Group Design Project 7
From VMT
- Return to Designing Social Interaction Software
[edit] Instructions
- First make sure that your prototype posted last week is clearly presented so that another group can perform an heuristic evaluation of it.
- This week each group should conduct an heuristic analysis of the prototype posted last week by a diferent group. Your group should act as a panel of HCI experts and apply a set of heuristic design principles to a critique of the other group's design.
- Group A should analyze the prototype of Group B
- Group B should analyze the prototype of Group D
- Group C should analyze the prototype of Group E
- Group D should analyze the prototype of Group A
- Group E should analyze the prototype of Group C
- The textbook and several of the other readings for this week discuss heuristic evaluation.
Gerry 13:35, 7 May 2007 (EDT)
[edit] Comments on Group Statements
- Many of the criticisms of the interfaces using the standard heuristics merely point out that the prototype sketches were generally underdeveloped. If the concepts behind them had been fully implemented, most of the missing elements would have been filled in.
- My personal opinion is that heuristic evaluation is a rather dated approach. These days, computer literate people have been exposed to enough professional interfaces to take most of the heuristics for granted. They may have been a big deal when the Mac interface was a novelty and HCI was just getting going, but anyone who has reflected much on interface design should know these things already and build them into designs without having to be told.
- The main limitation of heuristic evaluation is that it does not begin to evaluate the really tricky issues of groupware, such as interactions among multiple users as mediated by the software. What happens to discussions when lots of awareness signals are flashing and people are focused on keeping their status signs current? What happens when people try to schedule a hundred meetings on different topics on the same day at overlapping times? What happens when one person wants to schedule a meeting but does not know anyone else who wants to attend -- how do they attract others? What happens when people disagree on the definition of a term or use different terms for the same definition? What happens when a computer lab of 50 kids are all communicating over their cell phones at the same time and they cannot hear because of all the other phones ringing? What happens when someone wants to point out an irregular area in the whiteboard and talk about it in the chat?
- Gerry 18:31, 26 May 2007 (EDT)
[edit] Team A Statement
- Members: Brian, Olivia, Elizabeth
- Date and Time of posting: Olivia 21:27, 16 May 2007 (EDT)
[edit] Visibility of system status
No visibility of sytem status indicated- In order for full user visibility, the system should communicate changes to users via email notifications or an area of the VMT to list recent changes and updates (a one-stop shop for users to check for updates or the system status)
[edit] Match between system and the real world
This design idea could serve as "log" or "history" and this aspect may match real work activities. And example book or a study guide to tough test such as SAT, ACT and others. So this idea follow real world conventions such as study guide, and practice problems, which are create as a result of others work etc. Also the user can incorporate their "own language" and familiar phrases and concepts into the VMT student dictionary, rather then relying solely on system terms. In this way, the students are given the ability to control, to some extent their own environment.
[edit] User control and freedom
Users have tha ability to create their own definitions, comment on other definitions, and search for any relevant information that they need, thus evincing user control and freedom. In terms of "undoing" mistakes or backtracking, the design does not specify whether this functionality exists. The ability to delete unintentional entries to the VMT dictionary would be a good example of user control and freedom.
[edit] Consistency and standards
The design follows VMT platform standards, following the general methodology of VMT operations: different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. However there does not seem a mention of what standards are going to be used for individuals contributing to the VMT dictionary archive. These could include metadata standards, vocabulary standards, or file saving/name standards. These standards are critical in order for students to be able to consistantly retrieve what they are looking for from the dictionary archives. They generally need to understand the taxonomy or have a "database thesaurus" containing the proper terms to use in identifying the saved material correctly. Also, the formatting of definitions should be standardized so that users can distinguish the term from its definition.
[edit] Error prevention
There is no mention of an error-prevention mechanism such as a confirmation box before submitting the change/addition. There is not enough data to assume that the software will be free of errors, nor how they would be resolved when they occur. One example of an error prevention tool is the incorporation of a spell check into the VMT dictionary design. The concept of error prevention also relates to the concept of user control and freedom. If users have the ability to delete contributed information, then there may not be a need for a confirmation box; however, this depends on the preference of the users.
[edit] Recongition rather than recall
The addition of the tab for the Student Math Dictionary is straightforward with respect to users being able to navigate through the menu bar and locate the dictionary. The tab is clearly labeled and located where the other main functionality is located. The prototype does not describe in detail the layout or specific features of the dictionary, so it is difficult to determine how visible the functionality is to the users. A search engine is usually a simple design for users to understand; however, a database thesaurus may be useful in assisting users if they want to browse through all the terms. And a brief instruction on search techniques could also be beneficial to the design. Lastly, if the dictionary provided a "recently added terms" area, this would assist users in recalling definitions they just entered.
