The Wii3D Project User Study
Design and Methodology
The 20 participants selected for the study were approached and asked if they would be interested in testing the Wii3D System. The participants were sampled from the Rhodes University student body, and their consent forms and questionnaires were destroyed once their data had been captured. None of the captured records were linked to the individual student.
Once the participant agreed to be a part of the research, he/she was allocated a time slot of 15 minutes where he/she would be expected to carry out several tasks. Each task was supervised by the principal researcher, and, upon completion of the task, a short section of the questionnaire was answered.
The proposed design and methodology for this user study was passed by the Rhodes University Ethical Standards Committee.
Consent
In order to take part in the user study, a participant was required to complete the consent form, contained in the Data file.
- Design
- Movement
- Panning/Scrolling
- Zooming
- Rotating in 2D
- Rotating in 3D
Introductory Questions
The users were asked two questions before any tasks were started:
- How long have you been using a mouse and keyboard for?
- How often do you use a mouse and keyboard?
These questions were asked in order to gain some insight into the possible groupings of the different participants by their experience with the accepted mouse and keyboard method of interaction with a computer.
Tasks
Once the consent form was completed, the participant was given a brief outline of the Wii3D System and walked through the tasks that needed to be completed. None of the participants had any experience with the Wii3D System, and were required to have some experience with a mouse and keyboard. The users had to rate the intuitiveness of the methods used to complete each task, and could add optional comments if they chose. The tasks tested were:
- Movement
- Clicking
- Panning/Scrolling
- Rotating in 2D and 3D
- Drawing a circle
Overview Questions
Once the tasks were completed and the relevant questionnaire sections were filled out, the participants were required to answer several overview questions:
- Would you use the Wii3D System as an alternative to the mouse and keyboard? Why or why not?
- If no, do you believe that the Wii3D System would be useful to someone else? Why?
- Would you add/remove/change anything in the Wii3D System? Why?
- You have undoubtedly had more experience using a mouse and keyboard than this type of system. What tasks would you find Wii3D more suitable for than a mouse and keyboard?
These questions were to gain a feel for what the participants thought of the Wii3D System in general, and whether they thought that this kind of system would be useful to themselves or others.