Student projects/Usability issues/T1

Bibliography

1. Norman, D. A. (1999). Affordance, conventions, and design. Interactions 6, 3 (May. 1999), Pages 38 – 43
2. Preece, Jenny. Interaction design beyond human-computer interaction Preece, Rogers, Sharp. New York John Wiley & Sons cop. 2002
3. Mayhew, d.j. The Usability Engineering Lifecycle. Morgan-Kaufman, 1999. ISBN: 1-55860-561
4. Cooper, Alan. About face 2.0 the essentials of interaction design Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann. Indianapolis, IN Wiley 2003.
5. Lim, K. Y. and Long, J. B. (1992) A method for (recruiting) methods': facilitating human factors input to system design. Proceedings of CHI'92. Pp 549-556.
6. Siegel D., Dray S. (2005) Avoiding the Next Schism: Ethnography and Usability. Interactions. March+April. Pp. 58-61
7. DENIM is an interactive sketching tool that helps web site designers in the early stages of design. Denim
8. Lleida University Introduction to human-computer interaction
9. Nielsen, Jakob, Usability Engineering, 1993, Academic Press/AP Professional, Cambridge, MA
10. Hom, James, The Usability Methods Toolbox
11. Usability.gov
12. Usability Body of Knowledge
13. Online guide to usability methods resource
14. Jakob Nielsen's Website

Research in the tracker

Top 10 usability problems

1. Order problem: 1 usability problems
2. Too many popup windows: 1 usability problems
3. Problems when finding buttons: 1 usability problems
4. Problems with the usage of icons: 1 usability problems
5. Problems with the buttons' colours: 1 usability problems

