Artefact 2: Evaluation

My second artefact looked at the effects browsers can have on redeployed websites on hand-held devices. This was followed on the last artefact where ‘speed’ was identified as one of the main contributing factors in UX of internet on hand held devices. The survey was targeted at internet users on hand-held devices whom have never used Skyfire before. This was crucial in making sure all participants were at the same level of understanding beforehand.

Participants were recorded using the Skyfire browser on a website (costa) which was created using HTML5/CSS3; this was just for test purposes using Flash (video). The website was tested using Wi-Fi to allow participants to experience the same connection speed upon testing.

From analysing the footage of participants using the website came to some surprising conclusions. The problems identified were; Skyfire was slow during navigation tasks, toolbar features never always responded and Flash video was quick, but the quality was very poor. The video analysis could have been improved with getting users to perform tasks, instead of asking them to browse the website freely; this could have resulted in comparing the speed of different participants performing the task.

The survey was to gain qualitative feedback on what current devices and browsers users use to access the internet on their hand-held devices. The survey touched upon; navigation speed, layout, video (flash), browsing speed and asked if users would choose Skyfire over their current browser. The survey came to the conclusion that respondents found that Skyfire was quicker at browsing, but the majority wouldn’t use Skyfire to replace their current browser. The number of participants wasn’t great in the initial feedback plans; this could have been resolved by allowing more time for collecting data. The survey could have been constructed more effectively in re-arranging the order of questions.

Artefact 2: Survey

Here are the results from my second artefact's survey...
Survey 2

Artefact 2: Video

For my second artefact i recorded participants to analyse them using my website in the Skyfire browser on there hand-held device. Here are a few of the videos.

Phone used: HTC Desire



From this video i can see that the navigation is quite hard to understand. The participant found the navigation problems (errors) and resulted in pages not showing and loading.

Phone used: Samsung Galaxy



From this video i noticed that the participant found that viewing video (1:14) didn't play. This brought up a blank video. The video loaded successfully a second time. This does not improve the speed before selecting video. The participant also found the video quality wasn't that great.

Artefact 2: Research

To understand Skyfire more in depth i have researched into the development of its existence. From what i can gather, Skyfire is dedicated to leveraging the power of cloud computing, redefining mobile browsing on smartphones. Skyfire was founded in April 2006 and is located in Mountain View, California in the heart of Silicon Valley. The company is funded by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures. Even though they state they are funded via these companies, i found out from (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/feb/19/startups-mobilephones ) that they record your browsing habits. This could be an issue with privacy of surfing the web.

Pros:

Supports Flash
Faster loading of webpages
Able to render websites to support browser


Cons:

No voice control
Freezes alot

Artefact 2: about

At the end of my last artefact i found out that 'speed' was a crucial element in the UX survey. For my next artefact i will be looking into the speed of browsers with redeployed websites. I came across a browser(app) called Skyfire (www.skyfire.com), this relatively new idea promises and has been tested to be faster than any other browser. I am going to include this to test against known browsers, by making a website which will be redeployed to use in the Skyfire browser.

The purpose of the website being produced is to test HTML5 and CSS3 which it promises to process just fine. Once i created the website i will add video content e.g. Flash and Youtube to put Skyfires extra features to the test. I am going to get participants who have never used Skyfire to download the app and browse the website created. This will be recorded to analyse potential flaws and comparisons to other hand held devices. This will be followed by a short survey to get users to answer a range of questions based around Skyfire functionality and speed.