locations
- P d: “I think it depends on the data you would like to collect, because when we talk about ‘good location’ that would probably mean ‘it was alright, nothing went wrong’. A ‘happy location’ would probably be something where people went beyond usual expectations and there was something thoughtful that made you smile. So for me ‘good’ and ‘happy’ are different. But I think it needs some guidance on what you mean exactly. Some places look nice, but they are just not good for us. I wouldn’t call that a bad location.”
- A D d: ‘good locations’: “I don’t know what the one with the tick and the cross mean.”
- A C d: “Happy locations, good locations, sad locations...I’d just put unhappy, I think unhappy looks like it is something that can be changed, sad looks like it is always going to be sad.”
- A C d: “I don’t think I would even put ‘bad locations’, because it feels like underscoring. I’d just have the two positives and one negative one.”
- A C d: “The location tag is familiar.”
- Other scales
- Suggestion of stars with emoji faces (by moderator):
- A (1) d: “would also be an idea”
- A C d: “I don’t like the thermometer, because it makes me think of medical things.”
- A (1) d: “Temperature (was this a cold or hot situation).”
- A C d: “No for ‘thumbs up’ and ‘thumbs down’. It feels slightly overused. I personally don’t like it.”
- A C d: “I don’t know why to bother with the negative one, I would just have the heart. Maybe you could substitute the number of hearts with the number of stars.”
- 5-star rating but with hearts (suggestion by moderator):
- A C d: “Yes I think you could do that easily and it would look quite nice, because it is not rating what you are eating, but it is rating your experience.”
- A (2) d: Suggestion for a scale (emojis with labels): https://www.prohealth.com/library/what-the-pain-scale-really-means-34982
- A (1) d: “Tick/cross selection?, For examples thumbs up, thumbs down.”
- Suggestion of stars with emoji faces (by moderator):
- Rating history
- A (2) d: “Rating scale – have a history or record of it of how it compares e.g. data or graph, bar chart, pie chart?”
→ The suggestion of having the option to rate experiences was generally appreciated. The design of the scale needs to be discussed.
- The label ‘views’ is confusing for some participants. Their interpretation of the meaning of the views-button:
- P d: “Maybe other people’s views”
- A (1) d: “Other views [experiences] from other users.”
- A (2) d: “It is probably just, if I want this screen to visually look a little bit different, maybe in a different format that would be a little more pleasing, less stimulating or more appropriate for me, while keeping the same content. Or it might mean ‘View all of my responses from before’, so ‘view’ like ‘everything I have written’. But I think it is probably the former.”
- A (2) d: “I don’t know if that word, ‘views’, is the right word, even though I guessed it.”
- A (2) d: “Intuitively, I don’t think there is a great word to put there that everyone will understand, but I could look around. It is not a common feature of websites that you can go back to your complete log, but there has got to be some example out there.”
- A C d: “Whether it is viewable by others?”
- A C d: Suggestion for relabelling of ‘views’ button to make it clearer: ‘viewing history’
→ ‘Views’ button should be relabelled.
- List view
- P d: “This is your feed from the website. So basically what other people said. It is not very exciting to see it this way. But I guess for people who work with it it is fine. I mean, for me, I probably would not go through it out of interest.”
- P d: It is confusing that there is no text under some of the “What would you have liked to be different?” questions:
- confusing, looks like you invite someone to comment
- “If there is no input, there should be something saying ‘no information’”
- A (2) d: “Having something in list form is great, and you have that, which is good. I just think the actual formatting could be a little more distinguished.”
- A (2) d: “The list format is a little bit unclear, because it doesn’t have any gridlines, so I think the list could be a bit more formatted with a little bit more boxes and underlines and so on. It looks a lot like a lot of words smushed together for me. Obviously, there was an effort made to distinguish, by using colours, but it is unlike the table, which is just a little more clean.”
- Table view
- A (1) d: “I think it is a template of someone to express overall how their experiences were, like on a daily basis.”
- A (1) d: “Initially, when I looked at it, I would have had the idea to fill it in, but I think it was understood from my part.”
- A (1) d: “I do like it, but as you write, will the grid bend? When you put in the text, this could be altered or changed.”
- A (2) d: “[...] unlike the table, which is just a little more clean [than the list format].”
- A (2) d: “ I think the details of the table look pretty well laid out.”
- A C d: “I don’t like anything cellular.[...] It is mathematical to me. Other people may like it, and therefore enter one word and they like that. So I would just write ‘Do you like words or do you like cells to enter your experiences?’.”
