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Cons of Design #1: Learnability may not be very high, as it may be difficult for the user to figure out where each of the features are located (ie, travel networks are created from the profile page). The use of overlaid boxes for several actions might also result in some confusion to the user. Furthermore, although the Bulletin page only allows the user to post for roommates, it still has the potential to turn into a forum-style page; this would be an undesirable side effect.
Design #2
Home Page: After creating an account and logging in, Sarah will be directed to this simple page, where she will be presented with the choice of adding a trip or searching the current trips that have already been inputted by other students. Each of the pages on the site contain a navigation toolbar with three links: Home, Edit, and Logout. The "Home" link redirects here.
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Cons of Design #2: Since the design is so minimal, users might be underwhelmed by the lack of many possible desired features (such as a " bulletin " feature in addition to other possible desired featurespage to advertise for roommates).
Design #3
Home/Profile Page: Upon logging in, Sarah immediately sees the bulletin page, full of other students' advertisements. Her profile information and travel plans are visible on the left of the screen. The bulletin updates every five minutes. Please see attached PDF.
Map: To find people traveling to New York, Sarah clicks the Search tab at the top of the page and is confronted by a world map and a list of sample groups as well as groups she created. To narrow down her search to people in New York, Sarah double clicks on New York until she is zoomed-in. Sarah then clicks and selects all people in the immediate area of New York, and drags them to a group. A new group has thus been created.
This feature is easily learnable and demonstrates direct manipulation. It is also clean and a good change-up from the other text-based components (Bulletin and Search).
Search: To see if there are other people in her New York group who are looking for roommates, Sarah clicks on the Search tab at the top of the page. By typing into the search textbox and applying the correct filters, Sarah can see a list of other people’s advertisements for New York roommates.
Design #4
Home Page: Sarah is immediately shown a "pick a location" page for the purposes of both searching locations and adding The page as the website-wide TravelTech logo that acts as a new triplink to the homepage and also My Info and Logout buttons that take Sarah to her account page and log her out, respectively.
Trip/Search Details: Once Sarah selects a location and clicks the arrow to go to the next page, she is presented with a calendar view that allows her to select the date range of her search/addition. The top of the page once again contains the links to the homepage, her account page, and to log out.
Results: When Sarah has chosen the date range of her trip or search, she is taken to a results page that shows her an interactive graph of other people in the area during the time of her trip. She can scroll over any of the trips on the graph to see the name of the person and to be given the option to add them to a Travel Group (chosen from a drop down menu). She also can choose to Add Trip to add her "search" as a trip under her name.
Profile Page: If Sarah clicks the My Info button at the top of any page, she will be taken to a page that allows her to edit Travel Groups and her Trips. Her Groups will be displayed as a simple list while her trips will be displayed on a map (by location), and clicking the locations will provide an edit and delete popup window.
Pros of Design #4: Design 4 provides the user with a very interactive and intuitive interface that allows for adding trips and conducting searches with very little typing and effort. The results are also shown in an a fresh style that lets the user see specific timing and distance details. The system is very efficient once users learn it because data can be quickly entered with just the mouse. This design is also safe, it allows the user to change any of the inputted data, though the user may have to navigate through a few pages to do so.
Cons of Design #4: The design may be initially confusing to some users because of the lack of instructions and the dependency on a user's prior experience with Google Map-style apps. Also, while the results are displayed in a new fashion, users tend to have a hard time to read graphs and process large amounts of data at once. Because of this, learnability would be the largest issue with this type of design.