Human Computer Interaction Project.
Human Computer Interaction Project
Evaluation of Olympus C1400l Digital Camera
Group Members:
Lorna Brodbin 9838635
Jean Cronin 9838856
Gillian O'Sullivan 9840435
. Introduction
"Every picture tells a story"
An old saying that holds true. A picture can tell us more in an instant than a thousand words ever could. A picture records emotions, expressions, feelings and conveys them easily to the onlooker. Photographs capture hundreds of years of history be it on a world scale or at a personal level. We capture our weddings, births, birthdays and other occasions dear to us on camera because we want to hold on to that moment forever. Every time we look at a photograph we remember that day and relive that moment. The camera never lies. It takes a moment in time and freezes it. We rely on photographs as a tool to help us to understand and to remember the history of the world. Most of the worlds great historical events have been captured on film. A photograph of an innocent victim of war makes the victim real, like someone we knew rather than a name in a paper, and touches us far more deeply than stories in a book. Peoples descriptions of events are often tainted by exaggeration, imperfect memories and personal opinions but there is no denying the evidence of a photograph.
The camera has come along way since the days of Niepcei. The first cameras were big and bulky, slow and inconvenient. Modern cameras incorporate a wide variety of functions. They are compact and you no longer require any special expertise in order to use one. One of the most revolutionary developments in recent years has been the onset of the digital camera. The digital camera has many advantages over standard cameras. No more messing about loading films or having to finish off a film so you can get it developed. No more waiting for them to be developed only to find out that most of the photographs were ruined or are unrecognizable. No more paying for films or developing. The digital camera allows you to view the pictures you have taken, to select which ones you actually want to keep and to print them off in your own time and in your own home.
2. Description of the device.
Retailers of digital cameras claim that they are every bit as straightforward and easy to use as conventional cameras. That even the most novice user could look like an expert within a short period of time. Our research aimed at putting these claims to the test. We wanted to determine whether or not the digital camera is as accessible as it sounds. To discover if anyone can use it or only those from technical backgrounds. To answer questions such as have the manufactures made the design too advanced? Has the camera now got so many functions that it confuses people?
When using a camera you are often trying to capture a moment in time that is of some special meaning to you. Is the digital camera simple enough to use so that you do not miss this moment because you couldn't figure out which button did what? We wanted to find out what functions are available to the user and what functions the user is likely to actually make use of. We were interested in obtaining feedback on how easy or hard the camera is to use and to understand whether it's buttons and other functions are unnecessarily confusing. In a world that is becoming increasing technology based, is the digital camera the next logical step in art of photography?
"Olympus is renowned for high image quality on all its digital cameras. Advanced technology and the fundamental expert know-how brought over from analog photography put Olympus digital cameras into world-leaders-position in image quality [1]".
Our camera is the Olympus Camedia C-1400L. The resolution of the C-1400L's digital photos is extremely high. Each digital image is made up of 1.4 million pixels! The photos taken with the digital SLR cameras are stored on tiny replaceable Smart Media Cards which can be reused over and over again. The camera is shaped so that it is comfortable to hold, with a grip on the right hand side. Further details of the camera as well as copies of the two main diagrams which name all of the buttons and switches and levers on the camera can be found in Appendices E and G.
3. The Thinking Aloud Method for Usability Testing
"Talking to users is not a luxury; it is a necessity. [2]"
The thinking aloud method is generally used in cooperative evaluation studies. These studies test out products on the target users. The aim of the studies, according to Monk et al [3], is to pinpoint the problems that users experience when they use software products and to suggest changes that could be made to improve the products usability. The basic principle behind the thinking aloud method is that users are asked to think aloud as they perform a task. The users are asked to voice their thoughts about the system they are working with and the tasks they have been assigned. They verbalize their understanding of what is happening in the system, the reasons why they have chosen certain options over others and what feedback they expect to receive from the system in response to the actions they have taken. The user is required to comment on any problems they encounter as they go along and on any aspects of a system which have caused them confusion. They are also encouraged to suggest any possible improvements to the system which would increase its usability. To summarize, this method requires the user to provides a running commentary of everything that occurs during a testing session.
The thinking aloud method is very effective for pinpointing problems. If the user is given tasks to perform and is then interrogated on their performance afterwards it is often difficult for the user to recall everything that happened during the testing session. Users often experience difficulties articulating why they found a particular aspect of a system confusing, especially if this aspect has subsequently become clear to them. With the thinking aloud method these difficulties are recorded in the users comments and it becomes easier to determine why a particular problem occurred from these comments rather than from subsequent debriefings. Lewis [4] highlighted some disadvantages associated with this approach such as the fact that people may perform better when they are being observed, thinking-aloud throws off measurements such as how long it takes to perform each task and that it can be quite a time consuming process to analyse the information collected during testing sessions and to summarize the main problems encountered. Preece [5] also mentions the fact that verbal protocols can place added strain on users as they are required to do two things at once, perform a task and talk about their actions. It is often the case that during test sessions users forget that they are expected to talk out loud and must be continually prompted by the evaluator. However despite these disadvantages the thinking aloud method is a highly effective means of identifying the problems in a design and suggesting solutions.
4. Users and Context
In selecting our test users we first took into consideration the target market of digital cameras. When they first appeared on the market digital cameras were fairly expensive and appealed mainly to people who worked with computers or those who love obtaining the latest techincal 'gagets'. However these days digital cameras are being used by a much larger spectrum of the population. The cameras are growing quickly in popularity among young people who generally tend to be more familiar with, and more comfortable using, new technologies than the older generations. As people come to recognise the advantages of the digital camera, such as never having to develop photographs or purchase new rolls of film, more and more digital cameras are being purchased by families to replace their old standard cameras. The only requirement for owning a digital camera is a computer to download the photographs so we focused on users who owned their own computers. As the menu on the camera is somewhat similar to the menus on a computer we looked for users with varying levels of computer experience. Another factor that was taken into account was the users previous experience with digital cameras. We wanted to carry out the evaluation both on users who had never seen a digital camera before and on those who have experience using other models of digital cameras. As a lot of the functions on a digital camera are similar to those on normal cameras we also looked at the users history of using normal cameras and again we attempted to pick users with various levels of experience. We gave out a short questionaire (see Appendix A) to a number of potential users which addressed these factors and choose our four users from an examination of the anwers supplied.
User 1 - Elizabeth
Elizabeth is our novice user. She is a middle aged housewife from Kerry who has never used or even seen a digital camera before and who knew very little about them. Elizabeth has a little experience using ordinary cameras and has a PC in the family home which she uses occasionally for surfing the internet.
User 2 - Justin
Mark is a twenty-three year old computer science student in his final year of study at the University of Limerick. Justin has no previous experience using digital cameras although he does own a normal camera. Justin is our most experienced computer user.
User 3 - Robert
Robert is a nineteen year old science student from Missouri in the United States who is spending the year in Ireland studying in the University of Limerick. Robert has used a friend's digital camera once or twice in the past but has far more experience using ordinary cameras. During the seven months that Robert has been in Europe, as well as touring around Ireland he has travelled to Paris, Rome, Florence, Prague, Munich, Venice and Budapest. Robert brings his camera everywhere with him and goes through several rolls of film in every city he visits. Robert has his own lab top which he uses for word processing, surfing the internet and listening to music.
User 4 - Evan
Evan is a twenty year old business student and is our most experienced user. Evan has his own digital camera, a different model of the Olympus Comedia, which he uses on a regular basis. He also owns his own computer which he uses mainly for playing games and for basic word processing, as well as for downloading the pictures from his digital camera.
5. Test Session Setup
The testing environment chosen was the home of one of the team members. This environment was chosen because it was quiet and we were able to guarantee that there would be no interruptions while the testing was taking place. We also believed that the users would feel less self conscious in a private environment rather than in a lab or a public area and would therefore be more inclined to talk freely. The only other equipment which was required for our testing, apart from the camera, was a tape recorder which was used to record everything the user said during the course of the evaluation.
Before the users arrived the evaluators made sure that the tape recorder was operating correctly and could pick up voices clearly. We also made sure that the cameras batteries weren't flat, that the manual was available, that the camera was initially in play mode and standard quality (as super high quality only allows us to to take four photographs) and that each evaluator had paper to take down notes during the session. The intial briefing, the task list, and a list of debriefing questions were prepared and printed out. Monk et al [3] recommended that every effort should be made to keep the session informal so instead of reading out the initial briefing to the user the evaluator talked to the user and merely used the printed document as a prompt. The briefing, which is included in Appendix B, provided a background to the study and stressed the fact that the focus of the study was to evaluate the camera and not the user. The thinking aloud method was explained to the user and a brief introduction to the camera was given. The user was told that the manual was available to them if they needed it and that if they got really stuck the evaluators would be able to help them out. The task list is explained in the next section. The debriefing questions included broad general questions about the best and worst features of the camera, how the user had found the tasks and the users suggestions on areas of possible improvement. It also contained more specific questions about the buttons, the menu, the manual and any particular usability problems that had come to light during the course of the evaluation. The four debriefing transcripts are included in Appendix D.
