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Design 2: Text-based interface
Learnability
- Learnability for this interface is generally low, since users have to keep knowledge of commands and valid tags in their head, rather than having that knowledge available "in the world"
- However, its resemblance to a Unix shell may increase learnability for users who are familiar with Linux or who use the command line frequently
Visibility
Efficiency
- For expert users, this interface is extremely efficient, since all of the input is done on the keyboard.
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Although the design does not include many barriers to prevent users from making errors, most tasks are easily reversible so that error correction is quite good. If a user changes their mind about a class that they have selected or a search tag they have chosen, they can simply and painlessly drag it out of the selection area to get rid of it. And in the “search” and “sift” views, if a user accidentally removes a class or a tag, it is readily available to be selected again. However, if a user removes a class while in the “Friends” view (as Ben does in the above scenariostoryboard), an accidental deletion could mean the user has to redo their entire search to find the class again. In that situation, we may want to present him with a confirmation dialogue box.