Elaine Fath Blog #9

The neat thing about the concept of "ease of learning" in the context of this book is that if you follow all of the other design tips, you will most likely be following "ease of learning" as well. This is especially true of tip #7, which says that applications should be uniform and consistent. In terms of the "game" metaphor used across the semester, look at something like basketball (or football, or tennis, or badminton...). When playing basketball, there is no circumstance of the game in which the players drop the basketball and pick up a football, or suddenly run off the court and go play in the bleachers. The existence of rules and boundaries lead to the result of a uniform, consistent game--although there are tons of different strategies that can be used in basketball, they all have to take place in the realm of a consistent court with a uniform type of ball. This is not an accident! People are wired to learn this way.

CMWORLAND Blog 9

Theme 4 is “providing for ease of learning.” Uniformity and consistency is essential for the new users of a product. It allows them to enjoy the application from the very start. In doing this, if they can complete one task, any other task should be easy to accomplish. Many websites follow this idea but one example of this would be ebay. They layout is uniform throughout the site.

Nathan Potts's Blog Post #9

The theme of uniformity provides ease of learning by allowing the user to be able to more accurately predict the effects that his or her future actions will have. Stereotypes, surprisingly, are an excellent example of displaying uniformity and how it provides ease of learning. One example are wild animals. Since we were little we have watched cartoons which depict tigers, lions, and other creatures being very ferocious that may attack without provocation. By these images we learn that these creatures are dangerous. Carrying this knowledge, if we were ever to confront one of these animals outside of a zoo or some similar enclosure, we would be terrified and we would not need to bitten and chewed on to realize that we may become the tiger's next meal. It isn't a large jump for one to make from the instance of the cartoon to the instance of real life, and the uniformity of the animals accent the stereotype thus showing us that Stereotypes through uniformity will give us assumptions on factors that we have already learned.

Nick Swan (Blog 9)

The message in chapter 7 relates to "ease of learning" by keeping things consistent and uniform allowing the user to have a better experience from the design. These items allow the user to get the most out of the design they are using and in turn they are not confused by lots of changes and unfamiliar items. A good example of this that I found was on the website twitter. On twitter's website everything stays proportional as you look at different pages. All of the information is located in the same location and for the most part, the size of peoples post only varies slightly depending on the length. This also applies to the alignment of the page since everything fits within a certain template of the page. The only items that do not stay uniform is the backgrounds of people pages which is actually a consistent change because really the only thing that changes are pictures and colors and it just allows the person the acknowledge whose page they are on.

Daniel Lee Blog 9

Chapter 7 entitled design for uniformity, consistency, and meaning, talks about the importance of all these as each one of them helps the user’s experience with the design. Uniformity and consistency helps the users in a way that user understand how design works easily and is able to become familiar and navigate easily through the application. Consistency can give meanings to other features by using irregularities to show the users that it has different importance level than other features that are consistent.
An example of a website that utilizes these to create an ease of learning is taylorguitars.com. The top float menu uses uniformity and consistency as it always stay in the same location and each sub-categories float below the each menu as the mouse curser hover on top. Once the user clicks on the product menu, another menu comes on the right side. This new menu is aligned right and is also consistent throughout searching of the products. Its system of navigation is very easy to learn and follow and it enables the users to find their desired information very easily.

Andy Mccolgin - Blog 9

It is important to maintain uniformity and consistency when creating something. This develops "ease of learning". One great example of this is the board game trivial pursuit. It is not a complicated game in and of itself, and there are many different versions of the game. However, between different versions of the game, the cards are all the same basic design and the boards have the same shape. The only thing that changes between styles of games are the pictures on the boards and the questions themselves. This makes the entire challenge just about answering the question and not figuring out the game.

Blog 9 Josh Roberson

The connection between Chapter 7 and the 4th theme is very obvious. If you design something to be uniform, consistent, and have meaning to the user it provides an ease of learning. Allowing for you to pick up on the layout quickly and get going with what you are there to do. A great example of this is Craigslist. It has uniform columns and rows, is consistent with its use of hierarchy, and has very little chrome.

Blog 9 Austin Frink

"Providing for ease of learning" is largely making sure that a website or application is consistent, uniform, and has meaning. This is the connection between chapter 7 and the 4th theme of good design. Check this out people http://www.caduceus.org/. This is Maynard James Keenan's wine company, Caduceus's, website. The consistency and uniformity of meaning is provided by the artistic video intro and the simple but effective book layout. Click the tabs of the book to go to different sections like "Mission" and "Wines." This is simply a badass website.

