"How to design multi-platform softwares?"
About
This is a group project research on multi-platform software design for GSND 5130.
My duty included:
- Brought up research questions;
- Designed and conducted experiments;
- Analyzed think-aloud data;
- Wrote the Intro, Related Work, Methods, and Discussion sections of our paper.
Research Questions
-RQ1: What design features benefit unified user experiences in professional multi-platform software?
-RQ2: What design features (or physical limits) bring about different UX between smartphone applications and desktop software?
-RQ3: How do users perceive such experience differences?
Methods
We used Adobe Lightroom Classic (ALC) 9.4 as the desktop version, and Adobe Lightroom (AL) v 7.0.1 as the smartphone version. The think-aloud study was used in our project with the aim of studying the users’ mental models on the desktop and smartphone versions. We recruited 7 subjects to complete 6 tasks to edit a photo by both ALC (desktop, Windows 10) and AL (smartphone, IOS 15). Open and axial coding analyses were used.
The picture used in our tasks.
Results
In total, we got 194 open codes in our analysis. We divided them into the following 6 axial codes under 2 categories: 32 for import problems, 49 for graphic hint design and problems, 41 for terminologies problems, and 13 for embedded tutorials design, which summed up a total of 135 codes as usability problems; 26 for the difference due to physical limitations, and 33 for the difference due to text, icon, and layout consistent design, which are summed up totally 59 codes as usability difference.
For detailed results, please read the paper.