Usability problem's table

#Usability problem ID	Short description	URL of the tracker	Kind of problem	Proposed solution	More information
1	Usability Problem with Moodle File Management System	MDL-9513	Order problem	Change the order of the several columns: checkbox - filename - action column - file data	Done
2	Quiz usability: too many popup windows when manually grading	MDL-6000	Too many pupup windows	Solve manual overriding of grade in /mod/quiz/report.php. Note: Coordination needed with Olli Savolainen.	Difficult
3	Capability definition should include list of contexts where usable	MDL-7859	Confusing where each capability can be assigned	In capability definition (access.php file) contextlevel means the lowest level	Medium
4	Usability issue: send in ratings	MDL-2572	Problems when finding buttons	If users could send in their ratings as they make them with a button available next to each rating, or some other mechanism contextlevel means the lowest level	Easy
5	Usability issue: send in ratings	MDL-5794	Problems with the usage of icons	Addinng a field / script	Medium. Should the DB definition be changed?
6	If the "Turn editing on" was of a different color or shape the usability would be better	MDL-10182	Problems with buttons' colours	If the "Turn editing on" was of a different color or shape the usability would be better: the button would be easier to find.	Done
7	Increase use of tabs on all mod activities	MDL-14632	The idea is to move all the "modes" for a module into consistent tabs that are visible all the time (assuming you have permissions). This way we could make roles much easier to get to, and we'd also remove some of the inconsistent buttons and links we have.	Setting some prototypes could help the discussion.	Difficult
9	Ability to hide and activity or resource but still make it usable if i link to it	MDL-14444	To be able to hide resources and activities but still make them accessible so I could visually make an element (a specially design label) to access them in a more visually design way.	To alter the hide/show (eye icon) so that the hide is still making the resource accessible if I know the link to it. some thing like HTML/CSS display:none	Medium
10	Drop down menus not usable and not accessible in IE using keyboard only	MDL-14439	When using keyboard in Drop down menus (for example, adding a resource or activity, or selecting a language in the user profile, or using the drop down menu on top left of each resource/activity page), it is necessary to be extremely fast to select an option. If you are not very very fast, the first option is always selected by default. The problem does not appears using FireFox.	A flag in the user profile allowing people to show the menu buttons (currently available in the code, but enclosed in the NOSCRIPT tag). This way people using either keyboard or mouse will be able to use the drop down menus.	Easy
11	Wiki: error message too small (not noticeable) when upload file exceed file size limit (usability)	MDL-14294	If you try to upload a larger image file over 10240 bytes, the file manager will prompt you that "Sorry, but that file is too big (limit is 10240 bytes, about 10k). However, this message is so small that it is not noticeable by the user and a lot of users would get confused.	Maybe consider display the error/warning message outside of the File Browser window, or at least make it red color. The file size limit should be flexible and there should be an option for this in wiki.	Done
12	It seems that group mode is not yet (fully?) implemented in Metacourses.	MDL-7675	It seems that group mode is not yet (fully?) implemented in Metacourses. I would appreciate very much this feature. An extension of "separate group mode" on all ressources and activities would add even more usability for moodle use in multiclass-multiteac.	To better manage the activities for different classes an improvement of the group mode: extension to activities and ressources, full implementationfor Metacourses and complete separation of groups (no visibility of activities/ressources of other groups)	Difficult
13	Access control for moodle file directory	MDL-7232	Would it be possible to flag a folder (or an individual file) as accessible to instructors/admins only - i.e. these files will never be accessible to student users or usable as links in reaources/activities. I understand that backup files are currently blocked from student access. I am proposing that a similar functionality be made available for the file directory in general, perhaps on a folder-by-folder basis. Such a facility would enable us to use the moodle file directory as a central repository for all course-related material, including sensitive material.		Medium
14	Fix question category creation	CONTRIB-365	With the current version of webctimport, questions imported using the script are not usable in Moodle. Even though they are added to the database, they don't appear in the imported course. This is because the current version of the script doesn't create a 'contextid' value for the question_category item.	The proposed patch creates a default context and assigns it via the contextid field to the question categories.	Medium
15	Add a "add to contact list" button in the profile viewing page	MDL-13969	Addition of a contact list	Should be pretty easy to implement. Just thought that it would be a good idea to add a "Add to contact list" button right next to the 'Send message" button that currently available on the personal profile page (see screenshot). From usability point of view, currently on moodle.org site if I want to add someone to my "contact list" (in message), I will have to first send him/her a "message" using the "Send message" button then the person will be added to your contact list, not very user-friendly if I want to just add them to my "message" contact list.	Done
16	Category Titles in Courses Block	MDL-2598	Addition of category titles	It would be nice and a lot more usable if the course list was complimented with category titles.	Easy
17	Message window does not fit properly on eeepc screen and is almost unreadable	MDL-14037	Problems with the message window.	Screen height on the eeepc is 480px which leaves one line to read the message text. there is a lot of whitespace in the lower part of the window, so a small adjustment would render this usable.	Medium
18	Add an option for instructors to enable/disable automatic email notification after grading assignment	MDL-9453	Adding a functionality	A lot of our instructors requested such feature, which I think would really increase moodle's usability. If we could add an option under the "Common Module Settings" when creating a new assignment to allow instructors to enable/disable automatic email notification after they graded a certain assignment.	Medium
19	Submit Button at top	MDL-4151	Location of a button.	Putting submit button at the top.	Done
20	Multiple page view within discussion topics with ability to set max number of posts per page	MDL-10120	Scrolling for ages within long discussion topics is bad both in terms of usability and page load times	I suggest that an option is added to the forum module that allows you to specify a maximum number of posts per page; in the same way that you can specify the number of discussion topics per page within a forum. This would minimise the amount of scrolling users have to do and would make forums more user friendly. I assume the same code could cannibalised to add this feature fairly easily. Another suggestion is to copy the way Moodle does it already when displaying discussion topics, e.g. "Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 (Next)", to keep things consistent.	Done
21	Localized strings get too long in the Moodle menu	MDL-12753	For the german translation we found that the strings get too long for the menu Site-Administration	In most cases the menu entries and the headline of the linked page are using the same strings. In the headlines you will have much more space for more words but not in the menus. Therefor we will ask you for two different strings. One string should be used for the menu entry and the other should be writen as the headline on the linked page. This will help to get usable menus and readable significant headlines.	Done
22	When deleting a course category, it will also delete all courses in that category	MDL-13343	When you delete a entire course category (say Summer 2005), currently it will prompt you for "confirmation" (see screenshot), then after you click on "Yes" button it will just move all the courses under that category into the parent category if there is one, or into "Miscellaneous."	There should be a option here on this screen to allow admin to really delete all the courses under that course category.	Medium
23	Help popups should display a navigation toolbar	MDL-13359	At the bottom of each Help popup, there is a link to the index of all Help files. If the user follows this link, and possibly other links from the index, there is no simple way to go back, unless the user is relatively sophisticated (e.g., is comfortable using context menus (right click -> back) or browser tabs).	The Help popups should provide a navigation toolbar for unsophisticated users.	Difficult
24	Show only / show all icons confuse some students	MDL-13917	"Show only topic N" and "Show all topics" icons present a usability issue. Students who inadvertently click on them become confused when they lose sight of the the other blocks.	It would be good if we could disable these icons, either at System or Course level, or perhaps through a new capability.	Difficult
25	Gradebook column header links would benefit from having full text of assessment title as rollover text	MDL-13960	Novice teachers who are not yet aware of the implications of long assessment titles in the gradebook	Full text of assessment title as rollover text	Difficult
26	Default Option Enhancement	MDL-3857	A default option	The default option could be provided on the configuration page in the form of a command button	Difficult
27	Message block keep on transferring data from moodle.org	MDL-5910	When I sent out a private message to someone via moodle.org, on the bottom of the message window it will just display Transferring data from moodle.org and it will keep on going and going	Finish the display message	Medium