Design
Implementation
Evaluation
After GR4, we basically scrapped our entire codebase and decided to start fresh.
Our largest concerns in the site redesign were consistency in browsing behavior, clear and emblematic icons,
Registration
We went with a fairly basic registration page. However we do require email verification.
Implementation
Our implementation is a Django-powered website connected to a PostgreSQL database. We chose to use jQuery to help us implement some javascript.
We briefly investigated using additional plugins to jQuery like jQueryUI. However we chose not to use many of the standard widgets that are available with it as early iterations using them were judged wrong for the theme. In retrospect we should have spent more time attempting to skin these to match the look-and-feel that we were after as it was far more difficult to implement them ourselves.
Evaluation
We conducted our test in the conference area of the Student Center Reading Room using a group member's late-generation Apple laptop. No additional peripherals were provided. The team members each brought one user and functioned as an observer for that user.
Finding Users
We found users to test our product from within our living groups. All users were undergraduate men enrolled at MIT aged between 18 and 23 in non-6 majors. All had previously used MIT CareerBridge to search for jobs or applied to internships using a similar service.
Briefing
We gave the users the following briefing. It is identical to what we gave users during paper prototyping. We did not think a demo was necessary due to the background of our users with job review sites and their fluency with technology.
Jobious is a web-based internship and job review service specifically designed for MIT students that combines aspects of both MIT's CareerBridge and InfiniteConnection.
Common tasks that a user may perform after logging in are:
- Reviewing positions you have held
- Browsing for internship positions recommended to you based on your preferences
- Marking certain positions as your favorites for later review
- Sending messages to other users to request additional information about positions they have held.
While participating in this study you should assume that you have previously created an account on the site and are already logged in.
Tasks
Our tasks mirrored those from paper prototyping as the major goals of using the site did not change. We removed or reworded some of the tasks to better fit the the implementation behaviors.
Task Number | Text Prompt |
|---|---|
1 | Favorite a job that is recommended for you. |
2 | Read a review of one of your recommended tasks and contact the user that wrote it. |
3 | Post a review about the position you held last summer. |
4 | Find out what positions John Curtice has held. |
5 | Review your favorites and decide you no longer like one of them. |
6 | View jobs that pay "a lot". |
Usability problems
Task Number 1:
Task Number 2:
Task Number 3:
Task Number 4:
Task Number 5:
Task Number 6:
Reflection
The Waterfall Model Doesn't Work
Perhaps the largest failure that we had was using the waterfall approach to design as opposed to spiral model. Even though we did have several iterations of prototypes, with each one we made some rather sweeping changes that were inferred to be better based on user feedback from the previous test. Unfortunately some of these decisions were headed just in a different direction rather than the right one. We should have then gone and prototyped those and tested them
User test aggressively
We made the cardinal sin of assuming we are our users. We didn't really ask people what they thought of our incremental implementations along the way choosing instead choosing to assume we could make the decision for them. While that might work for experts we learned that we do not yet have that level of fluency in design language and user behavior and that the only way to get there is to actively test and retest to verify your assumptions until they begin to match user behavior.
Project Management Decisions impact Design Decisions
We had a very basic working version early in the process but we then decided to scrap that code and start afresh with something we thought would work better. While it did make it easier to do many things, unfortunately none of us was as well versed in it as we hoped. This lead to a us often scratching our heads as to how to do something in Django when we could have written the script ourselves and moved on, though it would not have been as maintainable.
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