DreamPad version 1.0 is detailed in the intial design. This document addresses changes in the design based upon an initial heuristic evaluation by the team members and input by the course instructor and TA.
Based upon our initial heuristic evaluation, we realized the student console icons' purpose might not be obvious. In version 1.1 we added captions under each button, therefore the new main student dialog looks like:
The slide dialog was also modified from version 1.0. It was recognized after a class presentation by another group, that the CLASSPAD machines are not color-enabled. We modified the light icons with a R, Y, G letter to provide further cues. The text descriptions were also changed to make them identical to the instructor's display. Finally, version 1.0 required you to press a light choice, then press send. There was no feedback on which light you had pressed. The suggestion was to either send immediately on pressing a light or to provide feedback on the button pressed so the student could change his mind prior to sending the message. We chose the latter, giving the following new dialog (assuming the student has pressed the red light:
The main dialog was modified in the area of the stoplight icon. The functioning of the stoplight icon and algorithm was confusing. First, we added a count to the left of the stoplight which gives the actual number of students voting on each color choice. We also print a text cue to the left based upon the results of the algorithm. We then added two more stoplight icons - one with both yellow-red and yellow-green lights similar to the european stoplight system. The algorithm was then modified so that the stoplight colors are a more intuitive match for what one would expect. This gave the following new dialog (assuming 4 student votes have been received, 2-RED, 1-YELLOW, and 1-GREEN:
Initially the reset button only saved the questions in the file. The algorithm was modified to save the slide votes and the class mood at the time the reset button was depressed. The file output now looks like:
Question List for Slide 1
What is the meaning of LIfe?
What am I doing here?
Will we get an A?
Stoplight Results:
RED 1 YELLOW 1 GREEN 1
On a scale of 1 to 10 (Bored to Excited) the class mood was 2