GR2 Designs
Scenario
Vincent is a college student going on a vacation in Western Europe for winter vacation, and wants to be able to know exactly what to pack, since he has just finished his spring semester and has very little time to pack between coming back from school to flying to Europe. He decides to use PackIt, our mobile phone app that helps people decide what to pack on trips. He pulls up the app and inputs his destination, Western Europe, how long he is staying, 12 days, and the nature of his trip (vacation).
After inputting his travel information, Vincent sees a list of suggested items to bring, generated by the app, in the appropriate amounts for the 12 days that he is staying in Europe. The list includes winter attire, since the weather in Western Europe is freezing. He also sees suggestions for how to pack his items efficiently in a suitcase. Looking through the list of items, Vincent realizes that he would also like to pack his glasses and his laptop, so he adds them to the list.
As he begins to pack his things, he marks in the app that he has packed them into his suitcase. As the items that Vincent has packed accumulate, he can see the current estimated weight of his suitcase. After Vincent has finished packing, he pulls up the list of item that he has already packed, double checking that he has packed everything. Once he has finished, he clears the information in the app and closes it, ready to use for another trip.
Paper Prototypes & Storyboards
Design One
Sketch |
Storyboard |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Pros
- Easy to learn because there are simple icons that the user sees which immediately describe what the icon represents without unnecessary words (aka, picture of airplane = travel there by plane) Cons
- Lack of text may be slightly longer for user to figure out whats going on |
Pros
- Autocomplete provides efficiency Cons |
Pros
- Allows the user to reselect icons if the wrong one is chosen Cons
- After hit the "go" button, user cannot edit travel |
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Pros
- Easy metaphor: items can be dragged into container, just like real packing Cons |
Pros
- Drag and drop provides efficiency Cons
- Adding/deleting items may take longer than necessary |
Pros
- Adding/deleting items may take longer than necessary Cons
- Not easy to delete/add item because you have to open backpack |
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Pros
- User has most likely encountered a checklist before, so easy to use this one Cons
- Doesn't allow user to add any items, so doesn't support some functionality of normal checklists |
Pros
- Simple checklist, user can find all items in this checklist Cons
- If user is looking for a specific item, has to look through |
Pros
- User can delete items or uncheck items they don't want Cons
- No way to recover an item if a user deletes it |
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Pros
- Simple text page, nothing new to learn Cons
- User doesn't know what to do if they want more information |
Pros
- All information in one location Cons
- User may want too see only packing tips, must scroll to |
Pros
- User can easily navigate to and away from this page Cons |
Design Two
Sketch |
Storyboard |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Vincent pulls up the app and inputs his destination, Europe, how long he is staying, 12 days, and the nature of his trip (vacation). He also inputs his gender so the list generated by the app can be tailored more. |
Pros- The layout is very simple, and it is clear where the travel information should be entered Cons- There is no indication of how to move to the next view |
Pros
- All the fields for information to be entered is located in one place, making it easy to quickly enter all the information at once Cons- Entering all the information via typing may be a bit time consuming |
Pros
- If a mistake is made in entering travel information, it is easy to simply re-select the field and correct the information Cons- There is no indication of how to change travel information once Vincent has moved to the next view. |
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Vincent sees a two paneled screen. He wants to check the weather in Germany, his first destination, so he looks at the upper panel and sees that the panel contains weather information. He wants to see the average weather over the next several weeks, so after some exploring he sees a little graph icon in the bottom of the weather panel, clicks that, and is displayed with the temperature over time. After he has checked the weather, he's now ready to start packing. He decides to start with toiletries, as those are his most precious items. He looks at the bottom panel and sees that there is a toiletries category. |
Pros
- The suitcase on top of the scale is a clear metaphor to the user that the suitcase is 'being weighed' and therefore the user can see the estimated weight of their suitcase on the scale Cons- Since the view is evenly divided between the weather widget and the scale/suitcase, it is not immediately clear what the main purpose of the view is |
Pros
- For each widget visible on this view, there is at most one action to be done, making it fast to complete actions Cons- Because the widget can be toggled left and right, in order to find out what each widget is the user would have to toggle through all the widgets to discover them. |
Pros- Actions are reversible; e.g. if a user switches to another widget it is simple to toggle back to the original one Cons |
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He clicks the toiletries category and it opens a checklist with entries that were automatically generated for him. He packs conditioner and aspirin and checks the checkboxes next to the items. They immediately move to the bottom of the list. He realizes that the list hasn't autogenerated a toothbrush for him, so he decides to add it. He sees a textfield at the top of his screen called "Add another entry", so he taps it and enters "toothbrush" into textfield. It adds the entry to the top of his list. He selects the entry and sees details about the item appear at the bottom of his screen, such as weight and category. He also sees the option to "don't bring" the item. |
Pros- The checklist format is a familiar module for the user, making it intuitive for how to use it Cons- It may not be that intuitive to remove an item, since users would have to first select the item to view it's information, and then select remove |
Pros- The list of items is the first the that appears when the view is opened, letting the user quickly see all the items in the chosen category without additional traversing through the app. Cons- It takes a little more effort to remove an item, since the item has to be selected first and then removed by selecting 'Don't Bring' |
Pros- If a user accidentally marks an item as packed, it is easy to undo the mistake by simply selecting the item again (effectively toggling it's packed state). Cons |
