Episode 7 : User Interface Assignment

Seeing how web services like Yahoo! Answers has worked so well, the GetHelp! application sounds like a pretty good idea indeed.

The interface design, however ... looks pretty terrible. It apparent the team needs better designers.

Elements Layout

The home page is simply too cramped and messy. Buttons are lying around everywhere unorganized. This can be very very frustrating to the target user who's trying to fill in his details ASAP. More than once, the buttons are placed so near each other that users may accidently click on the wrong links. Here's the most prominent example.

The "recommendations" link has been placed right next to the "badges" tab with very little margin. There's a good likelihood that impatient users will accidently click on the wrong links, giving rise to unnessary frustrations. The same applies to the mini icons placed beside the "need quick help?" section.

With reference to the same picture above, one can notice that lots of white spaces are surrounding the text and picture elements. So why do the designers choose to cramp their text and icons into a tight bundle instead of utilizing these white spaces?

Checkboxes

The designers apparently overused their checkboxes on the home page. In the "Who do you wish to ask?" Column on the home page, 3 checkboxes are present to the user as options. There's a bit of logic problem over here ... what if someone checks all 3 boxes? Then what is supposed to happen?

Each of these options are dependent of the other options. If you choose to post your question to ALL of your friends, how can you "pick and choose reliable ppl at the same time?". Confusion!

Instead of checkboxes, a radio button should be placed here.

Logic Flow

Looking at the home page ... i don't really know what the developers are trying to achieve. Is it sufficient for users to simply type their queries in the big "I need Help With ..." column in order to post their questions? Or is it compulsory for the users to fill in further details in the 2 columns below?

Looking at the home page, I'm pretty tempted to simply enter my query, and then press the big red button without any further hassle. If a popup box should appear later on with messages such as "You have missing fields. Please fill them and re-submit.", I know i'll get pissed.

If the bottom 2 columns are compulsory fields, I have 2 suggestions for improvement.

1) Redesign the home page to make the bottom 2 columns more prominent, with colors, bigger fonts etc, such that users will not miss it before pressing the submit button.

2) Remove the botton 2 columns from the home page, and place them within dedicated pages, where users will be redirected after pressing the submit button.

Overview Page

Check out the proximity and the positions of the buttons above. It seems that the "Recommendations" link has been forced to sit underneath the "Overview" link due to the lack of space. Classic example of poor CSS implementation.

Also, it has come to my attention that ... just looking at the picture alone, I don't even know which page I'm currently in. None of the 4 tabs above are lit (unlike the tabs in the homepage). In fact, why are there 2 different styles of tabs in the top panel? Do they serve completely different purpose?

Consistency in elements design is one of the basic rules in creating a usable interface. As a layman user, I don't really know what different categories these buttons may be sorted in. The only thing I will know, is that they are all links to different parts of the same application. As such, it serves well for the developers to apply a consistent design to the tabs on the top panel.

Project Page

Erm ... the tabs on the top panel are covered partially by the help details banner?

The help section looks far too basic with minimal details functionality in place. What if I have screenshots to show? Is that supported? What if I have an essay to write to relate my problems? Is that supported as well? If the answer is no, then the designers probably have to wake up their ideas a little bit.

Bots

For an application like this, there are multiple possibilities of abuses by bots and all. Furthermore, the help posting functionality has all been squeezed onto the front page. It'll not be difficult for evil botters like Jason to spam the website with malicious content. He has done it before and he will do it again ... mercilessly thrashing the programs of innocent developers who use PCs instead of Mac.

Anti-Jason Measures Suggestions: Put a captcha at the right places to verify human users. Also, there should be a limit to the max number of posts by a user within a given period of time.