During the development of the POSTool we have implemented two levels of
testing. First a rigorous software testing protocol is implemented to make sure
that all segments of the Tool and website are functioning properly. This is
then followed with a ‘user assessment’ survey distributed to relevant
stakeholders. In addition, we welcome comments through our POSTool website via
email (postool-sph@uwa.edu.au)
and through our Facebook page (http://www.http://www.facebook.com/PublicOpenSpaceTooll).
The following text briefly outlines our software testing procedures followed by
the results of our ‘user assessment’ as well as comments which we have received
through email or on our Facebook page.
Software Testing
Unit testing for the POS Tool was undertaken using the Django unit testing framework, which is in turn based on the Python unittest library.
Unit tests seek to automatically test small individual pieces of code,
this allows for bugs to be located quickly as well as facilitating simplified
code integration by ensuring that individual code modules continue to function
correctly once integrated into the entire piece of software.
For the POS Tool unit testing were based around individual user
functions, for example the statistics created for a region search are all
generated by a python function and individual unit tests were created for this
function to ensure that valid statistics are always produced.
As issues were identified, they were addressed buy the GAIA software
development team.
User Assessment
The POSTool ‘user assessment’ was conducted through the deployment of a
user assessment survey to a select number of relevant stakeholders. Each
stakeholder received an assessment form asking participant to respond to the
following questions:
- What is your understanding
of the purpose of the POSTool?
- Based on the current version
of the POSTool, how do you think you or your
organisation will use the resource?
- How do you find the general
layout of the website’s pages?
- How do you find general
navigation through the website?
- Were you able to easily
search for park information based on an address, by park name, by LGA/suburb?
- How did you find the
presentation of information about a single park and by LGA/suburb?
- For an LGA, please download
and comment on the park summary data provide as a spread
sheet which can be viewed in MicroSoft Excel.
- How did you find the spatial
presentation of POS locations on the map interface?
- Were you able to easily
navigate around the map interface to find the POS you were
interested in?
- Were you easily able to
access help information through the FAQ pages?
- Do you have any further comments?
Stakeholders surveyed included:
User
1
|
Health
researcher
|
User
2
|
Computer
engineering researcher
|
User
3
|
Local
government planning consultant
|
User 1 feedback:
What worked
- “ I was pleasantly surprised
and relieved about how user-friendly the website was to use – the tabs and
options are presented in a way that makes intuitive sense – not having to
keep going to FAQ or help options to work out how to find your
way around is the mark of good web-base tool design!”
- User friendly searching and
the back space arrow works as on some web pages this brings you back to
the beginning.
- Map is visually user
friendly and easily navigable.
What didn't work
- The about information may be
better placed before the disclaimer acceptance page. People may not know
how to use the tool without some further information.
- I noticed that there was
some missing information for my neighbourhood. Is there capacity for users
to send in messages if they discover things like this or have a query?
- The boundaries of suburbs
within an LGA are not shown. It would be nice to click on a suburb within
an LGA then providing search results for that suburb.
- When people are on the
‘about’ page, it would be good if they could click on the words “address
search” and go directly to the page where they can start doing just that…
or else next to these is where there could be a let’s get started type
button to click that takes the user to the appropriate option, rather than
having to go back out of the ‘about’ page and back to main menu.
- The text in coloured boxes
on some of the graphics in the help documentation is difficult to read.
- Some highlighted text
remains on one of the help pages – I assume this is not meant be here.
- I wasn't sure what the
upload tab is about. People get curious on websites and click things like
this. What does this actually do?
User 2 feedback
What worked
- “It is a great tool to
spatially present the park information. Public will benefit from it to
easily find the park information of the places that they are interested.
For organisations, it is useful for better understanding and easily
obtaining the park information for an area. People can use the information
for planning or other community management purposes. The aggregated
population data related to parks at the LGA level is also useful for
related research.”
- The colour looks comfortable
and represents the subject well.
- The website navigation is
generally easy to use.
- For a single park, the
presentation is good.
- The LGA summary data is
good.
What didn't work
- The presentation of the map
and park information was bit congested, especially with so much blank space
on the page – maybe it is because I am using a big screen. I think it
would look better to me if the top and bottom margins are shrunk a bit,
and in that way more park information can be presented on the page.
- After clicking the ‘I
Accept’ on the disclaimer page I was given the error ‘page not found’.
- The disclaimer page seems to
be the homepage, but is not the direct page one would see through a Google
search. That means if someone searches for POSTool through Google, he/she
will be directed to the search interface, without a chance to view the
disclaimer. There is no navigation button leading to the disclaimer, which
is the homepage, throughout the website.
- I can search for suburbs and
street addresses at the box for ‘address search’, but failed to search for
suburbs at the box for ‘Suburb or Local Government Area’.
- The address that I typed in
has to be chosen from the drop down menu. I would like to be able to
search with the address I typed in, although the drop down menus is quite
comprehensive.
