Photos

Main Page

Add Company Page

*Note: The tech post-it note was to indicate the field selected in the drop down and not in the Documents field. 

Company Page

Add Document Page

*Tech is an option in the selection field, and resume.pdf is in the file field. 

Add Task page

The cover letter post-it is input in the title field. 

Group Briefing

Hi, I'm _______ and these are my partners _______ and _________. Thanks for helping us out! We're testing out a system to help people manage a job search. The system, named JobTracker, will be a website that people can use to manage documents and keep track of tasks related to their job search.

We'll show you a paper prototype of the website, which is a very early stage representation of what the system might look like. Your finger will be the mouse and you can use it to navigate the site. If you want to type something, just say it out loud. You'll get a few index cards with tasks written on them. Try to execute these tasks on our prototype. After we start, I'll be controlling the system and my partners will be taking notes on how we can improve our interface design.

Remember, this is a test of the interface and not a test of you. The interface is in a very preliminary stage and so it is likely to have problems that make it difficult to use. Your input is important to fixing these problems. While you execute the tasks, feel free to think out loud so we can understand your thought process. Also, you are free to stop the test at any time. Before we get started, do you have any questions for me or my partners?

Scenario Tasks

1. Add a new Company, "Google", make it part of a Group, "Tech", and color the Group yellow.
2. Add a new Document, "resume" (which is a file on your computer) and link it with Google
3. Add a new Contact to Google, "Jane Doe jdoe@google.com"
4. Add a Task called "Cover Letter" for Google due 4/15/11
5. View all upcoming tasks

Observations

Version 1

User 1

Wanted to add a lot of information about a company all at once, at the beginning.

The user assumed that if you add a group on the Add Company page, that group is automatically selected when you're finished adding the group.

The user had trouble figuring out how to submit the Add Company form.

When adding documents, it wasn't clear to the user how to use the multiple selection boxes.

User was expecting "title" instead of "description" on the Add Task page.

The user thought there was an inconsistency with using both multiple selection boxes and dropdown menus.

The user expected to be able to edit company fields by double clicking. The user also wanted more structure when adding a company, or anyway something more than a textbox.

It wasn't apparent to the user that all the tasks were on the main page - maybe we need a title "Tasks".

The user thought that having navigation at both the top and the bottom of the screen was "weird" and made it hard for him to find things.

User 2

Looked for the group he was supposed to create and found it didn't exist.

Also wanted the new group to be auto-selected after its creation.

Wasn't sure how much of the form he had to fill out.

Didn't find how to link documents with companies very obvious.

Was confused by the textbox for contacts.

Did not use ability to add tasks in company edit view; went to main page instead.

Thought the "view all upcoming tasks" task was kind of confusing.

User 3

Took a while to find out how to add a new contact.

Looked at company page when trying to add a task.

Version 2

User 1

Thought the groups in the dropdown menu should be colored appropriately.

Hesitated to find the "Add documents" button (but the page was kind of folded).

Was confused about adding a contact - didn't see the connection between contacts and company. Took a while to complete this task because it wasn't clear to him that you could click on a company on the main page (be sure to add lots of clicking affordances to the company buttons!).

User 2

Completed every task promptly and with little hesitation.

User 3

Wasn't sure what the point of the group colors was.

Took a while to find the "Add Documents" button.

Wants to add companies one at a time to a document instead of selecting them from a multiple-selection box.

Thought the button for adding notes on the company page was a submit button.

Didn't necessarily like four boxes on the companies page - thought it would be too crowded. Thought she should be able to click to edit on the bottom of the page.

Prototype Iteration

• On Main page
  • Added titles to Company and Tasks views on main page
  • Added message for successful addition of document
• On Add Company page
  • Marked required fields
  • Changed add group to dropdown menu, adding new group brings up dialog box instead of a new page
  • Allowed document upload
  • Changed add contact box from text box to form, allowed addition of more than one contact
  • Allowed user to add tasks on page
• On Add Task page
  • Added separate Title and Description fields (formerly only had Description field)
• On View Company Page
  • Added titles to Tasks, Contacts, Documents, Notes sections
  • Allowed ability to edit Tasks, Contacts, Documents, and Notes on page, rather than having to move to an Edit page
• On Add Document Page
  • Removed plain text content field because it was confusing