6. The Task-List
Initially we carried out a type of heuristic evaluation [7] where two of the team members individually looked at the camera and attempted to pick out as many usability problems as possible using their own intuition and commonsense. The two members then compared their results and compiled a list of tasks that they believed would bring the main problems to light. Another factor which was taken into account when creating the task list was that we wanted to test the functions of the camera that a typical user would find most interesting and would be most inclined to make use of rather than testing the more obscure, less useful functions. We then carried out a pilot test with the third team member who had no previous experience with digital cameras. The purpose of this test was to see if the all the tasks could be completed within a reasonable period of time, to try and pinpoint some of the areas where the users were likely to run into problems as well as to gain experience for ourselves on how to conduct a cooperative evaluation session before we began testing the real users. While we have not documented the pilot study we will make reference to it later on in the recommendations section. A few minor changes were made to the task list as a result of this study. The final list which was used for the actual tests is included in Appendix C. Our list of tasks can be divided into three main categories, the record mode tasks which involve taking pictures, the play mode tasks which tested functions which operate on the pictures that are stored on the smart card and menu tasks which involve selecting options from the cameras main menu Each of these problems is listed on the next page along with the anticipated problems (if any) that might arise in the completion of these tasks.
Task Anticipated Problems
Record Mode Tasks
Turning on the camera The cameras play/record switch surrounds the on/off switch so there is a possibility that users may become confused about which switch needs to be activated in order to turn on the camera.
Putting the camera in record mode There were no anticipated problems.
Checking the number of remaining The number of remaining pictures is displayed
Pictures on the control panel however there is no accompanying indication of what exactly this number is - if it represents the number remaining, the number taken or some other unrelated value.
Taking a picture The camera refuses to take a picture unless it is focused properly so it was anticipated that either during this task or one of the other tasks which involve taking pictures this problem would occur.
Taking a picture using the flash Most cameras do not require that the flash be opened up before it is used so some of the users may experience difficulties completing this task.
Taking a picture with the red-eye It was anticipated that this task might also pose a
Reducing function. few problems for most users as there is no specific button to turn on red eye mode, it is one of the options that can be selected using the auto flash mode button.
Taking a picture using the zoom. It was believed that any users who had prior experience using zoom on digital or normal cameras would have no problem with this task, however other users might not know where to locate the zoom lever.
Taking a picture using the selftimer. This task may prove to be a problem for users who fail to recognise that the symbol above the selftimer button is a little clock face.
Play mode tasks:
Viewing the slide show. Again users may encounter difficulties with this function due to the fact that the button to activiate the slide show is not very clearly marked.
Viewing the index mode, selecting The symbol under the index mode button is also
a picture from the display and a bit obscure. Navigating through the pictures that
enlargening this picture. are displayed is an relatively easy task which should pose no problem to the user however it is not immediately obvious that to enlarge a particular picture that has been selected simply requires pressing the index mode button again.
Deleting a picture Some of the users may have difficulty with this task due to the fact that the symbol for erase is very unclear.
Menu tasks:
Changing the picture resolution. It was explained to the users in the initial briefing that this camera has 3 quality levels, super high quality, high quality and standard quality. If the user recognises the fact that SHQ, HQ and SQ are abbreviations for these three options then this should prove relatively easily, otherwise they may have difficulty recognising the menu option that needs to be selected.
Changing the data. The only problem that was anticipated with this task was that it is necessary to select the 'next' option in the main menu in order to find the date function.
Erasing all the pictures. The erase all function is clearly marked in the main menu so the users should have no difficulty carrying out this task.
7. Results
User 1, Elizabeth
Evaluation took 45 minutes.
Turning on the camera:
The first thing the user did was to find her reading glasses as she couldn't read the text on the camera. She then located the on/off button without much delay though she wasn't completely confident that it was the button she required or if there were a number of on/off buttons on the camera.
"Is this the on button?.....wait till I see if there is another on/off button anywhere else and then I'll know".
Once she had satisfied herself that she had found the power button she got mixed up between the this button and the record/play switch which surrounds it. She attempted to turn this switch instead of pushing down the button.
"Push on/off, but it doesn't say which direction......push where?".
After fiddling with the switch for a while she was unsure about whether or not she had already succeeded in turning on the camera (she hadn't yet).
"Should there be a light?".
She then succeeded in turning on the camera, however she remained concerned about the effects her previous actions might have had.
"But what about the button I pushed down this way, I wonder what that has done?"
Putting the camera in record mode:
The user recognized immediately that ...
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"Push on/off, but it doesn't say which direction......push where?".
After fiddling with the switch for a while she was unsure about whether or not she had already succeeded in turning on the camera (she hadn't yet).
"Should there be a light?".
She then succeeded in turning on the camera, however she remained concerned about the effects her previous actions might have had.
"But what about the button I pushed down this way, I wonder what that has done?"
Putting the camera in record mode:
The user recognized immediately that this task would involve the switch which had record and play written beside it but she was unsure about how to tell which mode the camera was already in and how to change the setting.
"Well that's play, and that's record, but what are you supposed to point at it?"
However it she soon spots the little slash on the switch and aligned this with the record label.
"I have it, I'm very good at this!"
Checking the number of remaining pictures:
As the only number which appeared in the control panel was 12 the user guessed that this number was the number of remaining pictures.
"I wonder are there 12? This is very easy."
Taking a picture:
For this task, using her prior knowledge of the general design of camers, the user found the shutter release button without too much difficulty.
"Press that button I bet, that's up there very convenient"
However when she first attempted to take a picture she wasn't sure that the camera had worked properly.
"The light flashed it must have worked.....no we still have 12 remaining pictures, that didn't work".
On a second attempt the picture took properly and the user was very impressed when she saw the picture displayed on the LCD monitor.
"Yes, I can see you in the little TV screen. How much are these!"
Turning on the flash:
When trying to locate the flash the user checked to see if the word 'flash' was mentioned anywhere on the camera and then attempted to turn the zoom lever. She was fairly startled by the noise of the zoom (it makes a sort of mechanical clicking sound when pressed).
"Wait till I see is flash mentioned. Its probably push that to w. Wow, what have I done now?"
She then tried looking for the flash in the manual but found the multitude of languages in the manual a bit off-putting at first:
"Oh god its all in different languages, where is English? Is English first?"
Flicking through the pages she came across the diagram on page 30 which shows a picture of the camera along with the names and functions of its parts. She found a mention of the flash pop-up lever but she got a little confused when trying to figuring out which part of the camera corresponded to the lever in the diagram. After a bit of searching the flash popped up for her.
"Where is that....oh I'm trying to figure out wait a minute....is it this little button here? Wow, I got it."
Selecting the red-eye reducing flash mode:
The user had absolutely no idea how she should go about turning on the red-eye reducing flash mode. She first started looking at all the pictures above the buttons but she didn't find that any of them gave a clear indication of what their functions were:
"Why is there a picture of a little flower here? That wouldn't be anything to do with the red eye? What's that sign for lightning or something? Where is the instruction book?"
The user was unsure about how to find information about the red eye function in the manual.
"What would red eye be called in technical language?"
She first tried looking at the diagram of the camera in the instruction manual again and failing to find any mention of red eye there she asked if the dioptre adjustment dial (which is used to adjust the autofocus) would have anything to do with it.
"What's dioptre adjustment dial? Would that be it?".
She attempted to turn this dial but found that it seemed to have no effect and so gave up on it.
"Is it moving? Do you need a screwdriver? How to you know if this is for red eye?"
She went back to flicking through the manual trying to find a mention of red-eye. She was mislead momentarily by a picture in the manual (page 76) which showed a girl with a circle around her eye which the user thought had something to do with the red eye function (the circle was actually the autofocus mark as seen through the viewfinder).
"Look, there is a circle on her eye. Its probably red eye."
However she soon discovered that there was no mention of red eye on that page and continued searching through the manual until she finally came across a page about the red-eye reducing flash. This page unfortunately just described the principle behind the red-eye function and not how to set the camera to that mode.
"What do you do? (reading)...in the read eye reducing flash mode.....well where is that?"
Going back a few pages she found the section on 'how to select the flash mode' which discussed pressing the flash mode button which she also wasn't familiar with.
"But where is the flash mode button? Its on the flash is it? What am I doing here?"
She then started to get very frustrated and asked if she could give up on that task.
"I'm kind of fed up of this to be quite honest. I give up on red eye. Lets do something else."
