StageIt
GR2 - Designs
Scenario
Janet is a college student choreographing a dance for her school’s Culture Show. Her dance will have 10 people, 5 guys and 5 girls. She navigates to StageIt to complete this task!
She first chooses and sets up stage, marking off any areas in her dance that would help her in making the formations.
She then creates each formation. She adds the dancers and any props to the stage and moves them to their correct positions, and draws arrows on the stage to indicate movement. She does this for each different formation on stage she intends to have, adding additional information and comments where she sees fit. Once done, she saves the formation, and after practicing on the stage with her dancers, she makes any necessary modifications to the existing formations, and saves them to a viewable format.
Designs
Individual Designs
Group Designs
Photoshop Metaphor
This design is inspired by Adobe Photoshop, where every action a user can do is categorized as a tool. This interface is focused on efficiency and user control. |
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Janet navigates to StageIt, where she can view the previous projects she has made. She clicks the "create" button to start a new project. |
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She is first prompted to choose a stage and so she choose the stage that closely resembles the stage that her dancers will be performing on. She then clicks start. |
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She creates her first formation by clicking on the People mode. She chooses a shape and color for the dancers from the nav bar near the top of the page. Clicking on the "Add" button, a new dancer is added to the middle of the stage, and she can move the dancer around to the desired position |
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She is able to move groups of dancers and props around by navigating to the Select mode. Once she is done arranging everyone, she then clicks on the + button in the formations panel to create a new formation. |
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She is prompted to keep existing dancers on the stage. She clicks yes, and starts to edit the second formation. |
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Switching to the Line mode, she now draws a line on the stage indicating a direction of movement for one of the dancers. |
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For this formation, some of the dancers will be waiting on different sides of the stage so that they can be accurately positioned when they come in the next formation. She drags the dancers to these areas and positions the rest of the dancers on the stage. |
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She has one prop for this dance, so she switched to the Prop mode, and since her prop isn't listed in the available prop types, she uploads an image of the prop and moves it on the stage. |
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Once her formations are complete, she is able to save them and export them to an easily viewable format so that she can show to others. |
Usability Analysis
Learnability
Pros:
- External consistency with Adobe Photoshop and other image editing software will make it easy for users that are familiar with these products to learn the interface
- Since actions such as adding dancers or adding props are categorized into different modes, these actions will be easy to pick up
- Affordances in the interface, such as a + sign for adding and a trashcan for deleting, make it easy for users to figure out what to do and how.
Cons:
- For users that aren't familiar with Adobe Photoshop or other image editing software, there is a lot of information on the screen
- For users who don't understand the concept of modes, it will be difficult to learn to use the system
- Users may not understand icons that aren't designed well
Efficiency
Pros:
- It is easy for users to switch between the different actions
- The select tool allows users to move multiple items on the stage at once
- In keeping the dancers that have been added to the stage when creating a new formation, users will not have to re-add all of the dancers and props to the stage unless requested
Cons:
- Adding a lot of new dancers to the stage requires frequent button presses
- Users will have to color specific nodes that are on the stage
Safety
Pros:
- Users will be able to undo changes
- Since users have to physically drag items to the trashcan to delete them, it is unlikely that users will accidentally delete many items
- Formations created by users are always modifiable
Cons:
- If users are in the wrong mode, ie. drawing instead of dragging, then they might do an unintended action
Task Oriented Design - for beginners
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Janet logs on to StageIT and is prompted to select a stage as the first step. After selecting a stage, she is asked if she has any props that she'd like to add.Janet wants a big prop in the middle to make a ring around it, so she chooses one from the menu and drags it to the stage. |
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Next she enters the number of dancers in her dance, and the dancers are automatically added to the stage. She moves them around the stage and places them in their correct spots. She drags dancers that aren't on the stage at that moment offstage to the side they will need to come in on later in the performance. |
