 | Storyboard
This panel is where Phyllis would create her new trip. It is a lot like the multi-city mode for Kayak.com First she would log in, which would bring up her view and automatically start her in this tab. Then she would enter her starting address in the first textbox at the top (which has address autocomplete). In the next textbox to the right she would enter her preferred departure date by typing it in or using the standard calendar widget. She would also choose a time from the dropdown menu, whose default option is "anytime" but also includes options like "early morning", "evening" and then specific hours.
She then proceeds to enter all of her planned stops along the way, using the same functionality as the starting point. She also chooses a "type" for each location using radio buttons which include "client", "hotel" and "other" which will aid in later auditing. She can add additional stops by clicking on the "Add destination" hyperlink which always appears at the bottom of the list.
She can also view previous trips by clicking on an item in the list of links on the right, which includes a scrollbar if she has many trips. This may help her fill out the current trip if she visits many of the same clients and can't remember an address, for example. The scrollbar is in a separate view.
When she is done entering stops, she clicks the "Generate Trip" button, which will display a map of the trip and suggested meeting times along the way in a separate screen (not shown). | Visibility
Some good aspects of visibility is the navigation state is provided by tabs at the top so she knows what mode she is in. There is good information information scent by using standard widgets like calendar icons, radio buttons, dropdown menus and hyperlinks.
Some problems with the visibility may be the list on the right of the page obscuring lots of previous trips. Also, it does not show the map or suggested times of the trip until the user presses "Generate". | Learnability
The main positive of this interface is that that it is consistent with familiar travel websites like kayak.com or expedia.com.
A bad part of the interface, however, is that the user cannot build a trip through trial and error because they have to press generate every time they make a change, wait for a map to load, and then shuffle back and forth; thus feedback is poor. | Efficiency
The interaction style is menu and form and tries to balance learnability with efficiency. For example, the address textboxes are all autocomplete. In addition, expert users can simply type in dates rather than using the calendar widget.
That being said, it is not quite as efficient as something like Google maps, as there is a "Generate" trip step in between user input and the trip being displayed to the user. | Errors
Sources of potential error in this interface are that the user enters the wrong address, type of location, or perhaps enters a sub-optimal sequence of trips.
The autocomplete function should help prevent incorrect addresses. In addition, the engine behind the interface should optimize for the trip even if the user enters a sub-optimal sequence.
Finally, errors are recoverable because the user is able to add and delete legs of the trip easily. |