Using the zoom:
When attempting to use the zoom the user first looked on the camera to see if there was any mention of zoom or any symbol which might stand for zoom.
"Maybe zoom is one of these symbols but I don't know the symbol for zoom."
She thought for a while that the spot metering mode button might be the zoom button. But when she looked through the viewfinder while pressing that button nothing seemed to happen.
"Maybe its showing the rectangle is a picture and the dot in the centre means you will see it better. I guess its that button, I'll try it.......it had no effect whatsoever."
She then started pressing every single button one at a time and looking through the viewfinder to see what would happen but got fairly anxious when the menu popped up in the LCD monitor.
"Now what have I done? Oh God, how do you get rid of that? I've knocked out the pictures I think".
She then stumbled upon the zoom lever.
"I'll try the one up here, if I go to T maybe. Oh this is it here.....that was such a struggle".
The user also had a bit of difficulty when attempting to take a picture using the zoom.
"Do you have to press the zoom at the same time as taking the picture? It doesn't stay in position. I think I've broken it."
"Did it work? Oh no, I find it very hard to take a picture, you need to press hard, oh my God, its not working."
The evaluator reassured the user that the camera was not broken and explained that the camera will not take a picture unless it is properly focused on an object. When the user tried again she ended up accidentally taking a photograph when she had intended to use the zoom lever.
"Oh no, what did I do that time? I didn't press the button, I just pressed the zoomy thing.... that was painful, lets move on."
Using the selftimer:
The user found it fairly easy to turn on the selftimer as she recognised its symbol.
"It must be one of these buttons then, that looks like a kind of clock."
However she was a bit unsure about how to proceed from there and about whether or not the function was working properly.
"So would you press the take photograph thingy and it wouldn't take a photograph for 12 seconds?"
"I pressed the button and nothing is happening, and nothing is happening, and still nothing is happening, is it 12 seconds yet?"
Viewing the slide show:
When attempting to find the slide show the user first selected the button for index mode. She then tried pressing the menu button and got fairly anxious when the picture disappeared from the LCD monitor and the menu appeared.
"Oh God, I've erased all the pictures have I?"
She then tried pressing the print button as she was mislead by the symbol underneath it.
"Does that look like slides in a little box?"
She then asked for the instruction book again. The page about the slide show referred to a slide show button without clarifying where it was.
"Press the slide show button? But sure I don't know what the slide show button is."
She then went back to the diagram of the camera to try and locate the button.
"I have it. Slide show mode button is the lightning button? Its also the flash button?"
When she tried pressing the button she thought it wasn't working properly as the camera didn't change from one picture to another quickly enough and so she kept pressing the button which just turned the slide show on and off but eventually she succeeded.
"I'll keep pressing this and see what happens. But they aren't changing by themselves. Is this the slide show? Oh that's it."
Using the index mode:
The user remembered coming across the index mode while searching for the slide show and so was able to find it again straight away. She experienced some difficulties trying to select a different picture from the one which was initially highlighted.
"I can't get another one, I can only get the same picture all the time".
She then accidentally opened up the menu again and she got confused when trying to get back out of it.
"How do you get rid of that? Oh God, how do I get the pictures back? I don't know what's happening here."
The user managed to close the menu and get back into the index mode and move onto another picture but she then was ensure about how to bring up that picture on its own.
"I've pressed ok and its not coming up. I'll try the index button again, yes I did it."
Deleting a picture:
The users first instinct was to go into the menu in order to delete. She was a bit confused about whether the task would involve the 'erase all' option in the menu. She decided not to opt for that option and instead went into the format card option, selected cancel, and checked to see if the picture was still there.
"If I press format card? I'll press cancel and see is that picture gone. Oh no its still there."
She then gave up on the menu and tried the minus button on the camera
"I don't like that menu thing cause I can't follow what it means. How about if I minus picture number two?"
The user then looked up the erase function in the manual.
"I can't see any erase button, can I look it up in the book?"
She was unsure about whether or not she could erase a picture in the index mode or did she have to display it on its own.
"Do you have to have it up by itself though?
Once she had found the erase button she tried it out and successfully erased the picture she had selected
"Its erasing, oh no I erased the wrong picture. Wait a minute I didn't, its ok, I did it".
Changing the quality:
The user was a bit unsure about this task so the evaluator explained to her that the camera operated at three levels of quality, super high, high and standard. The user then went into the main menu again and attempted to navigate through it.
"Plus maybe, no that went straight to the end. Press minus - what does AE mean?".
She then figured out how to go into the sub menu to change the resolution and changed its value correctly.
"Now its on high quality, what's next?"
Changing the date:
The user first thought that the mechanism for changing the date would be connected to the picture of the clock which is on the selftimer button so she tried pressing that button.
"Its probably on the clock thing, maybe".
Failing to find it there she went back to the main menu and tried the format card option.
"Format card, would it be the format card? Its formatting. Oh God, no pictures, that's not the clock then. Oh no what have I done. I've erased all the pictures?"
She got tired of trying to figure it out and so looked through the manual again.
"This is such a pain."
Using the manual she found how to get to and change the date without too much difficulty.
Erasing all the photographs:
There were no photographs left to erase at this stage as she had erased them all while trying to change the date. When asked if she could locate the (other) function for erasing photographs she replied that she remembered seeing "erase all in the menu earlier on."
User 2, Justin
Evaluation took 20 minutes
Turning on the camera:
The user tried to turn the record/play lever to the push on/off label. When he realised that this was not possible he correctly pushed down the on/off button.
"There we go its on."
Putting the camera in record mode:
The user failed to see the notch on the play/record switch which indicates which option has been chosen and he was under the false impression that he just had to move the lever up for record mode and down for play mode. This lead the user to believe that he had accomplished his task when in fact he was still in the wrong mode.
"I can do that. I just have to turn it towards record."
The evaluator showed the user where he had gone wrong. The user observed that "they should make that slash thing bigger cause you really can't tell."
Checking the number of remaining pictures:
The user recognised immediately that there were 39 pictures remaining on the camera.
"Yeah well I see 39 up here, I'm presuming its that."
Taking a picture:
From his background knowledge of cameras the user was able to pick out the shutter release button straight away.
"I'm going to press this big button up here."
However the camera refused to take a picture straight away (this was due to the autofocus not being properly focused).
"I'm pushing it and holding it but nothings happening."
Turning on the flash:
When asked to turn on the flash the user first looked at the top row of buttons but he didn't think any of them represented the flash.
"There's these four buttons here but none of them look like the flash really. I'll bring up the menu thing."
He then decided, via a process of elimination, to try the red button.
"There's four buttons here and its not the flower button, its not the zigzag. I'm pretty much just picking the red one by default. I have no idea what's going here."
The 'red button' turned on the selftimer mode and the user was deceived into thinking that the flash might be working when the selftimer signal starting blinking.
"Hey that light was just flashing, maybe that means the flash is ready."
When the evaluator explained that this light had nothing to do with the flash the user decided that it was time to try using the manual. He looked in the table of contents and saw mention of the red eye reducing flash and thought that was what was required.
"This manual is confusing."
When attempting to turn on the red eye flash he mistook the spot metering mode symbol for the red eye symbol.
"Is that it? Its got a square around a circle."
He tried taking a picture again to see if he had succeeded to turn on the flash. He thought that the flash had actually worked that time and the evaluator had to inform him that this wasn't the case.
"Whayhey!! .......what do you mean there was no flash? Really?"
The user then tried turning the camera back into play mode to see if he could turn on the flash from there. When asked why he had gone into play mode he responded "cause it wasn't working in record mode."
The user then went back to the manual and found a page describing flash pop-up lever which he proceeded to press.
"I got it. Looks like this things got to be up. I guess it helps when I actually read the manual instead of just looking at the table of contents!"
Taking a picture:
The user recognised immediately that there were 39 pictures remaining on the camera.
"Yeah well I see 39 up here, I'm presuming its that."
Selecting the red-eye reducing flash mode:
The user had already turned on the red-eye reducing flash while he was attempting to find the main flash so the evaluator told him that he could move straight on to the next task.
Using the zoom:
The user discovered the zoom lever immediately. When asked how he had recognised it he replied "cause of the letters on it. One of them says 'w' and the other one says 't'. I presume 'w' is away and 't' is towards." However because the camera had difficulties focusing properly again the photograph did not take properly the first few times.
"Come on, I'm holding it down and everything. There we go why did it work that time and not the other times?"
Using the selftimer:
The user went straight to the manual to find out which button would be required
"Let me see the manual real quick so I can see which one of these buttons is the selftimer."
He found the selftimer mode button and pressed this but he didn't realise straight away that he was also required to press the shutter release button.
"Do I click a button too?"