- Preferred view
- P d: Preference of table or list view depends on the use case
- A (2) d: “I think having options is good, I think the details of the table look pretty well laid out. The list format is a little bit unclear, because it doesn’t have any gridlines, so I think the list could be a bit more formatted with a little bit more boxes and underlines and so on. It looks a lot like a lot of words smushed together for me. Obviously, there was an effort made to distinguish, by using colours, but it is unlike the table, which is just a little more clean.”
- A C d: “I don’t like anything cellular.[...] It is mathematical to me. Other people may like it, and therefore enter one word and they like that. So I would just write ‘Do you like words or do you like cells to enter your experiences?’.”
- A (1) d: “I overall liked the list and table view. But I would like to expand it. What I saw in a nice way was: nice colours, it was warm. The text was nice, it wasn’t too big or too harsh. I think the use of a rating, like emojis or stars would be nice to further express the event or experience.”
→ The users generally liked having the option to toggle between views, even though personal preference varied. The simple design is mostly seen as ok, but could be improved.
- Toggle
- A (2) d: “I think generally it is good that you are giving people several options. I think that the toggle is pretty clear. I think that the words ‘table’ and ‘list’ are pretty clear. I think ‘table’ and ‘list’ is quite clean, but you might change it to ‘list view’ and ‘table view’. Just adding the word ‘view’ might make it a lot more clear what the toggle on top is giving you a choice of. The word toggle is there on the left, so it is already implied, although then it becomes a little bit awkward, because here is the word ‘view toggle’. You could remove ‘view’ from there and then add it to ‘table view’ or ‘list view’.”
- A C d: “What does ‘view toggle’ mean?”
- Colours
- A C d: “I would say that the blue on this is right. Maybe slightly darker. If you use this in the background of the input form, then I think you’re doing ok.”
- General remarks
- P d:“If the experiences of other people were in the same place where I enter my experiences, I might be interested to read. It is almost like a restaurant review. You would want to read the comments to see whether other people think the same. Or before you go it would be interesting to read the comments to see what to expect and to decide whether you want to go or not. So I think it is almost like a rating for the place.”
- A (1) d: “To understand the context of the experiences, having a scale there, from 1 to 5 or emoticons, would that be something to consider?”
- A (1) d:“I like it, but I would like to have a symbol to represent the severity of how challenging or difficult it was. It could be by stars or emoji faces. This would give more depth and meaning. Otherwise I think it is ok. Apart from that, I would like an ‘other’ section.”
Likeliness of using the platform once it is online (Rating from 1 [very unlikely] to 5 [very likely])
- P d: “5, because I will use it no matter what, because I believe in the great value of having it. But it is not because of design features, but of the overall opportunity.”
- A D d: “As it is at the moment I would probably not use it, because I find the colours too intense. I found it a bit confusing, too.”
- A (1) d: “5. I like to think of this as a platform that is inviting and easy to use and navigate, maybe something different but in a good way. Something that entices you to use it over and over again, but in a good way.”
- A (2) d: “5. I have a commitment of helping out with the project, once it is live, as a user. It is done well enough that I am confident that I can sort of use it and not have too much of a meltdown or use up too much energy, so I would give it a go.”
- A C d: “4. I mean, I can’t promise because I have so much going on, but I am going to record all my hospital experience on this.”
- A (1) d: “4”
- A (2) d: “It is going in the right direction. It is pretty streamlined. Like I said before, remove a lot of the excess, less is more, make it very stripped down. It seems like a lot of it has been done already. The pages are pretty clean compared to typical websites, where you have got adverts and information everywhere. So maybe it is a 4, but for now I’d say that it is a 3.”
- A C d: “Because there are things to change: 3.”
- A D d: “I think there is more work to be done. And I would appreciate pastel colors, because the screen is so bright. It is probably alright, it might be just the colouring. It might be good to have a colour bar to adapt the background.”
- A D d: “The question [‘Talk about any experience in your daily life’] needs to be more highlighted, because I didn’t really understand right away what information you were looking for.”
- P d: When design is improved: between 2 and 3. → Good start, but needs some refining
- Overall positive
- Signature of the documents
- A C d: signature process is complicated. it should be possible to sign the consent form electronically
- A (2) d: signature process is complicated. it should be possible to sign the consent form electronically
- Screen sharing/Zoom
- A C d: screen sharing did not work on iPad
- A C d: If someone is not so used to using zoom, we should explain the screensharing before the session
- A D d: “It was fine, ok. I think somebody who is not so experienced with computers might struggle.”
- A (2) d/i: “I use zoom a lot for my work, so it is fine” → other people might find it difficult
- A D d: Suggestion: Close the prototype-page-tree at the left side, because it is confusing