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Our final design incorporated many of the suggestions made in the heuristic evaluations. The most "catastrophic" problems that we fixed are described below:
- In our first prototype, we chose a red color for the population data layer, and green for new towers. One evaluator pointed out the resulting problem for red-green color blindness. We solved the problem by making the
Picture | Problem | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| In our first prototype, we chose a red color for the population data layer, and green for new towers. One evaluator pointed out the resulting problem for red-green color blindness. | We solved the problem by making the population layer a brown color. |
| In our first prototype, users were confused about what the controls on the left sidebar did, and at the time they were not functionally linked to the map so it was not obvious that they were data filters. | We added a helper explanation at the top of the left sidebar. |
| The color scheme we used was not very intuitive, and users didn't know how the different shades of colors corresponded to different values in the data. | We made the color coded boxes in the left sidebar larger, and created a legend overlaid on the map. |
| In our first prototype, info windows overlapped with each other, and sometimes, a new window would appear behind another one when it was opened. Windows were obscuring each other, and users found it a hassle to click the small X button to close each window. | We made a design decision to only allow one info window to be open at a time. This eliminates both problems mentioned, but at the cost of being able to display multiple info windows at once (i.e. to compare data at different locations). |
| We initially used Google's built-in Circle overlay with the "editable" property set, which allowed the user to move and resize the circle. However, users found the built-in resizer handles and moving handle (in the center) to be difficult to use. |
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