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Sketch | Design Description |
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| Sketch 1: Home Page
The idea behind the home page is that Michael can easily see all of the problems associated with a particular floor. Michael sees a floor plan on the left that he can easily tab between. The design is almost folder-like so that he can move to see what problems are associated with a particular floor. Each problem will be enumerated depending on the ordering from the right panel. When Michael first logs on, the task lists will arranged based on the time the event was entered. However, he can then rearrange the tasks on the right by dragging them and dropping them in the proper order.
Simple icons are used to represent what object needs to be fixed. There is a drop down menu that the house manager can use to assign the task to. If the job is urgent, he/she can click on the exclamation point icon to signify importance. |
| Sketch 2: Drop down Menu
Initially, no mechanic will be assigned to a particular job. When Michael decides that Jenks should be in charge of a particular task, he can then find the picture of Jenks and select him. |
 | Sketch 3: Address Book
In the case that Michael needs to contact an outside source, he can easily click on the phone icon (or some other address book-like icon). A list of people who are available will pop up with their name and associated profession (e.g. an electrician will have a light bulb next to his image). Michael can then click on the person and then a phone number will appear for him to call. |
| Sketch 4: Mechanic’s View
Jenks the Mechanic has a similar view to Michael the House Manager. He sees two panels with both the floor plan and the task list on the right. However, in the task list, he does not need to assign the task to anyone so instead there will be a modified right panel. There is an additional icon (the hand) that allows Jenks to notify Michael when there is a need to request additional parts or that he, Jenks, needs assistance.
When he is done with a particular task, Jenks can click on the check mark to signify that the job is completed. The task will then be greyed out and diminish in size in order to allow the user to still see the task if desired, but be in an unobstructive manner. |
Usability Evaluation
Learnability
+ Easy to view problems associated with one particular floor since all of the jobs associated with one floor will show on the same task list.
+ Icons should be relatively distinct so that the users for the most part have an understanding. For example, the plumber can be described with a faucet symbol.
- Difficult to navigate to the jobs that are on various floors. For example, if there is a problem on the 4th floor, the user would have to navigate to the fourth floor tab and click on it to find the particular floor.
- Difficult for House Manager and Mechanic to initially understand what the symbols mean despite the fact that they should be graphical. Some symbols/icons sometimes have multiple meanings so the individual might be confused initially.
Efficiency
+ Great for the mechanic if he/she needs to scan every floor and determine which tasks are crucial before actually going to that particular floor.
+ The mechanic usually in charge of a particular building will be the default mechanic who the House manager can assigned which will make it easier for the house manager. He will not have to select to a different House Manager.
- Time consuming to have to navigate to every single floor and decide what tasks need to be addressed.
Safety
+ It will be easy for the house manager to correctly change the mechanic if he/she has assigned the task to the wrong person since Mike will just have to select a different person to do the task.
+ The profile pictures of the mechanics and outsider contractors will be useful for the House Manager because he/she will be able to confirm that the name selected is the one that he/she has reached out to before.
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Michelle
Sketch | Design Description |
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 | Design 1:
Top: The first design was a stretch to an extreme focusing on the illiterate audience. This design was eventually adopted into the third storyboard. The purpose is to eliminate most of the words on the screen. In the left panel, there is a diagram for each floor in a stacked formation that opens up in an accordion fashion. The right panel just shows the particular job with a list of the mechanics whom the house manager can select. Prioritization happens by selecting the drop down in the top left of the pane.
Bottom: After all of the tasks are prioritized, the house manager can see a list of the tasks and the corresponding mechanic for the task. The completed tasks are located at the bottom with check marks next to them. |
 | Design 2:
Top: The second design is focused on dragging and dropping tasks. The existing queue of tasks are located on the left while the right list indicates what are the new tasks. The house manager can then drag and drop the new tasks directly into the existing task list.
Bottom: From there, the mechanic can see an tabulated list of jobs and update the status of each job. |
  | Design 3:
Top: This design is focused on splitting up the tasks into relative prioritization rather than absolute prioritization by flagging the important tasks. The first screen simply has a list of the tasks with a few additional buttons. The House manager can then designate if the task is important, not as important or require additional info (e.g. order more parts).
Bottom: The following screen will showcase the tasks being split into the three lists (important, do later and parts to purchase) so that the mechanic can easily see the three sections and decide what to start with. |
 | Design 4:
The premise of this design is to sketch out something for a small screen such as a mobile device. Behind this model is the thought that the mechanic might not be able to constantly check his/her phone throughout the day and this would help him/her to check the latest requests that need to be fixed. The left image shows all of the tasks that the mechanic might need to see and queue throughout the day. When the mechanic is done with a task, he/she will just need to click on the checkbox on the right. By double clicking on a particular task, there will be a separate card that gives more details and allows the users to enter in additional information that would be useful for fixing the repair. |
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