Critique Feedback

Wireframe

Project Proposal:

RU Safe? Our project focuses on connecting Rutgers University students with their parents or guardians in emergency situations because there is often no easy way for parents to make sure their child is safe, and more importantly, no way for them to find out if their child is in danger. We want to create an application dedicated to providing instant and reliable information so students and families can have relief in the case of an emergency.

Overall Tone:

Overall the responses to our wireframe were quite positive, the other groups liked the work we were able to complete on Balsamic. They brought up some important suggestions to improve the usability of our app, particularly in terms of navigation and consistency.

Problems / Questions:

Navigation

1. Problem: There is no simple way to return to our “Safety Features” page after selecting one of the items on the menu.

• Criticality (⅘): Our most critical concern because we do not want our users to become frustrated with the application, especially since they may be using it during emergencies.
• Response: This problem occurred because we had merged two different menu ideas together, causing us to overlook the inconsistency in layout.
• Solution: We would like to incorporate a back button on the applicable pages of our app, that way the user can navigate to previous pages a little easier (without having to press “home” and go through the process all over again).

2. Problem: In terms of our flowchart, the “Safety / Proximity Check” Screens don't really belong on the “Safety Features Menu”.

• Criticality (⅗): Somewhat critical, however a more minor organizational problem.
• Response: This problem occurred because these screens were last minute additions, we did not put enough thought into their placement because we assumed they would fit in the menu we created.
• Solution: “Safety / Proximity Check” screens should branch out from the “Safety Timer” screen instead, because they are screens that pop up while it is in use.

Buttons / Usability

3. Problem: On our “Record” screen, the scroll through saved files option at the top is a bit too small to really be effective.

• Criticality (⅖): Not critical at all, we were already planning to tweak it slightly.
• Response: This problem is mostly due to the template we used to design our wireframes, it was the best image we could find that would convey some sort of “view pictures” button. We did not intend to make it seem as though users would need to scroll through an overview, and actually already planned on implementing the button suggested to us in the future.
• Solution: We will instead incorporate a simple icon or button for the user to touch in order to open a larger view of saved photos and videos.

Overall Improvement:

Our peers were mostly satisfied with our application besides a few of the usability features, which they thought were inconsistent. In an effort to keep a more uniform layout throughout the application, and to ensure that users won’t become confused in times of distress, we will be implementing the changes pointed out to us by our peers. We will incorporate back and forward buttons within the app (wherever possible) to make the navigation process more straightforward. This will allow the users to easily go back and forth between pages rather than force them go through a loop where they need to select options over and over again in order to reach certain pages. We will also pay special attention to our button placement throughout different screens to make sure that users can easily interact with our application features, to make for a better experience overall. We hope to address any button usability flaws by incorporating Norman’s visibility and accordance principles. Finally, we will be moving our Safety and Proximity Check features so that they branch out from the Safety Timer page, instead of including them on Safety Features Menu, to avoid potential confusion.