Usability

We are formally in the beginning stages of usability testing. We are exploring a variety of methods from cognitive walkthroughs to paper prototypes and instrumentation. We began with a design / product team brainstorm exercise based on our ZeroPointFivePlanning, ZeroPointSixPlanningOld^? and DesktopZeroDotSeven efforts. We then identified workflows that were

1. Crucial end-user PIM tasks
2. Areas of innovation
3. Workflows that required significant, new, non-standard GUI work
4. Standard workflows that already exist

We identified sharing calendars and the triage workflow as the two areas of the UI that were crucial end-user tasks, areas of innovation and workflows that required signficant, non-standard GUI work. Of these two workflows, we will tackled calendar sharing first in that we feel it has more difficult and complex mental model challenges.

The next step is to create detailed storyboards of these two workflow areas to identify the key usability questions we have. Each of the workflows will be broken down into the following areas:

• Impetus: Do users even understand why they would want to start this workflow? In other words, are our assumptions of what users will want to do with a PIM correct?
• Action: Does the workflow initiation action follow logically from the impetus?
• Settings: Do the settings make sense? Is the terminology user-friendly? Are the settings ordered correctly? Do users have what they need to make setting decisions?
• Confirmation: Are users clear about when they've successfully completed the task?
• Feedback: Do users get the feedback they need to move through the workflow? Do they understand when and if they succeeded in completing their task?

Below are the results of our brainstorm:

• Triage: Processing items (Critical, Innovation, New GUI)
• Emails
• Junk
• Tasks: follow-up items
• Events
• Reminders / notification
• Automating processing: Rules and filters

• Organize (Critical, Innovation)
• Labelling items
• Manage collections
• Creating collections
• Automating organizing: Rules

• Scheduling events and Sending invitations (Critical)
• Schedule for yourself
• Schedule for a group (small v. large)
• Schedule for someone else (ie. Esther)
• Update an invitation
• Receive an invitation
• Schedule tasks

• Sharing calendars (Critical?, Innovation, New GUI)
• Sharing a my calendar (ie. my schedule)
• Sharing and managing someone else's calendar (ie. Esther and Mitch)
• Sharing someone else's calendar (ie. Freada and Mitch)
• Sharing an organizational calendar (ie. OSAF calendar)
• Sharing an outside event calendar (ie. Giants games)

• Sharing v. receiving a share
• Managing shares
  • Adding sharees
  • Resharing
  • Sharing termination

• Generic sharing
• Shared Inbox for tech support people
• Sharing project-based collections
• Shared todo lists for a working group or family

• Generic email (Standard)
• Send documents (ie. attachments)
• Threads
• Reply, fwd

• Miscellaneous
• Creating clusters (Innovation, New GUI)
• Import / Export
• Preferences

• UI components we're nervous about in order of riskiness
• Kind filter
• Stamping
• Summary column headers for mixed views
• Add / remove / delete
• Rules and filters
• OOTB v. user-defined collections
• Date / time widget
• Mark and purge

Sharing calendars: 2 proposals

Create a separate collection to share

1. Select calendar kind filter
2. Select menu>>Collections>>Share
3. Chandler creates a new untitled rule-based collection

• Questions
  • Will users be confused when they try to share their Dashboard calendar and it creates a new rule-based collection?
  • Will users expect the rule to be bi-directional?
  • Will it get annoying to manage all of these extra shared collections that are derivative of other collections?
  • Will users understand to enter email address in the to: field?

Filtered shares

1. Select calendar kind filter
2. Select menu>>Collections>>Share
3. Chandler shares a filtered portion of the collection

• Questions
• Can users name the filtered share something different from the original collection name? (ie. My calendar)
• Should we automatically change the name of the Dashboard collection depending on what kind you have selected? (ie. All, All my mail, All my tasks, All my events)
• When users share a filtered Dashboard, they cannot edit the name of the collection and we automatically tack on the user's name to the collection (ie. Mitch's events, Mitch's tasks and events, Mitch's mail, Mitch's items)
• Will sharees understand that only items that meet the parameters set by the filter (ie. only events) will be shared. All other items they add to the "shared" collection will not be shared.
• Who can change the filter settings for a share? Just the sharer? or anybody?
• If Sharees can change the filter settings, do those changes apply just to that sharee? or to everybody? Which is more confusing?

Task design

• Goal / Output
• Share my calendar with my spouse

• Inputs
• Pre-fab calendar items
• Friend and co-workers' email addresses

• Assumptions
• User has already populated their calendar with items
• User has already set up their WebDAV account
• Users do not have pre-existing WebDAV
• Users understand what a collection is

• Steps
• See above

• Time for an expert
• TBD

• Instructions for user
• You have just set up an account that will allow you to share collections of items with other users. You would like to share your calendar with a friend and a co-worker.

-- MimiYin - 15 Oct 2004