Product Re-Design: Margaret Baxter Evaluation

After evaluating the system with Margaret is it clear that there are areas of the system which need to be modified in order to improve it.

These are the mains areas Margaret pointed out as being of concern:

Modifying shopping basket once item has been added.

Margaret became particularly frustrated when she realised that she had added the wrong item to her shopping basket and found that she could not easily remove the item without going through a series of screens. This process needs to be change otherwise the system will be very difficult for the average user.
To solve this problem, every time a modification is made to the basket, an ‘Undo’ button will become available so that the user can immediately reverse the operation.
As well as the undo button, the method for navigating the shopping list needs to be improved. When the shopping list menu is open, the user will now be able to scroll up and down the list using forward and backwards movements on the trolley control allowing easy selection. There will be 2 new buttons to go with this. A ‘Remove’ button and ‘Compare’ button. The ‘Remove’ button will delete the selected item from the list. The new ‘Undo’ button will appear after this operation as well in case of a mistake. The ‘Compare’ button will take the user to the ‘Product Selection’ screen where the user will be able to see the products details and compare them to other related products.

Directly comparing products before selection

When Margaret was browsing through the ‘Product Selection’ area of the system she found that when she was viewing the product information she would like to have the option of comparing the product to similar products at the same time. At present she finds she has to remember the information of a particular product, go back to the selection screen and choose another product to compare. Many people would have problems remembering facts about each product, comparing more than one product would be even worse and almost impossible.
The solution here is, when the user is in the ‘Expanded Information’ to add a button which create a list of similar products. The user can then use the controls to highlight the product he wishes to compare the selected product to and then view the details side by side. If he wishes to compare to another product again he just repeats this process and another selected item will be displayed next to the open projects. If the user wants to exit these comparisons he will just press the ‘Back’ button which will return the originally selected products information page.

Confusion of whereabouts in store

At certain time, particularly when mid way down an aisle, Margaret found that she couldn’t remember whereabouts she was in the shop compared to the other aisles and products. This problem lead to her being unsure which way to turn at the end of some aisle, she knew where she wanted to go, she just wasn’t sure which direction the next item on her list was in.
The solution her is to introduce a popup map and signs to the system. The popup map will toggle on and off and displayed the whereabouts of the user at a given time as an arrow which will depict the direction the user is facing. All of the aisles will be labelled so the user will know which way to go to get to the aisle he wishes to visit. As far as signs are concerned, when the user reaches the end of an aisle, signs will appear on the screen saying which aisles are to the left and right of the user. The aisles will be listed in order based on how far away the user is from them. The nearest aisle being at the top of the list. As well as this, when the user is at the top of an aisle, signs will tell the user what is down that aisle.