1. Visibility of system status: Our system constantly keeps the user informed about where they are in the system as the slider will be in the position of the application they are currently using. We specifically used the slider in this way so that a child has a physical representation of where they are on the console.
The stories and nursery rhyme section does not do a very good job of keeping the user informed about the current page they are on. I would be useful for the application to give some sort of indication of where they are in the story and how long there is to go.
The drawing application does not indicate what colour is currently selected. If the child forgets the last colour they selected then the only way they can tell which colour is currently selected is by drawing.
The music section gives no idea to the user where they are in the particular track.
When using the camera section the screen is constantly updated with the camera’s view so the user knows it is working and what they are about to take a picture of. The device makes a click noise to let the user know they have pressed the photo button and taken a picture.
The gallery doesn’t give any indication of where you are. There could be hundreds of pages of photos but the user would have no idea.
2. Match between system and the real world: The slider includes a picture which represents each application. For example the stories section has a picture of a book so the user can easily where they need to go to get a story. The off button has the standard power symbol which the user may not be immediately familiar with. However, this will be consistent with any remote controls for TVs or other devices they have used. It won’t be long before they learn what the symbol represents.
The pen acts much like a real pencil. It draws on the screen and has a rubber on the back to rub out. The angle at which you draw with the pen also determines the thickness just like a real pencil.
The stories section reads out the stories and highlights the words as it goes it along. The user will be familiar with using a finger to guide them along words and this is effectively that. The menu which allows you to browse books is effectively the child’s book case and clicking on a book is like taking it off the shelf and opening it.
The colouring program acts just like a colouring book. It re-opens on the page you left it on just like having a heavy crease in a book. The colouring is also automatically saved. The left and right buttons change the page.
The alphabet, words and numbers section all use a green tick to indicate when they have got an answer right. This should be familiar to the user as any school work they have had marked would have probably included ticks. The console will also say “Well done!” to encourage the child. This should be a phrase they’re familiar with. Upon getting an answer wrong the device says “Try again!”. We didn’t want the device to be negative when the child gets something wrong which is why we haven’t included the obvious red cross.
The music section has piano keys just like a real piano. This way the child can relate anything they have learnt on this piano to a real world piano and vice versa.
The camera section has been split into a camera and gallery section. This then makes it just like a real digital camera which has a “record” and “play” mode. When a user takes a picture they have two on-screen buttons they can press. One is the classic green tick which represents “save” and the other is a dustbin which represents “discard”. The user will obviously be familiar with the dustbin having seen real world dustbins but if they have used the recycle bin on Microsoft Windows to delete anything it will become second nature.
The backward and forward buttons are much like many other everyday applications. A web browser has them to browse through history, Sky and cable remote controls have left and right buttons to scroll through programs or channels. The left and right buttons are used in nearly every application to scroll or change pages.
3. User control and freedom: The backwards and forwards buttons take you backwards and forwards in all applications so if you accidentally press the forward button, the backwards button can be pressed to get back. The current state of any application is auto saved so that if the user accidentally hits the slider to change mode they can put it back and end up exactly where they left off.
One problem is that if the user accidentally chooses a story they don’t want or get bored during a story and want to get back to the main menu of stories the only way they can do it is by flicking through all the pages to the end. This is a serious problem.
4. Consistency and standards: The forward and back buttons are consistent throughout all applications on the device. Each application works in a very similar way. Each application starts off where they left off. The only applications which are slightly different are the story and nursery rhyme section, the music section and the gallery section which all have a menu to select which story, piece of music, or photo they wish to use.
We have also consistently used the green tick to indicate correct answers.
5. Error prevention: Error prevention is not relevant in our system. The only time you can do something drastic by mistake is to accidentally press the bin when you have taken a photo to discard it. It could be an option to include a confirmation window here but we have intentionally left this out to keep the system as simple as possible.
6. Recognition rather than recall: The console’s slider features images which represent the various modes. These are easily recognisable images. For example a picture of a camera for the camera mode, a music note for the music mode and ‘abc’ for the alphabet mode. The user will quickly learn what each symbol represents.
The device will also speak to the user in each application to tell them what to do so for example if they forget they need to press a particular story to read it the device will say it, making recall easier.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use: There aren’t any “expert” shortcuts for this system but there is no real way of making it any easier to get where you need to go. Some subtleties have been included such as a slight difference in colour of the backgrounds between the stories and nursery rhymes when browsing. Younger and inexperienced users won’t notice this and that doesn’t really matter. Older or more experienced users may notice this pattern and so they will have this additional information when choosing their story or nursery rhyme.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design: The design is very minimalist and aesthetic. In fact this has often been the cause for many of the problems highlighted in this evaluation. For example, not prompting the user whether they are sure they want to discard a photo was intentional to avoid any extra dialogue.
The device also speaks directions to the user. This saves cluttering the screen with instructions with words the user may not even be able to read.
Additional instructions are presented as a welcome screen to the camera mode. This shows a picture of a child lifting up the console to demonstrate where the camera lies. The device also speaks instructions to explain this.
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: No consideration is taken for error messages. A possible situation could be filling up the memory with photos and trying to take more. Another situation is the batteries running out. A suitable error message is required.
10. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors:
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