LESSON 7: Testing Your Lens
You’ve honed your skills and now you’re like a well-oiled Lens-creating machine. You’re almost ready to take on the ultimate AR Lens Challenge! Before that you need to learn one final, all-important lesson: Lens beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder (or the user).
In lesson 7 you’ll pick your favourite Lens and test it out on some real-life users. You’ll gather their feedback and use it to create your finest Lens masterpiece yet!
Step 1: Reflect
Look back at the Lenses you’ve created. These should include a 2D Lens, a Face Paint Lens, a Face Distort Lens, a Segmentation Lens and a Face in Picture or Video Lens.
Which ones were most successful? Which ones weren’t? Why?
Use these questions to help you evaluate your Lenses. Score each Lens out of 5 for each question. Use the table in your Sketchbook (page 12):
- Does your Lens have audience appeal? Who is this Lens most suited to (the target audience)? Why might it appeal to them? What can you change to make it even more appealing? Score your Lens out of 5 (0 = no audience appeal 5 = maximum audience appeal)
- Does your Lens have a purpose? What would you like your Lens to do for the user? What are its key features or uses? Are they clear to the user? Score your Lens out of 5 (0 = no purpose 5 = maximum purpose)
- Is your Lens fun to interact with? How would you like your user to interact with your Lens? Could you make it even more interactive? Score your Lens out of 5 (0 = no interactivity 5 = maximum interactivity)
- Does your Lens provoke a reaction? How would you like your user to react to your Lens? What emotions would you like them to feel? What could you improve to make this reaction even stronger? Score your Lens out of 5 (0 = no reaction 5 = maximum reaction)
- Is your Lens sharable? If so, why? If not, what could you improve to make your user want to use it and share it with others? Score your Lens out of 5 (0 = not sharable 5 = going viral!)
If you have time, invite your friends to score your Lenses too. They might see them differently than you. There’s no such thing as too much feedback!
Now, rank your Lenses from most to least successful in your Sketchbook (page 12). You will focus on your most successful lens for the next stage of user testing.
Step 2: Test your most successful Lens
Find a friend or teacher who is willing to try your favourite Lens. This person is now your “user.”
After they have tried it out, ask them the following questions and record what they say in the Meaningful Feedback section of your Sketchbook (page 13).
- What bits of the Lens do you like?
- What bits of the Lens do you wish were different?
- Can you think of any other directions or different ideas that might work?
Step 3: Iterate
Modify your Lens based on the feedback that your user gave you.
1. How could you make your Lens appeal to a certain audience?
2. How could you give your Lens a clear purpose?
3. How could you make your Lens more fun to interact with?
4. How could you make your Lens provoke a stronger reaction from the user?
5. How could you make your Lens even more shareable?
Don’t forget to save your new, improved Lens on your computer. Then, save a screenshot of your Lens as a .PNG ready for upload to the Lesson #7 Padlet. If you’d like, you can also Preview the Lens and save a video copy (just like in previous lessons, reminder here).
Step 4: Test again
Retest your Lens with your previous user. What do they think of your Lens now? You could even test your Lens on some new users using these questions:
- What bits of the Lens do you like?
- What bits of the Lens do you wish were different?
- Can you think of any other directions or different ideas that might work?
Record what they say in your Sketchbook (page 13).
Step 5: Share and Reflect (leave about 10 minutes for this bit)
On Padlet
Don’t forget to share your insights with your classmates and our friendly learner community by uploading before and after versions of your Lens to the Lesson #7 Padlet.
In the caption of your photo, write a short answer to the following questions:
- How did user testing help you improve your Lens?
- From your user testing, what do you think is the most important ingredient of a great Lens?