Viewing the slide show:
When asked to view the slide show the user went straight into the main menu. Failing to see any slide show option listed there he opted to format the card but then immediately changed his mind again and aborted the action.
"All right I'll try format card. No actually I'm going to cancel that."
The manual was brought out again and he found the slide show in the contents and went to the corresponding page about it. However the user got confused at this point as the manual referred to the slide show mode button but he was unaware of which button that was.
"Press the slide show mode button. But it doesn't show the slide show mode button I don't think."
Eventually he found the corresponding symbol and the evaluator discovered that, until this point, the user had not paid any attention to the green symbols underneath the row of buttons, just to the white buttons that are on top.
"But they're in green. I wasn't really looking at those."
The user then got quite excited when he realised that the green buttons all corresponded to play mode and the white buttons to record mode.
" So I'm assuming that when its in play mode cause that's also in green that these work."
Using the index mode:
Once again the user turned straight to the manual to look for the index display mode.
"I've figured out that the manual tells you what button is which! Very handy."
Consequently he had no difficulty picking out the button to display the index mode.
"The one with the chart that kind of looks like an index ...... and there you go."
The user navigated through the pictures easily but when asked to enlarge one he first tried pressing ok which had no effect. He then thought that since he had already used the slide show button and the index button one of the other buttons would be required.
"Well there are two other buttons here. I'll try the green one."
The user went into erase by accident at this point and was confused by the fact that the 'cancel' option was highlighted but he had to press 'ok' to cancel.
"How come one says ok and one says cancel. If I hit ok then its going to cancel it."
The user got out of erase and then resorted to the manual again.
"Do I have to go back to the damn manual again? This sucks."
From the manual he figured out that all that was required was to press the index mode button again.
"So you hit it again."
Deleting a picture:
When asked to delete a picture the user immediately recognised that he had to "hit the red button" as he had come across this function during earlier tasks. When asked if he thought he would have been able to find it if he hadn't seen it earlier he said:
"Not unless I looked it up in the manual. But it is in red so I dunno, it probably means stay away from this button."
Changing the quality:
The user accomplished this task quickly as "I've seen VCR tapes, this is very similar."
Changing the date:
The user had seen the date function while he was browsing through the menus trying to find the slide show so he remembered exactly where to go and had no trouble completing this task.
Erasing all the photographs:
This again caused no difficulty to the user as he had spotted this option in the menu earlier.
"Its say no pictures, just the way it was when I started."
User 3, Robert.
Evaluation took 25 minutes.
Turning on the camera:
The first thing the user tried was to turn the play/record switch to where the on/off label was instead of pushing the button.
"Push it all the way to on/off?"
Once he realised that the switch could not be turned this far he pushed down the correct button.
Putting the camera in record mode:
The user had no difficulties with this task. He looked at the top of the camera, saw the record/play mode and switched the lever to the proper mode. When asked why he did this he replied "isn't it obvious".
Checking the number of remaining pictures:
The user immediately found the number of pictures left. User had prior knowledge of cameras and knew where to look for remaining number of pictures.
"Is it 49? That has to be it."
Taking a picture:
The user had no problem finding the shutter release button. Once again his prior knowledge of cameras helped him with this task.
"So I push the big back button with the w and t on it? And it takes a picture."
Turning on the flash:
The user again had no difficulty locating the flash pop up lever.
"There we go."
When questioned as to why he selected that lever he said -
"It had to be somewhere on top or on the side. It couldn't have been underneath, that wouldn't have made any sense."
Selecting the red-eye reducing flash mode:
The user tried pressing the erase button because he associated the red eye function with the red picture depicted under the erase button.
"I'm going to assume that means pressing the button with the red underneath it."
The erase button is also the self-timer button which produces a picture on the display which the user assumed was the red-eye symbol thus leading him to think that he was on the right path.
"What might be an eye with a line through it that comes on the screen on the top."
He then tried taking a photograph but because of the 12 second self-timer delay nothing happened immediately and the user presumed that the red eye wasn't working. He tried doing the same thing again with the same effect.
"I presume that would be the wrong thing to do."
The user then turned to the manual though it took a while to locate the index as it is not located at the beginning of the manual.
"To be a dork is there an index?"
After some time he located the page which described the red-eye reducing function but he found this to be of no help as the procedure for using this function is described on a different page. He gave up on the manual and tried pressing the spot metering mode button as he thought this might represent the red-eye.
"There should be an eye on the camera somewhere. There's a square with a dot in the middle, I'll try that."
He went back to the manual again.
"The manual gives me the impression that there should be a button with an eye on it but I'm not seeing it."
He finally found a reference to the auto flash mode in the manual and figured out that the red-eye function was included in these modes.
Using the zoom:
The user found the zoom lever immediately.
"The lever sticks out appearing that you could press it. There was no indication other than previous experience with cameras that would tell me that's exactly what that would be for."
He proceeded to take a photograph using the zoom.
Using the selftimer:
The user had no idea which button represented the self-timer mode so he tried pressing them one at a time.
"I'm pressing all of them right now to be completely honest."
"I've personally no idea, I'm just looking at the camera. I've no idea what it would be."
The user then looked in the manual and quickly found mention of the self-timer.
"There we go. I'm pressing the button I thought was for red-eye. I got that from the manual, that's the only way I would have found out."
Viewing the slide show:
When asked to try out the slide show the user first tried pressing the plus and minus buttons but he soon realised that this only went through the pictures manually. The user then tried going into the menu and was confused by some of the abbreviations he saw in it.
"The menu says SHQ, HQ and SQ which I wouldn't understand unless I look somewhere else."
Failing to find a slide show option in the menu he then examined the main function buttons on the camera again.
"I'm thinking there's a green button that looks like a playish type symbol."
The user tried this button which was the correct slide show button however as the pictures don't change quickly he thought it hadn't worked and so he tried pressing the button again which turned off the slide show.
"And it is a slide show. No actually its still doing......I can't tell."
After a few attempts he left a long enough time between pressing buttons for the slide show to start working properly.
"Its doing it, it just was doing it kind of slow."
Using the index mode:
The user guessed correctly first time which of the buttons would be used to turn on the index mode.
"I would pick this top button here, furthest to the right, cause it shows a sort of grid."
When asked to select one the five pictures that were displayed in the index mode and enlarge this picture the user first tried pressing the print button which caused the print menu to appear on the monitor. He went back into the index mode and figured out that he could select pictures other than the one currently highlighted by pressing the plus and minus buttons.
"I just press plus - minus and it moves the red number."
When asked again to enlarge the picture he had selected he tried pressing ok.
"Press ok I would imagine."
He then looked in the manual and soon discovered how to complete the task.
"Oh you just press the button again."
Deleting a picture:
When asked to delete the user immediately choose the delete button because of its colour.
"I'm pressing the one that shows red underneath cause it's the opposite color to all the other ones and I guess because of background knowledge of what red means."
Changing the quality:
The user went straight to the menu for this task. He assumed that functions like this would be in a separate menu.
"I guess that it would be in here, it's not a frequently used function."
He then correctly selected to go into the SHQ, HQ, SQ menu and changed the quality without difficulty.
"That'd be super high, high and super wouldn't it?"
Changing the date:
The user admitted at this stage that the only reason he knew to go straight to the menu in order to change the date was because he had stumbled upon the date function earlier on in the tasks.
"Should I be honest and say I wouldn't understand this unless I had fiddled with it earlier?"
He therefore had no problem finding and changing the date on the camera.
Erasing all the photographs:
The user had already been in the menu and had seen the erase all option. Thus the user completed the task without delay and successfully finished his evaluation.
User 4, Evan
Evaluation took 20 minutes.
Turning on the camera:
The user located the on/off button after a short search but he initially tried to turn the play/record switch to the on/off label instead of pushing the button.
"Go where it says on/off?"
Putting the camera in record mode:
The user thought that he should switch off the camera in order to change the mode.
"I'll have to shut it off to do that."
He proceeded to turn off the camera and change the mode. When asked why he had turned off the camera the user replied "I think I remember doing that with camcorders and this play record thing is like a camcorder."
Checking the number of remaining pictures:
Turning the camera back on he saw the 49 in the top of the display and said:
"It says 49, I don't know if that's taken or remaining, I presume remaining."
Taking a picture:
The user was confused about whether the display should be on or off, "Should the screen be on or off?". The user was comparing this camera with his own which reproduces what can seen through the viewfinder in the LCD monitor. The evaluator explained that this function is not available on our camera. He then found the shutter release button with no difficulty.
"Its in the position where a camera button usually tends to be."
Turning on the flash:
The user thought that the flash had already been on when he took the last picture (it wasn't).
"I guess I just successfully did that. Didn't it go off in the last one?"
