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Team:SJTU-Software/Project/UserStudy
From 2014.igem.org
User Study
Goal
User studies are carried out to make our software “Easy BBK” to be more user-friendly. Based on the problems exposed in the test process of different users and their feedbacks, our developers can track the bugs and add new functions in the development of software.
Users
9 members from SJTU-bioX-Shanghai and some members from SUSTC-Shenzhen were invited to use our software. All of their operations are recorded in video and researched later to figure out problems or highlights in our software.
Highlights and problems fixed
Since we have focused mainly on the problems in our software during those studies, highlights are briefly recorded here.
• The search result offered by the search engine are quite satisfying
• Novelty of "Present"
Most problems identified during user studies were solved before wiki freezes; however, there remains some problems unsolved. Those problems which are not solved now are to be solved later, and we will continue conducting user studies to refine our software.
Problems solved by October 17th
| Problem | Solution | Solved date |
|---|---|---|
| User doesn’t know detail information of a biobrick could be displayed | Distinguish the color of part name from other information | 10.12 |
| Spelling errors exist in some words on the interface | Make corrections on these mistakes | 10.12 |
| The detail page was not refreshed timely when user clicked another part name to view the detail of this part | Revise the source code to make the detail page refresh timely | 10.12 |
| User wants to know the number of search results | Revise the source code to show the number of search results at the bottom of the page | 10.12 |
| User don’t know the meaning of the icons on the "present" interface | Add a new function: a text description about an icon would come out when user moves cursor to it | 10.12 |
| Half-drawn bio-system lost when user accidentally clicked the "create a new file" button | A dialog box asking user whether to save the half-drawn bio-system would pop up when user click the "create a new file" button | 10.12 |
| User didn’t know what to do with the "compare" function | Add a hint on the interface to guide the user | 10.13 |
| User cannot remove a biobrick from compare to add another biobrick after adding it to compare | Add a button to remove biobricks from "compare" | 10.13 |
| The text disappeared after user changed the font or color of the text in "Present" | Revise the source code to solve this bug | 10.13 |
| The software would export a wrong picture if user had dragged components out of the screen | Revise the source code to solve this bug | 10.13 |
| The hint on the search result page was confusing when there is no search result | Revise the English expression on the result page | 10.13 |
| User misunderstood the meaning of the "cross" button in "present" for its inappropriate position | Adjust the position of different buttons | 10.17 |
| Run time of the search engine is unstable | Create index on tables in Easy BBK database and change the database to a better server to speed up run time | 10.15 |
| The status bar of "present" cannot automatically refresh unless user clicked the same position once more | Revise the source code to solve this bug | 10.15 |
| The icon of "Blast" on the "search" interface confused users in that they thought it could do "blastp" | Change the icon from "Blast" to "Blastn" | 10.15 |
| Icon positions of "search by keyword" and "search by sequence" were too close to mislead user that they have a single function | Increase the distance between the two icons | 10.15 |
| On the status bar, the coordinate of the icon became negative when the icon was dragged out of the drawing panel, which is meaningless | Set the coordinate of deleted icon to "NULL" | 10.16 |
| The icons in "present" interface was too vague | Refresh the icon with high-resolution pictures | 10.16 |
| User did not know how to fill out the "upload" page | Add some examples beside the input boxes | 10.16 |
Problems remained unsolved and under development until October 17th
| Problems | Planning solution | Planning date |
|---|---|---|
| User did not know they can stretch the backbone | Put anchors on both end of the backbone to hint users | 10.19 |
| User didn't know the function of "set_biobrick_name" window | Add the hint "input part name" beside the input field | 10.19 |
| User cannot copy text from the search result page and paste in other functions in the tool | Revise the source code to solve this problem | 10.20 |
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