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Vincent finishes packing everything in the clothing section, and only some things in the toiletries section. When he goes back to the main menu, he realizes that the categories where he has packed everything have a green icon in the corner. The categories where he has only packed some items appear as a yellow yield icon. Categories where he has packed no items have a red "x" in the corner. Now that he is midway through packing, he wants to know how much his current stuff weighs, in case he goes over the luggage weight limit. Conveniently, he realizes the weight is located at the top bottom panel. He sees he is over the limit, so he wants to know which category is taking up the most space. He searches around and notices that the bottom of each category also has a weight for all items in that category. |
Pros- The icons on the categories make it clear what the packing status is to the user Cons- The yield icon may not be as intuitive for representing partially packed |
Pros- Because the icons are visible on a higher level, at the level of categories of items to pack, users can quickly glance at the category icons in the suitcase widget to determine how much they have packed. Cons- Although the weight counter does say how much the items in total will weigh, the user doesn't really have a way of determining which category weighs the most without selecting the category and looking at the weights of each item in the category individually |
ProsCons- If the user sees that a certain category does not have the correct icon, it is not as easy to correct the mistake since the user would have to select the category and peruse the list of items to see which item was marked as packed/unpacked when it should be the opposite. |
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Vincent has finally finished packing but he realizes he's pretty bad at it because his luggage is pretty much overflowing. He wants to check how to pack more efficiently, so he goes to the main menu again and sees two arrows on the left and right edges of the upper panel and 5 dots near that bottom that indicate there are more panels to the left and right. He decides to check those out, and swipes left. On the left is panel for packing tips! He follows the instructions and now everything fits perfectly. |
Pros- The packing tips are simple and laid out so the user can easily read them Cons- The user might not know that there are packing tips, since they would have to toggle left and right to discover it in the first place |
ProsCons- To reach the packing tips the user has to toggle left or right, so it will take some intermediary steps before they can arrive at them |
Pros- If a user accidentally toggles past a packing tip, it would be a simple matter to toggle back to the packing tip they were originally on Cons |
Design Three
Sketch |
Storyboard |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Vincent starts by pulling up the app. He sees a preliminary screen prompting him to input information about his trip and himself. He types in Europe as his destination for the trip, inputs how long his trip is (12 days), and then select his mode of transportation (airplane) via icons. He also selects his gender, and then presses 'Start Packing' to continue in the app. |
Pros- The input fields on the page make it very clear what information should be entered into which fields. Cons- When entering the length of the trip, it may not be as intuitive for the user to figure out how to change the unit of time (day, week, etc) |
Pros- Many of the icons are simply buttons, making it quick for the user to select an option as they enter their trip information. Cons |
Pros- * *If the destination is entered incorrectly, or the length of the trip entered correctly, it is easy to re-enter the destination information or toggle the length of the trip. Cons- Once the user has submitted their information, there is not really a way to fix their data if they have made a mistake and submitted it |
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The next screen displays shelves holding the different categories of items. Below shows a suitcase, representing the current items already packed. To the left of the suitcase is a box displaying the current estimated weight of the suitcase as Vincent packs. At the very bottom Vincent can also view packing tips, and to toggle them he can swipe left or right. To view the items in the clothes category, Vincent can select the clothes icon. |
Pros- The metaphor of items, such as clothes and toiletries, on a shelf makes it clear to the user that the shelf contains items to pack. Cons- At first glance, it is not immediately clear what the user should do, other than toggle the packing tips and click on the icons; thus users might not realize they are able to select the suitcase to view what is inside |
Pros-* *Because items are grouped into categories, it makes it faster for users to see what sorts of items they need to pack Cons- Users need to go one more view in to see the individual items that they need to pack |
Pros- If a user accidentally selects a category they did not mean to pack, it would be a simple task to simple return back to the original view Cons- It is not clear how a user could change the categories that appear based on the initial information that inputted, since there is no way of changing the settings of their trip |
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In the clothes category view, Vincent can view exactly which items he should bring and how many of each one he should bring. He decides to pack his shirts first, and to indicate that he has packed them, he drags the shirts icon into the suitcase below. For each item packed and dragged into the suitcase, the weight counter increases. Vincent also decides to add glasses to his list of clothes item to bring, so he presses the add button to add them to the shelf. To view what items he has already packed, he can select the suitcase to see them. |
Pros
- Icons match visual objects that the user is familiar with so they are instantly recognizable Cons- Users may not understand what a specific icon represents |
Pros
- Icons in corner telling how many of each item allows user to quickly view that information Cons- User may have difficult time locating items of shelves, because items could be scattered in random locations |
Pros
- User can add items or delete items easily Cons
- User may have difficulty adding or deleting only one item in a particular category |
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Taken to a view of items packed in the suitcase, Vincent can see exactly which items he has packed. In addition to viewing the items he has packed, he can remove them if he decides not to take them with him in the suitcase. Once he has finished with packing he closes the app and gets on his way to Europe. |
Pros
- Is essentially just a list, so easy for user to understand what is going on Cons
- Difficult to see options are available besides "delete" due to lack of visual cues |
Pros
- Delete next to icons is easy to spot, so deletions will be quick Cons
- List is uncategorized so user may have difficulty locating a particular item |
Pros
- User can delete items they mistakenly inputted Cons
- User cannot add back items immediately if they accidentally deleted them, must go back to main menu and add the item |
1 Comment
Victor J Wang
Input, view, suggest, add. Insightful to also include estimated weight of luggage. Good diversity in overall designs, good job exploring different ways of display and input (ie icon buttons versus text field, etc.) Overall good presentation - would improve readability if an "overview" paragraph was provided for each design.