DESIGN ANALYSIS
A. The administrator cannot quickly locate the buttons by which they may edit job accounting and select commands.
Both of these buttons are plain, non-descript buttons that in no way stand out from the many other buttons on the keypad. Since the administrative functions are handled infrequently, each time the administrator wants to edit a patron account, they must first hunt for the buttons to allow them to do so.
Possible solution:
Per the usability design guidelines we have covered, these buttons should colored distinctly, allowing the administrator to quickly notice the buttons that they must use to alter patron copy accounts.
B. The bifurcated approach to tracking copy accounts, separating them into counter and output limit, is the primary cause of all of the problems we have experienced with the machine. For some period of time, administrators were attempting to update copy accounts by simply changing the output limit not knowing that there was a separate counter limit. To illustrate, let's say a patron initially had 100 copies in the output limit, and had used all 100 of those copies in the counter. If the patron paid the administrator for 10 copies, the administrator, not understanding that the counter and output limit are separate inter-related functions, would simply enter the account, and change the output limit to "10." The result would be that the patron paid for 10 copies, but would not be able to make any, because the counter limit would still show 100 copies, telling the machine that those ten copies that were just added had already been used. Unless the counter limit was zeroed out, the patron would not get the benefit of those ten copies. Further, the menu process of accessing the output limit and counter limit are counter-intuitive and time consuming, which is why we had to make so many service calls after frustrated patrons kept insisting that they had paid for copies, and the machine was not properly registering those copies.
Possible solution:
The counter and output limit should be combined into one function under output limit, making it simple to both keep track of how many copies a user has left on the machine, and making it easier to add copies to an account. For example, if the output limit is set to "10," and the user makes a copy, the output limit should then read "9." This is a streamlined, intuitive process for keeping track of the copies made by the user. The menu process must also be streamlined and altered to take into account this new, simple method of tracking a patron's available copies, and adding copies to the patron's account. This solution serves two primary usability guidelines that we have covered, avoiding the ambiguity presented by separating the counter and output functions which required strange menus options like "edit job accounting and edit job accountingtl," and it serves to provide meaningful feedback to the user to allow them to properly evaluate the system's state.
For another usability analysis of different photocopier problems with similar solutions, see:
Kodama, Justin (2008). Usability Analysis: Photocopier. Retrieved 10/21/08 from: http://justinkodama.com/portfolio/usabilityanalysis/photocopier.html
Last update:
10/27/08. Email – rmb08f@fsu.edu
