DEliverable 2.3 - the School of Engineering and Design - Brunel ...

ICT Project 3D VIVANT– Deliverable 2.3
Contract no.:
248420
User Acceptance Validation Plan
1 INTRODUCTION
The main target of 3D VIVANT is to create a new way of producing and enjoying 3D video and the
associated audio content. 3D VIVANT will develop the tools which are necessary for capturing,
processing and viewing 3D holoscopic content; and targets both the professional and consumer
environments. This means that the 3D VIVANT system will be used by various groups of people,
involved in different stages of the 3D holoscopic content exploitation chain and having different
expectations from it.
3D VIVANT has to validate that it meets the expectations of all of these users. However, since
expectations vary among different user groups, an effective way of validating their acceptance
requires a customised approach for each group. Therefore, for a thorough validation of user
acceptance, two major groups of users are distinguished: 1) the professional users, and 2) the endusers.
Furthermore, there is an important difference between testing perceived audiovisual quality and tests
on interactive features, including usability, usefulness, etc. This variety of testing persons and aspects
to be tested requires a variety of methods for testing and validation. While some features and
functions will require primarily qualitative methods, others may involve some quantitative measuring
as part of the evaluation setup. The chosen methods will be described in Section 2.
In WP7 of the project, assessment sessions are envisaged for evaluating the user acceptance of the
various functionalities and characteristics – most of them are new ones – of the 3D holoscopic
system. The results of the evaluations, from the points of view of both end-users and professional
users, will mainly be used by the developers to improve the capabilities of the system. This would
also inform any future development outside and after the end of the project.
As some of 3D VIVANT’s features will create very new experiences, the test results will provide
important feedback for further improving and refining the technology and for optimal marketing
results. The aim of this document is to define the criteria and metrics for the aforementioned user
acceptance tests and to suggest a testing plan. These metrics will be the basis for Task 7.3 – “User
Perception and Usability Testing”, due to start near the end of the project, in month 29 (July 2012).
The information gathered from the tests needs to concentrate on the functionalities and experience
that are exclusive to the project developments, i.e., 3D holoscopic technology and the hyperlinking
environment. The approach adopted aims at capitalising on the knowledge and expertise of the project
partners with regards to 3D production and consumption as well as to interactive software and also to
review existing research on the topic. From this, it was possible to list the shortcomings and
acceptability issues relating to 3D. The tests should help to establish whether 3D VIVANT deals with
these shortcomings and provides acceptable solutions.
Concerning the choice of the methods, all tests will take into account varying requirements with
regard to target users as well as features and facilities to be tested. For detailed descriptions see
Sections 2-4.
1.1 TARGET USERS
The development of 3D holoscopic video requires the development of various production facilities as
these are not available as of today. Hence, 3D VIVANT’s results will require tests on shooting,
editing, and, of course, viewing newly created content. This means that the tests will involve
professional users as well as end-users.
Tests involving professional users will differ from end-user tests in various ways. While professional
users will provide much more detailed input and even concrete, constructive ideas, e.g., concerning
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