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Problem | Severity | Possible Solutions |
|---|---|---|
1) No information on how to add notes for not logged in users | Major | Add message where add note would have been saying that you need to log in to add a note |
2) Tried to click on the thumbnail in a search result to get to project page | Major | Make the thumbnail clickable |
3) Nobody made an account-- all went straight to project search without bothering to create an account or log in* * | Major | Make it more obvious on the create account/log in page exactly what an account does. Move the note high up on the page and make it more prominent. |
5) Home page should not be a login page - it is visually unappealling and makes the user feel like they are FORCED to sign up | Major | Create a more appealing and informative home page that describes the purpose of the site, including a less obtrusive log in section. (Keep the current log in/create new account, but access it from the Log In/Log Out link on the navigation bar |
6) In project search, it is awkward that dollar options are subsets of each other | Minor | Use ranges (from $0-$9, $10-$19, etc.) or radio buttons instead of the checkbox options |
7) Clicked on pictures in the overview/project steps, expecting to see a larger image | Minor | Make it possible to view a larger version of the images included with the projects-- either through a dialog box with a larger version of the image, or open the full image in a new window |
8) Did not realize/use left and right arrow keys to navigate | Minor | Do more user testing (this time with actual sewing, instead of pretending to go through a project) to see if this feature is actually helpful to users. If it isn't remove it entirely, since it could lead to errors |
9) Keeping track of progress in a project was also never noticed | Major | Another problem with the visibility/learnability of user accounts -- make it MORE CLEAR on the (to be implemented?) home page exactly what a user account lets you do |
10) To jump between steps, either used the Back and Next buttons or went back to the instructions page, instead of using the Jump to step menu that is mean for this purpose | Minor | Try one of the following: Increase visibility of the Jump to step menu? Rename both to "Table of Contents"? Attach the accordion to the main "Instructions" tab, so clicking on that pulls down the menu instead of linking you back to the summary instructions page? |
Reflection
1) We were, perhaps, overzealous in latching on to the video chat/sewalong idea during the paper prototyping idea. It is easy to focus on non essential but interesting features and to believe that they are essential (because they are interesting). If we did the project again we would probably focus less on the video/chat feature because it was non essential.! Our paper prototyping/testing sessions were perhaps not as helpful as they could have been in the long run, since we ended up changing so much that the information that we gathered was not as relevant to our later designs.
2) We should not try to make our low fidelity computer prototypes overly complete. In our first computer prototype we implemented project search and sewing help search using js, and we never got around to updating them to use a database, potentially because we wanted to still use the code we wrote and not waste it (or to save work).
3) Because it was difficult to design for a user group that we were not a part of, we may have benefited from having someone with experience in the area serve as a sort of advisory role. Perhaps someone who was already skilled at sewing but could remember what hurdles they had to overcome