This is the home screen of the application. Displayed is a list of the open washers and dryers. There is one open washer (Washer 2) that is idle, meaning that the machine is inactive, but still contains the clothing of a previous user. There are currently no open dryers, but it is displayed that the next one will be open in 12 minutes. If Ginny wants to listen on this dryer, she can click the "Notify me!" button, and will receive a text message in 12 minutes, when the dryer has stopped running. Ginny also has the option of viewing the laundry map, which is a layout of all the laundry machines in her facility, color-coded by availability (this is not a feature that we have detailed in this scenario).
If Ginny decides she wants to use Washer 2, she can click on the down arrow to the right of it for more options and details.
When Ginny clicks on the down arrow, the box expands and shows several options. Firstly, it shows that some laundry care instructions were left by the previous user. Ginny clicks on the note icon to find out what they are.
The previous user wants Ginny to use laundry sheets when drying his/her clothing. Ginny is confused, because there are two different boxes of laundry sheets in the facility.
Ginny therefore sends an anonymous message to the previous user, asking whether she should use the blue box of laundry sheets or the pink one.
Ginny receives a response from the user of Washer 2, explaining that he/she wants the blue dryer sheets. Ginny has the option of messaging the user again, but since she received a satisfactory answer to her question, she closes the notification. Ginny is now able to correctly run the user's laundry.
Ginny is back at the home screen, with the expanded options for Washer 2. Now that the washer is empty, Ginny will use it to wash her own robes. However, when they're finished washing, she wants to make sure they are dried on the delicate cycle. Therefore, she clicks on the next icon to leave her own note.
She specifies that she wants her robes dried on the delicate cycle and clicks the "Leave Note" button.
Once again, Ginny returns to the home screen. If she wants to know when her robes are done washing, she can click on the "Notify me!" button and the system will send her a text message when the next washing cycle has finished.
The app gives a confirmation that she will receive a notification when her clothes are done washing.
Ginny has indicated (through a notification request) that she is waiting on Washer 2. Now, when she returns to the home screen, she can view a count-down at the top that tells her how many minutes there are left until her robes are done washing.
Analysis
Learnability
Overall, this design has few learnability issues. The home screen shows a clear list of open washers and dryers, and it is intuitive and externally consistent that the launderer should click on the down arrow to learn more about the options for a particular washer. One issue, however, is that it is not quite clear what "Idle" means here. The idea is to provide two descriptions - "free" and "idle." "Free" means that the machine is empty and ready to be used. "Idle" means that the machine has finished its work, but the previous user has not removed his/her clothing yet. We might consider somehow making this distinction more clear.
The expanded box of options is also pretty self-explanatory. The fact that you can view notes from a previous user and leave your own notes is clear. The "Notify Me!" button may, perhaps, be ambiguous in this view. It is meant to give the user a way to "listen" on this machine and receive a notification the next time it has finished running (this assumes that the user plans on running this machine for him/herself). However, some users may think that they will be notified when the machine has turned from idle to free. Perhaps we can give a more descriptive button in this place.
In addition, though the system of messaging between users is very simple to use, it is not explicitly stated that the messaging will be anonymous. This is something that a user may want to know, so we should probably indicate it somewhere.
Efficiency
This design seems very efficient. It does not force the user to wade through any of the more time-consuming features (leaving notes, messaging other users). But if a user is interested in using these features, they are at least implemented in a minimalist way.
A high proportion of our users are probably only interested in using this app to remotely see if any machines are open. In this case, the user only has to open the app to the home screen to find out all they need.
It is slightly less efficient to force users to click on a down arrow to view more details about a machine, but doing away with this would make the home screen much less clear and very busy-looking.
One efficiency problem is that, when a user wants to leave notes about laundry care, the chances are he will be leaving the same note every time he uses the app. This design does not allow storing and re-using previous notes, but it's definitely something we should include.
Safety
There are a few safety issues we can see in this design. Firstly, there is no up arrow in the expanded options box. This should be included, as the box takes up a lot of space on the screen and it would be nice for the user to re-collapse it upon clicking it (accidentally or not).
When the launderer views a message left by a previous user and interacts with this other user, we should be sure to include some way for the launderer to review this interaction, in case he forgets the specific instructions. Perhaps this messaging system should consist less of individual notification messages, and more of a continuous dialogue screen, showing the whole history of messages. The user should not be expected to recall the entire conversation.
In the current design, it isn't clear that the user can edit the note that he has left. If a user has left a note for a machine, we should change the message in the options box from "Leave a note" to "Edit your note."