He then thought that he would have to do something with the "little lightning button" which he recognized from his own camera as being connected with the flash. However on our model the lightning symbol changes the flash mode instead of turning on the main flash. He tried holding down the flash mode button while he took the picture but this had no affect.
"This sucks."
The user then tried looking in the manual for some time but he mistakenly looked up the flash mode button instead of the main flash.
"Which flash mode do you want me to use?"
"It doesn't exactly show you how to do it."
He tried looking on the camera again for a clue but couldn't find anything.
"I have no idea what's going on here."
After about 10 minutes the user gave up and the evaluator showed him how to open up the flash by pressing the flash pop-up level.
Selecting the red-eye reducing flash mode:
The user turned the camera to the red-eye reducing flash immediately as he had already come across this function while searching for the main flash. He claimed that he would have found it without too much difficulty anyway by pressing the 'lightning' button and waiting for some sort of eye to appear.
"I would have stumbled upon it anyway I think."
Using the zoom:
The user knew immediately which lever to press for the zoom "cause its kinda similar to my camera". The picture didn't take first time as it wasn't properly focused but it worked the second time.
Using the selftimer:
The users initial instinct was that the button with the clock over it was for either the self-timer or the slide show.
"Well there is a clock looking thing here, I don't now if that's for the timer or the slide-show. I'm just going to hold it here and hope it takes a picture."
He proceeded to try out this button. Nothing happened.
"Its not ticking. Its not showing any sign that it actually worked."
He then guessed that a second button was probably required and unaware that he had to press the shutter release button, he looked around at the other buttons and asked if perhaps the battery compartment open close lever had anything to do with it. However he didn't try out this lever as "I'm afraid I'll break the thing."
On consulting the manual he figured out how to do it. However because the camera was not properly focused it didn't take the picture so he refocused and the picture was finally taken.
Viewing the slide show:
The user immediately went to the slide show button as this is a feature of his own camera. He was impressed at the way the number of the each picture was displayed on the monitor along with the picture itself.
"Hey I like the way it shows you the number, mine doesn't do that."
Selecting the index mode:
When asked to find the index display mode he went straight into the menu function as he was mislead both by the picture on the menu button and the fact that his own camera stored the index display in its menu.
"I know this function cause its on my camera, plus it also looks like a little output button".
After realising that the menu had no relevance he tried turning off the camera and turning it back on again but this did not achieve the desired effect.
"On mine I think that's how you use the index display."
He went back into the menu and tried going into next. He ended up going into the date function and changing the date by accident at which stage he began to get frustrated and exclaimed loudly "this isn't what I wanted to happen."
He then proceeded to check the manual and found the index display fairly quickly.
When asked to select one picture and enlarge it he first tried pressing the zoom lever as that is how he selects pictures in his own camera.
"I'm hitting the zoom button but it's not doing anything".
He tried pressing ok but that didn't work either. Eventually he consulted the manual and realised that he had to press the index display button again.
Deleting a picture:
He immediately went to the right button.
"Is it this red thing?
When asked why he picked that button he said "its red, meaning don't touch."
He pressed the red button and proceeded to delete the picture.
Changing the quality:
The user remembered seeing the SHQ, HQ, SQ options in the menu during previous tasks so he went straight into the resolution menu. However some confusion was caused by the fact that the arrow pointed to a different option to the one that was highlighted and the user was therefore unsure about the current resolution value. However once he figured this out he had no problem changing to a different setting.
"The arrow is at SQ but SHQ is highlighted. What's the quality set to at the moment?"
Changing the date:
As the user had come across the date function during an earlier task he had no problem locating it.
"Somehow I changed that before, I don't quite remember how."
This time he managed to change the date without too much hassle.
Erasing all the photographs:
The user went straight into the menu and found the erase all function. He was confused by the arrow pointing to cancel. Inside of moving the arrow up to ok in the menu he pressed the ok button which selected cancel and aborted the erase.
"To be honest with you, if I was going to cancel, I'd have no idea what that arrow was."
The user experienced difficulties with the placement of the buttons as he kept on pressing ok when he intended to press the plus and minus button but he eventually succeeded in deleting the photographs.
"So you have to put the arrow to ok and then press ok? Got it."
.
8. Recommendations for future developments/improvements
During the course of our evaluation we uncovered many usability problems associated with the Olympus Camedia C-1400L digital camera. All of our users experienced complications performing the tasks that we had assigned and many similarities were observed in the problems encountered by each of the four. The use of the thinking aloud method made it easier to determine exactly what was causing confusion for the users. In many cases the users had useful suggestions on possible improvements that could be made. The debriefing sessions also brought to light some further issues and possible recommendations. The transcripts of the debriefings are included in the appendices and we will incorporate the knowledge we gained from these sessions in our list of the usability problems and their possible solutions. It was noted that all four users had to make heavy use of the manual in order to figure out the various buttons on the camera and some of the users got quite frustrated at times when after several minutes of searching around they still had failed to overcome the problems they were experiencing.
Below is a list of recommendations, based entirely on the results of our cooperative evaluation, which we believe could dramatically improve the usability of the camera. This list is by no means exhaustive but concentrates instead on defining some of the more important factors that led to the rather poor performance of the camera in our usability tests.
. Separating the play/record switch from the power button.
The camera's power button which has to be pushed down in order to turn the camera on or off is surrounded by a lever which is used to alternate between the play and record modes. When asked to turn on the camera all four of our users initially tried turning this lever. We recommend that these two switches should be completely separate to avoid this unnecessary confusion.
2. Improving the autofocus so that the user can always take pictures.
The camera has an autofocus which according to the manual can "lock on virtually any subject although there are certain conditions where it may not work properly." When the autofocus fails to lock, usually due to bad lighting conditions or because a subject is too close, the shutter release button is disabled and the camera refuses to take a picture. Three of the four users, as well as the team member who was the subject of the pilot study, experienced problems with the autofocus while trying to take pictures. There are six occurrences of this problem documented in the four test session write ups and during the debriefing one user cited this problem as the camera's worst feature. The problem was the source of a lot of frustration and confusion for our users leading them to believe that they had made mistakes carrying out the tasks when in fact it was the camera itself which was at fault. We recommend that the camera should go ahead and take a picture, even if it is not properly focused. As the user can see the results straight away they are in a position to delete the picture and try again if it looks badly out of focus. One could say that the autofocus is an example of the camera being too smart for its own good.
3. Making then flash easier to use.
In his debriefing our expert user said that the worst feature of the camera was the flash and two of the other users also had trouble using it. From the debriefings it became clear that the main thing that had made this task troublesome was that the flash on our camera is different from most other cameras. The camera's flash has to be popped up using the flash pop-up lever before it can be used as opposed to most other cameras where the flash is already mounted on the front of the camera. We would suggest that the flash should either be redesigned to be more consistent with other cameras or that there should at least be clearer labelling on the camera indicating to users that they are required to pop up the flash.
4. Having a separate button for every function.
According to Don. Norman [6] "whenever the number of possible actions exceeds the number of controls, there is apt to be difficulty." The testing we performed fully supports this theory. On our camera the four main buttons perform different functions depending on whether the camera is in play mode or record mode. There is a mapping between the colouring of the play and record mode labels and the colouring of the symbols which correspond to the functions of a specific mode. Over halfway through his testing one of our users recognised this fact but the other three completely failed to make this connection. As a result each of the users had eight symbols to inspect and attempt to decipher in order to accomplish some of the tasks instead of being able to automatically eliminate half of these. This decreased the usability of the camera. Another example of where overloading buttons with functions causes difficulty for users was the flash mode button. While the other three buttons are basically on/off buttons for their corresponding functions the flash mode button performs three actions. It is used to turn on the red-eye reducing flash mode, the auto flash mode and the fill-in flash mode. Two of our users experienced difficulties trying to find the red-eye mode and they both listed the red-eye function as one of the cameras worst features in their debriefing In this case we recommend following Norman's advice which is to "set the switches for one set of functions apart from the switches that control other functions."
5. Improving the labelling of the buttons.
All our users found the symbols that accompanied the buttons on the camera to be very confusing although the specific problems that each of them encountered when trying to understand the labels differed slightly. For example two of them recognised immediately that the lightning symbol stood for the flash however the other two users had no idea what this symbol signified. Again only two users identified the clock symbol for the selftimer. None of the play mode function symbols proved to be anyway helpful except for the delete button, and this was solely because of its colour. When asked to use the zoom and the flash one of the users searched the camera for the word 'zoom' and 'flash' but neither word appears anywhere. One user mentioned in the debriefing that the diagrams should have been better and another user complained that the symbols were not very descriptive. None of the users or even the evaluators could figure out what the symbol for erase is actually meant to represent. One user also completely failed to see the green symbols which are fairly dark until over halfway through his testing. We would recommend changing all the green symbols to a brighter colour, and enlargening and redesigning most of the camera's labels. Also some of the abbreviations that were used on the camera's labels proved confusing to the users. Even though we had explained in the briefing that there are three resolution levels - super high, high and standard, most of the users still had trouble understanding what abbreviations such as SHQ, HQ and SQ stood for. It would be better if actual words were used instead of abbreviations in this case.