Tarana Patel (blog9)

Chapter 7 talks about the theme number four is "providing for ease of learning." If come across the web page that simple, easy to use and follow, and navigate all the way through a website than this will clearly make the ease of learning more easy, useful, and helpful. The example I chose is Indiana University bookstore website, http://www.iubookstore.com this web page is “easy of learning” type of aspect to it. This website is very easy to follow and navigate all the way through a website beautifully straightforward. When user come to the web page they can see very party and well organize web page that is very easy to follow. Web page has all useful information for users. If users want to order book online or pick up this web page easy to use. User can selected term, department, course, and class section number than user can chose either IMU or Eigenmann bookstore. These entire like simple, easy to use and follow, navigate all the way through a website than this will clearly make the “ease of learning”.
--- Tarana Patel

Horstman Blog 9

An example of Theme 4: "providing for ease of learning" is the notebooks teaching young children to write the alphabet. The line paper sets the children up for future writing on paper and giving them an understanding of what to do with lined paper. Not only does the little notebooks show lined paper, but in the beginning of these books they show light colored dotted lines that slowly form the letters it wants the children to learn to write and even can show the direction their pens or pencils are suppose to move in order to create the letters. Some of the books also will have the two versions of the letter (A & a for example) as well as an object associated with that letter like an apple. Further along in the books or series of books they will show you pictures of objects and show you how to write the word for that object. All the while, they are providing step by step instructions and ways of creating the alphabet and putting them into words to associate them with pictures of objects. These books continue with uniformity and consistency to avoid confusing the children and keep them interested as they learn.

L. Smith - Blog 9

Uniformity and consistency contribute largely to a website's "ease of learning" for a new user. If the primary purpose for a webpage was hard to determine or shifted around each time the site was visited, users would not find the site beneficial or easy to use. Dictionary.com is a website that demonstrates a consistent layout that is simple to use and catch on to. A search box is at the top of every page along with four other tabs to useful sites associated with word searching (ex. thesaurus, encyclopedia, translator, web). All of the pages are linked together and are consistent with their own color scheme which surrounds the search box atop each page. This uniformity and consistency makes it easy for a new user to navigate the webpage and makes it clear what they are searching for.

Chambers - Blog 9

Uniformity and consistency are both important for new users trying to use something. If they finally learn something and then the next task they try to do has to be done completely differently, they will get confused and frustrated. A quick and easy example for designing for meaning is how the whole Blogger site remains mostly beige, but links show as blue and buttons show as different, bright colors that stand out against the rest of the page. This way users can easily see the most important of their options and learning how to do things will be easier. Also, the uniformity of blogger helps users get used to where things are and how to do things as well as helping buttons stand out by being different.

Kevin Noone Blog #9

Chapter 7 speaks to the theme "provide for ease of learning" through multiple concepts, but the one I quickly noticed was the topic Be Consistent Across Applications. When using an application, half the time may be spent on just trying to search for some type of option that is located in one of the file or option menus. An example of something that avoids this through being consistent across applications is Mac. While on a mac, most if not all, applications are going to have a very similar set up, with similar options on the top menu bar that is always detached from the application itself. This allows for the user to easily point out important features of an application on first use.

Derek Schutz Blog #9

Ease of use and uniformity I believe have a direct relationship to "ease of learning" described in theme 4. If it is easy to use, and if it has uniformity, than this will obviously make the ease of learning more simple, and more effective. Oncourse is a website that we all know, that has a very "easy of learning" type of aspect to it. Uniformity is the main aspect of Oncourse that I believe really make the "ease of learning," easy. The website has tabs towards the top, which are each different class, and which ever class is being looked at, that tab is highlighted in black. The rest of the tabs are white, which make it very obvious that those are not the tabs being looked at. Also, while looking at each class, all of the categories are at the left side of the page, making the website simple to use, easy to move around, and most importantly makes the "ease of learning," easy.

Week 09 Blog Assignment

Chapter 7 is about designing for uniformity, consistency, and meaning. Because it took me longer than anticipated to get out this assignment, and it’s spring break, I’ll make this easier for you.  

Some of the advice in this chapter sounds to me like one of the seven themes: Theme 4 is “providing for ease of learning.” How does the message of chapter 7 speak to this theme?

Provide an example not used in the book or in class and explain it.

 

Bonus magic point: email spring break photo(s) — on the beach or elsewhere — to Marty (msiegel@indiana.edu) !

