IPL-SI: Group Design Project 7
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[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 different 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.
- Each team should do a heuristic evaluation of other 2 teams' prototypes
- The textbook and several of the other readings for the previous week discuss heuristic evaluation.
- Try to look for deeper flaws in the design than a simple checklist of heuristics will show. Remember that these are rough prototypes and cannot have all the details of real software.
[edit] Comments on Group Statements
[edit] Team 1 Statement
Heuristic Analysis of Team 3
- As far as the Visibility goes, the interface is simple and keeps the users informed at every step.
- A user may not always want to reply to the original question. He o she may want to reply to some other message in the board. So the occurance of the original post might create confusion.
- In terms of User control and freedom, no undo or redo support is provided incase if something is posted by mistake.
- Again, in terms of user control and freedom, how does a user start a new topic?
- The Content tab should be created when the user click on a link (i.e. discussion board).
- Also, instead of calling it a content tab, just use the title of the article for the name of the tab.
Questions and Thoughts
- Uses familiar search paradigm
- "Search Results" tab should be more descriptive if there are to be multiple searches - possibly use the keyword serach for the name
- Inconsistency - between search results and actual content, location of 'X' button moves ... should the users only be able to close tabs within a certain state, should certain tabs remain always, ... what happens if a user closes both tabs?
- who posted the Knowledge String? I only see answers but not the actual person who posted the question?
- Why is question only shown on "Reply to Discussion" page?
- User supposedly sees that response was posted but the page he is returned to does not immediately show his response ... must he scroll down?
-if the user closes out both tabs, then are they taken back to the main page?
-it was initially unclear as to whether the labels at the top of the Search Results were supposed to be checkboxes or dropdown menus because an alternative image was used.
-what happens if no search results are returned? is the user properly informed?
-do other portions of the IPL also have the search bar at the top? i.e. all of the subsections, for kids, etc.?
Heuristic Analysis of Team 5
- The bookmark link next to the text is not sufficiently differentiated from other text. Although the coloring is different, it was not immediately clear to me that this was a function that I could perform.
- Consistency among links is low: some links are underlined, whereas others appear exactly as normal text does.
- What happens if a user clicks something else on the page instead of the Save or Cancel buttons?
- To decrease the chance of human error, perhaps utilize a modal window or visibly freeze other options on the screen.
- Although the 'bookmark' link would disappear after the user adds the bookmark, this could be viewed as an inconsistency in the design interface. It might make more sense to signify a change in state to the user via changing the link label to state "already bookmarked" or something. Consider: might it be possible that a user may want to bookmark the same link multiple times but with different labels and notes?
- The "Delete all" link is awfully close to the "Export bookmarks" link - potential source for user error. Actually, all of these links are rather close and have different functions.
- How does one get back to the level with the forums in it? The functionality is not clearly visible at any other level than the main page.
- How does one actually see the Workspaces? For consistency's sake, should the options under "All Workspaces" also have expanding folders, as the Bookmarks do?
- I wanted to know how does one start a new forum
- I thought that there should have been an evident connection between the left pane and the right pane. Like, IPL Project is opened on the right pane but the IPL Project is not highlighted on the left pane. It kind of took me some time to understand what was happening
--Abhishek 16:34, 29 February 2008 (EST)Abhishek
[edit] Team 3 Statement
[edit] Team 1 Prototype Evaluation
Step 1:
- Where does the search start? The scenario is not clear at this point. Show a visual representation and step depicting how the user gets to the search screen.
- Is the search available only one page or several pages?
- The IPL doesn't contain many (any?) real book references but rather links to online (e-)books or sites that contain online books. How does this work together with the ISBN search?
- Does the user have to select a “search by” criteria before being able to start the search or is there a default value selected at the beginning (e.g. “Title”)?
- There should be a short description about the feature so that people know exactly what it is for.
- It seems that the search results are displayed right below the search field. So the search must have an extra page in order to not to interfere content and structure of other pages!?
- Are all tree nodes expanded by default? Is there a way to expand/collapse them all at once?
- “Add book to”...what? Prototype is not clear at this point.
- “Add a new”...what? Prototype is not clear at this point.
- The buttons to the right take much interface space. Maybe putting them above and/or below the content window would increase the content's visibility.
- Are the buttons to the right always active? What if no node is selected?
- Having two scroll-windows (IPL window and window with search results) might be irritating for some users.
- The search drop-down menu should still show the selected criteria after the search is completed and results are shown.
Step 2:
- The tree node window is very small – makes it difficult to browse through sub-nodes or other books.
- I cannot figure out what kind of content the discussion contains (screenshot too small). The same for the book icons.
- Is the “post reply” form always visible? Regardless of whether or not the user wants to post anything at all? What if I only want to read through existing discussions?
- There is no submit button to post a reply.
