GR2: Design
Scenario
Alice, Bob, and Christine are doing a research project together at MIT. They have a research paper submission in a week. After several days of struggling to get arrange meetings and failing to get the whole group together, they decide to take advantage of an app that they have, called Discover.Me, that can better facilitate their meetings.
Alice:
She volunteered to setup the meeting using Discover.Me. Unfortunately, she is currently not friends with Bob on Discover.Me.
She:* Opens the application
- Navigates to the “Search For Friends” screen
- Types “Bob” into the search bar and sees a list of similar names from the MIT directory
After Bob accepts the request, she decides to create the event.
She:* Navigates to the “New Event” page
- Types in “Project Meeting!!!” into the event name field
- Sets the meeting to take place that afternoon from 2pm-4pm
- Navigates to the “Invite Friends” page
- Types in Bob's name in the search bar
- Sees a list of her friends, narrowed down to names similar to “Bob”, and selects Bob
- Repeats this process with Christine
While doing some reading, she is distracted by her phone lighting up.
She:* Sees a notification that Christine requested a change to the event time
- Accepts the updated event
Bob
During a short study break he checks his phone for any new notifications.
He:* Opens the application
- Sees a notification for a pending friend request
- Navigates to the “Pending Friend Request” page
- Sees that the request is from Alice and accepts her request
Later, he checks again for the event invite.
He:* Navigates to the “Pending Event Request” page
- Sees the invite from Alice
- Accepts the invite, since he knows he is available
- …
- Receives updated invitation
- Accepts updated event
Christine
Having just woken up from a nap, she decides to see if she has any notifications.
She:* Opens the application
- Sees a notification for a pending event request
- Navigates to the “Pending Event Request” page
- Sees that she has been invited to “Project Meeting!!!”
- Navigates to her Events page to see if she is free then
- Sees a list of events she replied to
- Sees that she had accepted the invite to another project meeting, marked in green, at the same time
- Rejects Alice's invite with a note suggesting to change the times of the event to be 4pm-6pm
- …
- Receives updated invitation
- Accepts updated event
Designs
Design #1
Sub-Task |
Sketch |
Description |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Launch App |
a |
This is the entry point of the application, and is the first screen that the user faces when it is first launched. This is termed the Home Screen. |
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Listing Friends. |
b |
Alice wants to view the list of friends that she has using this app, and also approved her. She taps on the Friends Icon on the Action Bar, and it pops and overlaying dialogue. It currently shows two of her friends, Boris and Christine which are sorted alphabetically. Alice wants to search for for Bob to add to this list, and taps the icon with the `+'-plus sign on the top right of the dialog. |
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Searching for Bob. |
c, d |
The app dismisses the dialog box, and presents the user with the Add Friend screen. An icon with a left-arrow is the Back Button, which dismisses the page and brings the user back to the previous page (the Home Screen in this case.) should she change her mind. |
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Viewing Bob's profile and sending an "Add Request" to Bob. |
e, f |
The app brings up the Information View. It lists Bob's name, email-address, office and any other profile information as already available on his public MIT directory listing. Alice knows that this is the Bob she is looking for, and taps on the Send Friend Request button to confirm her intent to send a request to this particular Bob to add as a friend in Discover.Me. |
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Receiving confirmation from Bob through a Notification. |
g |
After Bob's approval of Alice's request, Alice is notified by a counter on the Notifications icon in the Action Bar. Alice taps on the icon to bring up the Notifications dialog, and there she sees that Bob had accepted her request. She dismisses the dialog. |
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Viewing location of all approved friends. |
h |
This reveals the Home Screen once again. The Map View shows an additional _Blue-_dot, which corresponds to the newly-added Bob's location (Building 19). Alice notices that both Christine (Building 20) and Bob(Building 19) are located relatively close to her (Building 20). She decides that it could possibly be a good time to arrange a meeting for all three of them for a cup of coffee. She taps on the Events Icon in the Action Bar. |
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Viewing listed events. |
i |
The app launches the Events List dialog. Alice notices that she has no scheduled events from the dialog that pops up. She taps on the "+"-plus icon to create a new event. |
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Creating an event for friends - Bob, Christine and Alice herself. |
j |
The Create New Event view is brought up. It provides text boxes for Alice to fill up, corresponding to the details of the event she wants to organize right now. The Title is a self-defined title which best describes the event. The Location text box is used to define the location of the event. The Time section indicates the Start Time, End Time and Time-Zone of the event. The Participants text box lists the participants of the event and the Comments text box is a free-entry text for an additional information the organizer might want to add. |
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Selecting a location for the event. |
k |
This brings Alice to the Map View, but it is in the mode which allows her to tap on a location to select a location for the event she is creating. A small semi-transparent note instructs her on how to select a location. Alice decides that Building 24 is a good location that is close to all three of them. She also really likes the coffee there. She taps on Building 24 on the screen to indicate her choice. |
