Iterating

Based on the user feedback collected, a number of changes were indicated to improve the overall user experience, clarify points of interaction, and offer strong future directions for LiveMap.

For the next version of LiveMap, usability issues were addressed in the following areas:

1. Orientation: Users seemed to prefer beginning their interaction with LiveMap in either a "I am here" or a "planning/destination" mode.

2. Grouping: The sub-menu options for all of the major action choices caused problems for users in understanding the recommended actions (such as writing in text to be searched or saved and selecting the "find" or "save" button), largely because the groupings of sub-menu items were not distinct.

3. Labelling: In several areas, navigation options were unclear, particularly in the differences between "delete" and "clear" and in the text entry fields.

4. Undo: Users treated "delete" as if it were an "undo" button, and explicitly asked to remove "delete" (more severe than necessary) in favor of a true "undo" or "step backwards" option.

5. Map Manipulation: Although panning functionality was included in the prototype, there was no strong indicator of how to access this with the stylus. A new icon turns on panning ability, so that users can drag the map to pan as needed.

6. Help Function: As suggested by one user, a ubiquitous help function would indicate that contextual help is available based on what a user is trying to accomplish. This has been added.

View a PDF (4MB) of wireframes for the updated interaction model of LiveMap - v2.0.