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- “Messages” vs “Forms” – which contains Permission Slips? This was still not clear.
- “Resend to all Pending" button – user still didn't notice
- “Select Date” button confusing.
- Need a way to switch between children on Calendar page.
- "To" field in “Messages” should be a dropdown instead of autocomplete (user also expects autocomplete).
- "Forms" page – selecting classes option (checkboxes) confusing since already selected class on previous page.
- Teacher's homepage – are buttons clickable?
- Would like to have the option to send a form to some (not all) parents.
- Calendar task – user went to Arnold first before selecting "Calendar". We then showed only Arnold's activities, but user expected to see all the children's activities on the calendar.
- Would have liked an indication of today's date on calendar.
- "Back to Homepage" button could be shortened to "Back".
- Suggestion: have all buttons visible on side of screen on all sections.
- Didn't realize children's photo icons were clickable.
- Would have clicked on Calendar in order to submit a permission slip for a specific date.
- Preview option in Forms was not clear to user; not apparent that he could edit the message. User also not sure where to approve/deny part of message.
- Would like to see Sent indication after sending the Permission Slip.
- Liked “Resend” feature.
- Legend to explain check, “?” and “X” was not visible enough for user to notice.
- (Parent) user liked the pictures of the kids.
- Add CC field to copy message to self.
Prototype iteration
We tested four users in our first iteration. During this iteration, we noticed that several users encountered similar problems. In order to eliminate users’ confusion and frustration, we changed our design and tested it again on four different users.
1st iteration - issue | 2nd iteration - fix |
Hovering over the “forms” button was a safety issue. Users could accidentally click on the wrong side of the button, especially if they clicked on the button before noticing that hovering split the button into two parts. | In order to maintain consistency with the rest of the buttons and to prevent wrong clicks, the hovering capability was removed and the forms button was changed to two static buttons. |
Users found the calendar confusing because it started on Monday. | Calendar was modified to start on Sunday. |
Users found it hard to tell which activities in the calendar correspond to which child. | Different kids were given different colored entries in the calendar. A legend was included at the bottom of the calendar (in our prototype, there is blue for Liz and orange for Arnold). |
Users complained that they can’t create a new form from the “view forms” screen. | A “create new form” button was added to the teacher’s “view forms” page. |
On the parent’s homepage, users asked to have the child’s name in addition to the child’s picture and first initial. | Each child’s name was added underneath the child’s picture. |
In the teacher’s “view forms” screen to see which parents signed the form, some users did not understand the difference between X and ?. | A legend was added to the screen to explain that check means the parent approved, X means the parent denied permission (i.e. the child may not participate in the trip or activity), and ? means the parent has not yet responded. |
Users complained that there was no “message sent” indication after sending a message. | A “message sent” indication was added. |
After a teacher sends a form to parents, where should the website redirect the teacher? (The options would be to stay on the "create form" page, to go back to the teacher's homepage, or to go to the teacher's "view forms" page.) | We decided to redirect the user to the homepage, with a banner at the top of the page indicating that the form was sent. |
Future Changes
After the feedback we received from users during our second iteration of the paper prototype, there are some additional fixes we would like to make in the future:
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