Derek Schutz Blog #8

Ditch anything Modal - If you are in the middle of working and you attempt to move away from the page, the website displays a pop-up warning message telling you that you will lose your unsaved work. The pop up allows you to to close the pop-up and save or to exit out.

Write helpful error messages - When i was first logging into the website and making a new login name, i purposely typed my passwords different from each other. A simple error message came up telling me that the passwords did not match. This helpful error message was extremely easy to understand, and told me exactly what needed to be changed to continue.

Create forgiving software - In a few ways this software is forgiving. An example of how this software is forgiving is allowing the user to add and delete new fields very simply. So if you had a field and feel like it is not appropriate or is not necessary, it can be easily deleted. An aspect of this website that is also forgiving is that if you haven't saved what you have changed while editing and you try to leave or move around the website, a pop up message tells you that you haven't saved yet, and gives you the chance to save.

Nathan Potts's Blog Post #8

The first error I came across was when I tried to enter user information incorrectly. I tried to enter an invalid E-Mail address, different passwords, and an invalid website. It complained. Giving me error messages below each box. Each was very simple: when I inserted a wrong E-Mail address. It returned: Invalid email address. This may be seen as a bit too simple. When I entered two different passwords it returned the error message of: Passwords do not match. Finally, when I entered an incorrect url, it returned: Your subdomain can only consist of letters and numbers. Nowhere on the other page am I given the knowledge of what a subdomain is. As it refers to that text field as one's Wufoo Name / URL. Furthermore all of these sign ups do not use inline invalidation as was specified in designing the obvious.

Elaine Fath Blog #8

Prevent and Catch Errors with Poka-yoke Devices:

There's a really cool feature when creating forms where, if I am trying to insert a new element but am just clicking "new element," the buttons on the left will shake to "get my attention" and notify me that these are my options.


Ditch Anything Modal:
This application sort of gets away from this by showing a modal warning message when you try to navigate away from a page without saving. It could be argued, however, that if the choice is between losing all content and putting up with a modal element, possibly something modal is a better choice.

Write Error Messages That Help Instead of Hurt:

All of the error messages I encountered were very helpful--the signup form, in particular, not only stated helpful things like "Your subdomain can only consist of letters and numbers." (easy, quick, to the point!) But it also highlighted the "problem" area so I can easily go back through and correct.

Also, as I was clicking around before I had a form, all pages told me what steps I needed to take before having the ability to utilize the more advanced features ("You need a form before you can make a report!")

Create Forgiving Software:

Obviously, the nature of Wufoo is such that no one mistake will bring down the entirety of your work. Just because I flub one sign-up attempt doesn't prevent me from trying again. If I make a mistake on a form, I can always go back and redo just that single element instead of the whole form.

Blog 8 Austin Frink

After creating a form, I returned to the main page. I then wanted to edit my form. Neglecting to see the "edit" button underneath, I clicked on the name of the form. I was then presented with the finished form as if I were to fill it out. I entered random letters in for each field and submitted the form. After a confirmation message was displayed, I returned to the home page. I then pressed edit. I proceeded to delete the existing name fields. When I pressed delete, a nice little detection device revealed itself as the following message:

Are you sure you want to delete this field?

Deleting a field means that all data collected by the field will be deleted immediately. Because this action cannot be undone, you might want to consider exporting your data first. When you're ready to delete, let us know.

Yes, I am sure or Cancel.

Honestly at this point I was unaware that I had any data. But I know now.

The next error message that I came accross was a poka-yoke that totally turned error into opportunity.

Payment Integration is a Paid Feature

Wufoo's Payment Integration is only available to $29.95/month Bona Fide plans and higher, however, you're welcome to take this feature for a test drive for 5 transactions. Once your account is payment enabled, you'll be able to collect donations, registrations and simple orders through PayPal, Google Checkout and Authorize.net.

Test drive it or Learn More or Cancel

This was displayed after I clicked on Payment Integration on the payment settings.

All of the error messages that I saw after doing something wrong, or trying to do something I was not allowed to do with my trial version features, were Document-modal. They all prevented me from doing anything else within my current document. Looks like Wufoo needs to get some new designers in there to clean up their act by making their application Modeless, Robert Hoekman would say. How rude!

Tom Davidson Blog 8

Poka-yoke: Immediately upon registration, the first page the user is presented with displays a large, colored text-box that says "No fields, you should add a field." This could be construed as "error-proofing" because it basically forces the user to start filling out the form rather than having them try to figure it out on their own.

