Design Tradeoffs
The "access to all information vs. simplicity and clarity" design tradeoff affects the Cat Watch online application. Access to all information and simplicity/ clarity are two important aspects of the Cat Watch online application. The cat’s tracker will be sending a lot of information every minute of every day about the cat’s behaviors to the Cat Watch application. The Cat Watch application will need to be designed in a way to display this information, so the application is not overloading users with information. The Cat Watch web application needs to be simple and clear for its users. Cat Watch users will have all different types of technical backgrounds. If the application is not simple and easy to use, non-technical users will have a difficult time using the application and might decide not to use the application.
The "long battery life vs. mobility" design tradeoff affects the lightweight tracker the cat wears on his or her collar. Long battery life and mobility are two important aspects of the cat’s lightweight tracker. The cat’s owner would like to have a long battery life so it is convenient and so he or she does not have to change the cat’s tracker’s battery very often. If the battery on the lightweight tracker dies, the cat’s tracker cannot send information to the Cat Watch web application. The cat’s tracker needs to be light and mobile because it needs to be put on the cat’s collar and travel around with the cat. In order to put a longer lasting battery on the cat’s tracker, the tracker will become heavier and less mobile. If the tracker is heavier and less mobile, it would not be as effective for the Cat Watch system because the cat might not want to wear it or it could hurt the cat. If the cat does not wear the cat tracker, the Cat Watch system will not work as effectively.
Harder Requirements
Making the Cat Watch web application user friendly can be a difficult requirement. The reason being different people have different opinions of what it means to be user friendly. Our users will have a variety of technical backgrounds, ranging from super technical to not technical at all. A non-technical person might have no idea how to use a website and might not be familiar with certain conventions, such as where to find certain features on websites. The Cat Watch web application design needs to cater to this user and make sure the design is friendly and intuitive enough so that someone with no technical background can easily navigate around the application. A super technical person might be extremely familiar with conventions and expect certain levels of customization features within the application. The Cat Watch application design needs to cater to this user as well to make sure someone with a very technical background does not perceive the website as too rigid with not enough flexibility.
Creating a cat friendly and safe cat tracker could be challenging because cats cannot talk to provide feedback about the cat tracker. In order to get feedback about the cat tracker, Cat Watch designers will have to think like a cat and put themselves in the cat’s position to make sure the tracker is friendly for cats to use and safe for cats to use. Cat Watch designers can also talk to cat owners to get feedback about how cats are reacting to the cat tracker. This requirement could be hard because it might take a couple iterations of prototyping and receiving feedback to get the design correct.
Design Process
While trying to determine the best design for the Cat Watch web application, I used the suggested approach we learned in HCI 595X Visual Design for HCI course. In this class we read the book, Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton. Buxton recommends designers sketch their designs before they create prototypes. Before creating the prototype, I took a piece of paper and created very rough sketches to consider all ideas for the basic layout and design of Cat Watch. While considering the designs for Cat Watch, one of the design tradeoffs I had to consider was "access to all information vs. simplicity and clarity." One of the issues with the Cat Watch system is the fact that the tracker the cat is wearing is constantly sending information about the cat’s behaviors to the Cat Watch application. The Cat Watch design team needs to determine a way to display the information in a way that is not information overload for the users. Not all Cat Watch users will be technical, so the Cat Watch application needs to be user friendly with a simple and clear way to use the website. If the non-technical Cat Watch users become frustrated or cannot figure out how to use the web application, they will not use the system. This would mean a decrease in sales and usage for Cat Watch. The design tradeoff would be to limit the access to all the information the cat tracker sends to have a simple and clear display of the information. We want to increase the sales and usage of Cat Watch, so the design team needs to decide which information is most important and most relevant to the Cat Watch users and display this information in a simple and clear manner. Only the most important and relevant information will be displayed in the web application. All the extra data the cat tracker is sending to the Cat Watch application will not be displayed to keep the web application simple and clear.
