Questions

Application_Google Play Books 1.First Impressions?

-Beautiful interface.

-Great 3D effect of the bookshelf and shadows dropped under each book in the library.

-Animations and transitions are smooth and fast.

-Text is crisp and legible.

2.Was the interface Responsive?

Navigating through Google Play Books is fast and smooth and easy to navigate through ; changing the settings for the book your reading is simple and pleasurable to be able to do it without leaving the book your reading and you also get to preview the changes you make as they happen.

3.Is the site trustworthy? Is it accurate? Content up to date? Any Technical Bugs?

The app feels very trustworthy - its branded Google Play Books which gives it credibility; Even making purchases on the device your on feels secure and is easy and simple through the Play Store.

The only bugs and inconsistencies that I found was the book covers were not full screen and the text alignment looked completely off compared to an original printed copy of the book I was reading (This could be an experience across all eBook readers though.) Also when you are reading the book under ‘Original Pages’ view it takes slightly longer to load the page (as the book is stored in the cloud) which, when sometimes the book has a blank page between chapters or at the beginning after the contents page it goes blank which can sometimes be misguiding and makes you think you may have missed an unloaded pages.

4.Was it a pleasurable experience interacting with the system? If not describe your experience.

The experience was extremely pleasurable, the fluidity of the application, crispness and high resolution interface gives value to the experience.

My only problem was that the low resolution book covers ruins the experiences making the books feel cheap not worth the money that you would play for one.

Another issue I had was that if I was unfamiliar with the Android OS I would have found it hard locating the menu to change the theme colour, font size/alignment/ line height etc. is hidden once you begin to read a book.

Also a really great feature that really only applies to using the app on a tablet device, is that you can select ‘Original Pages’ view which displays the original layout of the printed book on your device; even the front cover is HD and fits the screen. The only problem is that this is a feature I stumbled across whilst exploring the applications interface, and also does not apply to all books on the Play Store which is a shame.

5.Was the content engaging, did it make you want to stay longer exploring its content/features?

The best thing about this interface is that it took something that I consider boring and made it engaging. Not only did it make book seem appealing but the interface also had some really great features that I had a good play with such as adjusting the text and the various views and display options - it actually did make me download a different book to see how it would look and if it would work the same etc.

Functions the interface include are appropriate but allow you to make customizations to your content in an engaging way and actually feels like your personalizing your content rather than just changing view settings.

6.did the interface surprise, stimulate or provoke you?

The interface certainly stimulated surprise me as I am not much of a reader, but this interface and experience made it feel fun to read books.

The experience provoked me to download books of the store which is something that I never dreamed of doing before when it came to purchasing books. I think this was down to the first screen you see when you open the application - The interface displays all your books in a 3D carousel with a dropped shadows which it feel like your books have been put on display in some sort of trophy cabinet rather than just a ‘shelf’.

Website_Cpannel.net 1.First Impressions?

My first impressions of this website was ‘What the hell is this?’ it is an overload of buttons, icons and boxes - ‘close tab NOW’.

2.Was the interface Responsive?

At first this site doesn’t feel responsive, it looks like it was made 15 years ago and hasn’t been updated once. But once you figure out how to use it, certain things like creating a new email account is easy and lets you know if the email has been accepted, if the passwords match etc.

3.Is the site trustworthy? Is it accurate? Content up to date? Any Technical Bugs?

This site does not feel trust worthy at all, it looks like something someone has put together to trick people into downloading viruses or spamming your computer.

The graphic content does not look up to date, it needs a complete refresh, the data content is up to date such as the number of email accounts created, monthly bandwidth used and how many databased have been created; this is reassuring despite having an awful interface it records and displays your data correctly.

4.Was it a pleasurable experience interacting with the system? If not describe your experience.

This was not a pleasurable experience at all. I was asked to go on here myself and create my own email account, despite the first icon you come across says ‘Email Accounts’ I was unsure whether this was the correct option to choose as there are so many it made me feel like I have made the wrong choice and over looked the others.

The layout is also jarring; the home button at the top for example, is tiny and is easy to misplace.

5.Was the content engaging, did it make you want to stay longer exploring its content/features?

The content was not engaging at all, It made me want to leave before I actually done anything. I think the concept of being about to setup accounts yourself as a client is great; but this interface is very intimidating to anyone unfamiliar with it.

6.did the interface surprise, stimulate or provoke you? the interface did not stimulate or provoke me at all. It surprised me how someone had designed this to be simple to used but in fact achieved the complete opposite (although I can see exactly what he was trying to achieve) the only thing It provoked me to do was to choose this to be one of my select 3 ‘bad interfaces’.

Interfaces_Argos Self Checkout 1.First Impressions?

My first impressions were ‘Great!! Argos are catching up with the 21st century and installing interactive kiosks!’ no more spending time queuing up to pay and then spending more time waiting to collect the item.However I was soon at the point where I would have been more happy queuing up.

2.Was the interface Responsive?

The kiosks responsiveness was the issue I had that made me was to quit and que up. Loading from screen to screen and menu to menu was very slow and the screen was very unresponsive too.

I went into my shopping cart to pay for my selected item which turned out required batteries, thankfully a menu saying ‘suggested items’ (the batteries) was displayed, so I selected it, clicked add to basket, quantity (1) then ‘Pay now’ (as I was finished shopping and was previously on the checkout screen) This decision went through as ‘pay now for ONE pack of batteries; extremely annoying.

3.Is the site trustworthy? Is it accurate? Content up to date? Any Technical Bugs?

The Kiosk did feel trust worthy as you knew and felt that this was an official Argos kiosk and the payment is all done through chip and pin so you know it is secure, however there are interface bugs such as the one I described above.

4.Was it a pleasurable experience interacting with the system? If not describe your experience.

I guess if you were doing a simple task of buying one item, it is a quick, simple pleasurable experience, however if you were selecting multiple items that then needed accessories etc. it became a disaster.

The interface is also extremely ugly even though it was only design in the past year or two; rectangles with rounded corners and keypads with embossed reflections feel very dated.

5.Was the content engaging, did it make you want to stay longer exploring its content/features?

The whole point of this interface is to get people ordering and paying quickly so didn’t make me want to stay longer and explore; however its bugs and issues unfortunately kept me on longer than needed/expected.

6.did the interface surprise, stimulate or provoke you?

The only thing about this interface that has caught my attention is that it clearly has been made to abide by the rules of public interfaces - colour coding is awful and is obvious that the fact the keyboard is in green is to signify that this is safe and is the next process to take. I guess there you need to find the perfect balance between good UI and following the guidelines of how public interfaces have to be to work for the elderly and visually impaired.