Last week, we spent our time testing our own individual prototypes. We found some great insights and we spent this week figuring out which components of our prototypes worked and figuring out ways to improve them.
When we came together this week, we found that we had two main prototype styles among the group. One prototype style had classes organized in tabs. Users browsed classes by requirements and then placed them directly onto their schedule. Another prototype style cleared up the screen by minimizing the class directory when unused. Users had to select classes first before being able to place them.
However, all of our prototypes agreed on several points:
- The conventional method of displaying a four year plan is a 4x3 grid.
- Dragging and dropping classes is an excellent way to interact and with the four year plan.
- A “saved classes” feature would perhaps be nice for some individuals in case they would like to save a class for later.
We decided to dig deeper into the components of our prototype. From the start, we wanted to reduce the effort required to plan your academic time in college. One piece of information we felt we always needed to find was when exactly the class would be offered. This led us to explore embedding data, such as prerequisite indicators and class offerings, in the class icons. We also wanted explore how exactly we would communicate prerequisites to student users. Would we only allow them to place classes they’ve fulfilled prerequisites for? Would we display the prerequisites on the class icon?
We started iterating our design and set out to find an answer to these questions this week.
