Scenario
Ben, a recruiter for a Software company, is looking for a student in the Computer Science department to develop software for mobile devices.
Ben goes to the MIT Jobs site and signs up for an account by providing his name, his role (recruiter), his email address, name of the Company he represents and the password for the website. Next, Ben creates a job post with the following specifications: position- Software Developer, type- internship, Course: 6, job group- Software, required competences- Java, location- Cambridge Massachusetts, application instructions- send resume by email, and deadline: March 11, 2010.
Alyssa is an undergraduate student in Computer Science. She has taken a core Java class (6.005) and is very apt in Java. She is also proficient in Python and C++. She is looking for a summer internship with a tech company. She logs into the MIT Jobs site (using her MIT certificates), She selects the department (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), the job type (Internship) and job group (Software). She sees a listing of opportunities available for her. She finds the post made by Ben, which fits perfectly with her needs and is still within the deadline for applying.
Alyssa decides to contact Ben to inquire about the posting, and get some more details about the project. She writes the message to Ben and sends it. Ben receives the message and replies. They set up follow-up interview times.
Dragos, an undergraduate at MIT studying Computer Science, is also looking for an internship during the summer. Like Alyssa, he is also good in Java. He already interviewed for a company that he is very interested in, but he would like to keep himself posted on a few other interesting opportunities for which he is qualified. He goes to the MIT Jobs site and decides to follow Ben’s job posting so that he gets updates about the posting.
Ben is interested in meeting more people for the position, but he did not receive enough replies. Thus he updates the job position and postpones the deadline by a week. Dragos receives this update. Other applicants send their resume via email to Ben, but none of them has a resume as good as Alyssa's.
Ben then decides that Alyssa will fill the position, and sends an update to all followers of the post that the position is closed. Dragos receives an update regarding the same.
Storyboard designs
Design 1
Design 2
The home screen Ben sees is the home page for non-MIT affiliates (Figure 2_3).
(Figure 2_3)
He clicks on the “Create Post” button on the top right, which takes him to the page to create post (Figure 2_4). He enters all the relevant details about the post and then clicks the “Save” button at the bottom. This takes him back to his home screen.
(Figure 2_4)
Alyssa comes to the website (Figure 2_1) and clicks on the “MIT Student” button. Using her MIT certificates, she is logged into the website and sees the home page for MIT affiliates (Figure 2_5).
(Figure 2_5)
She clicks on the “Browse Posts” button, which shows him all posts in the form of icons displaying the job title, job type and job group (Figure 2_6). She can filter posts according to these options.
(Figure 2_6)
On this page, hovering over a post icon, displays a brief description of the post. Clicking anywhere on the post or its description opens the post description page (Figure 2_7). 
(Figure 2_7)
Alyssa clicks on the “Send Message” link on the bottom of the page, which takes her to the page to create messages (Figure 2_8). She writes the message and sends it to Ben. This takes her back to her home screen (Figure 2_5).
(Figure 2_8)
On Ben’s home page, the “Messages” button will now be highlighted to indicate that he has new messages. He clicks on the button, and is taken to his messages page (Figure 2_9). The new message is highlighted to indicate it is unread.
(Figure 2_9)
Ben hovers over this message to see a brief description, and then clicks on it to view the message (Figure 2_10). Ben reads on the message and then clicks on “Reply”, which takes him to the “Create Message” page (Figure 2_8). He sends Alyssa his reply, and they set up a time to meet.
(Figure 2_10)
Dragos also comes to the website (Figure 2_1) and clicks on the “MIT Student” button, and is logged in to his home page using his MIT certificates (Figure 2_5). He clicks on the “Browse Posts” button, and hovers over Ben’s posting (Figure 2_6). In the description displayed, he clicks on “Follow”.
To view his newly-created post, Ben can sign in to the website using his username and password (Figure 2_1), and click on the “My Posts” button on his home screen (Figure 2_2), which takes him to the page where he can view his posts. This page is the same as that in figure 2_6, but on this version of the page, he has the same icons, but now instead of the “Follow” and “Send Message” links on the post description, he has an “Edit” link to open the post for editing (using the same form as (Figure 2_4) but with a different breadcrumb i.e. Home>>Edit Post), as well as a “Send Message to Followers” link, which opens the create message page (4.a-2). He changes the deadline for this job to a week later.
