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Scenario:

Michael McIntyre, Housing Manager of McCormick Hall, walks into his office on a Monday morning. He logs onto his computer and navigates to our web application, `appname`, where he views the current repair jobs, along with the new repair jobs which have come in and are already heuristically prioritized. However, Michael decides to move the broken printer repair job to the top of the list because it’s finals week and because many students will be wanting to print out practice exams. He then assigns the new repair jobs to the dorm mechanic, Jenks.

Jenks walks into his office and checks the list of jobs assigned to him. He notes down the jobs he’s been assigned to do as well as their priorities. He begins working on the different jobs and writes down parts that he might need to order. In particular, he needs new fluorescent light bulbs to replace the lighting in the McCormick Date Room. At lunchtime, he logs back into `appname`, closes the tasks he’s completed, and notes that he needs new fluorescent light bulbs.

Michael returns from his lunch break and logs on to `appname` to check up on his active repair jobs. He sees that he’s received a notification from Jenks informing him that Jenks needs fluorescent light bulbs for him to replace the lighting in the McCormick Date Room. Michael uses `appname`’s address book feature to find Home Depot’s phone number and then place a bulk order for replacement light bulbs. He then updates the light bulb task on `appname` to indicate he’s placed an order for the needed light bulbs and that the task should be ready to proceed tomorrow morning. While he’s on `appname`, Michael also goes ahead and processes the new repair jobs that have come in since the morning.

Storyboards:

Storyboard #1 (Gmail-esque):

TEXT

Storyboard #2 (Drag and Drop):

Sketch

Design Description

 

 

 

Storyboard #3 (Illiterate/Graphically intensive):

Text

Studio Feedback

It is important to make sure the user has a notion of priority amongst the tasks.
 - Doesn't seem to come through in the interface the (high, low, etc).
 - No feedback other than that they're in a list.
 - No affordance -- invisible piece of information.

I like the idea of notes associated with each task.  
 - Seems to be a part of the whole screen opposed to a specific task.
 - What about dialog between two or more parties.

I like how there are different perspectives, but I'm curious if the address book is shared amongst different users.

What specifically is lacking in the current system that you're trying to address
 - Right now they get a bunch of emails, small signal to noise ratio.
 - They are currently mentally prioritizing tasks.
 - There is room to expedite how they prioritize, org and track tasks.

Is the gmail interface supposed to be both an inbox as well as a prioritization mechanism
 - We confuse the user because the our feature does not completely completely with the gmail metaphor
 - Difference between using GMail as inspiration opposed to a metaphor.

Would it be important to have a mobile website or app for this sort of task?
 - Mobile designs will be in our wiki, excluded from presentation.

Individual Designs:

Anurag

Sketch

Design Description

My first stretch design is for ultra-efficiency. To accomplish this, I sketched out a command-based utility, whose GUI is like most shell/bash applications. That is, the application accepts keyboard-typed commands ('jobs' or 'assign 6 jenks') and then outputs simple, ASCII-based feedback (like a table indicating new/active/recently closed repair jobs). Ideally, such an application is ultra-efficient for experienced users. This design may give us insight into creating text-based shortcuts for our application that allows advanced users of our application to work much faster.

The output is relatively uninteresting (either ASCII tables or text as feedback); so, I have only one sketch for this design. However, here's a sample set of input commands for the application (as a regular grammar) (The '$' character preceding a word in the grammar means that the word represents a variable.).

command ::= jobs || mechanics || details || prioritize || assign || update || close || contacts || search || filter
jobs ::= jobs (new || active || closed)
details ::= details ($job_id || $mechanic_id)
prioritize ::= prioritize ($job_id) (high || med || low)
assign ::= assign ($job_id) ($mechanic_id)
update ::= update ($job_id) ($update_type) ($update_text)
close ::= close ($job_id)
contacts ::= contacts
search ::= search (jobs || contacts) (($keyword)*)
filter ::= filter (jobs || contacts) (($keyword)*)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle

Sketch

Design Description

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeffrey

Sketch

Design Description


This is the first mobile design.  The focus is to present the user with the information they need and allow them to easily take action.


This was the second mobile design which focuses on efficiency.  Items can be marked and then action can be taken (shown: `mark complete`, but other actions may be available.

This design was focusing on showing the user everything they might need.  This is done in a table format.  The table headers may be used to filter by priority/assignee/etc.  Moreover, filters are available to the user on the site and action items on top.

This was a run at showing jobs in a nicer maner.  Jobs can be filtered then selected, information about the job is shown on the right.  This allows the user to quickly drill into a specific problem they're having and filter out any noise.  The view of the task could include things such as a notes/comment section, activity, etc.

This design is similar to the above design except that it takes on priority sections in the middle panel.  The view also has more focus on "activity" and notes/comments than the previous.  The focus here was layout over specific details.  There may be more actions or details noted on a specific task, but those might have been omitted here.

This was a unique design that listed all the tasks.  The tasks may have some indication of priority when they come in, or may be dragged/dropped into place.  When the manager wants to assign a job to a worker, he may drag/drop it into place.  The focus here is to allow the manager to do what he needs to do and be done with it.  He can view incoming/existing jobs and then view the jobs per worker as well.

This was an alternate for a closeup of an individual task.  Again, the focus is on another design layout opposed to complete functionality.  There may be more to this design such as `location`, `description`, `time`, etc.

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