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GotPlans.info Usabiliy Review and Interface Recommendations

Currently in development

This is a usability review (November 7, 2005) of the GotPlans.info website.

• Background
• Usability Issues
• Conclusion

Background

GotPlans.info is a community calendar which allows users to post, browse, and R.S.V.P. to local events. It also provides community-related functionality to maintain and invite friends, and coordinate with them when planning and attending events.

The primary target audience of the website is adults between the ages of 21 to 45 who enjoy going and and coordinating events with friends. Members would be expected to access the page one to several times a week.

The system has many tasks the user can interact with. Users must register and log in to the system if they want to store personal information and post events. Events can be added and modified, shared between friends, and noted with several different markers (pencil, pen, hidden). Friends can be combined in to a personal list, invited, and coordinated in to groups. There are also several other administrative-focused functions that do not directly effect average users, such as creating, editing, and maintaining categories and metadata.

GotPlans.info is owned and maintained by Brian DeRocher.

Usability Issues

Issue severity:

• Minor
• Medium
• Major

Issue type:

• Bug
• Functionality
• HIG, Standards, Accessibility Violation
• Information Architecture
• Interaction
• Usability

Basic Tasks

Register account and log in to system

• Mark which fields are required so users have a chance to fill out the appropriate fields. By labeling required fields (or noting in the interface "all fields are required") you give the user information on how to fill out the minimum required information without producing an error.
  Usability
  Medium
• Label the email field "Email" instead of using "mailto://". Non-technical users do not recognize protocols, and may not understand it is the email field. This is especially an issue because email is a required field.
  Informatino Architecture, Usability
  Major
• After registration, the form should forward the user to an informative page. A welcome message, a prompt to log in, the login page, or automatic login, are all good landing pages after registering.
  Functionality, Interaction
  Medium
• The label "authenticated" is a technical term, consider renaming to "logged in" or "signed in", since they are also the terms used on the site.
  Information Architecture
  Minor

Browse and search events

• Events pages need a link back to the parent page. Currently the only way to navigate back to the calendar page is to click the browser "back" button, or to click the "events" link on the page. If you use the "events" link and were browsing in "calendar" mode, your view settings are lost.
  Usability
  Medium
• "Search" in the "tools" menu does not link, but the "search" in the top menu does.
  Bug
  Major
• Use a better label than "submit query". Query is a technical term. Use action words such as "search", "submit", or "go".
  Information Architecture
  Minor
• Visually seperate the three different types of searches. If the searches are grouped together, users may try to fill out all fields associated with the three search fields, and may not know which button to click for the respective search.
  Usability
  Medium
• Do not have a minimum requirements of four characters when implementing the AJaX search. It is limiting and may confuse users who may have a search term of less than four characters, or want to search for a partial word.
  Standards, Interaction, Usability
  Medium
• Test latency with the AJaX search with different connection speeds. If latency is high, consider using an informative message such as "Currently searching..." to give the user feedback from the system.
  Functionality, Interaction
  Medium
• The title of the event should link to the event's page.
  Interaction
  Minor

Add and edit events

• Remove the month number from the month drop down list. The day drop-down does not have a label so it is not immediatly obvious what the drop down is for. The month_number-month_name format could be confused as a day-month format and cause the user to be confused or make an error.
  Information Architecture, Usability
  Medium
• Label "new venue", "new contact", and "new source" to "add venue", "add contact", and "add source". Use action words for actions to help the user understand what the link will do.
  Information Architecture
  Medium
• Default values should be blank or with a field description such as "choose location", "choose contact", "choose source".
  Information Architecture
  Minor
• After submitting an event, the user should be taken to the newly created event page to view their event, or to the calendar page.
  Functionality, Interaction
  Medium
• No known way to delete an event.
  Functionality
  Major

Advanced Options and Functionality

Modify user settings

• The only editable user information is the password. Users should be able to update other information collected such as email, website, and name.
  Functionality
  Minor
• The user page is a major link to other information such as friends and plans. It should always be available no matter what depth the user currently is in the website.
  Information Architecture
  Minor

Advanced R.S.V.P. and display options for events

Friends functionality

General Interface

• Both the terms "sign in" and "login" are used interchangably in the website. Choose one term and stick with it.
  Information Architecture
  Medium
• "Plans" should be renamed to "my plans" to give the user a clue that it is a link to their plans page and not a general events page.
  Usability
  Minor
• "Tools" and "minor tools" are bad headings for the collection of links provided as the left navigation. Have more meaningful and descriptive titles for the collection of links in each box.
  Information Architecture, Usability
  Medium

Page structure and site architecture

Link labelling and display

Look and feel

Conclusion

Overall, the site completes all tasks it provides without much difficulty. There are, however, many information architecture issues which may lead users to make errors.

Navigation feels awkward and should be restructured. Labels for some links are confusing and unclear and it is difficult to build a mental map of the site structure. Important top level links which should always be available get lost in the structure.

Before going public/live with the site, all notes, variables, sample text, and functionality place markers should be removed. Messey websites make the content look and feel incomplete which can lead to users not trusting in the content.