1. Improvements over GR5
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Usability and Design:
- Feedback on the active section was added by changing the color of its menu button.
- When clicking Locate in Map from a Search Result, the Map is directly opened in the correct tank, not only in the floor.
- Some minor broken links to picture files and animal names were fixed.
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- We have iterated through various versions of a design that is circular, very simple, and ties animals, events, and location together. The events page has been hard because there is a lot information attached to each event and including all of it, for all events, quickly makes the page overloaded and confusing. Our latest version focused on coarse-graining information, i.e., more detailed information is shown if the user asks for it, and allowing the user to directly manipulate the events available that day, i.e., the user can sort, drag, and delete events from the page. However, this approach required us to include safety features that were somewhat abrupt. For example, if a user deleted all events and wanted to get them back, a ‘Reload Events’ could be pressed to have them reappear. Moreover, the temporal relationship between events, which is inherent in any list of scheduled items, was not captured by the interface and could only be obtained by looking at the small hour numbers for each event. We incorporated the comments from our TA and have modified this page to account for these problems. We show events in temporal order and have the hour be the most significant text on each element. This makes the list look like some type of calendar that is as simple as it can be but also allows for access to all the information regarding it (animals, location, specific information regarding the event with more pictures). Additionally, we replaced the remove feature with a button beneath each timed element that can be marked and unmarked. The idea is that the user will associate time, event, and this marking system, and will use it to keep track of what they are planning on attending. This also allows us to remove the drastic ‘Reload Events’ safety feature and simply let the user mark and unmark as needed.
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Tickets:
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- Disable selecting a past date for tickets.
- Change <= to English word.
- Change some design so that the total price is more visible.
- Add cookie functionality so that if a user has already bought a ticket, going to the ticket section display the confirmation page.
- Add a purchase button at the confirmation page.
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Maps:
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- Make the affordance for linking to animals stronger by changing the style of the links.
- Change the text of level buttons to achieve consistency
- In Chrome and Safari, the position of the map is in the left of the page so that the map would not be obscured by the tank pop up and clicking in a tank close the pop up.
2. Design
2.1 Design Flowchart:
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