Design Rationale

Evaluation

  Scenario Analysis

      Explore the Site

      Add New Story

      Photo Gallery

      Guestbook

      Add Annotation

  Interview/Survey

  Trade-offs

  Conclusion

Enhancement proposal

Conclusion

Visit Nostalgia

Scenario #5: Mike Annotates a Story

One day while he was visiting the Nostalgia site, Mike noticed a new story that had been posted about an old store on Main Street. Since it had been one of Mike's favorite stores, he decided he wanted to add to the story. At the end of the story, he clicked on the "add an annotation to this story" link. When the new page came up, Mike was momentarily confused, because it looked very much like the one he had just been on. After a moment, Mike realized he should scroll to the bottom of the page and then did so, typing his annotation. Because the annotation entry box was not as wide as the text actually making up the story, Mike wasn't sure where he should hit enter to go to new lines. Finally, he decided to just hit enter each time he got to the end of the entryfield. After he had typed for a moment, Mike realized that he didn't like his wording and looked for the "Reset Form" command that he had used when writing his story a few days earlier. Disappointed that no such button was there, he deleted everything with the backspace key, retyped his annotation, submitted it, and went back to exploring the site.

Allowing users to add annotations to existing stories.
+ Might allow users to clarify certain points in stories or correct errors.
+ Allows people who don't have whole stories, but just interesting information, to participate.
- BUT annotations might not always relate well to the story they're being added to.
- BUT some story writers might be bothered if they perceive that other people are trying to correct them.

Making the width of the text entry box less than the width of displayed stories and annotations.
+ Takes up less space on the screen.
- BUT might cause users to have questions about text formatting.
- BUT might confuse users about how much they should write.

Not including a "Reset Form" button.
+ Stops users from accidentally deleting text they have entered.
+ Takes away a possibly confusing choice to make system use easier.
- BUT is not consistent with other Nostalgia input interfaces.
- BUT might slow down users who are used to using the reset functionality elsewhere.