If Cat Watch designers want to display information simply and clearly in the Cat Watch web application, they need to present the information in an organized manner. Organization is key to help the users quickly get to where they want to go on a web page. While investigating different ways of organizing and designing web sites, I came across the book, “The Essential Guide to User Interface design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques” by Wilbert O. Galitz. In the book, Galitz suggests, “Buttons placed on a page imply that the action being performed applies only to that page. Buttons outside the pages imply the action performed applies to all pages… tabs are considered by the user as simple grouping or navigation techniques” (Galitz, 410). These concepts were applied to the Cat Watch web application design by using tabs to group and organize actions and placing links applicable to all the pages at the top of the page, outside tabs.
While creating the design for the different displays of information in Cat Watch, I used some of the principles of display design we learned in our HCI 521 The Cognitive Psychology of Human Computer Interaction course. In this course, we read the book Human Factors Engineering by Christopher Wickens, John Lee, Yili Liu and Sallie Gordon Becker. Some perceptual principles of design display I used were making displays legible and discriminability.
Since the cat tracker is such an integral part of how the Cat Watch system works, it is crucial the design of the tracker is safe and appealing to the cat. If the cat will not wear the tracker or it is unsafe to wear the tracker, the Cat Watch system cannot work effectively. As a result, the tracker’s design will be driven with what is most comfortable and convenient for the cat. According to the feline advisory bureau owners website, cat owners should not put heavy, unnecessary bells and other things from their cat’s collars because it presents possible dangers. Cats can get these bells and other things caught and have trouble getting out of a potentially dangerous situation (Cats, 2012). Cat Watch recommends cats wear the break away collars to help prevent any dangers while using the Cat Watch system. After considering all these design options, the cat tracker will be made light weight to not harm or affect the cat with a break away clasp in case the cat gets stuck on the tracker. The battery in the tracker must be long lasting and light to support the light weight design. After talking to cat owners about the design of the cat tracker, they agreed with my design choices. They believed the tracker needed a break away clasp to keep the cat safe and the tracker needed to be light weight to not harm or negative affect the cat.
I took this information and spoke to some users about the design of Cat Watch. They liked the idea of logging into an account and viewing a home tab with information about what your cat’s recent behaviors. The users liked the idea of grouping similar actions in tabs, such as the compare and share tabs. The users also liked the idea of putting a set of links at the top of the page, not on a tab so you could navigate to them from any tab.
The "access to all information vs. simplicity and clarity" design tradeoff affects the Cat Watch online application. Access to all information and simplicity/ clarity are two important aspects of the Cat Watch online application. The cat’s tracker will be sending a lot of information every minute of every day about the cat’s behaviors to the Cat Watch application. The Cat Watch application will need to be designed in a way to display this information, so the application is not overloading users with information. The Cat Watch web application needs to be simple and clear for its users. Cat Watch users will have all different types of technical backgrounds. If the application is not simple and easy to use, non-technical users will have a difficult time using the application and might decide not to use the application.
The "long battery life vs. mobility" design tradeoff affects the lightweight tracker the cat wears on his or her collar. Long battery life and mobility are two important aspects of the cat’s lightweight tracker. The cat’s owner would like to have a long battery life so it is convenient and so he or she does not have to change the cat’s tracker’s battery very often. If the battery on the lightweight tracker dies, the cat’s tracker cannot send information to the Cat Watch web application. The cat’s tracker needs to be light and mobile because it needs to be put on the cat’s collar and travel around with the cat. In order to put a longer lasting battery on the cat’s tracker, the tracker will become heavier and less mobile. If the tracker is heavier and less mobile, it would not be as effective for the Cat Watch system because the cat might not want to wear it or it could hurt the cat. If the cat does not wear the cat tracker, the Cat Watch system will not work as effectively.
Harder Requirements
Making the Cat Watch web application user friendly can be a difficult requirement. The reason being different people have different opinions of what it means to be user friendly. Our users will have a variety of technical backgrounds, ranging from super technical to not technical at all. A non-technical person might have no idea how to use a website and might not be familiar with certain conventions, such as where to find certain features on websites. The Cat Watch web application design needs to cater to this user and make sure the design is friendly and intuitive enough so that someone with no technical background can easily navigate around the application. A super technical person might be extremely familiar with conventions and expect certain levels of customization features within the application. The Cat Watch application design needs to cater to this user as well to make sure someone with a very technical background does not perceive the website as too rigid with not enough flexibility.
