Team Project 3

HCI 440: Usability Engineering

Purple Team:
Shannon Lewis-Hillstrom
Gwen Olds

Yars Tsaytak

Detailed Design

Executive Summary

The “Find a Financial Services Provider” web pages assist users in finding a financial consultant. Its primary focus is to reach novice users who want to make changes in their financial lives, but are not quite sure where to begin. The tool will guide novice investors to properly choose a financial advisor that best fits their investment goals. This tool is simply one part of a larger website where individuals can check stock quotes or researching companies for future investments. Other tools may include financial calculators and rate lookups. The website is independent from any particular financial institution. The overall purpose of the site is informational rather than providing actual services.

This report and prototype provide detailed design information on the overall feature set and the task of conducting a search and saving the results.

Conceptual Design Description

Persistent Page Elements

Every page on the site (including pages outside the scope of this report) has the following features.

  • Log in/out utility.Users must login to save results and utilize information stored in their profile to conduct searches.
  • Link to User Profile page.
  • Links back to the main site and/or Finder tool main page (or starting point) exists on each page in a consistent location.
  • A Search tool exists on each page in a consistent location.

Pages

The following sections describe the pages comprising the “Find a Financial Services Provider” section of the overall web site

Main Page

The main page of the Finder tool provides a variety of search options and combinations including:

  • Fields for selecting location by zip code and distance or state and metro area.
  • “More options” selection adds fields for determining the desired field of expertise. The additional fields include items such as annual income, areas of concern check boxes, and questions for determining affinity for risks. These fields are automatically completed if the user has included the information in their user profile.
  • Field for selecting Area of expertise.
  • Field for selecting desired companies.
  • Field for selecting a service provider experience level range. Ranges include factors such as education, certifications, years in business, time with current company, and company’s longevity. A help button produces an explanation of these factors and the level ranges.
  • Select cost range.A help button produces an explanation of these ranges.

The main page of the Finder tool provides the following operations for manipulating search criteria.

  • Clear button.
  • “Retrieve Previous Saved Criteria” button automatically fills in fields. Fields are still editable.
  • Save selections or criteria button saves the data currently selected in each field.
  • Submit search options button generates the results list.
  • “Go to Saved Results” button skips the search option and links to the last saved search results.

User Profile Page

The user profile includes personal and general login information as well as optional specific financial data. Completing the detailed fields helps refine search options later.

Articles Page

The site provides reference materials on selecting a financial services provider. Articles on the following topics are reachable from the Finder main page.

  • Types of service providers.
  • Tips on interviewing and comparing service providers.

Results Page

The results list displays on a new page with the following information listed for each service provider.

  • Name
  • Company
  • Address
  • Phone
  • web address
  • e-mail address
  • “Setup Interview” button links to a page set up an appointment with a resulting service provider via e-mail.
  • Links to industry research.
  • Links to available consumer reviews.
  • Link to submit a review of the service provider.
  • Link to directions and/or map of the service provider location.

The results page provides the following additional options.

  • Link or button takes the user back to the search page for refinement of the results list. The previous search criterion is pre-filled in the fields.
  • “Save Results List” button saves the current list for future retrieval.

Setup Appointment Page

The appointment setup page provides the user with a utility to set up an appointment with a resulting service provider using an e-mail form. Interviews may be setup for in person meetings or a phone call.

Industry Research Page

The Industry Research page provides independent third party information on a provider’s company (similar to Hoover’s or other company profiles).

Reviews Page

TheReviews Page displays all user submitted reviews for a selected provider.

Submit Review Page

The Review submission page contains a form with fields for a 1-5 ranking and a multi-line test field.

Get Map and Directions Page

This page displays a map of a provider’s location. The user can then enter a second location in order to get directions to or from the provider’s location.

Organization

The diagram below illustrates how the previously described main pages are organized.

Figure 1: Overall Page Flow

Detailed Description

The following screens illustrate the detailed design of the Financial Services Provider Finder Tool.

