CHART 5-22
As shown in Chart 5-22, the median response from the Trekker’s Assistant group about the effort required to move between panels was almost ‘easy’ (1.5) (WSR confidence interval: 1.5 - 2.5, n = 24).
That the effort required to move between panels was not rated as ‘easy’ is likely related to the lack of sensitivity of the touch-screen to the touch-and-slide action (four user comments support this contention), and the two-step nature of the command (three user comments support this contention). There was one comment about this action being difficult for left-handed persons; the control that activated the panel-moving feature could be shifted to the other side of the screen by the user but this feature was not pointed out in the tutorial, and the user had not discovered this for him/herself.
This brings into focus a problem associated with the small screen size of the target devices; features that would occasionally be useful, such as hints about the ability to shift a control from one side of the screen to the other, have had to be eliminated in favour of essential functionality. Such features could be explained in a user manual, but the use cases for the trekker's assistant include casual, short-term hireage by tourists, and it is unlikely that a (large, multilingual) manual would be very heavily used in such a situation. Perhaps a structured video tutorial could be installed on the device to allow interested users to explore such secondary features.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Very Not
Changing Useful
TA 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Easy DifficultChanging Effort
TAA Backcountry Tour Guide
5-80 Experiment & Results
E
ASE-
OF-U
SES
UMMARYT
ABLEQuestion Usefulness Effort Required
ETT for a Trek Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | | Map | | | | | | | |
Total Length for a Trek Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | * | | | | Map | | | | * | | | |
ETA for a Trek Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | | Map | | | | | | | |
ETT for a Point-of-Interest Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | | | Map | | | | | | | |
Distance to a Point of Interest Very Not Easy Difficult Trekker’s Assistant | | | | * | | | | |
Map | | | | | * | | | |
ETA for a Point-of-Interest Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | | Map | | | | | | | |
Time Available for Rest Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | * | | | | Map | | | | * | | | | |
Trail Incline Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | | Map | | | | | | | |
Finding a Point-of-Interest Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | * | | | | Map | | | | * | | | |
Finding Point-of-Interest Information Very Not Easy Difficult Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | |
Map | | | | | | | |
Moving between Panels Very Not Easy Difficult
Trekker’s Assistant | | | | | | | | | TABLE 5-2 EASE OF USE SUMMARY
* - No significant difference
Users rated nine out of eleven activities with the Trekker’s Assistant as ‘Easy’ or near to ‘Easy’ to do; six out of ten activities were rated as easier to do with the Trekker’s Assistant than with a map or brochure.
5.6
EASE-OF-LEARNING EVALUATION
One way of measuring learning is to measure a person’s increase in competence. If the members of the Trekker’s Assistant group showed significantly more competence in their use of the Trekker’s Assistant after their trek than before their trek, it could be stated that they learned about the use of the Trekker’s Assistant during the trek itself. With this possibility in mind, the competence of one group of volunteers was measured before their trek with the Trekker’s Assistant and the competence of another group was measured after their trek. The competence of the ‘pre-trek’ group was then compared to the competence of the ‘post-trek’ group. To test the volunteers’ competence with the Trekker’s Assistant,
A Backcountry Tour Guide
Experiment & Results 5-81
they were asked to use it to find the answers to a series of questions. Their answers and how long it took to produce them were recorded.
The following four questions were used to explore this aspect of the system:
x Distance: How long is the Tongariro Crossing?
x Time: How long will it take to reach the Ketetahi Hut from the start?
x Info: How many bunks are there at the Ketetahi Hut?
x Incline: Which leg crosses the highest point on the trail?
N
UMBER OFC
ORRECTA
NSWERSCHART 5-23 CORRECT RESPONSES
One measure of competence is the number of questions a person can answer correctly. As shown in Chart 5-23, for each question, at least ten of the responses from each group were correct. The ‘post- trek’ group had one more correct answer for two of the questions but the ‘pre-trek’ group had two more correct answers for the other two questions. These results do not provide any evidence that learning occurred during the trek.
A
NSWERT
IMINGCHART 5-24 TIME REQUIRED FOR CORRECT RESPONSES
Another measure of competence is the amount of time a person requires to correctly answer a question. The time required for each correct answer was compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. As shown in Chart 5-24, the ‘post-trek’ group did better with two of the questions while the ‘pre-trek’ group did better with the other two. However, none of these differences were significant.
5 7 9 11 13
Distance Time Info Incline