GR2: Design
Scenario
Alice, Bob, and Christine are doing a research project together at MIT. They have a research paper submission in a week. After several days of struggling to get arrange meetings and failing to get the whole group together, they decide to take advantage of an app that they have, called Discover.Me, that can better facilitate their meetings.
Alice:
She volunteered to setup the meeting using Discover.Me. Unfortunately, she is currently not friends with Bob on Discover.Me.
She:* Opens the application
- Navigates to the “Search For Friends” screen
- Types “Bob” into the search bar and sees a list of similar names from the MIT directory
After Bob accepts the request, she decides to create the event.
She:* Navigates to the “New Event” page
- Types in “Project Meeting!!!” into the event name field
- Sets the meeting to take place that afternoon from 2pm-4pm
- Navigates to the “Invite Friends” page
- Types in Bob's name in the search bar
- Sees a list of her friends, narrowed down to names similar to “Bob”, and selects Bob
- Repeats this process with Christine
While doing some reading, she is distracted by her phone lighting up.
She:* Sees a notification that Christine updated the event time
- Accepts the updated event
Bob
During a short study break he checks his phone for any new notifications.
He:* Opens the application
- Sees a notification for a pending friend request
- Navigates to the “Pending Friend Request” page
- Sees that the request is from Alice and accepts her request
Later, he checks again for the event invite.
He:* Navigates to the “Pending Event Request” page
- Sees the invite from Alice
- Accepts the invite, since he knows he is available
- …
- Receives updated invitation
- Accepts updated event
Christine
Having just woken up from a nap, she decides to see if she has any notifications.
She:* Opens the application
- Sees a notification for a pending event request
- Navigates to the “Pending Event Request” page
- Sees that she has been invited to “Project Meeting!!!”
- Navigates to her Events page to see if she is free then
- Sees a list of events she replied to
- Sees that she had accepted the invite to another project meeting, marked in green, at the same time
- Edits Alice's invite, suggesting to change the times to take place 4pm-6pm
- …
- Receives updated invitation
- Accepts updated event
Designs
Design #1
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Design #2
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Design #3
Subtask |
Sketch |
Description |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Entering the Home Screen |
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The screen presents few details to Alice. She sees some of her Friends and quickly realizes that she can find more friends by scrolling down the list or by using the Search text bar. |
Alice can immediately search for her friends by tapping the Search text bar near the top of the screen. She has one-tap access to a listing of her Events and Friend Invitations. |
Buttons and selections are made large so that Alice can tap the right targets on the screen. Alice may accidentally hit the Exit button when she taps on the Search text bar. |
Searching for friends |
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The Keyboard automatically appears telling Alice to begin typing. Alice is familiar with this feature from using other apps. |
It isn't clear whether there are other option for Alice to find her friends besides searching for their names. |
The keyboard is rather compact and Alice may find herself accidentally hitting the wrong key. |
Finding and Adding Friends |
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Alice sees the same list of friends as she saw on the home screen, so she is familiar with the user interface. The buttons to add a friend are colored brightly so that Alice knows she can perform an action by tapping the button. |
As Alice types "Bob," the list updates to show close matches to her entry. For longer names, this could allow Alice to find her friend without typing in his entire name. |
Alice may want to add Bob as a friend but accidentally hits Borat's "Add" button. We can ask Alice to confirm when she taps to add a friend, but this will increase the number of steps she has to perform. |
Viewing Friend's Location |
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Once Alice selects her friend, a map shows Bob's current location. Furthermore, a blue dot shows Alice's current location. Alice is familiar with the blue dot representing her location, since it is also used in the iPhone's Map app. |
Depending on the level of zoom, Alice may need to further zoom in or zoom out of the map. There is a tradeoff between presenting a large map including most her friends' locations, or showing a detailed and smaller map. |
If Alice "flicks" her finger past the screen, there is danger that the current map view will be lost. It will take her some steps recreate the map screen showing her and Bob's location. |
Viewing Friend's Profile |
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Bob's profile includes his phone number and email appearing in blue with underlines. This provides Alice with an affordance to click these entries. |
By selecting Bob on the map view, Alice immediately sees Bob's profile. She can click on Bob's email or phone number to contact Bob. |
If Alice accidentally taps Bob's phone number, then she will begin making a call to him. We can ask Alice to confirm the call, although this will require her to make more selections to accomplish her tasks. |
Viewing the Events Screen |
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Adding an Event |
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Inviting Friends |
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Receiving Event Notifications |
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Accepting a Changed Event |
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A pop-up box appears telling Alice that she has accepted the changes and that updated invitations will be sent to all people she originally invited. |
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Viewing Event Status |
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