Evaluation: Second Cognitive Walkthrough

Here I will perform another Cognitive Walkthrough of the word scanning device based on our new prototype that has been developed. The cognitive walkthrough will be of the same structure as the previous evaluation, which was based on our use cases for the device.

When evaluating each use case I will only talk about the changes that have been made to the device and how they effect each use case. The rest of the evaluation will be the same as the previous cognitive walkthough that was done on the first prototype.


The task:
To scan a word.

Actions required:

1. Find a word to scan with the device.
2. Place the head of the device on the first space on the left.
3. Press and hold the scan button and a beep will be made(if sound is on)
4. Move the pen slowly to the right across the word.
5. When the head of the pen has reached the first space after the word, release the scan button, a beep sound will be made again to indicate the scan has finished.

Evaluation:

The conclusions made from this walkthough are the same as before except that once a scan has been performed there is an indication on the LCD screen whether the scan was successful by showing the user the word scanned, or was unsuccessful producing an error message. It is now more clearer to the user when a scan has started and finished due to the built in 'beep' sound that is produced when the scan is about to commence and when it has ended after being passed over a word. However this sound is only produced if the volume is turned up and is not set to 0.

Scanning a word is now also easier to perform by the user as the controls are now accessible by both left handed and right handed people. This was an issue on the first prototype as the controls were awkward to get at if the user was of a left handed nature. This functionality should come naturally to the user as the option to flip the screen round for the correct orientation is one of the main options on the main menu system and is accessed in the same way as the sound, dictionary or thesaurus. The option to flip the screen is clearly indicated with the words "Flip Screen" on the menu, so there shouldn't be any confusion as to what this is, or what it does.

The task:
To access the dictionary definition after a successful scan.

Actions required:

1. Hold the device horizontally.
2. Use the scroll button beside the screen and move the scroll button down. This in turn will move the highlighted menu entry down.
3. Scroll down to ‘Dictionary definition’ on the menu.
4. Select the ‘Dictionary definition’ by pressing the scroll button in.
   

Evaluation:

This walkthough is mostly the same as the one made on the previous prototype. The main differences are that the wording in the main menu has been improved to make it completely clear that the resulting action will give the user a dictionary definition rather than a 'Dictionary'. This should make it more obvious to the user that when the 'Dictionary definition' is selected from the main menu, they should expect a definition of the scanned in word as this is still always printed on the top row of the screen, which gives an indication that the definition will be of this word.

The task:
To access the thesaurus entries for the word after a successful scan.

Actions required:

1. Hold the device horizontally.
2. Use the scroll button beside the screen and move the scroll button down. This in turn will move the highlighted menu entry down.
3. Scroll down to ‘Thesaurus entries’ on the menu.
4. Select the ‘Thesaurus entries’ by pressing the scroll button in.
   

Evaluation:

This use case is also has a similar evaluation to the previous prototype. The only difference is that of a similar nature to the dictionary use case, the wording used in the main menu of the word scanner has now been improved to clear up some confusion to the user that was presented when the word 'Thesaurus' was an option on the main menu. Now the menu has 'Thesaurus entries' in its place which should make it more obvious to the user that selecting this option will present further alternative words based on the scanned in word. As this is always shown at the top of the screen as before.