- When I search for LGA, the
map only demonstrates the LGA boundary and street map. I would like to see
the park layer at least as an option to overlay on the map.
- For a single park, there is
a lack of suburb information.
- When I entered the single
park presentation mode, I cannot view the information of other parks. It
will be more convenient if I still can click on any other park on the map
as I navigate and view its information.
- After I clicked on a single
park, it would be useful to still demonstrate the legend so that I can
find out what is adjacent to or what is in the area more easily.
- Apply a darker green colour
for the selected park, or use an outstanding border, just to better
highlight my selection.
- It would be nice to allow
downloading of the spatial layer of park information so that people can do
analysis within their own GIS environment.
User 3 feedback
What worked
- Easily able to search for
park information based on an address, by park name, by
LGA/suburb but only after I went to the about page and realised what
the differences between the 3 search options were.
What didn't work
- The opening page is the
search page and there is no explanation regarding what happens when you
search in each category. I would like to go to the About page first,
then go in logical order to find out about the categories (and how to
interpret them)
- Instructions only
given for top option (search for nearest green space).) - not sure the FAQ
is the best heading here - need to understand what the user is looking at
before hitting the search page.
- What is the Upload Tab – is
it well placed?
- I found that you have to
select an option every time a new search is conducted or the system
reverts back to the previous selection. For example, I searched for
Subiaco and selected "City of Subiaco" when it appeared below.
When I went back to the search page, I then typed in Shire of Kalamunda
and simply hit search (without selecting from list below) and it took me
back to Subiaco. Had to retype in Shire of Kalamunda and select from
list before I could go there.
- Map image needs to be
larger.
- On some address searches,
once I expand the map (or zoomed out), I lost the marker.
- The information provided
under the METADATA tab could be better presented as a page (tab) in its
own right.
- The information provided
concerning conversion information & statement regarding use (POS
general summary) could be better presented as a page (tab) in its own
right.
- Facility summary would be
better if listed vertically rather than horizontally - really hard to read
on iPad.
- http://www.postool.com.au/static/images/Table3.jpg - what does the
77.665% mean? (aligned with catchment distance in the table below) - The
description contains this statement: For example, the table shown
below indicates that 77.7% of the population of the City of Cockburn were
resident within any park catchment area.
- Does this mean that 23.3% of
the population don't live within any park catchment?
- It would also be useful to
find out which parks are in which category. For example, in City of
Vincent, the count indicates there are 2 regional parks. Is there
any way to identify which parks are included in which category?
- Can numbers be reported to 1
decimal point (2 at most ...)?
- Can you use SMALL PARK (as
per description contained in Livable Neighbourhood Guidelines) and SMALL
OPEN SPACE (in reference to Department of Sport and Recreation
classification). There is some considerable resistance to the use of
POCKET PARK by planning and design professionals - it is considered
pejorative and dismissive.
- Can be POS CATCHMENT be
relabelled LNG CATCHMENT as this is what it actually references - with
explanation given on suggested "here's what it all means"
page/tab.
- The heading PARK QUALITY is
misleading - you are assessing amenity, not quality.
- Language in several
explanations is jargonistic and needs to be simplified.
- Town of Vincent is now CITY
of Vincent.
Email and Facebook feedback
- “When using the search
function it would be common for people to simply type in their suburb, but
typing just the suburb does not always work. I’m in Rivervale and no drop
down comes up for that. A couple of ways to deal with this, remove the
word suburb or let the LGA come up for all the suburbs in it.”
- “...the POS tool would be even better if you could get a % POS for any suburb, and to identify the best and the worst suburbs. I live in South Hedland and POS is lousy, I’d love some evidence to give to Council!”
Addressing user feedback
The
first phase of user testing has proved extremely useful. Issues such as a more
informative entrance page providing background on the tool will now be followed
by the disclaimer page and figures found in the about pages have been replaced
by high resolution graphics to enhance viewability. Furthermore, comments concerning
navigability of the website have been addressed by our development team and
will be updated in the next build.
Search
functions (including suburb search capabilities) will come online when the
second stage of the POS Tool is released in early August addressing most
concerns raised by users during the assessment process. Increasing the size of
the map window, addition of suburb boundaries and map navigation issues are
currently being discussed with our development team and we will endeavour to
address these issues in due course.
One
user has raised some issue concerning the content of the about pages and
terminology used. The definitions and terms used by various government agencies
have been continually changing during the development of this tool. We will
endeavour to work with the various government stakeholders to make sure that
the terminology is correct and the information is presented in an
understandable format and language. These issues will be addressed for the
final release.
Finally,
whilst we currently do not have an updating procedure in place, we do
understand that this will be vital to keep the underlying data in the POS Tool
current. Until we develop a formal process for crowd sourcing and verifying updates,
we encourage users to email us with comments (postool-sph@uwa.edu.au) or logon to
our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/PublicOpenSpaceTool).
