Design 1 - For Elderly
This design is meant to be used by elderly users. To accommodate them, the design uses a strong metaphor of a physical calendar, pictures to convey information scent, and only necessary information.
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1AThis is the home page designed for elderly users. The physical calendar is the main focus of the page, as it can be easily understood by less technologically savvy users. Within the calendar, all events are depicted simply to create an easily readable calendar. An event on the calendar is represented by the picture of the event's main user (usually the child who needs to be driven to or from an event) along with the time of the event. Clicking on the event will direct users to a page that looks like 1B, with all the fields filled in with the correct information. The page has the bare functionality of viewing a calendar, a button to direct users to add an event, a button to direct users to help find a carpool, and a list of what is on the calendar for the current day. These choices were made to minimize confusion for the user, giving them a straightforward way to complete the most common tasks. Going along with the scenario, the user wants to add an event, and so clicks the "Add Event" button, directing them to 1B. |
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1BThis page makes event creation simple. It asks the most basic questions: who, what, where and when. After these fields have been filled out, the right panel is populated with a list of users that are free at the given time, and by checking them off, the user can request carpools from others, or assign themselves as the driver for an event. This auto-generation of available drivers is key as it helps users avoid driving conflicts, and matches up users who carpool together often. After completing the creation of the event, the user is redirected back to the main page as seen in 1C. |
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1CThe Main page is visible again, now updated with the new event. Notice there is a notification on the "Find Carpool" button, as the user has initiated a request for a driver for the recently created event. When another user offers to drive for the conflicting event, the user in this case will recieve another notification, and the driver details within the event will be updated automatically. Through the process of initially viewing the calendar, adding an event, handling conflicts within the addition of events, and finding an available driver, this interface uses as few screens as possible to avoid confusion with elderly users. Furthermore, the "Today" panel is useful as a quick reminder of responsibilities for the given day. Lastly, the use of metaphors helps with learnability for older users, and pictures within the calendar helps remove the need for small text, and improves information scent. |
Design 2 - Visual Interactive Calendar
This design focuses on a useful, unconventional representation of a calendar.
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2AThe main page is a large view of a calendar, with many options to help highlight information that the user needs. The uppermost tabs toggle which events are shown within the calendar: events for everybody, a few children, or one at a time. The tabs below this give the user the ability to view the calendar by day, week, or month. Each of these views is useful in different cases, and giving the user the ability to choose the view helps relay the most useful information. Another useful part of this representation is the ability to see who is driving to and from the event. A buffer is added to the top and bottom of the event, and this buffer's color helps the user see who is driving, or indicate if no one is assigned to drive yet. Outside of the calendar, the only button is a minimal plus sign, which extends to show "event" or "carpool." Clicking "carpool" will lead to the screen in 2C, but for now the user wants to create an event, so presses "event" and the screen changes to look like 2A. |
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2BThe screen does not reload upon clicking the "event" button, simply a new event brick is added to the calendar. Shading, size and color will convey to the user that this block is stacked above the rest of the screen, and is draggable within the calendar. The user drags the event to the correct location and once released, text boxes appear, prompting the user for the event details, title, location, time, and user associated with the event, then a "find driver" button is available to be clicked. This draggable block creates an interactive calendar, that a user can feel comfortable with by directly manipulating the information. By clicking the "find driver" button or the "carpool" button within the plus, the user is taken to page 2C. |
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2CThis is the user's hub for carpooling. On the left side is a list of events that do not have a driver assigned, then a suggested drivers list below each event name. By checking off as many names as the user wants, then clicking the ask button, requests are sent to all checked off users. On the right pane are requests from other users to carpool. A user can reply to these requests with a simply yes or no button to the right of each request. This makes responses easy and fast. When a user replies that they can drive for a requested event, the calendar is updated with the driver's name in the driver field, and the driver's calendar is also updated to contain the agreed upon event. |
Design 3 - Augmented Physical Calendar
This design is meant to give a day-to-day timeline of events. The days span vertically, with each day having its own gray heading bar. Underneath each day, each event that day contains a row, and driving information for to and from the event is shown on either side of the event box. Finally, the use of pop-ups in this design allows users to easily create and update events.
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3AFrom this main view, Mary can click the add button on the Saturday heading bar to add an event to Saturday. |
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3BThis creates a box with a pop-up, where Mary can enter the event information, and the box will resize and move itself to the appropriate location. This accomplishes Task 1, as well as Task 2 since Mary can immediately see the new event and determine it conflicts with Andy and Barry's events. |
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3CClicking the link takes her to this page to reach out for help. From here, Mary can ask whether she would live help driving Christine to and/or from, add a custom message, get suggestions of individual users or groups of users to invite, and see who she is asking before clicking the send button, which will accomplish Task 3. After returning to the calendar view, she can open the same pop-up by clicking the driver pop-up, where she can enter the name of the parent who will be driving Christine, completing Task 4. |
