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By forcing the user to navigate to the position we ensure that we do not post myriad of reviews stored in different locations about the same position.
Minimalist Design
This sketch design is the “minimalist” approach for a UI of our idea. The main goal in designing it was to minimize the amount of effort needed for any one action the user would like to carry out. It also minimizes the amount of different pages and windows the user has to navigate through when doing these actions.
Shown here is the “dashboard” or user’s homepage seen right after the user has successfully logged in.
PICTURE
At the top is our universal search bar. This allows the user to simply type in anything they wish to search for (it also has auto-complete suggestions) and hit the search button (or hit enter). The results will then populate the big window in the bottom left (also shown in the picture). These listed posts have a title describing the type (interview/internship/job), position, and company along with an overall rating of the position. There is also the option to “favorite” the post if the user wants to add this particular post to his favorites list by simply clicking the star to the far left. Along with searching, clicking either the “Recommended” or “Favorites” in the Nav-Bar (underlined in the box to the far right) will also populate the main window with posts accordingly. Clicking on any of these posts will simply display that post in the window.
Clicking “Messages” in the Nav-Bar will update the window as shown below:
PICTURE 2
The main window is simply updated to display the user’s past messages with other users. Each entry has the username of the other person, a subject (if any), and a preview of the message. Clicking on any of these messages will display the message in the main window.
Clicking “Profile” in the Nav-Bar will update the window as shown below:
PICTURE 3
This is simply an edit profile page. The user can update their name, DOB, majors, interests, etc.
Clicking “Post Review” will just popup our generic review posting form. This is similar in all of the different design approaches we have.
Clicking “Advanced Search” will allow the user to add more parameters to their search such as specific Class Years, Majors, etc.
Scenario:
From the descriptions above it is clear how our user “USERNAME HERE” would sign in and easily complete each of HIS/HER tasks. After logging in successfully HE/SHE could do a general search using the universal search bar or a more advanced search using “Advanced Search” and get a list of potential posts. While skimming through them HE/SHE could select the one she likes and open it. After reading the details and wanting to follow up with the user who created it, HE/SHE simply clicks the users name from the post and sends them a message. Posting a review is also very straightforward, the user just has to click “Post Review” in the Nav-Bar and fill in the form.
GOOD/BAD
The obvious good point overall about this design is its very simple. Almost every action the average user would want to do is only one click away. As a result this interface should be very easy to learn and interact with. It is clear how to search, or get to the user’s favorite posts, or update their profile.
In terms of visibility, everything is located on one main page. All the different actions that the user would want are located in the Nav-Bar to the right, which is always visible.
This design is also very efficient. Every common user action is only one click away. The only issue currently about efficiency involves the user wanting to open multiple posts at once. This interface does not allow the user to compare and contrast posts without opening a new window.
There are very few errors that the user is even able to make. One obvious error would involve using the search bar and entering incorrect search terms, however, these faults fall completely on the user. In an effort to help reduce these errors, we provide auto-complete suggestions.