- There is no confirmation that the book was added to my collection. Or does it forwards the user to the list of personal books after adding a new one (to step 3)? If so, how do I come back to the previous book discussion I had selected? Do I have to do a new search? Scenario is not clear at this point.
- User control and freedom for:
- posting a reply: no undo or redo support is provided in case if something is posted by mistake.
- posting a new topic: how?
- Is there any social linking going on here further than reading what others have to say about the topic? User names? Profile linking?
- Color scheme. More white space may be more attractive in the body of the discussion and reply box.
- The book icons for choosing a selection are confusing? The page is cluttered and there is uncertainty as to how the user gets to that point.
Step 3:
- It is not really clear to me how I got to this screen. Can this screen be reached only through a discussion? Or can it also be reached from any other screen?
- There are no functions available to delete, edit, share, forward, etc. It is unclear as to what a user can actually do with this. It just looks like a raw text list with no further functionality.
- The only link on the site is to search for more books. This is not acceptable if I was forwarded to this page after adding a new book. In that case I should be able to go back to my previous search/discussion.
- How does the user navigate back to the discussion page?
- Are we assuming that the user has logged in and this personal collection is attached to his/her profile?
Final Comment:
We had difficulties to follow the scenario since it was not always clear what user action was required to get to the next step. There are important details missing and several steps are combined in one screen. Also, the scenario starts with a search for book discussions and ends with a view of the book collection. While the integration of the book collection is a nice feature, the scenario should come back to the real topic (the book discussion) in the end. As it is at the moment, it seems as if the book discussion search is used to actually add books to one's book collection. In summary, it is a good idea but the prototype could need revision at some points.
[edit] Team 5 Prototype Evaluation
Step 1:
- Are categories (e.g. bookmarks, forums, etc.) all expanded or collapsed in the beginning? If collapsed, there could be an indication about how many items the category contains.
- Where is the HCI Project folder bookmarks on the right panel? Only IPL Project bookmarks appear under the Bookmarks folder.
- What types of questions appear in the "How do you..." search at the top of the page? Does that search always remain there?
- If you navigate away from the Workspace/Bookmarks page such as by conducting a search, how do you get back to where you were?
- What does the edit link next to each bookmark allow you to change?
- What does Export bookmarks practically mean?
- Where are the Participants derived from?
- Need a definition of what workspaces are and how we got to the page from the IPL homepage.
- Why have the navigational tree on both panels? Seems redundant.
- What do the other workspace elements under "All Workspaces" do? I understand that the focus for this scenario is on bookmarking, but perhaps an explanation of the general workspace functionality would be beneficial because there exists an entire design break from the current IPL layout.
Step 2:
- Assumable not all the GoogleTalk/Gmail functions should actually be available (conversation style, reply to each post, show quoted text, etc.). Interface of prototype must be cleaned up since it is confusing at the moment. At the moment there are issues, such as:
- Why redundant reply buttons on each post?
- Not clear as to whether clicking on a specific post's reply button sends a message only to that user, or to the general discussion.
- No sufficient time signature on posts to give a sense of chronology.
- One reply button at the bottom of the page should be added. That is to what users are used to.
- Can every hyperlink automatically be bookmarked when posted in a message?
- The process of first posting a link into a forum before bookmarking it seems to be a little bit unusual to me.
- The forum reads like an email chain and not a forum tree or discussion board. We understand the concept but the design needs to depict what it would actually look like.
Step 3:
- Can the link be modified before bookmarking it?
- What is the meaning of the star? Required field? This has to be made clearer.
- If no information is provided, does it still save the bookmark? Or is the user prompted that they must enter some information?
Step 4:
- An additional confirmation that the link was bookmarked successfully would be good. In case the bookmark section on the left is collapsed or there are many bookmarks already, it might be difficult to notice the newly added one. New users might also wonder why the bookmark link is gone.
- Would there be any indication from the notation that was bookmarked that the bookmarking occurred, i.e. text color change, a check mark?
Final Comment:
The new prototype offers a useful bookmarking feature that is well implemented. There are some issues revolving around the organization of some buttons and the displaying of certain information. It needs to be made more clear where each set of information comes from(ie. participants), and what it can be used for.
[edit] Team 5 Statement
[edit] Heuristic Analysis of Team 3
• Visibility of System status
Good; for example, users can see how to return to search results after clicking into tab.
• Match between system and real world
In general this is good although the term “knowledge string” may not match real world user language.
• User control and freedom
One possible missed “emergency exit” in this interface would be a “cancel” button next to the “Post Reply to this Discussion” button.
• Consistency and standards
The interface is very consistent.
• Error prevention
This interface has good flow, so there are not many error prone conditions here. It’s possible that one could present a confirmation dialog after clicking the “Post to this discussion,” but I don’t think this is common practice when posting comments.
