The Okapi:Ranger application is based around collaboration and user-generated content, so naturally, I wanted to get me some users to test it. Since the case I’ve been working on involves wheelchair users, it was very pleasing to meet two such people that were very open and enthusiastic about testing my prototype.

The test itself was intended to be a ’street test’ where the users would follow the routes given them by the Ranger and then offer feedback to these routes depending on whether the routes were any good or not. Sadly, on the day of the test, the wether-gods had decided on rain and high winds. Instead of rolling around the cold and rain, we gathered at a local café and I showed the users my application and had them experiment with to see what they thought.

As I mentioned earlier, the people involved in this test were very open and enthusiastic, and they quickly discovered a multitude of things I could improve on. The almost two hour long session resulted in my notebook being brim-full of suggestions, critiques, and ideas about future functionality. I wonder how many other developers get to have such resourcefull testers?