When Dragos logs in the next time, on his home screen, the “Post Updates” button is highlighted as he has an unviewed post update. Clicking on this button, opens a page similar to the messages page, with an update that the deadline for Ben’s post has been updated.
After Ben decides to hire Alyssa, he clicks on the “Send Message to Followers” link on the post description, and sends a message to all followers (i.e only Dragos here), that the position is now closed.
Design Analysis
Learnability:
The interface is learnable as it uses many of the commonly employed affordances, such as buttons, and links. Aspects of the system model (posts, messages etc) are represented well by the interface. Also, the interface uses mostly recognition rather than recall. The interaction style is a combination of direct manipulation with menus and forms. For example, hovering over a post gives instant feedback by displaying a short description of the post, but clicking on “Show More” displays a new form. Novice users should find the interface easy to navigate.
Efficiency:
For an MIT student, the process of logging into the website is a little inefficient as it requires an extra click of a button. However, apart from this feature, the design is quite efficient. The use of big icons to represent messages and posts gives the user a large area to point, and thus makes the user interface efficient (using Fitts law). To click on a post/message, the user can click on the icon or on the ‘Show More’ link, thus giving the user a large area to click. The only action, which requires more precise pointing (and some steering as the user has to point while keeping the mouse on the icon or description) is to send message (to creators of the post or to followers of the post), as the user has to point to the “Send Message” link. One aspect of efficiency that this design lacks is there are not many shortcuts for expert users.
Visibility:
Most features of the design, including the state, available actions and feedback are visible on all pages. For example, on the home screens, all pages you can go to (Create Post, Browse Posts, Posts I’m following, Post Updates etc.) are represented as big buttons on the screen, and thus are very visible. Hovering over a button highlights it, indicating it is clickable. Any new message highlights the “Messages” button in a different color; similarly, a new post update highlights the “Post Updates” button. While browsing, hovering over an icon of a post highlights it and displays a short description. The description also has all possible actions a user can do with a post (follow, send message to creator etc.). Breadcrumbs are used to indicate which page in the page hierarchy we are on, and also make it possible to go to a parent page. Although we do not have feedback right now for some actions (e.g. there are no messages such as “Post has been created”, “Message has been sent”, “Post has been deleted”), we intend to add these at the top of pages, without altering the conceptual design of any page (these will be similar to the simple messages Gmail displays, and deletes will have options to undo as well).
Error Prevention:
Most potential errors are easy to undo. For example, if a user clicks on “Follow” for a post, the “Follow” link changes to “Unfollow” (giving immediate feedback. This allows the user to immediately undo his action. Posts can be created, read, updated and deleted. The only actions that cannot be undone is sending messages, which is a feature of all message sending/receiving programs (including e-mail).
Design 3
Ben comes to the MIT Jobs website and since he is not an MIT affiliate, he clicks on the Non-MIT tab at the left. He is presented the interface on fig_2 with options to either sign in or to sign up.
fig_1
Ben is new to the site, so he proceeds to sign up by filling the form. On clicking “Sign Up” at the bottom of the page, his account is set up and he is presented with the interface in fig_2.
fig_2
From this page, Ben can view his previous posted positions and messages but since he is new to MIT Jobs, both of these are empty. To proceed to create his first job post, Ben clicks on the “Create Post” button at the top right. He is presented with the interface on fig_3.
fig_3
He enters the specifications for the job he is posting by filling the displayed form. On clicking “Create Post”, he is returned to the interface on fig_2. The post he has just created appears as the first post on the list of posts on the list of posts at the left. If he had earlier posts, Ben could browse them now, maybe see if some users have commented on the posts and if so respond to the comments. He could also view messages from applicants by clicking the message tab at the top of the page.
Alyssa, an MIT student, visits the MIT Jobs site to look for an internship for the summer. She clicks on the MIT tab at the left and is presented with the interface on fig_4.
fig_4
She then clicks on the huge “Sign In with MIT Certificate” button at the center of the page. She is now presented with the interface on fig_5.
fig_5
The few tabs at the top allow her to transition between viewing all posts, posts she is keeping track of, updates to posts she is tracking and her messages. Since she is looking for an internship, Alyssa clicks on the “Browse” tab at the top left of the page so that she is within the set of all posts to MIT Jobs. She then adds some filters, say “internship”, “summer” and the set of posts that are displayed becomes more specific to her search. Eventually, she singles out Ben’s post as a potential good match. She clicks on the post and it is displayed in the right panel of the interface. she reads the specifications of the position and figures she fit the profile. She clicks the “follow” link at the bottom right so that she can get updates on the position. She also decides to send a message to Ben to express her interest in the post. She clicks the “Message” link at the bottom right. A textbox appears below the Job post with a “send” and “discard” button under it. She types her message and clicks “send” when she is done.
