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User Interface Design 1.5
(pictures and some description go here)
Briefing:
We're SitterPlan and our goal is to help babysitters and parents coordinate their schedules to find optimal times for babysitting jobs. Our site allows for two type of users - parents and babysitters - who will each see a different view of the site. Parents can use the site to specify times that they'd like a sitter, and babysitters can use the site to advertise their schedule and look for jobs.
Tasks:
- You're a babysitter. You are willing to babysit between 6pm and midnight most days, but you are going to a party this Friday and you have a test on Wednesday you want to spend some time studying for. Update your schedule accordingly.
- You're a babysitter for the Edwards family. You've forgotten when their daughter Katy is supposed to go to sleep. Look up this information.
- You want to hire a sitter for Friday 7-10PM. Find out if any of your babysitters are free for that timeblock and make a job posting for it.
- You want to hire a stieer for Friday March 22, 7-10PM. Your preference order for Sitters is Dana>Bob>Emily>Alice>Charlie. Find out if a sitter you like is free for that timeblock.
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User Interface Design 2.0
(pictures and some description go here)
Tasks:
- You want to hire a sitter for a date night sometime in the next two weeks. which will last 3 hours. You prefer Friday nights anytime between 7-12. but would also be willing ot do Thursdays or Saturdays 7-12.
- You're a babysitter. You are willing to babysit between 6pm and midnight most days, but you are going to a party this Friday and you have a test on Wednesday you want to spend some time studying for. Update your schedule accordingly.
- You're a babysitter and you want to find some work for this week. Find a job which fits your schedule and apply for it.
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- Wanted to contact the babysitter directly
- Babysitter interface was very usable; but parent's was confusing.
- Couldn't figure out how to navigate to the profile/contact info of a babysitter.
Round 2:
User 4:
Task 1 - as parent, create job:
- Clicks "manage contacts"; we are confused, but get her one; clicks X
- Clicks "create job".
- paints over all the times, clicks post; liz says that's an error
- paints over only friday, clicks post; liz says that's wrong too
- clicks to show babysitters' availability, clicks post
- after much prompting clicks my schedule's flexible and uses it as intended
Comments: "Doesn't it make more sense that I'd post friday first and wait to see if anyone responds to that before worrying about thursday or saturday?"
Task 2 - as babysitter, update schedule:
"I click all my green buttons and all my okay buttons and press save" (this task got somewhat confused because we gave her the "apply" task first and then told her she should be editing her schedule.)
Task 3 - as babysitter, apply for job:
- Clicks to filter out jobs she's not available for; those ones disappear
- Clicks on the family associated with the job I want; their profile comes up
- Calls them on the phone
(We tell her the expected behavior that you click on the job on the schedule; she immediately finds the apply button. In response to this, we color our jobs on the schedule to make them look more like buttons)
Comments: "I'm not sure what you're trying to do with the good and okay thing - for flexible jobs maybe, but for a babysitter you will have times when you are available and times when you aren't"
User 5:
Task 1 - scheduleas parent, create job:
- Clicks Create a Job
- Selects the Friday time and posts job
- We ask about multiple times - doesn't immediately see how to do so, wants a rank order preference
- Finally finds Flexible schedule button (we should make this big and obvious)
- Clicks 'ok' thinking it will confirm this schedule - not obvious
- Does want the interface to give range and time, is not intuitively convinced of what our representation means
Task 2 - as babysitter, update schedule:
- Attempts to use the calender filters to make the schedule
- Thinks the displayed schedule represents her schedule
- Doesn't notice the 'edit schedule' button
- When prompted, opens the schedule and paints over everything in green
- Is confused by the 'good'/'ok' difference
- Is confused by the paining metaphor (clicking 'ok' to change color and then interacting in a different state)
Task 3 - Apply as babysitter, apply for a job:
- Completes successfully without issuissue
Comments
- 'seems pretty good and simple, but might be hard for non-digital natives like me'
- good and okay are probably confusing, maybe first choice / second choice or preferred / acceptable, maybe go up to three choices for parents
User 6:
Task 1 - as parent, create job:
- clicks "create job"
- paints everything
- clicks "show babysitters' availability"
- "I wonder if I have any preferences between them; I pick Alice and Charlie as my favorites." Shows availability of Alice and Charlie. Posts job to those two. "Selection should propagate from 'show availability' to 'post'."
Comments:
- View your jobs is kind of confusing; I'd be curious whether it's from a babysitter point of view or what.
- My schedule isn't flexible - it's 7-12 always - so 'flexible schedule' didn't seem like an option I should use.
- Also I would handle a flexible schedule by checking availability for each of my preferred times in order, and posting the possible one that works best for me.
Task 2 - as babysitter, update schedule:
- "Babysitter schedule needs times - I have no idea what I'm doing because there are no times"
- Tries clicking job on Friday, xs out of the job-application window
- Clicks job on Saturday, applies for that one
- Finds edit schedule button, clicks
- Paints over stuff; understands WhenIsGood; hits save
Task 3 - as babysitter, apply for job:
(she's already done this while trying to edit schedule, so we don't make her do it over)
Comments:
- Try to combine babysitter schedule editing / jobviewing calendar screen
- Make it pretty
Feedback from presentation and our responses
- Is there a feature to look up the job you're currently working?
- It would be useful to have more labels on the columns
- We are already planning to add times along the side
- We should label the colors we're using - on the paper prototype it's difficult to to tell which colors mean what
- Maybe we could make the colors of the babysitter's schedule pastel to differentiate them from jobs
- We could color-code the family names on the side to match