6. Maintaining consistency between models.
Don Norman [6] described then tendency of manufactures to continually bring out new, improved models of their product "usually incorporating new features that do not use the old as a starting point....the results spell disaster for the consumer".
The camera which is owned by our expert user is a different version of the same brand of camera as we used in the testing. However despite his experience the user still had considerable difficulty completing many of the tasks. In the debriefing he blamed this on the fact that he had expected that functions would operate the same way on our camera as they do on his. The reality was that there were huge differences between the two cameras. This highlights the importance of consistency which Nielson included in his list of the nine basic usability principles [7]. We recommend that in future models the manufactures should make more of an effort to ensure that consistency is maintained between models.
7. Include a warning message with the 'Format Card' menu option.
The format card menu option destroys everything that is stored on the smart card, including all the users pictures. However there is no warning message accompanying the option to inform users of this fact. When asked to change the date our novice user and our team member who did the pilot study both tried using the format card option and so accidentally erased all the photographs which they had taken. In order to prevent this serious error we suggest that when a user selects this option they should be presented with a second screen warning them that they are about to delete all their pictures and asking them if they still wish to continue.
8. Removing the 'Next' menu option.
During her pilot test our team member thought that the 'next' option in the main menu would display the next picture and so it took her some time to locate the extra menu options which are contained in this menu. Our novice user had to look in the menu to find these functions. We believe that following the advice given by our expert user in his debriefing, that the menu should just scroll down instead of being split between two different screens, would increase the usability of the menu.
9. Improving the manual.
In general the users found the manual fairly helpful however we have three recommendations to make which we believe would make the manual easier to use. The contents page of the manual doesn't appear until page 24. Consequently some of the users had trouble finding it. It would make more sense if this page was moved to the beginning of the manual. Another problem that arose with several users, especially when they were attempting to use the red-eye mode, is that the manual pages describing specific functions of the camera often make reference to buttons without indicating where those buttons can be found. This forces users to continue searching through the manual in order to figure out exactly how to carry out a specific operation. It was like looking for a word in a dictionary and then having to look up the words in the explanation as well. We recommend that each page which describes a function of the camera should give clear instructions on how to use that function, along with accompanying diagrams of exactly which buttons are required. Our third recommendation can be accredited to one of our users who suggested in his debriefing that there should be a single page in the manual containing pictures of all the symbols on the camera along with descriptions of what the symbols stand for.
9. Conclusions
In her debriefing our novice user blamed herself for everything that had gone wrong during her testing. In his book "The Design of Everyday Things"[6], Don Norman discusses this tendency of people to blame themselves. "If we believe that others are able to use the device and if we believe that it is not very complex, then we conclude that any difficulties must be our own fault." However many of the mistakes that were made by our novice user were repeated by all subsequent users proving that the fault lies in the device, not in the user. The Olympus Camedia digital camera is far from perfect. Even the most basic task of all, turning on the camera, proved troublesome. In a review of this camera which appeared in 'PC Magazine UK' and which is included in Appendix F, the author stated that "the only feature of the Olympus C1400L that disappointed us was the automatic focus". Perhaps it would be a good idea if 'us' was extended to include a few actual users of the camera instead of professional, highly experienced reviewers so that people who go ahead and purchase the camera on the magazines recommendation are more accurately informed of some of the problems they are likely to face.
Overall we found the cooperative evaluation to be a highly enjoyable and enlightening experience through which we came to appreciate the difficulties involved in, as well as the great importance of, designing usable systems. The thinking aloud method proved to be an extremely effective manner of pointing problems in a devices design and obtaining enough information about the causes of these problems to make suggestions on how they could be overcome. Including an abundance of extra functions in your design is all well and good but if the users can't figure out how to use any of them they degenerate into (as Evan put it in his debriefing) "just random stuff on the side of the box so people will buy yours and not somebody else's." We would like to conclude by thanking all our users for their help and cooperation.
0. References:
[1] The olympus home page, http://www.olympus-europa.com/
[2] Gould, J. (1984). How to design usable systems. In M. Helander, (Ed.), Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, Amsterdam: North-Holland.
[3] Monk, A. Wright, P., Haber, J., & Davenport, L. (1993). Improving your human-computer interface: a practical technique, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK: Prentice Hall.
[4] Lewis, C. (1982) Using the "Thinking-aloud" Method in Cognitive Interface Design, IMB Research Report RC 9265, Yorktown Heights, 1982.
[5] Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H., Benyon, D., Holland, S., and Carey, Tom., Human-Computer Interaction, Addison-Wesley, 1994.
[6] Norman., D., The Design of Everyday Things, New York: Basic Books.
[7] Nielson, J & R. Molich (1990) Heuristic Evaluation of User Interfaces. In Proc. ACM CHI'90 Conference.
Appendix A
Questionnaire
Name: Age:
Occupation: Sex:
Do you own a digital camera? Yes/No
If yes, what were the main reasons you chose a digital camera?
Do you own a computer Yes/No
Have you ever used a digital camera before? Yes/No
If yes, please circle your level of expertise
(1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest)
1 2 3 4
Have you ever used a standard camera before? Yes/No
If yes, please circle your level of expertise
(1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest)
1 2 3 4
Have you ever used a computer camera before? Yes/No
If yes, please circle your level of expertise
(1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest)
1 2 3 4
Appendix B
Initial Briefing
Thank for agreeing to help with this study. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usability of a digital camera. We want to find out how easy the digital camera is to use, try to pinpoint any problems in its design and hopefully come up with some suggestions about how it could be improved. We want to stress that it is the camera which is being tested not you. We are interested in any way that it misleads you and in the things that make it hard for you to use it rather than in the mistakes you make. We are going to give you a list of tasks to perform and we are going to be making notes of the problems you experience as you go along. In case we miss anything we are going to audio tape our conversation.
We want you to think out loud as you do each task. We want you to tell us how you are trying to solve each task, what buttons etc you are trying out and how the camera responds to your actions. If you find that you are unsure about what to do the manual is available to help you out and if you get really stuck we'll explain exactly what you have to do. We will ask you questions as you go along about why you chose certain buttons over others, what effect you expect your actions to have etc. This is to help us find out what problems there are with the system. As you carry out the tasks we want you to voice any thoughts you have about parts of the system which you feel are difficult to use or poorly designed.
Before we begin we would like to give you a quick overview of the digital camera so that you will be better able to understand the tasks that you will be asked to perform. The camera is an Olympus C-1400L digital camera. It operates in two modes - record for taking photographs and play for scanning through the previously taken photographs which it has stored in memory. The camera has three levels of resolution - super high quality, high quality and standard quality and the total number of photographs which can be stored at any one time depends on the resolution selected. Some of the extra features that we will be asking you to try out today include a slide-show which runs through all the pictures automatically displaying them for a few seconds each, an index display mode which shows nine stored photographs simultaneously and a self timer which waits 12 seconds before taking a photograph.
If at any time you are unsure about what we are asking you to do feel free to ask us for clarification. Remember that we testing the camera and not you and to try and to think aloud as you work through the tasks. We will now begin the evaluation.
Appendix C
TASK LIST
Record Mode Tasks
. Turn on the power
2. Put the camera in record mode
3. Check the number of remaining pictures
4. Take a picture
5. Take a picture with the main flash
6. Take a picture using the red-eye reducing flash mode
7. Take a picture using the main zoom
8. Take a picture using the selftimer mode
Play Mode Tasks
. View the slide show
2. Go to the index display mode
2.1 Flick through the pictures you have taken
2.2 Select and enlarge one of them
3. Delete a picture
Menu Tasks
. Change the picture resolution to some other settings
2. Change the date
3. Erase all pictures
Appendix D
Summary of the debriefing:
User Elizabeth.
Evaluator: What do you think was the best thing about the camera?
User: "The feel of it, its very comfortable to hold."
Evaluator: What do you think was the worst thing about the camera?
User: When you press the button to take a picture you really have to press it very decidedly. It would never work for me the first time. Oh and that red eye function, I could'nt figure that out at all.
Evaluator: What changes would you make to the camera (if any?)
User: I'd make it easier to press that button.
Evaluator: How easy did you find the tasks in general?
User: I'm happy enough. I thought before I started that I wouldn't be able to do any of them and I succeeded in all of them didn't I, more or less. I found the instruction book easy to follow.