Ditch anything modal: As others mentioned, while in the middle of working, if the user attempts to navigate away from the page, the website displays a pop-up informing them that they will lose any unsaved work. It prompts them to close the pop-up and save or navigate away.

Write helpful error messages: The error message mentioned above is a very simple and very helpful message. It keeps the user from losing any changes and it's not cryptic or confusing.

Create forgiving software: Wufoo makes it easy to make and edit forms. It's click and drag interface makes it quick to figure out and easy to use.

Nick Swan (Blog 8)

When I first created my Wufoo account I thought it looked a little complicated but as I started to use it things became a lot easier. One of the first thing I noticed on the site was that If you try to navigate off the page or if you accidentally click one of the navigation links, a message is displayed saying the following:

"Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?

YOU HAVEN'T SAVED YET AND
YOU'LL BE ABANDONING YOUR CHANGES.

Press OK to continue, or Cancel to stay on the current page"

When this message is up the only options that are available on the page are to click OK or Cancel. In my opinion, I this is a good example of poka-yoke because it prevents errors from ever occurring and notifies the user of the mistake they made so they don't lose all of their data.
This is also an example of wriing helpful error messages since it clearly states what the error is that was made and how the user can easily resolve it.

- Nick Swan

Daniel Lee Blog 8

First error handing techniques I saw on wufoo site is the detection device. During the sign-up page, I purposely made mistakes in all of the fields. I put invalid email address, password that is not at least 6 characters long. When I tried to create account, all fields except the URL field was highlighted in red and there was an error message below each field explaining the reason for errors. This is an example of a detection device because it shows error to the user immediately so the user can fix it and move on.

After setting up my account, I started to make my first forum using wufoo. I just added some fields and logout and went to my own wufoo page to do my own forum. Once I logged back in and tried to delete some of the fields whole screen turned black and new message came on top of the page saying “Are you sure you want to delete this field”. It explained that “Deleting a field means that all data collected by the field will be deleted immediately. Because this action cannot be undone, you might want to consider exporting your data first. When you’re ready to delete, let us know.” This can be an example of Quality error pages described in the book. I thought this was very well done to make sure the user understand what is going on and help the user to make decisions.

Tarana Patel (Blog 8)

It took me lots of times to get familiar with Wufoo. When users create an account it has very clear step to step instruction. I forget to verify password and there is an error message came up that said that “password do not match” this is a use of a poka-yoke prevention device. I notice that there is clear short expiation if there is any error it’s easy to understand this is example of the Poka-yoka detection device. It’s very easy for users because they don’t have to waste their time think what I have to do when error message came up because it’s gives users a short and clear solutions so, users don’t have to worry about how to solve error. After browsing more with different features on the site, I think this is very well organized keep in mind what user want, and did very good at handling errors massage, but one thing I didn’t like is that there are too many features and information. New users need more times to get use to with Wufoo. But other than that I think Wufoo has most of the requirements of poka-yoke that discuss in chapter 6, organized, easy, understand, and most user friendly.
--- Tarana Patel

Chambers - Blog 8

Right off the bat, I was presented with this:




This is a document-modal style of handling the lack of javascript being allowed to run on my browser. It's a helpful error and lets me know exactly what the issue is (as well as alerting me of the issue, as some sites completely ignore the fact that they need javascript to work and I have to figure it out myself.)

The whole form creation process is very poka-yoke with buttons for each thing you might want to do as well as prompts to help the user to know what belongs where. It also has some fields where only letters or numbers can be entered. (though it was a little confusing as to what was happening.)

The software is fairly forgiving since it warns you when you do anything dangerous and offers additional options like exporting data before deleting a form.

L. Smith - Blog 8

Poka Yoke – this didn’t stand out big to me on this site, but I guess you could say that when choosing the options for a checkbox or radio buttons, the default values are set so that they are not left blank (ex. First Choice, Second Choice, etc..)

Ditch anything modal – an application modal is displayed when trying to navigate to other links while in the middle of making a form. The user can switch to other applications but are presented with an error message which prevents them from going elsewhere within that application until they select OK or Cancel.

Write error messages that help instead of hurt – the error messages (such as the one in the ditch anything modal) were easy to understand and comprehend without making the user feel like an idiot.

Create forgiving software – also couldn’t think of much here besides allowing the user to rearrange and edit their form to see what it looks like with the rest of the components of the form.

