Design 3
Scenario for finding a photographer
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- Learnability
- Starting page is a series of forms consisting of textboxes and buttons, which is familiar to Internet users.
- Wizard Pattern helps guide the user through the stages.
- Visibility
- Having search parameters at the top of the results page makes it clear what was searched for.
- Efficiency
- Confirmation page increases time taken to view search results.
- Error Prevention/Correction
- Confirmation page gives a chance to check search criteria
Design 3
- Learnability
- Looks similar to flight/hotel booking websites
- Presence of tab bar with different actions (e.g. "find photographers", "review photographers") makes it easy for new users to get an idea of what they can do with the site
- Visibility
- Search criteria is always visible in the sidebar area
- Highlighted tabs to show the task they're performing
- Number of results and pages shown to get an idea of how many photographers are available
- Efficiency
- Dynamically update results
- Slider to adjust budget range instead of typing numbers
- Primary and secondary sorting of search results for efficiency
- Error Prevention/Correction
- Effects are immediately visible, and actions are easily revertible (e.g. toggle checkbox, select a different option from dropdown)
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- Learnability
- Standard form-format with widgets like textboxes and dropdowns
- Visibility
- "Review photographer" is explicitly mentioned as a task upon login
- Photographer's info is also shown on the add review page so that users can easily refer to details about the photographer
- Efficiency
- Internal scrollbar for the review items makes it less efficient to view all reviews
- Error Prevention/Correction
- Photographer's info shown on add review page to help prevent mishaps
Design 3
- Learnability
- Uses standard widgets: dropdowns, textboxes, star ratings (like in itunes)
- Visibility
- The state of the ratings for each criteria is shown at all times
- Updating ratings/fields is done in-place so effects of changes are also always visible
- Efficiency
- The reviews are quite detailed, so adding a review requires more time than some users would like.
- Error Prevention/Correction
- Disambiguation page for different photographers with same name
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- Learnability
- Standard form layout for each step of signup
- Wizard pattern to guide between one profile editing page to another
- Visibility
- Visible confirmation via message bar upon creation of profile
- Efficiency
- Less efficient because process is split into multiple steps
- Sample photos are added one at a time.
- Price structure is entered as text so photographers can enter their customized price message.
- Error Prevention/Correction
- Distinct buttons: "sign up as photographer" and "sign up as user" to prevent users accidentally signing up as photographers
Design 3
- Learnability
- Assumes greater computer skills because of fewer affordances (e.g. clicking on your name turns it into a textbox where you can change your name. Compare with having a textbox on the page at all times).
- Visibility
- Profile editing page looks very similar to the profile page that user's see. This way, photographer knows exactly how the change will be reflected.
- Profile items become editable widgets (textboxes and textareas) when clicked. This presents a visibility problem.
- Efficiency
- Single page presentation
- Instant updating (no 'save page'/'submit' button instead you have 'save' button per field/section)
- Error Prevention/Correction
- Requires details for sign-up (business address, phone) so that users will not accidentally sign up as photographers
- Accidental deletions can be reverted by pressing cancel