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GR2 - Designs

Scenario

Our scenario builds off of our persona, Aly, from GR1. Aly is an MIT sophomore who has a flight home to Florida at the end of the semester, on May 17th at 6 AM. She always buys cheap flights, which often leave in the early morning before the public transportation system operates, as is the case for this particular flight, so she wishes to take a cab to the airport. Aly uses RideShare to find people to share a cab with her for this flight. The tasks she needs to perform are:

Search for a ride share 
Post a new RideShare listing for her desired time and destination
Invite friends to see her RideShare post

Designs

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Storyboard

Aly navigates to the RideShare homepage. On this page, she types in all of the details to look for her desired ride ("Destination: Logan Airport, Start location: MIT, Date: May 17, Time 4AM. When she clicks submit, the browser-specific certificate request pops up so that RideShare can automatically log her into the system, and the search results page appears.

Above, we can see that Aly's search returned 3 results. On the left hand panel of the site, there is a form to edit the search and check again, but Aly mainly focuses on the middle of the page where she sees that the three listed options do not fit her needs. Therefore, she clicks on the "Post your own" button at the bottom of the screen.

Below, we see the posting page, which is automatically partially filled it based on the information Aly was looking for already. She proceeds to fill out the remainder of the information such as the cost for splitting a taxi and additional notes, and clicks the button to post the Ride Share.

Now that her listing has successfully been posted, she wants to share it with friends. Below her new posting, she can either share the link to her posting on facebook or email it to a friend to publicize the opportunity.


The below image is a depiction of the Profile Management page that Aly navigates to to change her settings.

Analysis

Pros:

  • This design features a top horizontal menu bar that exhibits all of the main features of our website--searching for a ride share, posting a new listing, and managing profile settings. It is a design that favors simplicity and visibility, with access to the three main features of the website prominently displayed.
  • The map preview feature in search results allows the user to see exactly where the meeting location is, which provides a useful visual cue to the user about where the Ride Share would occur.
  • Efficiency is augmented with the pre-population feature that fills in the form for posting a new Ride Share after the user was unable to find a matching Ride Share in a search.
  • The annoying certificate popup occurs only after a user action that requires login, postponing the hindrance to efficiency until it is absolutely necessary.
  • The side modification panel for refining a search allows for error recovery if the user would like to search for something else other than what the user has already searched. The pre-population of that panel means the user would only need to tweak the fields and search again in the case of an error.

Cons:

  • Though the horizontal menu is cute, finding the different functionalities of the site requires extra clicking, which reduces efficiency. An interface with all the functionality on the same page would provide greater visibility still.
  • The interface is slightly unappealing aesthetically, with a very boxy feel rather than a smooth web 2.0-style appearance.
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