Interaction Design 01

A good interface: Google Docs

• Why I like it: The entire Google suite is convenient, consistent, and can be accessed from anywhere.

Usability Review

• Define How Users Can Interact with the Interface: Typical point, click, and drag actions are allowed. Keyboard commands are also typical.
• Give Users Clues about Behavior before Actions are Taken: Hovering over menu items prompts helpful pop ups, and a lengthy menu of options is provided on right click.
• Anticipate and Mitigate Errors: Minimal error messages or preventions.
• Consider System Feedback and Response Time: Responsiveness is pretty immediate, but system feedback is limited for most behaviors.
• Strategically Think about Each Elements: Standards for word processing platforms are typically followed in Google Docs, and edges/corners do contain the majority of interactive elements.
• Simplify for Learnability: Familiar formats are typically used, with the exception of some Google-specific functionality. The user’s end is simple but not especially so. Simplicity is increased by helpful hover titles.

A bad interface: Street Easy App

• Why I hate it: searching for specific things is more complicated than it needs to be, you can only save listings from the top of the screen, and sorting loads very slowly.

Usability Review

• Define How Users Can Interact with the Interface: Typical point and click app behavior is allowed.
• Give Users Clues about Behavior before Actions are Taken: Appearance of buttons is inconsistent, there are multiple options/locations for filters and sorting which is confusing
• Anticipate and Mitigate Errors: Minimal error messages or preventions.
• Consider System Feedback and Response Time: Responsiveness is typically between stammer and interruption, and feedback is offered for most operations.
• Strategically Think about Each Elements: Map/filter buttons are pretty small and difficult to interact with, but otherwise the app is compliant with the heuristic
• Simplify for Learnability: The users end becomes cluttered within the filter menu, but familiar formats are used and information is grouped simply.