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 email 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?