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Confirming the location for the event. |
l |
A Pin Icon animates and drops on the point Alice tapped. White Lines are drawn to between a participant and the pin location to indicate that he/she is invited. It thus shows that Alice, Bob and Christine are all invited to participate in the event. |
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Selecting participants for the event. |
m |
The Select Participants view is brought up. It presents the list of friends that Alice has (corresponding the to Friend's List). Check-boxes are located on the left of each cell containing the friend's name. There is a search bar located at the top to enable Alice to search for people by typing, or she can make use of the fast-alphabetical scroll-bar located on the right of the screen. |
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Reviewing and sending the event to friends - Bob and Christine. |
n |
Alice is returned back to the Create New Event screen. The information which she has provided is now reflected in the screen. She is happy with her selection and taps the Done button to confirm that she wants to create the event and invite the selected participants to it. |
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Viewing the created event |
o |
The screen is dismissed and Alice is returned to the Home Screen. A non-blocking semi-transparent overlay notifies Alice that the invite has been successfully sent out to the users. Alice taps on the Events Icon to bring up the Events List again. It is now populated with her recently created event, giving a summary of the title, date, time and location of the event. Alice may tap on the event to make changes to it, but she does not have any reason to do so right now. She awaits the acceptance of the invite from both Bob and Christine. |
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Receiving notification of an event. |
p |
On Bob and Christine's side, they receive a Notification in their app, which once against is indicated on the counter above the Notifications Icon. Tapping on the icon brings up the Notifications dialog once again. |
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Viewing the event details and accepting the invitation. |
q |
On their respective phones and apps, Bob and Alice tap on the cell in the Notifications dialog. This brings up the View Event screen, which is similar to the Map View. At the top, the title of the event "Coffee" is listed, as well as the participants invited as indicated by dots on the screen. The pin corresponds to the location. |
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Proposing a change to the event. |
r |
The Propose Change view pops up for Christine, which is similar to what Alice saw in her Create Event screen. It is populated with the details of the event. Since Christine only wants to change the time of the event, she taps on the Time section. |
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Proposing a change of time for the event. |
s, t |
This brings up_ the Start & End Time view. Christine may alter the Start Time, End Time, Time Zone or Date of the event. She wants to suggest shifting the event _back by one hour, so that the event now starts at 3:00 PM instead of 2:00 PM. She taps on the Start, and uses the Date & Time ticker at the bottom to modify the start time to 3:00PM. As she changes the time, it gets reflected in the corresponding sections in the top half of the screen. The End Time automatically shifts back by one hour to 4:00PM, so as to maintain the duration of the meeting. She is done, so she taps on the Done button. |
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Receiving a notification for a proposed change to the event. |
u |
Alice receives a notification, and taps on the Notification Icon to view the list of notifications received. She sees Christine's proposed change as the latest, unread notification. She taps on it to view the details of the changes. |
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Reviewing proposed changes to event |
v |
This brings up the Modify Event view. Alice can see that the Time of the event has been modified, because there is an *-asterisk next to that section. The modified time as proposed by Christine is now reflected in that section, and at the bottom, a summary of proposed changes by Christine is shown. Alice is happy to shift the event to 3:00PM and clicks on Done to resend the new invitation out back to Bob and Christine. |
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Confirming the event |
w |
Bob sees the updated invitation and accepts it. |
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Design #2
Task |
Sketch |
Description |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Design #3
Subtask |
Sketch |
Description |
Learnability |
Efficiency |
Safety |
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Entering the Home Screen |
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The screen presents few details to Alice. She sees some of her Friends and quickly realizes that she can find more friends by scrolling down the list or by using the Search text bar. |
Alice can immediately search for her friends by tapping the Search text bar near the top of the screen. She has one-tap access to a listing of her Events and Friend Invitations. |
Buttons and selections are made large so that Alice can tap the right targets on the screen. Alice may accidentally hit the Exit button when she taps on the Search text bar. |
Searching for friends |
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The Keyboard automatically appears telling Alice to begin typing. Alice is familiar with this feature from using other apps. |
It isn't clear whether there are other option for Alice to find her friends besides searching for their names. |
The keyboard is rather compact and Alice may find herself accidentally hitting the wrong key. |
