Comments for Visual Basic Project #2

 

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.  You didn’t include an executable file

 

b. You didn’t include a screenshot

 

c.  You force the user to type in their name at the login screen, where they could easily make a mistake.  You should instead present a list of users so that they can choose

 

d.  You give instructions for users input as the text for an input box.  If they type, they lose the instructions forever.

 

e.  You use a regular text box for numeric input, even though it allows them to type in characters.  Don’t let them make mistakes by using a control which makes it impossible to type invalid input.

 

f.  Combo box’s initial value doesn’t give insight into what its content’s contain.

 

g.  You open a new window for a particular query, but you allow the user to still manipulate the old window in the background.

 

h.  Windows don’t close even after the data is submitted.

 

i.  You use pop-up dialogs for output for user, which is distracting and doesn’t let them proceed with their work or see the window behind it.

 

j.  You never update the main window , so the user never gets confirmation they finished typing in certain information.

 

k.  The help button doesn’t do anything.

 

l.  You should make the reason for a pop-up window more noticeable than just having the important text in the title bar, e.g. ‘abnormally high glucose level’.

 

m.  Why make the user click to calculate how many days they’ve worked this week?  Compute this automatically.

 

n.  You calculate the number of days they worked out this week incorrectly.

 

o.  You should disable the ‘next’ button before they submit/finish current screen.

 

p.  All of the buttons are very similar.  The user is forced to read all of them to figure out what to do next.  You should make the ‘next’ button more natural to press.

 

q.  You should make the login button more central so that users will know to press that one at the beginning.

 

r.  After the user selects yes/no, you shouldn’t force them to click next after each choice, since you know they’ve made their selection.

 

s. You don’t provide feedback when the user’s glucose level is normal.

 

t.  You don’t provide back buttons in case they make a mistake.

 

u.  All of the information you ask and display about the user is broken up between many screens.  The user has no way to find out what information was previously told.

 

v.  You have a close button, but no ‘OK’ or ‘Submit’, which could confuse the user.

 

w.  Inconsistent window size/placement.

 

x.  Although its great you allow the user to add their own reasons, you should label it to makeit easier to understand what the text box is for.

 

y.  User ID doesn’t display correctly on some screens.

 

z.  When entering blood sugar levels, they can’t scroll up past 100.

 

aa.  You don’t disable controls after they are no longer applicable.

 

bb.  Extremely confusing login screen, with actions that shouldn’t concern most users.  Hide the advanced features!

 

cc.  You don’t ever let theuser know that they are finished.

 

dd.  No help buttons are certain screens.

 

ee.  You should disable submit buttons before they’ve entered data.

 

ff.  Some of your output includes control codes such as ‘\n’

 

gg.  There are typos in your interface.

 

hh.  You don’t specify what type of data you are expecting (i.e. minutes).

 

ii.  Your program had compile errors and it seems you did not implement this program at all.  Please talk to me if you think this is a mistake.

 

jj.  You never update the main window to remind user of the analysis that was presented in pop-up displays.

 

kk.  You should disable/gray out irrelevant text boxes.

 

ll.  You are supposed to tell the user how many days they’ve exercised this week.

 

mm.  Sometimes when the user types in invalid input (such as the number of minutes), the program never says invalid and just stops allow the user to move on.

 

nn.  Certain colors make the text hard to read and is distracting.

 

oo.  Some of the images are pretty, but they have little to do w/ the current actions in the interface – and some of them are very distracting.

 

pp.  Some of your output is in text boxes, which is confusing to the user because they might think they should be editing those fields.

 

qq.  You use a pop-up for help information, which means the user can’t keep the instructions up as they try to use the interface.

 

rr.  You never tell the user how many days they exercised  this week.

 

ss.  You don’t gather all of the information required when blood level is too high/low.

 

tt.  Inconsistent case used in text.

 

uu.  When you log out, and then log back on with new user, the old user’s data is still present.

 

vv.  Your help button provides little helpful information.

 

xx.  If you type in an invalid user at the front screen, there is no warning and assumes you are a particular user.

 

yy.  A “run time” error sometimes occurs when you log out.

 

zz.  After typing in glucose reading, it was unclear what to do.  The next button is extremely far away!

 

aaa. You make it very easy to delete users… it could easily happen accidently which would be dangerous.

 

Bbb.  It might make sense to hide the tabs of future steps, since they aren’t applicable and might overwhelm novices.

 

ccc.  Pop-up dialog help tips can be nice, but they can be very distracting/annoying for users who use the system daily.

 

Ddd.  You make the user click more than they should have to – don’t interrupt their flow with buttons such as “perform analysis” when you are certain they will have to click it.

 

Eee.  Typing in certain input leads to an ‘unhandled expression’ error.

 

Fff.  Its impossible to proceed after the screen asking for glucose reading.  Thus I wasn’t able to grade all of your interface

 

Ggg.  Some windows were too small for the controls they held.  I had to maximize window to see everything.

 

Hhh.  You let the user click Ok/Continue/Enter even if all of the information hasn’t been entered.

 

Iii.  Using the scroll buttons on the glucose text input results in premature analysis.

 

Jjj.  One question, concerning ketones, never gets ungrayed even when its applicable.

 

Kkk.  No name in title bar.

 

Lll.  Your interface has no structure and allows users to enter in information in an improper order.  You give no direction on where to go from the main screen.

 

Mmm.  ‘Accept user info’ can result in an unhandled exception error.

 

Nnn.  You have extraneous labels, and unlabeled text boxes – it is obvious this interface wasn’t proofread.

 

Ooo.  You have overlapping windows which makes its unnatural to select help and log out, and if one does, there are occluded windows.

 

Ppp.  A high number for input for glucose results in an overflow error.

 

Qqq.  You allow an invalid user to login with blank information.

 

Rrr.  You don’t ask all required questions (e.g. How many minutes exercised)

 

Sss.  Seems unnecessary to make users to load the user list… why not do it automatically?

 

Ttt.  Some submit buttons seem to do nothing or at least provide no visual feedback.