Comments for Visual Basic Project #1

 

These are some general comments I came up with while grading each of your interfaces.  Refer to the grades page ( http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2004/cmsc434/grades.html ) to see which comments apply to your project.  Some comments are more serious than others, so your grade wasn’t based on the quantity of comments, but rather an overall subjective score based on these comments and the effectiveness of your interface.

 

Also, keep in mind that these are only negative comments.  There were many positive things about your interfaces, but due to time constraints, I only kept track of the negative features.  Please talk to me during office hours if you wish to understand your grade for the project in further detail.

 

a.  No meaningful title in title bar.

 

b.  Significant typos throughout interface.

 

c.  Spacing between related controls (i.e. month/day/year of date selector OR first/last name) too far apart – they don’t seem to be related

 

d.  Size of text boxes seem chosen arbitrarily, reflects little to do with their future contents.

 

e.  Poor organization/representation of body parts, try a graphical or spatial representation.

 

f.  Combo boxes are initially empty and give little insight into what data is captured inside.

 

g.  Pictures seem to be chosen arbitrarily, may confuse users.

 

h.  No buttons for help.

 

i.  No buttons to submit data when completed.

 

j.  Redundant explanations throughout interface.

 

k.  Does not gray out boxes/controls that are not applicable in current state.

 

l.  Provides no insight for how users should enter in information, such as the date, time of day, name, etc.

 

m.  Inability to select multiple body parts if pain is present in more than one area.

 

n.  Questionable color scheme chosen, serves no noticeable rationale/function.

 

o.  No evidence or reason why a toolbar is included in the interface.

 

p.  No labeled scale for selection of wellbeing/tired/pain – makes it almost impossible for users to select same setting for similar levels of pain in the future.

 

q.  Does not attempt to prevent errors – what if user types in non-numeric characters?

 

r.  Use of checkboxes where radio buttons would be more appropriate.

 

s.  Ineffective control for data selection.  Would take at least 25 clicks to move back 25 years from initial date, which is unacceptable.  “Shortcuts” for rapid date manipulation are not obvious for first-time users.

 

t. Why is today’s date the current value for date of birth?

u.  List boxes are ineffective when you have to select a much different value than the one initially presented.

 

v.  No border to window – confusing to users who want to close or minimize window.

 

x.  No clear organization to the form.  In what order does the user fill it out?

 

y.  Misuse of text boxes.  Makes user thinks he/she should type in data there.  Use labels instead.

 

z.  So many different help buttons – how would the user know which one to choose?

 

aa.  You have the user perform two actions when only one is necessary  (i.e. check box, then drag slider… whereas just dragging slider is all the info you would need)

 

bb.  Label descriptions should be placed immediately near the controls they represent.

 

cc.  Refers to patient in third person, but the patient could be the user!

 

dd.  Huge form – too much white space – much bigger than specified requirements!

 

ee.  Ineffective control for date selection.   How could month,day,year be represented in the same combo box? That would be ~(12 x 30 x 104) combinations going back to 1900.

 

ff.  Why make the user scroll through a list when there is clearly enough room on the form to avoid making them do so?

 

gg.  Blue underlined labels look like HTML links … might confuse users in to thinking they are clickable.

 

hh.  Instead of placing a description of the slider bar next to the slider bar, it would probably be more effective to just make the slider bar’s labels contain that information (e.g. instead of labeling the end ‘0’, just label it ‘No Pain’, etc.)

 

ii.  The use of so many borders detracts from the information present on screen.  Allow users to infer grouping based on proximity and placement of controls.

 

jj.  Deceptive/redundant labels on combo boxes.

 

kk.  Placement of submit button is in the middle, not the end, of the form.  This could confuse users who will always be filling out the entire form.

 

ll.  You break up the place of related entries, such as name fields, by sticking labels in between them.  Perhaps labels vertically aligned would be more effective.

 

mm.  There is very little structure to the alignment to the alignment of several of your controls.

 

nn.  If you want the users to type in three specific pieces of information in the same particular textbox, why not use three text boxes, each with separate labels, to guard against errors?

 

oo.  You did not fulfill all items that were required to be on the interface.  You are missing many things!

 

pp.  There is a picture of a body, but it does not appear to serve any purpose or be clickable.  This could confuse users who wish to interact with it instead of the check boxes you provide.

 

qq.  Redundant/obvious information presented on the labels of borders.

 

rr.  A white background for portions of the interface could be confusing for users.  Sometimes a group of related controls is within the same white color, but other times white is simply used for the title of a section of controls – this inconsistency could be confusing for users.

 

ss.  It is probably best to use labels instead of placing critical information inside the text entry boxes… because once the user types in anything, the user will no longer have access to those initial labels, such as first name, last name, etc.

 

tt.  Instead of placing a separate key for the scales of controls, you should incorporate the labels into the control (such as a slider bar with labels on each ends guiding the user).  This way, the users won’t have to use any cognitive strain to remember what the scale (0-10) represents.

 

uu.  The initial values of the text box serve no purpose and will only confuse the users.

 

vv.  Why is there a settings button?  In what way will this help the user?