Kevin Noone Blog 8

Poka-yoke - Inline validation exists on Wufoo through their use of the settings option and the display of what the form will look like itself. As soon as you make a change in the settings, that change is shown in the form draft on the right. This allows the user to see things that they might not like on their form, before finalizing it, therefor reducing the number of times that a user messes something major up.

Document-modal message - Just like the example given in the book of redesigning rude behavior, on Wufoo if you were to attempt to navigate away from a page you have been working on before saving, it stops you and confirms that you want to leave without saving. That message box is built inside the browser, it can be moved around, but you can not proceed with what you were doing until you make a decision.

write helpful error messages - Wufoo offers very clear, well written explanations for each seperate setting in the settings tab. If the user is unsure of what that specific setting will change, they can click on the question mark. The result of clicking on the question mark is actually an example of modeless. While reading the very helpful and well written description of what that setting does, you can also change which field you are working on.

Create forgiving software - Wufoo allows the user to very easily experiment with their forms. They are able to add a field and then very easily deleting it without taking any other steps backwards in their progress. This gives the user confidence to explore the application and everything that it has to offer.

Chad Jordan Blog 8

Prevent and Catch Errors with Poka-yoke Devices: I could not find any examples poka-yoke devices within the web application.

Ditch Anything Modal: The application actually goes the other way and has several application-modal errors. If the user attempts to navigate away from the form without saving, it pops up a message saying, "

Confirm

Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?

YOU HAVEN'T SAVED YET AND WILL BE ABANDONING YOUR CHANGES.

Press OK to continue, or CANCEL to stay on the current page."

The application also pops up an application-modal error if you try to save when there is a page break with no information on it.

Write Error Messages That Help Instead of Hurt: The error messages that do come up are written very clearly, and instruct the user how to solve the issue creating the error message. So, they are helpful error messages.

Create Forgiving Software: Unfortunately, this software is not very forgiving. If you do navigate away from the page without saving, your work is deleted and you would have to start from scratch.

Cory Worland: Blog 8

Poka-yoke:
The first thing I noticed when I clicked on the multiple choice form, was the subtitle “This is my form. Please fill it out. It's awesome!”. I feel like this is a good form of error prevention because it gives you a little hint on what you can write for the subtitle and shows that you should have some instructions on filling out the form.

Ditch anything modal:
I noticed the same thing as Cait, if you try to do anything whether it be deleting fields or clicking on a link that would change the page, a warning message pops up saying that you haven’t saved your work and any unsaved data will be lost if you continue. They make it a type of application-modal and you can’t do anything unless you click ok or cancel which is a good thing because you wouldn’t want to lose all of the work that you did if you haven’t saved it.

Write helpful error messages:
The above mentioned error message is a very helpful error message.

Create forgiving software:
I suppose this software is forgiving by allowing the user to move the different pieces of the form around without overlapping or covering something up.

Horstman Blog 8

Example of Poka-yoke Prevention:

WUFOO will create every multiple choice field with default values that will work even though they do not have a meaning or purpose (such as "Select a Choice" or "First Choice"). This allows the user to have a functional multiple choice field and be able to edit later once everything is placed in order.

Example of Ditch Anything Modal:

When deleting a field after saving the form once, you receive a pop-up window that acts like a document-modal to where you can't do anything until that pop-up is dealt with unless you close the browser all together.

Week 08 Blog Assignment

Chapter 6 is about error handling, and Hoekman (we learn in this chapter how to pronounce his name — “hook-man”) describes four strategies: use Poka-yoke devices; ditch anything modal; write helpful error messages; and create forgiving software.

WUFOO is a site that allows "making forms easy + fast + fun." Take a look at the wufoo site (you’ll need to create a login; then look at the multiple choice form) and determine if any of the Chapter 6 error handling techniques are used. If so, please describe. To find errors, make lots of mistakes and see how they’re handled.

Cory Worland

(I am not an I300 loser.)Actually I might be an I300 loser. I thought I already completed this but just realized I had not. Please forgive me.

Austin Frink Blog 7

I am without a doubt not an I300 loser. However, I have been somewhat disorganized this week due to my heavy work load.

Chad Jordan Blog #7

I'm only kind of an I300 loser.

Tom Davidson Blog#7

I am not an I300 loser.

Tarana Patel (Blog 7)

I am not an I300 loser.
-- Tarana Patel

Andy Mccolgin Blog #7

I am not an I300 loser. Me-ow

Daniel Lee Blog#7

I am not an I300 loser.