...
Food is added by storage location. Erin specifies location by clicking on the appropriate tab. She enters the food items one by one, specifying their expiration date (if they have one listed) and any other notes. When the entry box is selected, a cursor is displayed. By default the food is listed as purchased on the current date. This can either be changed item by item or for all items using the purchase data at the top of the window. Changing the data on individual items overrides the data set on the top. If more items need to be added, more item entries can be added using the plus sign. Items are submitted by clicking the button at the bottom right of the addition window. (looks like a smudge on the scan).
...
This design values efficiency over learnability. There are no splash screens explaining procedures. Each entry box has a label near it, however, as well as having the mode displayed on the menu bar by means of highlighting the name current page. The nested menu idea (with the clickable triangles) used for displaying food is similar to file systems in operating systems like Mac OS X aiding learnability. I expect the most complicated part to learn would be searching for recipes, as there is no dedicated search page. The status bar at the top will initially include a message about selecting the check boxes near food and then hitting the recipe button, but there is no guarantee that users would read that. Efficiency is hindered slightly by the fact the users must separately enter items and price. Users also must specify a location for food items, and add items in different locations in different views. For users who don’t organize food by location in their head (aka, want to add milk, then cereal, then ice cream, each in different locations), this system would not be efficient. This tradeoff is made to prevent users from having to type/select the location for each food item, would would also not be efficient. In looking for items, users can either scroll through the entire list, or use the search at the top of the page, speeding up the process.
Visibility Error Prevention/Correction:
Users are prone to make errors when they type, and there is a lot of text entry in this design. The status message includes a link that will allow you to undo the last action (such as add food) so that users can undo a change if they notice quickly. Otherwise, if a user added the wrong food, (and it was more than one click on the sight ago) they just have to delete all the foods they added and re-add the correct items. The time to do this would be improved by searching for the item, but it’s still not fast. The same holds for adding purchases to the budget page.
Error Prevention/CorrectionVisibility:
The page the user is on is visible (via highlighting) on the left on the menu bar. Unfortunately, this may not always be visible, however, i the user has a lot of items listed and scrolls down to look at the bottom of the list. The links on the menu also have a good information scent by listing the actions that can be taken after clicking on that link. Then menu bar will be colored differently than the rest of the page, but an additional afforance, such as a clickable texture, would also be useful. The same is true for the tabs on food entry page. Text boxes will include a cursor when selected, to make it clear which box it being edited when.
Design 2:
Upon loading the website, Erin sees the Dough home page. It is easy for her to find the login button at the top, and she enters her username and password in the modal dialog box that appears when she clicks it.
...