Case study 1

when i first saw the screenshot below, i thought it was a tutorial. because the check boxes are customized, it did not occur to me that it was actually a form. it looked nice but it was not conventional. causing the learning curve of the interface to be steeper. In this particular use case, it can be particularly annoying to the first time user once they find out that they had unwittingly allowed the app to post to all their friends if they neglect to uncheck certain check boxes. By the way, having all 3 check boxes checked for who do you want to ask makes no logical sense. Im assuming that they will post to all friends if left as it is. or is this just an image intended to show off the capabilities of the app and not a form u fill while asking for help?! this i will never know until i try clicking on the checkboxes.

on the other hand, they do give a rather wide variety of options. offering to sms even. although in the context of this application, i think a personalized facebook message might be more appropriate.

secondly, the profile tab is 'highlighted'. this must be some mistake because for a page called profile i am expecting information about myself. scrolling through the other screenshots, none of the navigation tabs are highlighted. so what does the highlighted profile tab mean? i have no idea. and theres this overview page. i wonder how we can navigate to it.

thirdly, im guessing the designer is trying to be creative by aligning the navigation tabs diagonally. it makes it hard to read the words on the tabs. this could work if there are no words, utilizing only the symbol. However, i find these sort of tabs unhelpful as well since it makes the learning curve steeper.

about the buttons. i wonder why they used red for all their buttons, bright red even. i would normally associate danger with this color. this is also why many error messages are in red. even the spelling errors i produce as i type this are underlined in red. IMO, the color scheme induces more feelings of anxiety in the users than necessary. if they really liked red, they should have gone for a deeper shade of red. think roses.

I appreciate the sparing use of graphics though, i find them rather engaging. functions wise i think it is smart to allow users to reccommend others. they achieve their goal of helping users reach beyond their own circle of friends for help.

as for elements of gamification(badges), i feel it is rather appropriate in this context. But i think gamification is only powerful when the rewards and benefits are a little more tangible though. perhaps, exclusive functions for users with the most number of badges?

Design issues aside, i think the team probably were a little too short on time. A problem we can all identify with i believe. which accounts for the little bugs in the UI, such as the navigationn tabs being partially blocked and the Overview headers appearing on the statistics page.