Prototype Photos
Landing Page
This is what the user sees after going to the website.
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All Notes Pane
Bulletin Board
Iteration Two
Main Pane Tabs
These tabs let the user switch between different views while exploring a specific task or bucket.
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All Notes Tab (zoomed in)
Collaborators Tab
Commonalities
There are a few things that did not change at all between the two iterations of our paper prototype, as they were received well in the first iteration:
New Bucket Button
Adding a new Bucket is as easy as clicking a button in the task view
(Reference to iteration 1 and 2 for location on page)
Removing Collaborator
Removing a collaborator results in an alert to make sure the action was not an error
Task View
The lists of buckets and tasks, always visibile on the left-hand side of the screen.
Briefing
BucketList is a shared task-management application, allowing users to easily create group to-do lists.
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A couple of users were confused by the icons we used. We had images to represent whether or not a note was currently on the bulletin board and whether a user could edit the note. Users were confused as to what the "sticky" icon meant, many assuming it meant the opposite of what it was intended to indicate. In addition, clicking on these images was supposed to either place the note on the board or change into edit mode, which was not clear to the users and many users never even attempted this.
Inability to Type on Stickies
Issue: Efficiency, Learnability, Visibility
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One user was annoyed that she could not type on the sticky notes, only in the "all notes" section at the bottom. This makes the interface less learnable for her, as her initial thought was to type on the note (even though it wasn't a typing curser). In addition, if the user is looking at the bulletin board, it is much easier and more efficient to begin typing on the note, instead of navigating to the bottom to add the note. To fix this, we will allow for users to type on the stickies or in the "all notes" section (this was introduced in the second iteration), but we do have to be careful about visibility of 'typing' mode versus 'viewing' or 'moving' mode of the stickies.
Redundancy of Bulletin Board and "All Notes"
Issue: Efficiency, Learnability, Visibility
Complexity: 4
UI Severity: 4
Many users commented that the bulletin board and the list of all notes was redundant, as the same information was displayed on the screen, at the same time, in two different places. This also wastes screen space, because the bulletin board must be smaller to fit the "all notes" section at the bottom. Getting rid of the bulletin board to remove this redundancy was considered, but many users had specifically mentioned that they like the bulletin board during testing.
Settings
Issue: Errors
Complexity: 2
UI Severity: 4
Although this was not related to our given tasks, one user commented that there was no "settings" page in our design. This means that if a user wants to change information given during sign-up, there is no way to correct it. In addition, there is no way to set specific settings to customize an account (although, at this point, we do not have this option anyways). In the second iteration, a settings page was added.
Personalization
Issue: Visibility, Errors
Complexity: 2
UI Severity: 1
One user commented that it would be nice to have some personalization, such as a profile picture for each user. This can also reduce errors and add to the visibility of the system, as when adding collaborators it is easier to see which user is being added. A profile picture was added during the second iteration, however one user in the second iteration tried to click on the person's name, thinking that it would take them to a page with more information about that person.
Posting Stickies in Second Iteration
Issue: Efficiency, Learnability
Complexity: 4
UI Severity: 2
In the second iteration, two users commented that posting stickies was difficult because the two views (bulletin board and all notes) were not visible at the same time. This meant that the task asking people to post a sticky to the board and then rearrange the board required users to switch between views, and if they were doing this multiple times it would present an efficiency error. In addition, there is no feedback when a note is posted (because you are not currently viewing the bulletin board), so it is difficult to know if you've accomplished a task correctly. One user became confused, and ended up exiting the task before checking the bulletin board and seeing she had actually accomplished the task successfully. Because this problem was introduced in the second iteration, we didn't get to address a solution yet.
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A couple of key features were changed for the second iteration of our paper prototype, based on the observations from above.
Tabs for Collaborators, Bulletin, and All Notes
The main change in the second iteration was putting the bulletin board, all notes, and collaborators in different tabs. Instead of having all this information on the screen at all times, users could switch between these views. That got rid of some of the repetition in the first iteration (having notes appear on the screen twice). It also saves screen space, as the bulletin board can now be made a lot bigger. However, it introduced a couple of efficiency problems.
Labelled Buttons
Buttons were added in the second iteration (such as "add note", "add task", etc) to make it easier to accomplish tasks we noticed people having trouble with in the first iteration.
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