The Main page allows the user to login, begin a search, jump to advanced search, jump to research articles, or perform general site options. The primary navigational links are grouped in a left hand menu. The global site links are grouped at the top of the menu, and the finder tool specific options are grouped just below that. Additionally the global site search option is available on the left.

Figure 2: Main Page (Not Logged In)

The available options change slightly once the user has logged in. The user can now access previously saved searches or results and update their person information. If the user profile is completed, the search fields are filled with default values based on the profile. In the below diagram the logged in user hasn’t completed all the option details of their profile.

Figure 3: Main Page (Logged In)

If the user’s login information is incorrect the following page displays.

Figure 4: Login Failed

The user can use additional search criteria by clicking the Advanced Search option on the left hand menu. The screen below illustrates these additional options. These options tailor the search for particular needs of the user and expertise of the service provider results.

Figure 5: Advanced Search Page

Some of the search option values may be confusing for users. These options include links from a help icon to a pop up help window. The windows have the following form.

Figure 6: Help Pop-Up Layout

When the user has completed the search criteria they click the Search button to submit the form. This brings up a list of all service providers matching the selected criteria. The user may also save their criteria for future use if they are logged in or clear all the values using the other buttons provided. Each listed provider is accompanied by additional information from industry sources and customers, option for setting up an interview and the ability to review a provider. The address links to a map of the location. If the provider has a web site and e-mail address those are also provided as a link and a “mail to” link.

Figure 7: Results List

The following screen displays in the event that no results matched the search criteria.

Figure 8: No Results

When the user clicks the Save Results button they are prompted to name the result set as illustrated in the screen below.

Figure 9: Save Results

The user receives confirmation when the save completes and can go back to the main finder page or use other global site navigation to continue with their site tasks.

Figure 10: Save Confirmation

Usage Scenario

Mike, a single man in his late 30’s has been playing the stock market for a while now. He’s toyed with the idea of hiring an expert to help him maximize his returns. He has no kids and isn’t concerned with any large expenses in the future such as college tuition. His primary goal is to make money the most money he can while paying the least amount of taxes. He has done fairly well, but thinks an expert might be able to identify better investments and have more insight into legal and tax issues. He is only curious at this point and not certain he wants to hire a consultant long term. He uses our web site to research his investments currently, and decided to try the search utility one day. First he did some research on what type of consultant he is looking for, someone who will let him drive and make major decisions, but will notify him of investments he should consider. He accomplished his research by reading the available advice articles. He then linked back to the search tool main page. He completed his user profile some time agoand was able to use the saved details to conduct an advanced search. This refined his search by type of consultant and targeted a couple of companies with cultures and specialties matching his needs. The search resulted in several possibilities. He used the links to consumer reviews and corporate information to select three he wanted to interview. He saved his results and decided to come back later to setup appointments.

Usability Goals

The “Find a Financial Services Provider” web pages have the following usability goals.

  1. User can identify the resources available to assist them in selecting a financial services provider.
  2. User can successfully generate a list of financial services providers in their area.
  3. User can retrieve their search results at a later time.

Test Scenarios

The following test scenarios may be used to validate the stated usability goals.

  1. Ask user to take a moment to look over the main page. As them to list the resources they think could help them in selecting a service provider. Ask them again after they have performed a search in order to determine if they can identify the options available in the results screen.
  2. Ask user to perform a search and save the results when they are done.
  3. Ask user to log out of the web site, then log back in and retrieve the results from their previous search.

Contributions

This report was researched and compiled by the following contributors.

Shannon Lewis-Hillstrom --

Shannon prepared the report format and drafted all sections except the Detailed design. She then reviewed and revised Yars’ prototype pages and added additional pages for alternate flows and to fill out the vertical portion of the prototype.

Gwen Olds

Gwen reviewed the prototype.

Yars Tsaytak --

Yars created the initial set up pages as outlined in Figure 1.