Finding and Adding Friends |
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Alice sees the same list of friends as she saw on the home screen, so she is familiar with the user interface. The buttons to add a friend are colored brightly so that Alice knows she can perform an action by tapping the button. |
As Alice types "Bob," the list updates to show close matches to her entry. For longer names, this could allow Alice to find her friend without typing in his entire name. |
Alice may want to add Bob as a friend but accidentally hits Borat's "Add" button. We can ask Alice to confirm when she taps to add a friend, but this will increase the number of steps she has to perform. |
Viewing Friend's Location |
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Once Alice selects her friend, a map shows Bob's current location. Furthermore, a blue dot shows Alice's current location. Alice is familiar with the blue dot representing her location, since it is also used in the iPhone's Map app. |
Depending on the level of zoom, Alice may need to further zoom in or zoom out of the map. There is a tradeoff between presenting a large map including most her friends' locations, or showing a detailed and smaller map. |
If Alice "flicks" her finger past the screen, there is danger that the current map view will be lost. It will take her some steps recreate the map screen showing her and Bob's location. |
Viewing Friend's Profile |
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Bob's profile includes his phone number and email appearing in blue with underlines. This provides Alice with an affordance to click these entries. |
By selecting Bob on the map view, Alice immediately sees Bob's profile. She can click on Bob's email or phone number to contact Bob. |
If Alice accidentally taps Bob's phone number, then she will begin making a call to him. We can ask Alice to confirm the call, although this will require her to make more selections to accomplish her tasks. |
Viewing the Events Screen |
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Alice will find this view similar to the earlier Friends view. However, she may not immediately realize that she can adjust the time range of events by tapping on the button on the top-right. |
The Events tab allows Alice to immediately see the events she has been invited to or will be attending. Furthermore, she can add an event with one tap. However, if Alice has a longer list of events, there is no option for her to search for the events by keyword. However, Alice can choose to view only events happening in: 1 day, 3 days, 1 week. |
Alice may accidentally select the wrong time-range on the top-right drop-down tab. The drop-down tab is rather small, compared to the other selection boxes on the screen. |
Adding an Event |
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The boxes to enter Event info is brightly colored, providing Alice with an affordance to click on the fields and enter new data. |
When adding an event, Alice immediately sees the event info she needs to provide. She can select the time using a drop down box. The drop-down box may require longer time to fill in the information. |
Alice can select the time using a drop-down box, which prevents her from typing in a wrong time (e.g. 10:70) |
Inviting Friends |
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Alice is familiar with these interface from the Search Friends screen she used earlier. Furthermore, she recognizes that she can tap on certain users to invite them, just as she has previously tapped to add users as friends. |
When Alice types the Search button in the Invite Firends field, she will encounter a list of her friends. Alice can also quickly search for friends she wants to invite. |
Similar to the earlier Add Friends function, Alice may find herself accidentally inviting the wrong friend if she mistaps. To prevent this, we can ask Alice to confirm before sending invitations. However, this would slow down the task process for her. |
Receiving Event Notifications |
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If Alice encounters this notification when she is not using the Discover.Me app, she may not realize the notification relates to the Discover.Me app. She may try to find an entry in another app, which has no information linked to Discover.Me. |
The notification concisely tells Alice about Christine's proposal to change the event. To present the notification concisely, no additional information is shown about the proposed event changes. |
There is no safety issue because Alice cannot make any selections during the time the notfication box appears. |
Accepting a Changed Event |
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If Alice receives the notification while not using Discover.Me, we can immediately transition to this screen in Discover.Me. This will help Alice immediately realize the previous notification relates to Discover.Me |
If the notification immediately transitions to this Discover.Me screen, then Alice may find the action disruptive. She may be using another app and find it difficult to return to the previous app she is using. |
If the notification immediately transitions to this Discover.Me screen, then Alice may find the action harmful. For example, she may be in the middle of texting a friend. This might cause her to tap incorrectly and accidentally accept the updated event. |
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A pop-up box appears telling Alice that she has accepted the changes and that updated invitations will be sent to all people she originally invited. |
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The notification concisely tells Alice about Christine's proposal to change the event. To present the notification concisely, no additional information is shown about the event details which have been changed. |
There is no safety issue because Alice cannot make any selections during the time the notfication box appears. |
Viewing Event Status |
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