Assignment I1 (Interface)
Good User Interface
1). Billmonk
Purpose
The purpose of Billmonk is to easily split bills among friends and family members.
It help you maintain your account and show you all the transaction happened between you and
your friends. You can create a group of people among which you usually share the items and help
you better maintain the record of your money. So this way you can plan your expenses very well.
The Good Aspect
The good aspect of the Billmonk is the feature of Itemized bill,Report Payment,
Recent Event and Report of all transaction with particular user. Say
If there are three users U1,U2 and U3 and they are sharing items Item1,
Item2 and Item3 as mentioned below:-
- U1 and U2 sharing 'Item1'
- U1 and U3 sharing 'Item2'
- U2 and U3 sharing 'Item3'
So it is very easy to add user for particular item they share and it will automatically split the bill as per the share of the user.
Why it is good
It is good because of the following reasons:-
- It is very simple, unambiguous, easy to learn and use. The information displayed about your transactions is very clear.
- The look and feel of web site is very consistent and various information is properly displayed under different division throughout.
- You can particular transaction with some particular person or you can look the overall account statement with some particular person.
- Report payment feature is very good. You can add bank transaction number or cheque number of payment you made.
Good User Interface
2). Kayak
Purpose
The purpose of Kayak is to search for cheap deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages.
You can select One way, Round Trip or Multi-City option to search for flight as per your traveling
plan.
It also shows on right hand side the Best Fares from your source to destination
for the full calendar month you selected from the dropdown.
The Good Aspect
The good aspect of the Kayak is the feature of Search with very few information and the three ways
of doing the search,
The option to compare search result from other website at bottom of the page.
The Best Fare option for the full calendar month make it very easy to plan your trip.
Why it is good
It is good because of the following reasons :-
- The layout of the page is good and very neatly designed. It is displaying different information under separate section which is consistent throughout the website.
- Web Page is divided into different section as per the information, which is very clearly visible.
- The color combination and look and feel of the web site is very good and every information is clearly visible.
- There are no unnecessary Pop-Up and advertisement on the page, which annoyed most of users over other websites.
Bad User Interface
1). NEU Library WebSite for Room Reservation
Step1:
Step2:
Step3:
Result:
Purpose
The purpose of NuCat Library Room Reservation service is to book individual or group study room
for group discussion or assignment. It is a excellent facility provided by Northeastern university to
the students that they can book study rooms for group study.
But the worst thing is the online service available to book the room. It is a big headache
to use this service for booking a room and it does not look like a service designed by
professional for a University which rank among one of the best Universities in the U.S.A.
The Bad Aspect
There are many bad aspect of this room booking service which are as given below :-
- First of all there is no direct link over university library web site to book a room. You have to go to Library -> Service -> For Student -> Room and Spaces -> Book Online ->Reserve it
- On clicking Room and Services the process of booking room is divided into three steps, which is very bad design as you have to go back if you wan to see what information you have entered in previous window.
- The name 'Room and Spaces' itself does not give enough information that this is the link to book a room online.
Why it is bad
The various factor which make it a bad User Interface design are as under :-
- The process of booking room is divided into very long process of three steps on different pages.
- The User Interface is ambiguous as there is not enough information about what is going on.
- There is no information that room can be booked till maximum upto 8:30 PM. when you try to book room it will give you error as shown in result page, which is ambiguous. It took me 1 hour to figure it out what is happening exactly, after consulting the staff person at library information desk (that room can be booked upto 8:30 PM only).
- The calendar view shown on Step1 is not very helpful as you can not select date from that calendar view.
How it can be Improved
The User interface for booking room can be improved by doing some changes as suggested below :-
- The process of booking room should be shown on one page as a single process.
- There must be direct link to book room over the NuCat Library website.
- There must be proper validation of input data and proper error message should be displayed.
Bad User Interface
2). Drudge Report
Purpose
The Drudge Report is a news aggregation website. Run by Matt Drudge with the help of
Joseph Curl and Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States
and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as
links to many columnists. The Drudge Report is often considered conservative in tone,
though the sources cited and linked run the gamut of political leanings.
The Bad Aspect
As per the purpose of this web site it is intended to show drudge reports and news about politics,
entertainment, and current event but from the interface nothing is clear. The various bad aspect of
this website are given below :-
- From the first look on the user interface there is no idea about what this website is displaying except the big header that shows a text "Drudge Report".
- There is no proper categorization of links to stories about politics, entertainment, and current events.
- The search option for searhing news on the website is given somewhere in the middle between other links.
Why it is bad
The various factor which make it a bad User Interface design are as under :-
- The overall look and feel of web site is very inconsistent. There is no proper alignment and divison of the web page.
- There is no categorization of news or links to news, event and other column on the website.There is no categorization of news on the basis of region or location as well.
- The search option is at somewhere in the middle of the page and user will come to knoe only if he/she will scroll the page down.
- There is no infromation regarding the date and time of news and event, You have no idea which are current news and event and which one are old one.
How it can be Improved
The User interface for this website can be improved by doing some changes as suggested below:-
- The time and date information should be displayed at the top and there must be option to select news based on the date.
- There must be direct categorization of news and links and there must be proper divison based on the category of news.
- There must be header to select various categories of news and the search option should be at the top in the header.