Team Betamax

Adam College

Doug Ellwanger

Jeremy Freeman

Jonathan Tse Dec 7, 2006

Motivation

Frustration with Olin portals

Scattered content

High technical knowledge

Dissimilar requirements

Project Goals

Unified Olin information source

Intuitive, friendly interface

Customizable content

Learning Goals

Interface design process

Teamwork

Web programming

Main Scenarios

Adding new contentRSS feeds, bookmarksWeather, sports

Customize layout

Find contact information

Personas

Cross-section of Olin students Assumptions

technically confidentadept at using the internetnot always buzzword-savvy

Gordon

• Junior

• ECE

• Ypsilanti, MI

• 20 years old

• Mildly conservative

Haley

• First-year

• Undeclared (E:Bio)

• Redwood city, CA

•18 years old

• Apathetic

Isabel

• Senior

• E:Systems

• Danbury, CT

• 22 years old

• Liberal

Low-fi Prototype

Low-fi Evaluation

Primarily evaluating ease of use and feature visibility

Results“Configure Me” non-optimal Classes not visible enough Search option includes Olin? Personal opinions on Calendar

Prototype Changes

Search bar conformity

Different label for configuration

Configuration drop down

E-mail/calendar highlighting

Version One

Heuristic Evaluations

“Better than Blackboard”

Bugs

Most problems were consistency related

Major Heuristic Evaluation Problems and Actions Taken Too “cute” or “overly verbose”

Simplified & standardized dialogue “Configure Me” moves items on screen

Tabbed Configure interface Search results are confusing

Tabbed Search interface Irreversible Actions

Added undo feature

Incorporating Feedback

Added academic calendar and Olin links

Increased information on e-mail and personal calendars

Added more Google results Fixed bugs

Prototype Demo

Future Progress

Increasing drop size area Edit bookmarks and other boxes

(back-end) Customized color scheme Saving user preferences

Lessons

Importance of visualizing change Communicating buzzword/jargon-free ideas We’re members of our own user group Defining end of the user interview process Being extremely aware of mental model of

users

Questions

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