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She navigates to the Path mode to edit those corresponding pieces, but realizes that a dancer was in the wrong position, so she navigates back to the Dancer mode to move him to the right spot. Then she navigates to the Path mode to continue adding paths that the dancers will follow. |
Usability Analysis
Learnability
Pros:
- Easy to learn since the system focuses on one task at a time
- Each step is clearly defined, and dialogs asks you relevant questions in the process of translating from one step to the other
- Presets give you an idea of how to combine things or make your own custom designs
- Consistency in the method and order of adding and editing dancers and paths
- Affordances in the title bar allows the system to communicate to the user how it works
- Short and accurate mode names, with corresponding colors to detect what mode user is in
- Drag and drop
Efficiency
Pros:
- Hot corners and bars at the top to change the editing mode make mouse movements accurate
Cons:
- To edit, user has to switch modes, which is slow and will create some lag
- Drag and drop is slow
- Multiple buttons in multiple locations
- Tedious to an expert user, prompts will be ignored
- Not very efficient, each mode will NOT allow you to change the other mode
Safety
Pros:
- Easy to undo mistakes
*Each mode will announce itself via a different color, so the user always knows what mode he's in
*Each mode is limited in its ability to edit the functions of the other mode, so you won't accidentally make a mistake
*Presentation mode is locked down
Cons
- Mode is limiting, to switch from one mode to the other it's neccesary to limit user ability
- No chance for description errors
Efficient Design - for users on the go
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Janet begins by navigating to StageIt! She logs in and chooses a project. |
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Since she's analyzed the stage and knows its general shape and rough points, she chooses a stage similar to it and customizes. |
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She moves onto the next page and begins to populate the screen with the prop and dancers. For now, she chooses to showcase only two of her dancers. (She has the options of placing the rest off-stage at left and right, but still available.) |
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She uses the Editing Toolkit to add multiple people to the stage at once, so she does not have to drag and drop twice. She then hovers over each dancer and edits his/her name and chooses a color. To indicate where the dancers will move next, she uses the line tool. She adds a title and comments to this specific formation, and is done. |
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Janet remembers that one section of the stage has a poor view from the audience, and she wants to mark it off. She simply clicks the stage icon on top of the stage to return to the Stage Editor. Here, she makes changes and before returning to the Formations Editor, she is prompted to be sure she wants to make this change to all of her formations. |
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Janet now wants to see her final formations play through. She clicks on the play button on the bottom slideshow preview panel. To scroll through, she clicks the next and back buttons, or she can let the slideshow play by itself. |
Usability Analysis
Learnability
Pros:
- External consistencies make it easy for users that are familiar with these products to learn the interface
- tools consistent with image editing software, like Paint and Photoshop
- slideshow consistent with Powerpoint and typical video players
- the popup specifying item’s specs is consistent with Microsoft Word’s highlighted words editor
- Affordances in the interface, such as a + sign for adding and the play button for playing slideshow, make it easy for users to figure out what to do and how.
- Follows the basic steps (stage, organize, view) of the process
- Drag and drop
- Tooltips give quick and easy reminders
Cons:
- Some buttons are not in intuitive places - like the share button
Efficiency
Pros:
- The main actions are in hot corners, so they are quick to find (undo, redo, save; the editing toolkit; play slideshow)
- The number specification allows users to add multiple of the same item to the stage at once
- The Selector tool allows users to select, edit, and move multiple items on the stage at once
- Users will not have to re-add all the items onto the stage each time they make a new formation
- When adding a new formation, users are asked what they would like to keep from the previous or different formation (people, props, lines)
- Just drag and reorder to change order of formations
- Each panel can be minimized so you can see the stage on the full screen
- To edit the characteristics of a specific item on the stage, just hovering over it will pop up with a mini-dialog with options (like in Word, after highlighting)
Cons:
- Drag and drop is tedious for expert users and slow
- Multiple buttons in multiple locations
- Some buttons may be difficult to find (like the share button)
Safety
Pros:
- Users will be able to undo changes (easily because it’s in a hot corner)
- The stage is always modifiable
- When modified, the user is asked if he is sure he wants to change the stage for all formations (because it might alter previously saved formations)
- Formations created by users are always modifiable
Cons
- If users are in the wrong mode, ie. drawing instead of dragging, then they might do an unintended action
- If the user chooses to modify the stage, previously made formations may be messed up