Page History

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We decided to implement a web application based on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, JQuery, with a PHP backend and MySQL for storage.

2.1 High Level Discussion

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1. The MIT staff member:
   1. Save trip button (minor): She hit the save trip button on the first page immediate after inputting a destination and start date. She proceeded to finish the rest of the task on the my trips page rather than the home page. Thus, she never saw the information displayed in the chart and did not use the first page at all. The placement of the save trip button could have been misleading; instead, moving it to the bottom of the page may alleviate confusion so that the user stays on the first page longer.
   2. Markers on map (minor): Since the user never used the home page and almost exclusively relied on the my trips page, she did not realize that the markers were clickable and depended completely on the contacts list for getting a user's name and email. Had she been asked for the user's traveling date range, she would not have been able to tell from the contact information. The fact that the markers were clickable is an extension of Google maps and had the user stayed on the home page, she would have had to click on the markers to find information about other travelers. Fixing the location of the save trips button should fix this too.
2. Undergraduate student:
   1. Autocomplete / search (major): This user had trouble searching for a specific location because he chose to click on the appropriate entry in the autocomplete drop-down menu and then refrained from clicking the "search" button. This issue could easily be avoided by changing the functionality of the autocomplete.
   2. Map radius and zoom (minor): He commented that he did not like how the radius was reset to 200km each time the search button was pressed. He also would have liked that the map zoom in/out as the radius is changed. Both of these issues could be solved by changing the default behavior of the search button and radius slider.
3. Graduate student
   1.  Markers (minor): John didn't know that the markers on the home page were clickable and therefore had trouble acquiring the proper information for the first task using the home page.  He also didn't know the markers were clickable on the my trips page.  A possible solution to this is to have a marker already selected when the user loads the page.
   2. Calendar (major): John had a few issues with the calendar on the home page.  After a location is entered and the user hasn't changed any of the dates, the graph isn't generated.  Only when the user has selected a new start and end date is the graph generated.  Also the calendar allows you to set an end date before the start date if the user hasn't changed the initial start date.  A possible fix for this is to treat the initial selected dates as if the user had input them.
   3. Circle radius/zoom (minor): John didn't like the default radius of 200km as he thought it was unreasonable and also didn't like that it was always reset to 200km.  He thought that zoom of the map should scale with the radius of the circle.  This could be fixed by fixing the zoom of the map with the radius of the circle.

Task 2: View Trips and Generate Contacts List

1. MIT staff member: had no troubles with this part.
2. Undergraduate student: had no troubles with this part of the testing.
3. Graduate student
   1. Trip list (minor): John was able to perform the task but commented on the trips not being listed chronologically.  This could be fixed by sorting by date.
   2. Contact list (major): While the formatting of the contact list allows direct copy/paste into gmail, John had a hard time with the uneven formatting and suggested a button that copied the selection to the user's clipboard.  He also thought that names on the names on the contact list would be links that highlighted trips like the trip list.  A possible solution to this is to make the names in the list links, that when clicked, perform the same action has if the associated marker had been clicked.

Task 3: Edit and Delete a Trip

1. MIT staff member: had no troubles with this part.
2. Undergraduate student: accidentally clicked the "delete" button when the intention was for the user to click the "edit" button. This confusion could be avoided by changing the colors and/or layout of the buttons in such a way to distinguish them from each other.
3. Graduate student:
   1. Button color/font (cosmetic/minor): John had a hard time reading the text on the button due to bad color choice and with all of the text being lowercase with a bulky font.

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