Rate My Rental – HCI Testing

By Helen Cheevers

Rate My Rental

• This is a website designed for users to share information they’ve gained from their experiences of living in rented accommodation with others.

• The information shared is things like the living conditions, the neighbourhood and how good a landlord is at his job.

User Feedback

• The developers wanted something to be done to amend the advanced search as they were overall unhappy with it

• They were also unhappy with the registration system

• They felt the rating system had too many questions and too much text

Nielsen’s Design Principles

• Nielsen & Molich (1990) came up with 10 specific design principles, but the main ones that need to be addressed in the design of this website are User Control & Freedom and Flexibility & Efficiency of use, as well as the other in smaller details.

Pressman’s Design Principles

• R. S. Pressman (2010) also had 3 design principles, the main one applying to this design is Reducing the Users Workload

“Add Rating” Page- The text is too small to read it comfortably; there should either be an option to enlarge the text or the text should be enlarged anyway (Nielsen & Pressman)- There are too many options and questions; they should be collapsed into smaller chunks of information to lower the mental workload on the user (Pressman)- The ratings at the top are done in 1/5, 2/5 etc., when it would be less of a load to have 1-----5 instead; it’s less reading for the user (Pressman)- The profile options should be in the corner out of the way to prevent distraction from important tasks (Nielsen)

“Advanced Search” Page-Dublin County was not included in the search, which it needs to be.- The search options should be mutually non-exclusive (be able to search for both area/property type, etc.) (Nielsen & Pressman)- The property types don’t include house-shares, which should be included to allow for a larger demographic for marketability. (Nielsen)

“Register Details” Page-The user should be able to add their details but then make them visible or not themselves; some of them (like pets/children) could be important for finding a property to rent, but too personal to make visible to anyone but the website itself (Nielsen & Pressman)- Living Situation is not recognisable in the world; it should be changed to Marital Status so it’s easier for users to recognise. (Nielsen)

“Home” (Index) Page-The welcome text is too much for a user to take in; it should be a small caption explaining what the site does (Pressman)- The design of the top rated and featured properties images is well done but there should perhaps be a button to cycle through while on the page (like arrows going left to right, or a refresh button that refreshes just those images) so that browsing in not completely necessary as an option. (Nielsen)

“User Home” (Profile) Page-The profile creation date is not necessary as a piece of information so shouldn’t be included to reduce workload (Pressman)- The “change avatar” option should be changed to “change picture/photo” to improve consistency (Nielsen & Pressman)

“Add Property” Page-There should be options to upload more than 1 photo to allow for a more in-depth look at the property by other users and to share more information about the property (should the user want to) (Nielsen & Pressman)- The “questions about policies” link underneath the image doesn’t have any relevance on this particular page specifically, so it should be included in the bottom buttons instead, and on every page so a user doesn’t have to come here to find it. (Nielsen)

Pesante, L. (2008).• A major problem with this website is that security is a major

issue; addresses and in-depth details of a property are included on this website or everyone (including potential burglars) to view.

• In order to try and help with this I propose implementing a system where only currently available to rent should be available to view; this way it will prevent burglary of occupied homes.

• This does not prevent burglary of unoccupied homes, but the only alternative would be for an admin to authorise new accounts/restrict access – but that would affect accessibility very badly.

Voget, A. (2003).

• Another proposal I have for this website is that it be linked to property letting websites all over the internet so that users can find the property they’re interested in on it’s rental site to get in contact about letting it.

• This would also provide the databases for the implementation of my security aspect, listing only currently let properties.

Any Questions?