Design and Task Description:

User Interface Design 1.5

(pictures and some description go here)

Tasks:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

User Interface Design 1.0

In the original design we had four tabs at the top: Profile, Jobs, Schedule, and Contacts. These swapped between screens. The names were confusing and not sufficiently self-descriptive. After an initial user test, we made the change to design 1.5.The only changes were the removal of the tabs, adding a button in the upper right to allow schedule/profile editing, and having clicking on families or babysitters bring up contact information.

User Interface Design 2.0

User Testing Notes:

Round 1:

User 1:

Task 1 - post your availability

1. Completed without issue

Task 2 - look up bedtime

1. Went to 'jobs' tab
2. Went to 'profile' tab; commented "this isn't useful either"
3. After some thought, went to 'contacts' tab and completed the task.

Task 3 - schedule a babysitter

1. Went to 'contacts' tab; seems confused
2. Went to 'jobs' tab
3. Examines the timelines closely and intensely for a while before completing the task; timelines appear to be hard to read in their current form.

Comments

1. Tabs are not self descriptive
2. From the parent's perspective, it seems strange to call them 'jobs'

User 2:

Task 1

1. While viewing the contacts pop-up, asks "Can I just click on the background to make this go away?" (instead of clicking the small exit button)

Task 2

1. Took a while to find the 'request a sitter' button
2. Didn't know what sitter timelines were. It might be good to have a title.
3. Suggested that times pop up on the side, so that the user knows the 9pm block includes all times from 9pm-10pm
4. Suggested an explicit 'delete mode' instead of a second click clearing the previous selection. "It's not explicitly clear that clicking on a painted square unpaints it"
5. Confused about the state of the pop-up after clicking 'post your request'. Perhaps the pop-up should disappear
6. Suggested reversing babysitter's schedules and your calender, because you might not care when they are free if you have constraints on when your commitments occur.
7. Suggested explicitly stating 'send to selected babysitters'

Task 3

1. Had trouble realizing he had to click 'edit schedule'. Tried clicking 'display schedule'.
2. Wasn't sure what, if any, the default color to paint is. If we want it to be 'good' we may wish to highlight this.
3. "Every week I have to come enter/reenter my schedule?"
4. Suggested log in/out button.

User 3:

Task 2

1. Clicks on family name and completes the task

Task 1

1. Clicks 'edit schedule'
2. Drags down over available calender squares (once again misunderstanding our metaphor but it will result in the correct behavior).
3. Only fills in 'good' times - assumes that they do not want to babysit before their test.
4. Questions what the initial paining status will be ('good' vs 'ok')
5. Seemed initially confused by the 'ok' setting, but ends up using it correctly.

Task 3

1. Checks displayed babysitter availability; does not notice checked/unchecked babysitters
2. Completes the task with the schedule
3. Wants to know why they couldn't just contact one of the babysitters directly

Task 4

1. Tries to click on the names in the middle to bring up more information.
2. Successfully checks schedules with preference.

Comments

1. Wanted to contact the babysitter directly
2. Babysitter interface was very usable; but parent's was confusing.
3. Couldn't figure out how to navigate to the profile/contact info of a babysitter.

Round 2: