Task Centered Walk Throughs

Many task centered walk throughs were undertaken on the selected prototype.   Many had no issues arise and seemed to flow smoothly from beginning to end. Thirteen tasks had bugs in them, were dead ends or were confusing and needed some clarification for the user.  All were addresses in next revised version of the selected prototype.  

Usability Catastrophe

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Delete a group

There is no way to delete a group.  Need to add delete (and edit) buttons to group list page.  Also need to add delete group function on <Name. Group Page and Edit <Name> Group pages.

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Putting the EAS alert notification to sleep – no landing page for side menu

There was no pathway for the sleep function or to turn it back on from the side menu.  Updated new prototype to show it uses same pop up that is used when it is put to sleep from the EAS alert notification.

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Add contact to group

Should have group’s name in header instead of generic add contact to group (which group).  There is no way to select the group you are adding it to either.   Page goes nowhere, no pop-up or group message as in #8, remedy is the same.

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Major Usability Issues

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Find more information out about EAS alert notification

There was no way to access more information about the EAS warning directly from the application so that you could decide if you wanted to put it to sleep.  The emergency alert notification was a dead link and should be linked to the EAS alert so the user can have full details before deciding to sleep the warning.

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Use Help Function

When using the help button nothing showed that the system had accepted or sent the request for help.    Updated to include a response from the system stating that the help message had been sent.

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Set ICE Contact(s)

Hard to figure out how to do this. User would have to guess if it would be under Contacts & Groups or Settings.  Needed to make this easy to find.  Decided to add a submenu to the side menu under Contacts and Groups and get rid of the Contacts and Group screen. It’s hard to tell who is currently designated as ICE contact. Need to add list of current ICE contacts.   When changes are saved nothing happens.  There is no way to know they took effect except to find the contacts and see if they were marked as ICE.   Should add pop-up that states changes were saved, this combined with list of current ICE contact(s) will show the changes were made.

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Create a group

Another dead page once changes are saved, what happens next?  Nothing in this prototype. There is no pop up to notify you the changes have been saved nor does a group page describing the group exist.  Need to add <name> Group screen so that once a group is created and saved the group’s information including contacts and permissions are displayed on the Group’s page.  Also noticed that the group related screens needed edit group, delete group and set group permissions buttons on their pages. 

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Edit group

Need group’s name in header to be clear.  Dead again. Nothing happens when edits are saved.  Need a popup saying changes have been saved and to display the associated Group Page when okay on the pop up is selected.

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Give permission to groups

Again, this would be hard to find, and the user would be left guessing if it was under the Contacts and Groups or Settings.  The submenu under Contacts and Groups on the side menu should help eliminate this confusion.  Also having it contact and group permissions complicates it.  Should have it so permissions can only be configured for groups and ICE.  Change header to Group Permissions.   Could not tell if my changes were saved.  Have a pop-up window saying changes have been saved and to display the associated Group Page when okay on the pop up is selected.

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View permissions for a group

Unable to easily do this.  At the current moment the user needs to go to Edit Permissions for Group page and see which are already checked.  Routing it to the <Name> Group Page which displays contacts and permissions for a group would easily fix this.  Need to create a <Name> Group Page.

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Minor Usability Issues

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Finding weather info out – when no warning issued

The application displayed the current temperature at the bottom of the home screen when no EAS have been issued but there was no actionable link to display more detailed weather as research showed users wanted.  Made temperature linkable to a third-party weather service like Weather.com or AccuWeather. 

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Let a group know you are safe message

Was confused if I had to type I am safe for it to be in the message.  Should add “beside I am safe?” to message input box to let user know that is already included in the message.   The current pop up with ‘I am Safe’ Sent is worded oddly and should be reworded.

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Customize the EAS alert settings

Does not list how my settings are currently set.