Expert Review - Verizon Family Portal

Verizon Family Locator Expert Review

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Goals

Business Goal: To increase subscriptions to and traffic on the Family Locator Service by improving usability User Goal: To easily locate and track family members to ensure their safety

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Typical Users/User Needs

Jennifer – 31 years old

• Stay-at-home Mom

• Three young children

• Madeline – Aged 8

• Mark – Aged 6

• Annie – Aged 4

Interested in:

Daily alerts – The two older children walk to and from school each day. Jennifer would like to receive alerts when they have arrived safely in the morning and are on their way home in the afternoon.

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Typical Users/User Needs (Continued)

Lisa – 45 years old • Working Mother

• Divorced

• 2 Teenagers

• Hillary – aged 17

• Zoe – aged 16

Interested in:

Perimeter alert – Lisa wants to be alerted when Zoe is on her way home from her afterschool job at the mall. She also wants assurance that Hillary – a new driver – isn’t speeding or driving where she shouldn’t.

Methods

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• Evaluate primary user tasks and scenarios • Identify and document usability issues • Describe and prioritize issues

• Based on Scope • Global – impact greater than a single screen • Local – impact limited to a single screen

• Based on Severity • High – Prevents or greatly hinders task completion • Medium – Somewhat hinders task completion • Low – Does not hinder task completion but adds confusion or

frustration, or does not conform to best practices

Positive Feedback

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• A centralized listing of relevant locations is very convenient

• The variety of map views accommodates user preferences

• Adheres in many ways to industry best practices

• The user guide was thorough and easy to use

• The system prevents the user from assigning same avatar to

more than one person

Summary of Findings

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Issues by Priority

Scope Severity # of Issues

Global High 0

Local High 2

Global Medium 2

Local Medium 5

Global Low 4

Local Low 6

Local Usability Issues

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Adding Locations

Issue: No indication of success when adding a new location

Recommendation : Provide user feedback with a dialog box

Scope: Local Severity: High


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Adding Locations (cont’d)

Issue: No easy way to add a new location by entering an address

Recommendation: Give user flexibility for entering address

Scope: Local Severity: Medium


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Adding Locations (cont’d)


Issue: The “Add Location” selection pointer is difficult to see

Recommendation: Supplement the “Click to Place” callout with a more visible pointer


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Updates

Issue: The explanation of the difference between the two types of Updates is confusing

Recommendation: Consider new terminology. Use a “wizard” format to guide the user through the selection process.


12 Scope: Local Severity: Low

Using the Contacts Feature

Issue :

Contact information is not dynamic

Recommendation:

Enable hyperlinks for the email addresses



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Add Updates

Scope : Local Severity: High

Issue: Data is lost when user navigates away from summary

Recommendation: Notify user of potential data loss and provide an option to save previously entered data


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Add Updates

Issue: No indication of what type of Update is being created

Recommendation: Display the Update type on the title bar of the dialog box or elsewhere

Scope: Local Severity: Low


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Prompts When Creating A Contact

Recommendation :

Set up a “grayed-out” example/template of the preferred way for the user to enter new information

Issue : When a user types in a phone number in the following format - “ XXX-XXX-XXXX” the last two numbers are truncated because there is no instruction NOT to include dashes between the numbers.


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Arrival/Departure Updates

Issue: To set up an Arrival/Departure Update, the user must have already set up a Location. There is no way to add a Location from within the Add Update dialog box.

Recommendation: Provide a means to set up a Location from within the Add Update dialog box, or at least alert the user to this prerequisite at the beginning of the process.



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Map Integration

Issue: Map interaction and options are not always well integrated.

Recommendation: There may be limitations to how well the Bing map application can be integrated into Family Locator. Nevertheless, users expect seamless integration. Gaps and quirks in integration (as seen in the Clear Map button) can leave users lost or frustrated.



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Main Page Tabs

Issue: Tab states in main page of the UI are subtle and do not follow other tab conventions used elsewhere.

Recommendation: Use standard tab selection to improve visibility and to improve consistency.



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User Avatar

Issue: There is no way for the user to import a custom image.

Recommendation : Add the ability to import custom images as avatars. If this is not feasible, consider adding more contemporary avatars to the selection.



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Editing Limitations

Issue: Editing an Update or Location item is limited to the item’s Name.

Recommendation : Allow the user to edit the other attributes of the item. If this is not possible, rename the function.


Global Usability Issues

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Session Expiration

Issue:

The user session expires after an unstated interval, and when it does, the login screen doesn’t reappear.

Recommendations:

•Notify the user when the session is about to expire.

•When the session expires, program the “OK” button to redisplay the login screen.


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Browser Back Button

Issue: The browser’s Back button selection automatically initiates the phone location process.

Recommendation: Make phone location a process the user must explicitly initiate. Add programming so that when the user clicks the Back button, the current state of the session is preserved.

Scope: Global Severity: Medium


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Design Consistency

Issue: Design is not consistent within the portal itself or with Verizon Wireless web branding.

Recommendation: Establish and follow design guide as closely as possible in all UI windows. Better integrate Verizon Wireless branding (fonts, colors etc.).

Scope: Global Severity: Low


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Design Elements

Issue: Inconsistent use of red coloring on some critical buttons could lead to confusion.

Recommendation: Establish and follow design guide as closely as possible in all UI windows. Avoid the use or red button coloration unless deemed necessary.



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Dialog Section Titles & Info

Issue: The section titles (red text) and information (gray text) are separated from the data they describe

Recommendation: Right justify text, remove vertical gray lines, use color or shaded background to unify data. Redesign dialogs so that header data and text are in line with areas described.



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Help: Family Locator

Issue: After selecting Help, the user is directed to an intermediary page devoted to marketing. Another link to the actual help guide is at the bottom of this page.

Recommendation: Increase the visibility of helpful user information. Also increase the amount and depth of existing help data. Leverage Family Locator User Guide material, but put it up front instead of buried under links and after marketing material.

Scope: Global Severity: Medium


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Terminology

•Updates – This is confusing. The term “Updates” is most typically

associated with software updates

•Avatar – This is quasi-technical term. Users are more likely to understand

terms like “picture,” “image,” or “icon”

•History – The History tab in main window reflects only location history and

not message history, for example (this is in a different location). Change to

Location History

•Message Center – This menu is used for frequently asked questions and

user guide. This creates confusions between actual messaging and help

•Chaperone – Mobile application naming is not consistent with the online

portal name “ Family Locator “


Suggested Issue Prioritization

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Scope Severity

1 Global High

2 Local High

3 Global Medium

4 Local Medium

5 Global Low

6 Local Low

Questions?

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Technology

Expert Review - Verizon Family Portal