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- As instructor, create and submit your initial schedule before the season begins. You wish to work as a children’s snowboard instructor every Sunday during the day, a racing instructor all Tuesday evenings except December 25, 2012 and January 1, 2013, and an adults’ ski instructor on two Friday nights, January 11, 2013 and February 1, 2013.
- As instructor, request to remove yourself from the schedule for January 20, 2013.
- As instructor, request to add yourself to the schedule as an adults’ snowboard instructor for the evening shift on January 21, 2013.
- As admin, notice that the instructor Sam has requested several schedule changes. Approve his schedule changes.
- As admin, mark Sam as being excused from his shift on January 13, 2013. Also mark him as having been absent on December 11, 2012.
Observations
First iteration user testing
User Test #1
Task 1
- Difficulties
- Not sure whether to click a day or discipline first, esp. if it will filter the display
- Not sure how to get back to the regular cursor
- Not sure how to scroll months (prob. didn’t see the scrollbar because it was partially obscured at first #paperprototypeproblems)
- Assumes clicking on a selected shift will toggle it off
- Successes
- The mouse cursor changing indicates that you can use it for multiple actions
Task 2
- Difficulties
- Hoping you could clear a shift by clicking on it
- Successes
- Went straight to submit when done
Task 3
- Difficulties
- Had a very unclear mental model – didn’t know if the calendar was something he was controlling, or requesting for changes
Task 4
- Difficulties
- Wanted a way to view all instructors currently on a shift (ended up “opening a new tab” to see that view)
- Not sure if he had to press Submit, since the approve buttons disappeared and they were buttons
- Successes
- Found the approve buttons really quickly
Task 5
- Difficulties
- None
- Successes
- Immediately went for the buttons and the shifts, and hit submit. (Noted that the E and A seemed appropriately clear.)
User Test #2
Task 1
- Difficulties
- Was about to click on a shift icon to clear it, but then clicked the eraser (still, was confused for a bit)
- Wanted a way to select the same shift every week
- spent a while trying to find one
- tried clicking on the sun icon in the month header
- and tried clicking on the Sunday header
- Expected that clicking on the box after 1/31 would mark 2/1
- Successes
- Went straight for Jr. Snow icon
- Used scrollbar to move view
- When she needed to clear more mistakes, she went straight for the clear button.
- Used scrollbar while cursor was a diff. icon without trouble.
- Hit submit when done.
Task 2
- Difficulties
- Clicked the icon for the shift to clear (toggling)
- Successes
- Went straight for Submit
Task 3
- Successes
- Did it right immediately
Task 4
- Difficulties
- Probably only hit Submit because we looked expectant
- Successes
- Hit both Accept buttons quickly
Task 5
- Successes
- It all went very smoothly
User Test #3
Task 1
- Difficulties
- Clicked Jr-board to clear the cursor so he could switch it
- Clicked “Submit Request” to too early // it had been changed
- He missed a lot of shifts, but we think this wouldn’t have happened normally, because a real instructor would have known to look for each shift he/she wanted #paperprototypeproblems
- Was confused about shifts that weren’t there (“Does that mean it’s already taken?”)
- Successes
- Went straight for Jr-board icon
Task 2
- Difficulties
- Tried to click on a shift to clear it (toggling!)
- Afraid to hit clear, as if it might clear everything
- Successes
- Went straight for Submit at the end
Task 3
- Successes
- Had no problems
Task 4
- Difficulties
- Unsure of where to click (probably didn’t see the panel at top, since it was a transparency #paperprototypeproblems)
Task 5
- Successes
- No problems – A and E were again clear enough
First iteration summary
Overall Difficulties
- They were not sure how to get the regular cursor back, or what they could do with the icons as the cursor.
- All three of our users assumed clicking on a shift already in place would toggle it (i.e. unselect it).
- They wanted a way to select a shift the same day/time every week.
- They weren't sure if changes on the calendar were requested or immediately changed.
- They weren't sure if they had to press Submit to approve changes as an admin.
- They had trouble scrolling through the months
- likely a paper prototype issue
Overall successes
- They appreciated that the mouse cursor changed, indicating that they could use it for multiple actions.
- By task 2, they had learned to hit Submit when done in the instructor mode.
- Once they found the discipline icons, they seemed to have no trouble differentiating between disciplines.
- They had no trouble finding and using E and A icons.
Prototype Iteration
These are the changes made to the paper prototype between the two rounds of testing:
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