End User Report - rsanchez-wsu/RaiderPlanner GitHub Wiki

Why an End User Report

Those issues we looked for had a wide range, they included the following.

  1. Code improvement - more efficient code
  2. Code clarity - documentation that explains what modules do
  3. Bug fixes - items that cause breakdowns
  4. Enhancements - items that improve flow or design
  5. Build System - coordinating different systems to work together.
  6. Invalid - something that is wrong or just doesn't belong
  7. Questions - developers come up with question for the team to discuss
  8. Help Wanted - developers need clarification or code issues

Navigation Menu Items

New Profile - When you finally get into the program, with a new profile, there is no way to create a new Study Profile. The only thing you can do is go to the Import Hub file and choose a file from that repository. The profile that you just created is not there.

Open Profile. - This works smoothly and as expected.

Study Dashboard - There is no help on this screen, nothing to advise the user what to do next. After clicking and trying anything I could think of, I found that I needed to click on one of the Modules on the screen. While I was clicking, and before clicking on a module, I clicked on the navigation menu for Modules. At this point I was not able to move back to my Study Profile or Study Dashboard. I clicked on Open Profile, before I was able re-choose my profile or save any changes I made did not save. Also on this screen I clicked to go to New Profile, and again I was advise that any changes did not save. After clicking on a module, you are taken to the information screen that allows for adding new requirements and tasks to that module.

Modules - There is no help on this screen, nothing to advise the user what to do next. I guess this screen is activated after you have add requirements and tasks to your modules. This is the only way I could get it to activate. It shows completed tasks, requirements and courses.

Modules - There is no help on this screen, nothing to advise the user what to do next. First there is no way to easily get out of the module screen. You can use the Calendar Icon, that frees up the other controls, or you can use the Open Profile or the New Profile controls. Once you are in the modules screen, you have to double-click the module you want to edit. From there you can add New Requirements or New tasks, these are explained in detail later on in this report. I was unable to add a new module

Study Profiles. - There is no help on this screen, nothing to advise the user what to do next. Once you select a profile from the import hub, you should be able to start to adjust the profile. There is no indication of how you are to start this process. All you can do from this screen is set the profile as current. There is no way to get off of this screen. The only other items that you can get to is New Profile or Open Profile. In this screen I as only able to get out of it by clicking on the calendar icon. From here you need to go to the Study Dashboard.

Chat - The Elements overlap the GUI's header. There is no way of closing the chat room, should have a close chat button. There is no way to exit out of the Chat screen, there should back-arrow or a close button. Again as with other screen the Calendar icon can free up the lock. This option is not working. I opened up this program twice so i would have the ability to see if comments were being sent back and forth, the messages were not sent.

Help - The Help link works as expected. It is only a link to the help website.

Import Hub File - This link works well. I do believe that the name should be changed, as most user won't understand what a hub file is.

Gantt Chart - The only thing on this screen is a display of tasks completed, tasks started, possible to start, and not possible to start. The Save button is not operational.

Pop Ups

Create a new Account

  1. No punctuation allowed
  2. You can't use "Mr. or Mrs."
  3. You can't use "LastName, FirstName"
  4. Poor grammar is allowed (mr or mrs)
  5. You can't use numbers in the name field, (i.e. John Smith III)
  6. You must have a W number for identification
  7. You can use 3 names, but the second one that is listed becomes your "handle" (i.e. Sandy Brown-Smith)
  8. Can't see the full description of check box. (Family name la...)

New Requirement - There is no help on this screen, nothing to advise the user what to do next. I discovered by trial and error, to add a new task, you need to double-click on the assignment. It took a minute but I was able to find the "Add a new requirement button", this give a popup screen. The first text box and "name" greyed out in the background. What name should be entered here, my name, the course name, the requirement name? It turns out it is the name of the requirement. Then I tabbed to "Estimated time (hours)". I found out that this text box will only accept numeric inputs, if it is not numeric, the boxes border is turned read. There is no message as to what why the input was invalid. Tabbing again, your are set to the details box. First you can not tab out of the box, secondly there is no word wrapping. If there are lots of details they appear on a single line. You can not tab out of the details box, you must click out of it. Next is the quantity box. I am not sure what is to be put in here. It only accepts numeric values, I am not sure what value I am to put in here. Tabbing out of this box puts me on the quit button, passing the Quantity type and OK buttons. Once again I have to click on the Quantity type. In doing so, I understand what the quantity box is for. I don't see the category that I need in the drop down box, so I click other. Then I notice a button with a "+" on it. This allows me to enter new items in the quantity box. I clicked OK, and the requirement is now listed. There is a greyed out "remove" button that is not operational.

New Task - There is no help on this screen, nothing to advise the user what to do next. There is the same issue with the name text box as the New Requirements popup. I tabbed out of this, and was sent to the Weighting box. I don't know what weighting is. Through trial and error, it only accepts numeric values. I entered a number and tabbed out to the Details box. This has the same issues as the New Requirement Details box, I can't tab out and there is no word wrapping. I click out of this and into the deadline box. The default date is 1/11/2018 The only input that is accepted is from clicking a date in the calendar. On too the Task Type, these types are the same as new requirements popup. Now there are two buttons beside this drop down. One with "..." and one with "-". The hyphen button is not operational. The ellipse button adds new types to the Task Type drop down. I was confused as to why the icon to add a type is different from that in the New Requirement popup. I had to click to the requirements box, I could not add a requirement directly. I had to click the add button, and this gave me the New Requirement popup. I tabbed out of that box and got into the dependencies box, again I could not enter a dependency directly. Tabbing again I get to the add button, click and it brings up a blank list of dependencies. There are two buttons that are greyed out at the bottom, "toggle complete" and "remove". At this point I had no idea how to activate them or to use them. I was happily clicking all over the screen, I double-clicked the task I just created and a new popup showed. It was the same popup as add a new task popup, but this time I could use the "mark as completed" button to mark the task as done. I marked it as completed, clicked quit. The task was now highlighted by a different color. I don't know why. I re-click create a Gantt chart and now the task I marked as completed show up in that chart.

Add an Activity - Again naming conventions of the text boxes are ambiguous. "Name", "Duration" and "Quantity" could be more descriptive. The tab order doesn't flow well. Tabbing out of name you go to details, where you can't tab out of. You have to click into duration, enter something number, then you can tab to quantity. If you tab after the quantity it takes you to date, tab again you are at quit. After you enter a quantity type and tab you get sent back to duration. To enter a task you have to click the Add button. The popup screen that appears is a list of dependencies(am I selecting a task or a dependency).

Icons

Calendar Icon - At this point the only thing the calendar icon does change screens to where the calendar should be. There is no calendar visible, just a blank screen. It does have an unintended function of, when clicked on it give usability back to all the functions of the navigation bar.

Plus Icon - This icon appears in all the GUI headers n the upper right hand corner, and is misleading. It is used to add an activity. Every time I see it, I get the impression that I should be able to add an item of the screen I'm on. For example, if I am on the module screen, I should be able to click that icon and add a module to my planner.

Summary

Overall this program is starting to come together. The major issue I feel is there is a lot little things that will cause user frustrations.

  1. No help on the screens, you either need to go to a website or download a pdf.
  2. Tab order is not well thought out
  3. Icons that don't work
  4. Icons that are misleading
  5. Naming conventions of text boxes
  6. All screens should have a back button, or a close button
  7. Buttons that do the same task, should be labelled the same across all screens

Report written September 28, 2018