Course Schedulizer

The app is generally easy to learn and use. Other than a few problems, it seems pretty good.

1- The system status is not quite visible to the user. There is little to no feedback on what is happening.

2- The layout design and the placement of the buttons are consistent with other desktop apps. This makes the app easy to learn and use.

3- Days part in the meeting times section doesn’t fit even when fullscreen.

4- The classes get wider when expanded and they don’t fit the screen. This requires the user to side scroll which is not really nice and smooth.

5- The classes collapse back whenever the user clicks anywhere on the class when they are expanded.

6- The expand icon disappears on all of the classes when any of them is expanded.

7- I think putting a little margin under the "search results" field would make it look a little smoother.

8- Since there is only one page the user sees, it is really easy to navigate through the app.

9- Clear criteria button doesn't work but I am pretty sure you will implement it later.

10- There should be "any" option on the criteria other than professor too.

You can contact me at camurcu.m@husky.neu.edu for any questions.

Mustafa Camurcu

WHYNOT? HEURISTIC EVALUATION

The website is generally easy to learn and use. Other than a few problems, it seems pretty good.

1- The system status is quite visible to the user. I did not have a hard time knowing at which step I was.

2- The menu was a bit confusing at first because you have the review option as the first item even though other websites usually would have it at the end. It wasn’t externally consistent

3- I expected the “WhyNot?” button on the menu to take me somewhere because my cursor turned into a button cursor when I hovered over it.

4- The page design makes it easy to use and get around. There are not much unnecessary information given to the user. Good minimalist design.

5- It forces the user to submit a reflection if you have completed a challenge. There is not a cancel button that lets you go back.

6- There is not an option to choose another challenge if you are not satisfied with the current one.

7- There is a back button in the “View Reflections” page. It is easier to go back for the user than to choose a new option from the menu.

8- The back button is only in the “View Reflections” page. It is easier to go back for the user than to choose a new option from the menu. Also the button’s design and color doesn’t match the website’s design.

9- There are not any documentation that would help if a user had a problem with any of the features or how to use them.

10- Task hierarchy is flat so it doesn’t take a lot of steps to complete a task.

You can contact me at camurcu.m@husky.neu.edu for any questions.

Mustafa Camurcu 

INDIVIDUAL HOMEWORK 3 - ETHNOGRAPHY

The activity I picked is using the recyclers inside the diners to categorize your trash. The reason why I picked this activity is that because I always thought the process was more effort requiring than it should be. With a better interface, people could get away with spending less time thinking about what should go in which bin.

Separating the trash for recycling starts with the person gathering their trash and bringing it near the recycle bins. Then the user is supposed to decide the bin that they are going to throw into for each piece of trash. There are signs and guides on the bins to help them with the decision process.

There were many people engaging in the activity individually. Almost every person has trash to throw out after eating in a diner and they need to go through this process to resolve the issue. I have observed many kinds of people but the diversity did not have much effect on the process and the outcome. They did not use any artifacts other than their hands. 

I interviewed a male Russian sophomore. He also thought the process was tedious and he thought that a better system for separation of trash would make life easier for the humanity.

I also interviewed a female Indian female junior. She stated that she did not really thought about this process thoroughly before. She added that she was okay with how the things worked currently.

My last interview was with a female American sophomore. She did not think about it before, too. She thought that a change in the separation system might be good but it is not really necessary.

The people who engage in this activity generally follow the following set of actions. First, they take their trash near the bin. Then, they take one item that is the easiest to dispose of without messing up the balance of other items in their hand. Basically they choose the one that is with the least contact with them. After that, they decide which bin would fit to that item the most. After this decision has been made, they proceed to throw the item inside the decided bin. If a decision takes longer that the time span given to the activity by the user, they throw the item into the regular trash bin. 

There were several outliers that follow a different course of action. Two people threw every item into the regular trash bin, probably being in a hurry. Another person threw everything inside a random recycling bin, hopefully for the same reason.

Individual Homework - 2

Good Example 1 - Gmail

It helps navigating through your emails and lets you compose new ones.
Throughout the years,  gmail changed a lot but they did not change the original concept and it is really easy to use since we have been using the same concept for years. In this example, consistency is the main key to success

Good Example 2 - hackmit.org
This website is designed to help people learn about the event HackMIT.
Even though the website has lots of information in it, one can navigate through the information easily and quickly. They managed this aspect by using only one page the hold the information but also having menu option to access the info on the page easily. This way a first time user can go through all of the information without clicking a button, just by scrolling down. But a person who only looks for a specific information can click a single button on the menu and find what they were looking for without spending much time.

Bad Example 1 - GONU app

It is designed as an alternative to myNEU.

The login page doesn't look like it is a mobile app.

Login page is designed as it was for a website and it is not a good visual design choice since it does not attract the user. If it were more consistent externally with  other apps, it would be better.