Design 1: The Wizard Approach
Storyboard
Having decided to use IvyPlusResumes, Isamu points his browser to the website, and decides to sign up. Very simply, the signup interface asks him to provide his email and a password.
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Having done all of the previous steps in this wizard-like design, Isamu is ready to see the final outcome of his work and explore his finalized resume. He can, of course, go back and change things easily. Once the resume looks complete, Isamu can enable the option of sharing it with employers and creating an electronic form of it (such as PDF).
Analysis
Learnability
The wizard design is very learnable, since it goes through every step of resume construction in a detailed fashion. The user only needs to enter the specified information at each step and review entered information at later steps. In fact, the process itself provides a great source of information of how the actual resume building process works. Therefore, the wizard design involves a lot of handholding and direction for the user, which is great for users with little on no background on resume building process.
Efficiency
While the wizard design presents a very learnable and efficient interface for the first-time users, it does however have some efficiency concerns for users who continue to use the product. Returning users might find the handholding process very inefficient for creating another new resume since by the time they have used the website they will have enough information of how resumes are built.
Safety
The wizard design interface is very safe, because it is the what-you-see-what-you-get process, and it is very rare that anything out of the ordinary will happen. Every step in the wizard is very detailed, and thus the user is fully aware of what each step does and how each step functions.
However However, it might become the case where the user develops a habitual process of skipping through steps to increase efficiency. However, the wizard interface is going to prevent this from happening by disallowing users to skip steps without providing enough information for each step.
Design 2
Storyboard
2.1 - The home screen introduces the graphical layout to Isamu and prompts him to either login or create a new account.
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2.6 - After naming the resume, Isamu is automatically redirected to the third page where he can manage previously created resumes. From here, he can print a PDF to bring to the career fair.
Analysis
Learnability
Each component of the design is fairly learnable. For example, Page 2.3 includes concrete examples for Isamu to emulate and provides concrete feedback on how to improve each section. Moving through each page of of the design is less learnable because the user needs to grasp the correct order of tasks. Isamu might jump straight to Page 2.4 without first logging his information on Page 2.3. This problem can be mitigated by feedback that suggests the correct order, in addition to the numbers and highlighting for each icon.
Efficiency
This design is efficient because the user only needs to maintain a central log of previous professional and education experience, but can then generate multiple resumes from Page 2.4. On the other hand, this page lacks efficiency because Isamu needs to drag and drop each piece of information. This feature is consistent with the experience of copying and pasting information from a CV to a resume, but can become tedious. The design minimizes this problem by pre-populating each resume with typical information.
Safety
By separating the task of describing the user’s experience and building the actual resume, this design minimizes errors that might arise from trying to change the content and style of a resume at the same time. Also, a severe error would be sharing an incomplete or unpolished resume and this design not only prevents the user from sharing the resume until the final step, but also only allows for passive sharing (i.e. in a searchable directory for employers as opposed to directly sending an email).
Design 3
Isamu has decided to use IvyPlusResumes to help him get ready for the career fair tomorrow. He opens his computer and goes to the IvyPlusResume's home page. He sees some text about how IvyPlusResumes will get him ready for networking. He sees a place to login, and a place to sign up for an account, so he decides to sign up.
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