• Recognition rather than recall
Having the “Content” and “Search Results” tabs stay visible is good in that users don’t have to remember how to get back to either section if they want to.
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
There are no “accelerators” on this interface but they may not be needed as each action only requires a few clicks.
• Aesthetic and minimalist design
This interface meets this heuristic well, as there is no unnecessary information and the design seems attractive and well laid out.
• Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
There’s no indication in this interface of possible errors, so it’s not possible to make an evaluation of how well it meets this guideline.
• Help and documentation
There is no help system indicated for this interface.
Some General Comments
The user is not authenticated (the prototype starts with a user visiting the web site and going right to search), but when he makes a posting in the forum the system identified him as “User X” (step6).
New and old IPL coloring schemes don’t match, for example, color of hyperlinks is different. “Reply to discussion” button is inconsistent with other buttons.
After a user types a search query and clicks on “GO” button in step 2, he is given an option in step 3 to narrow down search results, for example, to see discussion board results only. It would be better to give the user this option in step 2, eliminating the need for the system to always generate all search results first.
Icons representing groups of search results like shelf of books and running man in step 3 are inconsistent among each other and don’t correspond to the search result groups they represent, for example, results for IPL users don’t directly correspond to the diagram, appearing to represent a social network.
Two tabs talked about in description of the prototype are shown as two buttons, which makes it hard to understand what tab the user is currently on (usually tab header and border of tab content area have the same color or tab header and tab content area itself have the same background to visually connect a tab with a tab’s content).
It seems that a small red button with a white cross inside it might represent an active tab. It is unusual way of representing an active tab if it is the case. The red button might also represent the way the tab might be closed, since this is what it usually means. However the question arises, why this button is always on the active tab.
Icons representing forum participants are irrelevant since they don’t carry any additional information about users.
When a user clicks on discussion board link in the search result in step 3, “Knowledge String:” is prepended to the discussion board thread’s name in step 4. It is inconsistent with a step 3 ("12 search results found" title in step 3 should be changed to "12 knowlege strings found"). The differences between a knowlege string and shown forum's thread are unclear, if there are no differences the concept of knowlege string might be unnecessary.
The name of the tab as “Content” seems to be too general (anything could be there) and have the only purpose of indicating that it is not search results tab. In this case, other content organization might be more intuitive (for example, eliminate tabs, add somewhere a link “Go back to search results”).
As859 12:40, 29 February 2008 (EST)
[edit] Heuristic Analysis of Team 1
• Visibility of System status
The visibility of system status is good in terms of knowing where you are in the interface (search form and search results; also screen 2 which is a drill-down into search results, and finally the book collection page). However, on these screenshots the book that the user clicks to add is not reflected in the book collection list – not sure if this is a screenshot problem or I’m misunderstanding what collection the book was added to.
• Match between system and real world
The information appears to flow nicely in a logical order (with the exception noted above). All of the terms used are familiar language and not “system terms.” The book icon with an arrow on the “add” screen is an attempt to map the real world to the interface, which is nice.
• User control and freedom
There is no “emergency exit” provided for if a user clicks a book (to add) by mistake.
• Consistency and standards
The site seems consistent (book icon to add, “go” button to search etc) on all screens.
• Error prevention
There do not seem to be any error prone conditions on this interface. One possible improvement would be to add a confirm dialog when adding a book to a collection.
• Recognition rather than recall
The search form and search results are visible on the same screen initially, which is good as user does not need to recall the search and how to get there and can easily type in a new search. I think the book with an up arrow in screen 3 is a “return” link, which is good flow and allows users to navigate back to the search screen without having to think about how to do it.
• Flexibility and efficiency of use
There are no provisions for advanced users but they are not needed because the interface flow is quick (3 clicks).
• Aesthetic and minimalist design
The interface appears to be minimal enough, with no extraneous information. The “Go” button is green which helps it to stand out.
• Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors
There are no error messages in the prototype.
• Help and documentation
There are no help screens in the prototype.
Some general thoughts
The goal of the prototype is not clear, if it is to search for discussion of books, then it should end at step 1. Based on the shown steps it is most likely that the prototype is about adding book information from book discussion search results. How a discussion thread turns into book information displayed in step 3 when the user adds it to his collection in step 2 is not clear.
First screen is confusing, there is a search box on top without any search string being shown in the search text field, however right below the search box are search results box. First step should be broken down in two with a top search box in step 1 and search results box in step 2. Every step shows “Search the IPL” box in top right corner, is it a separate search or we can search book discussions there too?
From the group’s presentation of the prototype we know that search can be used for searching offline discussions, but it says “Live Online Book Discussion” in the search box.
“Expand Selected” menu item might be not needed (first the user have to select the thread and then click on the menu item), compared to just clicking on the plus sign next to thread folder. Two other menu items “Add a New” are not fully shown, what they add is not clear.
There is no button to post a reply in the discussion.
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