CS257 Software Design
Monday, 26 May 2025

+ Questions

+ Schedule for the rest of the term
- Main features in place: T May 27
- Code review: in class F May 30
- Usability testing: in class M June 2
- Final product due: 5pm June 9

+ Usability: what do you already know?
- UIs we like
    - Wikipedia
        - narrowly focused job, which it does very well
        - article structure: outline followed by details; headings menu
        - search is simple
        - ad-free
    - Google search
        - intuitive; very simple
    - Minecraft
        - standard clicking and movement "pretty conventional" 
        - double-tapping w for run

- UIs in the middle
    - VSCode
        - wide set of features (good)
        - key bindings are dizzying
        - can get settings messed up
        - popups "trust the author"; so many demands to update
    
- UIs we don't like
    - Workday
        - Confusing animation
        - Can't click on things in natural ways
        - Very common operations take a lot of work to get to
            (also unintuitive, slow, hard to discover)
        - Logging hours, WTF
        - Many ways to do the same thing, only one of which works
            (logging hours; registering for a major;...)
        - App doesn't do most things; just use the web
        - So many popups, hard to use
        - Browser's back button doesn't do what it should
        - Searching for a feature -> instructions -> link -> back to instructions
            (e.g., getting refund for your club)
        - Random errors when you land 
        - Uploads caused errors; instructions didn't work
    - iOS Photos, new update
        - moved a bunch of stuff to where it's hard to find
        - 
    - somebody else's OS
        - (macOS) give me a full file path!
        - ...

+ Readings

+ Code review: how I proceed