Creating a cat friendly and safe cat tracker could be challenging because cats cannot talk to provide feedback about the cat tracker. In order to get feedback about the cat tracker, Cat Watch designers will have to think like a cat and put themselves in the cat’s position to make sure the tracker is friendly for cats to use and safe for cats to use. Cat Watch designers can also talk to cat owners to get feedback about how cats are reacting to the cat tracker. This requirement could be hard because it might take a couple iterations of prototyping and receiving feedback to get the design correct.
Design Process
While trying to determine the best design for the Cat Watch web application, I used the suggested approach we learned in HCI 595X Visual Design for HCI course. In this class we read the book, Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton. Buxton recommends designers sketch their designs before they create prototypes. Before creating the prototype, I took a piece of paper and created very rough sketches to consider all ideas for the basic layout and design of Cat Watch. While considering the designs for Cat Watch, one of the design tradeoffs I had to consider was "access to all information vs. simplicity and clarity." One of the issues with the Cat Watch system is the fact that the tracker the cat is wearing is constantly sending information about the cat’s behaviors to the Cat Watch application. The Cat Watch design team needs to determine a way to display the information in a way that is not information overload for the users. Not all Cat Watch users will be technical, so the Cat Watch application needs to be user friendly with a simple and clear way to use the website. If the non-technical Cat Watch users become frustrated or cannot figure out how to use the web application, they will not use the system. This would mean a decrease in sales and usage for Cat Watch. The design tradeoff would be to limit the access to all the information the cat tracker sends to have a simple and clear display of the information. We want to increase the sales and usage of Cat Watch, so the design team needs to decide which information is most important and most relevant to the Cat Watch users and display this information in a simple and clear manner. Only the most important and relevant information will be displayed in the web application. All the extra data the cat tracker is sending to the Cat Watch application will not be displayed to keep the web application simple and clear.
If Cat Watch designers want to display information simply and clearly in the Cat Watch web application, they need to present the information in an organized manner. Organization is key to help the users quickly get to where they want to go on a web page. While investigating different ways of organizing and designing web sites, I came across the book, “The Essential Guide to User Interface design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques” by Wilbert O. Galitz. In the book, Galitz suggests, “Buttons placed on a page imply that the action being performed applies only to that page. Buttons outside the pages imply the action performed applies to all pages… tabs are considered by the user as simple grouping or navigation techniques” (Galitz, 410). These concepts were applied to the Cat Watch web application design by using tabs to group and organize actions and placing links applicable to all the pages at the top of the page, outside tabs.
While creating the design for the different displays of information in Cat Watch, I used some of the principles of display design we learned in our HCI 521 The Cognitive Psychology of Human Computer Interaction course. In this course, we read the book Human Factors Engineering by Christopher Wickens, John Lee, Yili Liu and Sallie Gordon Becker. Some perceptual principles of design display I used were making displays legible and discriminability.
Since the cat tracker is such an integral part of how the Cat Watch system works, it is crucial the design of the tracker is safe and appealing to the cat. If the cat will not wear the tracker or it is unsafe to wear the tracker, the Cat Watch system cannot work effectively. As a result, the tracker’s design will be driven with what is most comfortable and convenient for the cat. According to the feline advisory bureau owners website, cat owners should not put heavy, unnecessary bells and other things from their cat’s collars because it presents possible dangers. Cats can get these bells and other things caught and have trouble getting out of a potentially dangerous situation (Cats, 2012). Cat Watch recommends cats wear the break away collars to help prevent any dangers while using the Cat Watch system. After considering all these design options, the cat tracker will be made light weight to not harm or affect the cat with a break away clasp in case the cat gets stuck on the tracker. The battery in the tracker must be long lasting and light to support the light weight design. After talking to cat owners about the design of the cat tracker, they agreed with my design choices. They believed the tracker needed a break away clasp to keep the cat safe and the tracker needed to be light weight to not harm or negative affect the cat.
I took this information and spoke to some users about the design of Cat Watch. They liked the idea of logging into an account and viewing a home tab with information about what your cat’s recent behaviors. The users liked the idea of grouping similar actions in tabs, such as the compare and share tabs. The users also liked the idea of putting a set of links at the top of the page, not on a tab so you could navigate to them from any tab.
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