Wake Up! Fix it!: Action List for the Radio

So, you are a usability expert. You've been set the task of creating a new usable design for a hotel alarm. What do you do?

You have decided to do a walkthrough analysis. Here is the list of actions you produced for the task of setting the alarm. It is these actions that you base your analysis on.

Task:

The task is to set the alarm to come on at 8:30.

Initially, the radio is plugged in but the "power" off so the screen is blank. The volume was left set to the minimum setting.

Action List and Feedback:

1. Press the POWER button labelled with the icon. The current time appears in the display.

2. Press the H button The hours the alarm is currently set to appear.

3. Press the ARROW button repeatedly until the correct hours appears. The hours increase one by one.

4. Press the M button. The minutes the alarm is currently set to appear.

5. Press the ARROW button repeatedly until the correct minutes appears. The minutes increase one by one.

6. Press the SET ALARM button. The current time reappears. A dot appears on the right to show the alarm is set.

7. Press the unlabelled VOLUME button left side to increase the volume. The dots on the right increase to show the volume level the alarm will come on at.

Back to the walkthrough.

The wake-up. Fix it! series of cs4fn articles is based on a Science Week activity organised by the Department of Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London, with support from the Research Councils UK.