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Upon reaching the entrance page (where the midnight schedule for the week resides), users assumed the midnight schedule was clickable. More specifically, when told to get rid of their Monday pots, they often attempted to click on their name on the schedule. Their next action was to use the left navigation bar, but they were unable to decide which destination page was appropriate.
Users were confused as to the difference between "trades" and "swaps"; they were also sometimes unclear on how the bid/ask system worked. Users also remarked that the UI was not sufficiently clear enough about what "buying" a midnight constituted: whether it meant acquiring a midnight (hence, paying to do work), or buying the labor for the midnight (hence, paying for someone else to do the work).
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Finally, users were unsure of how to add midnights to their watchlist. The dropdown menu interface was ill-labeled, and users often overlooked it.
Prototype iteration
We changed our prototype according to the usability problems pointed out by the testers during the previous class. The most poignant changes we made are as follows:
- We changed the names of the pages (and their corresponding links in the navigation bar) so that users would be able to tell which page they wished to go to.
- We made the ticker (on the banner) not clickable
- We made the home page midnight schedule clickable
- We made the watch list page and UI more clear. We added words to the part of the interface that allowed users to add midnights to their watch list.
- We added clickable stick figures to the bottom-right of each page that, when clicked on, would display a speech bubble detailing the page and what actions the user could do on the page.
- We made the confirmation pop-ups more explicit and geared toward people with no idea how a market works.