Evaluator: But when you were looking for help in the manual it kept on referring you to buttons and modes that you knew nothing about. Did you not find that the manuals could have be better written to avoid this confusion?
User: I know but that was because I was stupid and I hadn't found out in the first place where the correct button was.
Evaluator: You can't blame yourself for that. Surely the buttons should have been more obvious and the manual more clear in its instructions.
User: But I'm not very observant so I'm probably slower at this than a normal person would be. I kind of half look at things and then move on too quickly. If I'd studied the first diagram of the camera better I might have succeeded quicker.
Evaluator: So you found the buttons fairly confusing?
User: They are very confusing until you get used to them. I've forgotten what half of them do already. They could definitely be a bit clearer, you have to play around to figure it out. They definitely could have better diagrams.
Evaluator: Something I don't think you became aware of during the evaluation is that symbols on top of the buttons which are in white are used for the record mode which is also shown in white and the symbols underneath in green are used when the camera is in play mode which is written in green.
User: Oh God, that's so obvious. That's brilliant.
Evaluator: But it isn't really that obvious at all.
User: But I'm not very observant, now that you point it out its very obvious. Maybe it says it in the book if you read it.
Evaluator: Do you think if you owned the camera that you would make a lot of use of the manual?
User: Yes I think I would have read that book. That's a nice easy pocketsize book, its not a huge big thick book.
Evaluator: How did you find the main menu?
User: I found it confusing at the start but once I did a job then it became clearer. It was just like a computer once you got going. Though I didn't know what SHQ was until you told me. That makes it very confusing, wondering what they were about. When you know what they are about then its easy.
Evaluator: Would you be interested in buying a digital camera as a result of your experience with it today?
User: Yeah I'd love one. I'm delighted that I got to try it out. Though you can't get pictures out of it, photographs?
Evaluator: No, you can download the pictures onto your computer and you can print them out but you can't get the photographs you get with normal cameras.
User: But then it would be no use. Actually the best thing about that camera is being able to see the picture you have taken, that and the way it feels. I think I'll stick to normal cameras though.
Summary of the Debriefing
User: Justin
Evaluator: So what do you think was the best thing about the camera?
User: I like how you take the picture and you can see it right there and you decide whether you want to keep it or not.
Evaluator: What is the worst thing about the camera?
User: These pictures on the buttons don't represent anything. They're not very descriptive of what you want. What the hell is a flower, why is there a picture of a flower?
Evaluator: That's for a function called the macro function which we weren't testing. It allows you to take pictures of things up close when the autofocus won't focus properly.
User: Ah, I see. Still doesn't explain the flower though.
Evaluator: So basically you didn't find the symbols helpful at all?
User: The menu one was helpful. These four buttons (the user pointed to the menu, plus and minuses and the ok buttons) were real simple to use but the ones up here were not at all. I didn't really look at the green ones at all. The red stuck out but the green doesn't show up well.
Evaluator: How easy did you find the tasks we assigned you overall?
User: Well I think I know how to do everything on it now and it only took me twenty minutes to figure it all out.
Evaluator: How did you find the manual?
User: It was all right. I hate how its split up into the different languages on every page. They could have cut it all down to one page. There should be a quick users guide with a picture and what it means for each thing.
Evaluator: Well there actually is a page in the manual which had a picture of the camera which labels all the different buttons and levers (shows the user this page of the manual).
User: See I don't even like this at all, this is just confusing, no one is going to look at this. You can barely see everything, they should have enlarged it. They should have had a page which just the symbols and what they are. That would have been so much easier.
Evaluator: You had some difficulty operating the flash. Do you think its badly designed?
User: I've never used a camera where it pops up. To be honest all my cameras have had automatic flash. I've never turned on a flash.
Evaluator: You didn't recognise the flash symbol over the button either - have you never seen that before?
User: It looks like something you'd see on the road - like a series of bad bends warning sign or something.
Evaluator: Would you buy a digital camera?
User: I'd love to buy one.
Evaluator: You find them a lot better than normal cameras?
User: God yeah. Well there's the whole thing about you have your camera and you have your film, separate. I've six rolls of film sitting in my room right now and I have no idea what they look like. They could be the worst pictures ever. With this camera I know.
Evaluator: Have you any other general comments you would like to make about the camera?
User: No I can't think of anything.
Summary of the debriefing:
User Robert.
Evaluator: So what did you think was the best thing about the camera?
User: (after a long pause) In general I guess it's a fine camera but there is nothing in particular. There are certain complications with it.
Evaluator: Can you elaborate on that?
User: Well there's certain complications that I would have to read about it, or fiddle with it beforehand. Like finding the date, certain things like that. I couldn't do it right off the bat.
Evaluator: What struck you as being the worst feature of the camera?
User: The red eye. And the fact that certain buttons did more than one function and so you have to keep fiddling with that button to find out where that function was. Especially since red eye was the first function for one of them but there was no symbol on the camera for it.
Evaluator: Can you suggest any changes that you would make to the camera?
User: I don't know cause you can't add too many more buttons to it or it just gets too cluttered.
Evaluator: Would you prefer to see less buttons on the camera?
User: No cause then you are back to the same problem, you've got buttons that mean so much more.
Evaluator: Are there any functions there that you would consider unnecessary?
User: The digital part!! No seriously I don't know cause I didn't use them all.
Evaluator: Well of the ones you have used today are there any that you think you would never use if you owed the camera?
User: Honestly red eye. I really don't care about that, its just the eye.
Evaluator: How easy did you find the tasks we gave you?
User: Overall not too bad, I got confused at one time and started pressing all the buttons so I found out where a lot of the stuff was and that made it easier.
Evaluator: Did you find the manual helpful?
User: It was eventually. The first thing was a bit confusing, I was looking for the red-eye page but it didn't say which button it was. So it turned out to be on the page before it.
Evaluator: Did you find the menus easy to understand and navigate through?
User: I was a bit confused about what SHQ, SQ and HQ were though when I was asked to change the resolution, instinctively that was the only thing that made sense for that to be so that's why I went there.
Evaluator: Did you find the symbols under the buttons clear or did you have difficulty interpreting them?
User: In was pretty easy once I got into it. The grid (for index mode) made sense. I don't know what that red thing for delete actually is but since its coloured red I could figure it out.
Evaluator: You mentioned during the evaluation that you wouldn't have expected to find the date function in the menu. Why not?
User: It just seems to me that printing the date on the pictures is a fairly major feature of the camera so I would have expected there to be a button for the date somewhere on the camera.
Evaluator: You had a bit of a problem at the start with the on/off button. Do you feel that its badly designed?
User: I don't know. I've never actually had to turn on my camera, so you know - I just open the shutter part and it turns on. I saw this (the record/play switch) and I thought ok, you use the lever thing to pick one of the three of them. I'm not used to the record play function.
Evaluator: Would you buy that camera?
User: It's a bit too bulky for my liking. Something that slides in your pocket would be better, especially for a tourist. I prefer my camera. Its just a press button function and that's not really hard and I really don't care about the other functions.
Evaluator: Suppose somebody had offered to go out and buy you a present of any camera you wanted - would you ask for a digital camera or a normal camera.
User: Probably normal.
Evaluator: Do you think that lack of knowledge of digital cameras would play a part in that decision?
User: I guess that would be one part of it. That would actually be a lot of it. Actually if I knew them equally well I'd probably go with the digital just cause its more advanced and more now.
Evaluator: How would you rate the feel of the camera? Did you find it comfortable to hold?
User: No, I've big hands, it was a little bit awkward. And the button to take pictures felt a little resistant, it didn't always seem to work.
Evaluator: Is there anything else that you would like to add before we finish up?
User: No, I can't think of anything.
Summary of the Debriefing
User Evan:
Evaluator: So what did you think of the camera in general?
User: Compared to the one I have, it was harder to use. I mean you would definitely have to read the book a little bit before hand or at least look at what the main buttons are.
Evaluator: What made it harder than yours?
User: The play/record button isn't on mine. The buttons at the top are just about the same for mine but for some reason they make more sense. And instead of having the plus and minus buttons I have a sort of circle divided in four so its more obvious that you are selecting up or down or whatever. And you can use the zoom lever to zoom in and out of a picture that you've selected in the index mode. Maybe I'm just used to it but it seems more logical.
Evaluator: Did you find the buttons confusing then?
User: Most of the buttons are the same, but some of them aren't as clear. Like this picture for the erase, that's just kinda weird.
Evaluator: What did you think was the best thing about the camera?
User: Well I actually had a selftimer but I never bothered figuring out how to use it so that was pretty cool.
Evaluator: How about the worst thing about the camera? Did any one feature stand out for you as being particularly badly designed?
User: Yeah the flash. Usually they kinda pop up when you turn on the camera, or press the button to take a picture or something, and usually they are on the far left.
