Table of Contents

Scenario

Jane is the mother of two sons, Bob and Steve. After hearing of underwater basket weaving and its potential to become the next Olympic sport, Bob asks to be enrolled in a class at the nearest pool, located approximately 30 miles away. Recognizing her young son’s promise in the sport, Jane agrees.

...

Everything proceeds according to plan until Steve’s goldfish dies one day, tragically and unexpectedly, and Jane needs to stay home to console her mourning son. She logs on to Get Your Ride to alert the other parents and find a replacement since she can no longer drive the children. Soon after, Vladimir responds, notifying the parents that he can take the children in place of Jane. Jane successfully swaps days with Vladimir.

Sketches and Storyboards

Design 1: Efficient

Design 1 provides maximum efficiency. A tabbed layout is used to provide quick access to the various tasks the user can perform. The first tab is for the primary task, searching for an event. In that tab, the user progressively enters more information until he can see the event he is interested in and the other people interested in carpooling to that event. At that point, the user sees the value of the site and thus has a motivation for dealing with signing up, so the registration process is then initiated. Only once the user signs up do the other tabs become visible. This storyboard demonstrates our first design in action.

...

Upon registering for the site and adding herself to the event, Jane can now select the checkboxes next to Alyssa and Vladimir and click the button to email them.

Design 2:  Illustrative

Design 2 takes an illustrative approach, catering towards those who are illiterate or have poor English skills. There are two main motivations behind designing with this group in mind. First, one of our interviewees was an immigrant who had trouble connecting with other parents due to language barriers. Second, although parents as a whole are generally capable of using technology for their daily needs, they prefer interacting with simpler interfaces that are easy and intuitive; an illustrative approach would satisfy this need. As such, the design optimizes for learnability, but sacrifices efficiency. This storyboard aims to walk through most important features of Design 2, from Jane's initial sign up to Jane dealing with her first scheduling conflict.

...

From the user homepage, Jane clicks the second icon to see messages from the basket weaving carpool. (The navigation to get there is exactly the same as that of the pending requests view.) The most prominent display here is the chat-style messaging system. Vladimir has replied, and they agree to a swap. They can keep track by clicking the “Full Schedule” icon on the left-hand side and editing in the changes.

Design 3:  Mobile

Design 3 tackles non-computer interfaces, specifically targeting mobile phones. This design is essentially a condensed version of the original application. Ideally, it would only be used once a carpool account has been set up online. Our storyboard works under this assumption.

The first screen is a sign-in display. It also has a “remember me” option to make it faster to use while on the fly. Note that we include a “Do not use while driving” message as a reminder for users to prioritize safety while using our application. Jane enters her email and password that she previously set up online.

...

However, since Jane needs to stay home with Steve today, she needs to inform the other members of her carpool in order to find a replacement. She returns to the home screen to press the "I can't make it" button. The “I can’t make it” button displays different options to inform the carpool members. Jane can then use the app to call, text, or email the members about the time conflict.

Analysis

Design 1:  Efficient

Pros

• Learnability: The tab structure follows the real-world metaphor of file folders, a method of organization that most parents would be familiar with.
• Efficiency: The design allows the user to get started very quickly by immediately typing in the event they are looking for upon arriving at site.
• Efficiency: Minimal investment is required since signing in or signing up is only requested after the user has found the event that for which they want to carpool.
• Efficiency: All of the required steps, from searching for an event to finding other interested parents, occurs within a single page.
• Efficiency: A floating sidebar on the right allows the user to quickly access other parts of the form on the page.
• Efficiency: The tab structure allows the user to quickly switch between different tasks.

Cons

• Learnability: Some users may not understand what the various UI input fields are asking for since the design lacks dense descriptions or pictures.
• Learnability: With so many options in one place to promote efficiency, beginners may not find the UI intuitive.
• Safety: Since the form does not use multiple pages, the users will lose all of their entered information if they accidentally press the back button.

Design 2:  Illustrative

Pros

• Learnability: Images are easy to understand for people who are not fluent in English.
• Learnability: There isn’t an overwhelming amount of text, so the user simply needs to glance rather than read; by information foraging theory, the interface provides good information scent.
• Learnability: When users are trying to find a carpool, the progress bar clearly communicates how many steps are left in the process.
• Learnability, Efficiency, Safety: Auto-complete helps user understand what they should input.
• Efficiency: The schedule view prioritizes the most vital information first (the user's next pick-up time), while presenting less vital information as links.
• Efficiency: An editable schedule is linked beside the group chat interface, in anticipation of the fact that a major reason why the parents would need to communicate with each other is that they need to swap days.
• Safety: Since nearly all the windows are pop-ups and each of these have a highly visible "X" icon, the user is in control because they can see the homescreen at all times and know that they can easily return to the homescreen once they exit out of the pop-up.

Cons

• Learnability: Images do not mean the same thing to everyone and may actually confuse some people who are unused to seeing them.
• Efficiency: The user must click "Next" every time; the form is not located all on one page.
• Efficiency: The user needs to click through multiple levels of button links to access groups, which could be slow and frustrating if the user has many carpools to keep track of.
• Efficiency, Safety: Pop-up windows require that the user first exit out of the window before going anywhere else. If the user seeks to return to that window, they'll have to go through all the steps again.

Design 3:  Mobile

Pros

• Learnability: The interface is simple and intuitive to use.
• Efficiency: Since mobile phones are generally personal devices, the user stays logged in, so they only need to sign in once.
• Efficiency: Since this does not offer the full capability of the website, the few options are very easy to access and fast to utilize.
• Safety: It is easy to navigate between tabs/activities.
• Safety: There are few options, so making an error is unlikely.

Cons

• Efficiency: The mobile interface is unable to complete all the tasks that users could perform from the website.
• Safety: Because some buttons are so easily accessible, they may be pressed accidentally. (For example, it might be troublesome if the user accidentally presses “I can’t make it.")
• Safety: Since the form does not use multiple pages, the user will lose all of their entered information if they accidentally press the back button.