Design 3
Ben comes to the MIT Jobs website and since he is not an MIT affiliate, he clicks on the Non-MIT tab at the left. He is presented the interface on fig_2 with options to either sign in or to sign up.
fig_1
Ben is new to the site, so he proceeds to sign up by filling the form. On clicking “Sign Up” at the bottom of the page, his account is set up and he is presented with the interface in fig_2.
fig_2
From this page, Ben can view his previous posted positions and messages but since he is new to MIT Jobs, both of these are empty. To proceed to create his first job post, Ben clicks on the “Create Post” button at the top right. He is presented with the interface on fig_3.
fig_3
He enters the specifications for the job he is posting by filling the displayed form. On clicking “Create Post”, he is returned to the interface on fig_2. The post he has just created appears as the first post on the list of posts on the list of posts at the left. If he had earlier posts, Ben could browse them now, maybe see if some users have commented on the posts and if so respond to the comments. He could also view messages from applicants by clicking the message tab at the top of the page.
Alyssa, an MIT student, visits the MIT Jobs site to look for an internship for the summer. She clicks on the MIT tab at the left and is presented with the interface on fig_4.
fig_4
She then clicks on the huge “Sign In with MIT Certificate” button at the center of the page. She is now presented with the interface on fig_5.
fig_5
The few tabs at the top allow her to transition between viewing all posts, posts she is keeping track of, updates to posts she is tracking and her messages. Since she is looking for an internship, Alyssa clicks on the “Browse” tab at the top left of the page so that she is within the set of all posts to MIT Jobs. She then adds some filters, say “internship”, “summer” and the set of posts that are displayed becomes more specific to her search. Eventually, she singles out Ben’s post as a potential good match. She clicks on the post and it is displayed in the right panel of the interface. she reads the specifications of the position and figures she fit the profile. She clicks the “follow” link at the bottom right so that she can get updates on the position. She also decides to send a message to Ben to express her interest in the post. She clicks the “Message” link at the bottom right. A textbox appears below the Job post with a “send” and “discard” button under it. She types her message and clicks “send” when she is done.
Dragos, another MIT student, follows the same procedure as Alyssa to log into the MIT Jobs site and to search for an internship for the summer. He also likes Ben’s post. Unlike Alyssa who is not already interviewing with any companies yet, Dragos is in the third round of interviews with two companies that he really likes. He decides to “follow” the post from Ben, more as a back-up option in case his other interviews do not go well. He clicks on the “follow” link at the bottom right of the page -- this enables him to receive notification on any updates that are made to the advertised position. He also sends a message directly to Ben, to notify him of his current job-search situation.
A few days later, Ben wants to view the interest his advertised position has attracted. He returns to the MIT Jobs website (fig_1) and clicks on the Non-MIT tab at left to be presented with the interface on page 2. since he already owns an account, Ben logs in by providing his username and password and clicking on “Sign In” at the top of the page. He is taken to the interface on fig_2. He only has the one post that he created, but he can see that Alyssa’s message appears directly under the post. He also sees that the “Message” tab at the top of the page is bold and has “(1)” next to it. Below Alyssa’s message, there is a “reply” link that Ben clicks to produce a textbox with a “discard” and “send” buttons below it. He types his reply and clicks “send” to complete sending his response to Alyssa. He proceeds to click on the “Messages(1)” tab at the top of the page 3. he is then presented with the interface on fig_6.
fig_6
He has only one message, the one send by Dragos. He clicks on the “reply” button and a textbox appears on the page with “discard” and “send” buttons below it. He types his message in the textbox and clicks “send” to send it to Dragos.
After talking to Alyssa for a bit, Ben thinks she fits the profile that the software company wants. He seals the deal with Alyssa. On his home page (page 3), he clicks on “Create Message” at the top right of the page. He has an option to send send the message to all the “followers” of one or several of his posts. He selects to send the message to all followers of his single post and notifies them that the position is filled.
Dragos will see the message in his message inbox (fig_7), and know that the position is filled.
fig_7
Design Analysis
Learnability:
This interface is firmly grounded on the use of recognition rather than recall. We always present sufficient visible cues to make the user’s next decision a simple task of seeing a few next steps that he/she can take and deciding amongst them. For a Non-MIT affiliate who is assumed to be able to only employ, he/she can only browse posts they have advertised and see messages they have received. There is not too much on the screen to demand the user to remember where this or that is located. For an MIT affiliate, we present more tabs to reduce the density of the screen. Less density presents a perfect platform for recognition. Although we tried to manipulate the design to keep screen information low, this design has a lot more things presented on a single screen as compared to the other 2 designs (e.g. recruiter can see all communication regarding post on post page itself), and thus is less learnable than the other 2.
Efficiency:
In this design, Tabs allow fast navigation through the various possible pages. However, as this design has a lot of information laid out at once on the screen, it may not be very efficient to navigate through individual pages. For example, most actions (viewing posts, following posts, sending messages) require pointing to a regular sized button or link as opposed to big icons in the 2nd design. There are not many shortcuts to aid expert users in accomplishing tasks faster.
Visibility:
The state of the system, as well as the available actions, and feedback for all actions is very clearly visible. For example, in a post, the post creator can view on a single page the post, as well as all communication related to the post. Similarly, a user browsing the post can view it as well as his/her communication with the post creator. Clicking on “Reply” to a message has instant feedback as it displays a textbox where the user can reply to messages. All possible pages a user can navigate to are visible at the top of the screen. Similarly, all filters are also visible while browsing posts.
Error Prevention:
This design is more error prone than the other 2. For example, deleting a post will delete all communication associated with the post as well, which may affect the user experience of recruiters. In this design, users can create, read, update and delete their posts. Some actions, such as following posts are easy to undo, but some such as creating and deleting posts, and sending messages are hard to undo.