Dragos, another MIT student, follows the same procedure as Alyssa to log into the MIT Jobs site and to search for an internship for the summer. He also likes Ben’s post. Unlike Alyssa who is not already interviewing with any companies yet, Dragos is in the third round of interviews with two companies that he really likes. He decides to “follow” the post from Ben, more as a back-up option in case his other interviews do not go well. He clicks on the “follow” link at the bottom right of the page -- this enables him to receive notification on any updates that are made to the advertised position. He also sends a message directly to Ben, to notify him of his current job-search situation.
A few days later, Ben wants to view the interest his advertised position has attracted. He returns to the MIT Jobs website (fig_1) and clicks on the Non-MIT tab at left to be presented with the interface on page 2. since he already owns an account, Ben logs in by providing his username and password and clicking on “Sign In” at the top of the page. He is taken to the interface on fig_2. He only has the one post that he created, but he can see that Alyssa’s message appears directly under the post. He also sees that the “Message” tab at the top of the page is bold and has “(1)” next to it. Below Alyssa’s message, there is a “reply” link that Ben clicks to produce a textbox with a “discard” and “send” buttons below it. He types his reply and clicks “send” to complete sending his response to Alyssa. He proceeds to click on the “Messages(1)” tab at the top of the page 3. he is then presented with the interface on fig_6.
fig_6
He has only one message, the one send by Dragos. He clicks on the “reply” button and a textbox appears on the page with “discard” and “send” buttons below it. He types his message in the textbox and clicks “send” to send it to Dragos.
After talking to Alyssa for a bit, Ben thinks she fits the profile that the software company wants. He seals the deal with Alyssa. On his home page (page 3), he clicks on “Create Message” at the top right of the page. He has an option to send send the message to all the “followers” of one or several of his posts. He selects to send the message to all followers of his single post and notifies them that the position is filled.
Dragos will see the message in his message inbox (fig_7), and know that the position is filled.
fig_7
Design Analysis
Learnability:
This interface is firmly grounded on the use of recognition rather than recall. We always present sufficient visible cues to make the user’s next decision a simple task of seeing a few next steps that he/she can take and deciding amongst them. For a Non-MIT affiliate who is assumed to be able to only employ, he/she can only browse posts they have advertised and see messages they have received. There is not too much on the screen to demand the user to remember where this or that is located. For an MIT affiliate, we present more tabs to reduce the density of the screen. Less density presents a perfect platform for recognition. Although we tried to manipulate the design to keep screen information low, this design has a lot more things presented on a single screen as compared to the other 2 designs (e.g. recruiter can see all communication regarding post on post page itself), and thus is less learnable than the other 2.
Efficiency:
In this design, Tabs allow fast navigation through the various possible pages. However, as this design has a lot of information laid out at once on the screen, it may not be very efficient to navigate through individual pages. For example, most actions (viewing posts, following posts, sending messages) require pointing to a regular sized button or link as opposed to big icons in the 2nd design. There are not many shortcuts to aid expert users in accomplishing tasks faster.
Visibility:
The state of the system, as well as the available actions, and feedback for all actions is very clearly visible. For example, in a post, the post creator can view on a single page the post, as well as all communication related to the post. Similarly, a user browsing the post can view it as well as his/her communication with the post creator. Clicking on “Reply” to a message has instant feedback as it displays a textbox where the user can reply to messages. All possible pages a user can navigate to are visible at the top of the screen. Similarly, all filters are also visible while browsing posts.
Error Prevention:
This design is more error prone than the other 2. For example, deleting a post will delete all communication associated with the post as well, which may affect the user experience of recruiters. In this design, users can create, read, update and delete their posts. Some actions, such as following posts are easy to undo, but some such as creating and deleting posts, and sending messages are hard to undo.