SIMS Alumni Network Keeping us connected Melissa Chan Lulu Guo Shufei Lei Kavita Mittal Sarah Poon

Overview Heuristic evaluation Current design Demo of the current design Results of the pilot study Most interesting/useful lessons Last iteration

Heuristic Evaluation VERN Total entries: 31 –Severity 0: 2 –Severity 1: 12 –Severity 2: 14 –Severity 3: 3 –Severity 4: 0

Heuristic Evaluation Main points –Location indication unclear Ex 1: Navigation bar Ex 2: Menu panel

Heuristic Evaluation Main points (cont.) –No feedback/reminder on search –Inconsistencies Ex: Different colors for links and headlines –SIMS Happenings vs. Read & Post News –Other issues: No “Forget your password” option at Login No “Select all” option to alumni found No clear explanation what * means

Updated Icons and Color Scheme Simplify the look of the website Easier to identify navigation links Makes it more fun, less professional

Navigation Changes Does the user know where s/he is? Added shading to icons to identify location Added other navigation cues Bread Crumbs Arrows

Site Map Added Site Map for Easier Navigation

Read & Post News Screen

Demo of Current Prototype

Pilot Study Things we tested –Organization: SIMS Events and Alumni Events combined vs. separate –Title/wording: "Read & Post News" vs. "Alumni News & Events" –Appearance: color scheme/icon version 1 vs. version 3

Pilot Study What we measured: –We use number of mistakes and time to complete a task to measure the different effects of different wording and organization. – We develop a five-point Likert-type scale to represent level of subjective satisfaction. (1 - not appealing, 5 - appealing)

Results of Pilot Study Organization: SIMS Events and Alumni Events combined vs. separate? –Less time with separate SIMS and Alumni news than combined news pages –All participants completed the task in approximately the same time

Results of Pilot Study Title/wording: "Read & Post News" vs. "Alumni News & Events“? –"Alumni News & Events"  1 mistake and 1 confusion and did not complete the task as expected –“Read & Post News”  well received and understood

Results of Pilot Study Appearance: color scheme/icon version 1 vs. version 3? –One look was professional (version 1), and the other was very social and friendly (version 3) –Users’ responses were mixed

Results of Pilot Study Additional comments –Display Options: Short View vs. Long View necessary? Gallery view of alumni? –Search Options: Only one field search bar is expected in Quick Search

Useful Lessons Learned Users forget easily, remind them (bread crumbs, arrows, search query, etc.) Conduct more interviews with a variety of alum. Don’t feel locked into a design. Names should be indicative of most functions in that section. Colors are not something you can get users to agree on.

Create different ‘skins’ for different preferences. Change default search options. Change display options (remove ‘long vs. short’ since not used). Divide up news into separate ‘blocks’. Keep names users identified with and retain icons. Last Iteration…

Questions?