[edit] Flexibility and efficiency of use
The VMT dicitionary may not be as flexible and efficient as its potential. The design description explains how searches can be executed and how definitions can be saved into the dictionary. This is a fantastic idea, but when archiving information that should be easy to retrieve, advanced metadata tagging needs to occur at the time of data entry. This requires an efficient design so that students can easily enter in their new definitions as efficiently as possible. The design compares their search capability to a blog, so this suggests that metadata is not used to query information.
[edit] Aesthetic and minimalist design
The design fits in with the rest of the website's overall aesthetic design and doesn't clutter the screen or take up unnecessary space. The design of the VMT dictionary utilizes the tab functionality used to traverse the menu bar at the top of the VMT tool. This is consistent with the rest of the VMT design and should be relatively easy for users to locate and navigate.
[edit] Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
As was the case with #5 (Error Prevention) there is no mechanism explicitly mentioned that would recognize, diagnose, and or help users recover from error.
[edit] Help and documentation
There is no help or documentation of this extension to the VMT, however it is also somewhat self explanitory. It would be good to prepare instruction or documentation for how to save something in the dictionary. Its key function but it does not do into this in much detail.
[edit] Team C Statement
- Members Ben, Kevin
- Date and Time of posting Kevin 12:25, 22 May 2007 (EDT)
10 Areas of Heuristic Analysis for Group E:
Visibility of system status - The proposal is aimed to address the issue of visible system status by providing more status information to the users of the VMT chat system. One possible further addition to the proposal would be putting in a time when the user expects to be back such as away and 5 minutes.
Match between system and the real world - The proposal uses plain language to the status of the users. The only potential issue might be instead of "away" it might be more natural to use AFK since that is the common term used in online environments and by younger computer users. The user scenario is based on real world use of the VMT system.
User control and freedom - The proposal does not need an exit or undo function because the proposed change is mainly aimed at providing more information to the users. If a person clicks on the wrong status for themselves they can easily click it again to change it back. The users do have the control and freedom to control the function; there is no automatic or computer controlled aspect.
Consistency and standards - The title for the concert chat window is the same as the title in the lobby so it follows platform conventions. Users should be able to quickly figure out how to use the feature because of its simple design, but it is also consistent with the design of the rest of the platform.
Error prevention - The proposal does not need much user input so there doesn't have to be any error prevention checks. Even if a person forgets to change the status back to active it doesn't prevent the person from speaking in chat where another user could inform them that they forgot to change the status back. In a sense, the user could easily commit an error (not changing their status), but this is a natural result of the user of having complete control over the feature, and as stated above, the error will be quickly detected and corrected.
Recognition rather then recall - The user does not have to remember any information from one part to another because the proposal only includes one addition and all the information the user needs to know is on the changed section of the concert chat. The feature will be present when the user enters the room, so they will recognize what the feature does and how to operate it.
Flexibility and efficiency of use - There don't appear to be and accelerators for the system to change the status of a user but the addition of a keyboard shortcut would allow advanced users to change there status without having to use the mouse.
Aesthetic and minimalist design - All of the information that the proposed changes provide the user is relevant. There is no extraneous information to remove. Each aspect of the feature allows for the completion of a specific task.
Help user recognize, diagnose and recover from errors - There are no potential errors for the system to return based on this proposal. As stated above, any user error can be quickly recognized and corrected.
Help and documentation - The system does not have any documentation for how to use the proposal but it follows typical GUI functionality that most computer users are used to so the proposal doesn't need any documentation for it to be used. It is therefore very unlikely that a user would ever need help, but the addition of advanced functionalities might require some very basic help features.
