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Round 1 Analysis: Usability Problems and Changes to Prototype

Learnability

• Because some users mistakenly looked around in "My Carpools" before noticing the "Next Date" tab, we decided to highlight the tab to make it more obvious.
• Some non-native English speaking testers were confused by the wording on the "My Carpools" tab. We had referred to the user as "You" when assigning pickup dates on the schedule, which could be misconstrued as a person's name in some languages. In this new prototype, we decided to simply refer to the user by their name instead.
• Originally, we didn't want to include instructions because, as discussed in class, a good user interface does not require much explanation. However, swapping dates is not a regular function, and all of our testers had trouble with that task. The same can be said about choosing your availability when setting up a carpool. We decided to include more descriptive instructions for availability and the swapping interfaces, sacrificing efficiency for the sake of learnability.
• Users had a lot of trouble figuring out how to swap dates. We decided to scrap our original design altogether and add a separate tab specifically devoted to date swaps so that the function could be more easily accessed (also ties in with efficiency).
• Because all three users complained about the wording for the ride tracking interface on the mobile app, we changed "Track Ride" and "Untrack Ride" to "Enable Ride Tracking" and "Disable Ride Tracking," respectively, to make the button labels more intuitive and improve learnability.

Efficiency

• Some users wished that the date were displayed somewhere on the interface. We chose to add a date display after "Welcome,_______."
• It was noted that the calendar would be more useful if it weren't limited to a single month. We added the option for the user to browse between months.
• Some users thought that it would be helpful for additional information to be displayed on the full schedule. We decided not to go forward with this suggestion because we wanted the interface to be as simple as possible, providing on the relevant information.
• Users wanted to be able to view their schedules before agreeing to a swap, so we included an option to allow them to view their full carpooling schedules on the same page, improving efficiency through anticipation.

Safety

• Although we attempted to address safety in tasks 2 (having the responsible parent to confirm, so that other parents would know their children hadn't been forgotten) and 5 (allowing other parents to track the responsible parent's drive), we failed to address safety considerations in task 1, the initial group formation. Users were concerned about the safety of their children: why are the class details visible to the public; parents don't have any information about Alyssa and Vladimir before selecting them. We decided that by having a teacher or coach give out a code in order to sign up for carpooling on the site, we could significantly lower the chances of encountering people with questionable intentions.
• Some users were frustrated with the lack of undo options on both the calendar loading and date swapping interfaces. We added the option to toggle the calendar between expanded and contracted states. We changed the date swapping interface from a pop-up screen to its own tab, so that users would be able to navigate away and return at will.

Second Iteration

Prototype Photos

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