Evaluator: Are there any changes that you would make to the camera?
User: This button (the user was pointing at the play/record switch) seems kinda stupid, like you think it would be right at one of the corners. Its positioning is a little weird. Plus these up down buttons are too spread apart so I kept hitting ok. Normally you just move your hand a little bit. Its kind of ugly too but what can you do.
Evaluator: So how easy did you find the tasks in general?
User: I actually struggled with them more than I thought I would. I don't really use a lot of the features on my digital camera so it was kinda like starting blind. But I assume a normal person would read the book for a little bit before trying to figure it out. I personally would expect to read the book before figuring this stuff out.
Evaluator: Do you think a lot of the functions are unnecessary and you wouldn't ever use them?
User: Yeah you probably would never use most of them. Its just random stuff on the side of the box so people will buy yours and not somebody else's.
Evaluator: Do you think because you had an Olympus camera, the same make camera, that you'd assume that the functions would be the same on it? Do you think that your experience proved more of a hindrance that a help to you?
User: Yeah I would assume that they would be the same. When I was trying to use the zoom lever to look at the pictures in index mode I figured that it would work the same, especially cause its in the same place pretty much.
Evaluator: Did you find the menu ok?
User: Yeah but having it on two different screens is kind of stupid, like there is menu one of two and then two of two (the user was referring to the fact that he had to select next on the camera in order to view some of its additional features). You probably wouldn't even notice the one half, you'd just see one menu. It thought that was kinda dumb. On mine you just keep scrolling down, that would be a lot better it they did that.
Evaluator: How about the manual, how did you find that?
User: It was pretty easy cause there is like one page that has pretty much all the buttons and at least gives a name to them, and there is a page number next to each one. Yeah it was actually pretty easy.
Evaluator: Have you any last comments that you would like to add?
User: I don't think there's anything else. Its actually kind of weird to hold too but I don't know if you guys care about that.
Evaluator: What did you find weird about it exactly?
User: Like if you want to change the buttons and stuff you kind of want to do it with one hand. If you are taking a picture you want to do something quick you know, but this thing is like a monster, plus you've got all these ridiculous buttons which you probably wouldn't even use unless you were read up on the whole thing. And I still don't get this whole play record thing.
Evaluator: How does it work on yours?
User: There's just a power type button, and you can take pictures as soon as you open the lens. And if you press the on/off button you can move the camera around and the view through the lens is displayed in the LCD monitor. And if I want to view the pictures I've taken I close the lens and press the on/off button. Though I guess this stuff is actually really simple, record when you are taking pictures, play when you are looking at them. There's just something about the word play that sounds weird cause I think play would be like the slide show or something.
Appendix E
MAIN SPECIFICATIONS:
Taken from Olympus Europe Website
Product type: Digital camera with 3x SLR zoom lens and 4.5cm LCD monitor
Storage Media: Removable 3.3V SmartMedia (SSFDC)
Card 2x 4MB cards are supplied with Deluxe kit
(card functions with C-820/C-420L are not available with C-1400L)
Number of Storable Frames: 4 or more (SHQ mode)
12 or more (HQ mode)
49 or more (SQ mode) with 4 MB
Compression Method: JPEG base line
Imager: 2/3-inch CCD progressive
1.4 million pixel
Recording Image: 1280 x 1024 pixel (SHQ, HQ mode);
640 x 512 pixel (SQ mode)
White Balance: Full Auto
Lens: OLYMPUS lens 9.2 - 28 mm F2.8:3.9
(7 elements in 7 groups) all glass made(1 aspherical lens incl.)
(equivalent to 36 - 110 mm lens on 35mm camera)
Aperture: Wide: F2.8 and F5.6,
Tele: F3.9 and F7.8
Light Metering System: TTL center weighted average metering with imager, spot metering
Exposure Control: Programmed auto exposure (7 step exposure compensation)
Focusing: TTL system auto focus, Quick-focus mode (0.4 m/2.5 m)
Focusing range: 30 cm -60 cm (Macro mode), 60 cm - infinity
Shutter: 1/4 - 1/10.000 sec electric shutter
Sensitivity: Equivalent to ISO 100
Viewfinder: Optical TTL SLR viewfinder
LCD Monitor: 4.5 cm colour TFT LCD monitor with 61,380 pixel (brightness adjustment possible)
On screen information: Date/Time, Frame number, One/All erase, Menu, Card error, Print
Control Panel: Indicates image quality modes, compression modes, number of frames remaining, card warning, flash modes, selftimer, battery life
remaining warning, macro mode, spot mode, exposure compensation, error information
Flash Modes: Built-in Flash (pop-up type)
modes : Auto-Flash, Read-Eye Reducing Flash, Fill-in, (Off)
Flash working range: 0.3 - 3.5 m (Wide)
Direct printing ( w/ P-300E only): Single, Index print (6x5 images), Multiple print (4x4 images), Mirror print (for T-shirt iron print), All print, Select image print
Selftimer: 12 second delay
Outer Connector: RS232C
Power Supply: Main power source : 4 x AA alkaline batteries / 4 x AA NiMH
batteries / 4 x AA NiCd batteries / Optional C-6AE AC adapter;
(with 4 x AA alkaline batteries more than 100 frames can be shot
using flash 50% of the time)
Date/Time/Calendar: Simultaneous recording onto image data.
Automatically set up to year 2016
Dimension (without protrusions): 115 (W) x 77 (H) x 130 (D)
Weight (without batteries): Approx. 525 g (without battery)
Appendix F
Taken from www.zdnet.com
Review of Olympus Camedia
(This review appears in the April 1998 issue of PC Magazine UK )
MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA
The C1400L from Olympus offers the best image quality we've seen from a non-professional megapixel digital camera, although you'll have to pay over £1,000 (ex. VAT) for it.
Olympus C1400L
Pros: Super image quality and SLR operation.
Cons: The automatic focus can be frustrating.
Verdict: More expensive than some megapixel digital cameras, but if you need top image quality you'll find it's worth it.
Price as reviewed (ex. VAT) £1,106
YOU MIGHT MISTAKE THE Olympus C1400L for an ordinary 35mm SLR camera--it has a similar look to the Olympus IS range of SLRs. And the similarities are more than just cosmetic: the C1400L is the first digital camera we've seen that offers true SLR-type functionality (barring high-end products that are really modified professional cameras).
The C1400L is one of the new breed of megapixel digital cameras, its capture resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 placing it in an entirely different category to the early 640 by 480 (VGA) cameras. Its output is superb and noticeably better than images taken with other megapixel cameras like Agfa's ePhoto 1280. The C1400L can handle more than just Web graphics and small images in documents.
The high quality of the C1400L is largely due to its optics. Olympus claims that the lens has a resolving power more than double that of its best-quality compact 35mm camera. It also lets in a lot of light, its motorised 3X zoom offering f2.8 at 36mm and f3.9 at 110mm. You look through the lens rather than a viewfinder, so you get exactly what you see when taking a photo.
Once taken, your images can be reviewed on the colour 1.8in. LCD that also lets you navigate the camera's functions via a menu system. The increasingly popular SmartMedia cards provide storage, in either 2MB or 4MB format. The 4MB version supplied with the review camera allows you to save at least 49 images at Standard Quality (640 by 480 pixels) and four at Super High Quality (1,280 by 1,024 pixels). An intermediate High Quality mode also offers 1,280 by 1,024 pixels, but at a higher JPEG compression ratio--you'll get at least 12 of these images on a 4MB card.
Automatic flash is provided, with manual override, and there's a red-eye reduction mode. The flash system is sophisticated enough to measure the distance to your subject and vary the intensity of the flash accordingly. All of the flash photos that we took were exposed perfectly.
The only feature of the Olympus C1400L that disappointed us was the automatic focus, which often failed to focus on subjects until their smiles had long since turned into impatient, forced grins. The available focusing range also varies with the setting of the zoom lens, and unless you know exactly what's going on you can spend many frustrating moments trying to make the camera focus on something it simply can't manage. The inclusion of two 'Quick Focus' buttons goes some way towards alleviating this problem, however--you can press them to select a focal length of either 2.5m or 40cm.
The C1400L comes bundled with two 4MB SmartMedia cards, a leather case and a set of rechargeable batteries complete with a charger. In addition to the standard TWAIN drivers, you get a copy of Kai Photo Soap 1.0 for manipulating and processing your images. Extra 4MB cards cost £51 (ex. VAT) each.
The Olympus C1400L is expensive at £1,106 (ex. VAT), but if you want high-quality digital photography without spending a fortune on a truly professional system, it's sure to impress.-by PAUL MONCKTON
i The first image obtained through use of a camera-like technique was achieved in France by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1813. It required 8 hours of exposure in direct sunlight.