[edit] Team D Statement
- Bertha, Kate, Eric, Rajeev
- Jeeves5454 22:03, 16 May 2007 (EDT)
1.Visibility of System Status
As part of the notification system, all members are kept in the loop at all times, and once part of the whiteboard interface, the information is obtained on one of the available tabs. As such information remains accessible.Email messages must take into account the linear and temporal circumstances of the medium and might require a lot of time spent following an email chain in determining relevancy of notification. Multiple meetings per day would not be visible in the current layout. The system relies on the established status of the VMT interface Overall Score = 6.5
2. Match between system and the real world
This works well, as the extension deals with Calendar dates, email notification, profile accounts and message postings. Requires users to agree upon a meeting time through asynchronous conversation and then the time is noted for the day. The email notification piece helps but it requires group members to respond by posting. The interface relies on the use of math language as a standard users language Overall Score = 6
3. User control and freedom
There is no Cancel button, and there does not appear to be a delete button for messages made by mistake. Like a forum with administration rights not available, the user will have to post a cancel/disregard previous message bit. Users are notified via e-mail; there's no indication of controls on receiving these emails. There is no clearly marked exit, an escape button would be helpful Overall Score = 6
4. Consistency and standards
Platform conventions are followed describing profiles, emails as notification, and blog as message. There is no consistency defined/controlled by this extension. The VMT is consistent but the extension may need some additional functionality Overall Score = 6
5. Error prevention
Errors will be based on user entry errors and will require a non-intuitive method of disregarding the earlier message. Are times based on one timezone or will users be able to set timezones and the system will interpret? No control over conversational arrangements is possible, so there's no help in scheduling a time that will be agreeable for everyone. The extension looks to have many error producing conditions with the email configuration Overall Score = 4.75
6. Recognition rather than recall
Instructions are not explicitly included as part of the scheduling section. Furthermore, details from one tab to the other do not allow specific information referenced between tabs. Only can be accessed by copy and paste functionality. Who will finally post the time/date of the meeting? Someone will need to find the right time based on conversation. The extension takes up space but is easy to find for retrieval Overall Score = 6.5 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
The extension is almost too flexible such that there is a possibility for information overload. With large groups it is possible to increase and post a number of new emails that can overwhelm newcomers to their inbox after a prolonged period of time. Speed Problems -adding an email type of program would slow the system. Email notifications of changes will cause too many communications in Email and clutter. No help function - red dots not defined. Flexible but not efficient since timing is described in conversation by participants. Unchanged flexibility has driven the user interface to be cluttered and unwieldy to browse through long chains of emails Overall Score = 5.5
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
Forums and schedule based message postings may tend to ramble on, especially if the users are likley to prolong the experience by weighing in on every time suggestion. In sample diagram, conversation includes information that is no necesary for scheduling purposes. Clutter Problem - Adds one more navigation tab and their are already too many of them and more can be added easily. To much on a page. Readability - Dates missing from interface Illogical order of information - doesn’t take into account time zones for a global program Almost to minimalist of design, needs to have date and UTC time of day, one part of ext 7 days the other 7 weeks for calendar Overall Score = 4
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
There is no information provided on error handling, and is likely to be based on current experience on forums, like an administrative rights not provided to any user forum. Without actually running the extension VMT is easy to recover from errors. Overall Score = 6.75
10. Help and documentation
No documentation. Little if any documentation on the VMT itself. Hard to master the different controls. Overall Score = 7
[edit] Team E Statement
- Lisa, Fernando, Seth & Dave
- Seth E 22:41, 21 May 2007 (EDT)
Heuristic Analysis
These 10 areas of heuristic analysis are the basis of our musings on the work of group C
Visibility of system status- The system does provide reasonable feedback upon finding results for a search. There is however no mention of feedback if a search is taking an extended amount of time. Some feedback in form of a visible cue, hourglass, rotating icon, "Searching...", etc would help in visibility of system status.
Match between system and the real world- Most of the wording and concepts are in real world terms. The use of search and invite are normal user terms. The Preferred online time being "Early Morning" is sort of ambiguous. It should be clearer in meaning such as 6am-11am for example. Other than those two items, everything else was inline with real world familiar communications.
User control and freedom- There was a cancel button on every page to allow users to exit. This provides the user with a way out of the form, but there was no button or capability to reset a form if they just made a mistake on some entries. This however maybe provided by a parent form which may have these capabilities.
Consistency and standards- The system follows platform conventions for a web browser. It is consisent throughout.
Error prevention- The system does provide some error prevention in the first screen as VMT flags required fields with an asterisk. The other text box are not flagged as required, allowing a user to not enter data at all. This may be ok if the user just wants to search for people meeting at certain times but the whole goal to group with people of similar interests. The drop down box should be set to default blank to flag the system if the user has not selected anything. Leaving a default of "Early morning" may allow a user to erroneously use the system.
Recognition rather than recall- Objects and processes are visible and efficient. There is no information that needs to be 'remembered' from one screen to the next, because the overall design is efficient and extremely easy to use. The basic visual design does alot to promote enhanced recognition.
Flexibility and efficiency of use- The system is flexible enough to allow experienced users to add their friends to the invites. A feature to auto add certain friends may also speed up the use for experienced users. Also some way of how to add someone as a friend should be noted.
Aesthetic and minimalist design- The systems design contains needed information down to a bare-bones design with pure functionality. There is no overly "competing" information.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors- There are no windows or processes that help the users recover from errors. See above for more on error prevention.
Help and documentation- No mention of documentation or help function. A mouse over feature for the textboxes/dropdownbox providing hints on what should be entered would help users.
