Message

Hi, I have started my masters since mid Sept and I have been waiting to post this message. Its been so hectic and it will only increase until the end of the quarter. I will still reply to any comments you make as you go through the work posted till now. And will try to squeeze as much as possible in the middle of quarter too. Will resume work from mid Dec, for the period during my quarter break.

Cancel Search Button

This is the general UI pattern of canceling the search results view.
The general UI patterns to cancel search is to have the X button inside the search box to the right end.

Cog walk through - Accounts

New ... Buttons Missing - Since the icons to create new schedules, accounts, institutions etc may not be very clear/convenient, we should have New ... buttons for each screen "consistently". Here is a picture that shows this -

Type of Accounts Having some information text/label on the screen, about the kind of accounts that exist(credit, loan, debit, checking etc) will help users understand what are the requirements in opening that account. ( See image below)

Opening Balance for a credit card ? Is it a dead field in a Credit Card context ?

Preferred Account New Users may not have an idea of whats a preferred account. Any informational label can help here too.

Help The help button on the New Account wizard, does not take me to the current topic but to the KMyMoney General Help. Context sensitive Help would really help :)




Parent Account - Asset, Liability are type-of-accounts than an account itself, they should not be named as parent accounts . Income and Expense are categories and shouldn't show up in Accounts screen (They should show up in Categories view only). IMHO, Hierarchies in accounts and usage of term "Parent" account is confusing.




















Edit Account Dialog The Disabled 3D control (drop down lists) have unreadable text, it would be nice to have them slightly darker .

Edit Account Limits Tab Absolute limit does convey clear meaning and Credit Limit exists for all type of accounts.


Edit Account Tax Tab Lots of free screen area could be used to explain what is VAT etc. as an informational label.

Features that need to surface out

Online Banking - KBanking Plugin should be better exposed(than mentioning it in the release notes) to user when they are getting started.

Configuration Screen - Encryption option in the configuration screen should be upfront to allow users to create login IDs and Passwords. The Encryption screen is disabled to work with.

Cog walk through - exploring the toolbar

Screen 12
1)quit is right under the "file' menu, not a safe placement visually. This maybe a personal opinion so feel free to ignore. few question in this case...
(i)is it necessary there?
(ii)is it a standard according to KDE? I am not too familiar with KDE UI
(iii)it didn't even prompt before closing... now that is scary

2)new "file".. now is that for a completely new financial management? the file concept for a personal "account" is confusing.. login might be a better metaphor. few question in this case...
does new file =
(i) new finance management file?
(ii) new user?
(iii) Why would same user want two different files to manage his finances?

Cog walk - Bug report

Nice to see "report Bug"
(i) Will it gather information about the current context user is in?, would be good as the user may not be very descriptive or specific while filing a bug
(ii) if collecting such data care should be taken to not breach and privacy or gather any sensitive financial information. just the screen landed or path to the screen could be sufficient

Cog Walk through: Getting Started - part 4

Screen 11
1. Why did this show up when I deselected the opening balance?
- About the dialog: lengthy, the wording is confusing when indirect... click yes to Cancel, No to Save and Cancel to return, cant it be direct?

2. After click cancel why is it not allowing me to select the transaction back?

3. Couldn't get the screen capture with the dropdown when ppp is selected. why? ppp was set as an asset account. Is that default, wasn't sure it was explicit while taking details of ppp? Define asset account. How do I change it?

4.For the "Search" how about setting sample data in grey in the text field to give users a clue as to what is expected?

5.Number a column is present. But there is no numbering

6. 'c' ? What is that column for?

7. Fiscal year does that mean financial year? define term Fiscal year
- is that different for different countries? Are localization issues handled?

8.Payment? Deposit? how r they different from expenditure, income? explain terms clearly.

9. Cleared 0.00... what does that mean?

10. Never reconciled.. whats that? how, why, what and everything about Reconcile? Define term

11.On Selection of 'new' - why is default set to withdraw? the tab usage to select type of transaction here is confusing and isn't very intuitive.

12. "viewing details of transaction' and editing them should be separate. good example to learn from is of the interface of yahoo mail beta. You have a list of email, of which one could be selected. And the details of that particular email is shown in the lower half. and only actions related to that email are listed there. To create a completely new email... a task unrelated to the current email in viewing, set these actions out of this tab layout... the "new/compose" are out of this layout of things

13. How do we go back to the Account Summary page? Back navigation fails here. Consider a universal back and forward buttons like in a browser.

14.Status? (i)tried "cleared" and the entry got deleted - this is little scary - there is no prompt and no way to undo. (ii) but then I set the status to not marked and the entry was back in place (iii) the reason for this confusion could be the fact that, the affordance of a drop down on right corner is not that of a "selection" criteria (iv) still not clear on how to set the status.

Cog Walk through: Getting Started - part 3

Screen 8
1)Finish button is disabled? How do I save? Why is it pointing to a default location at which it is not able to save and later recall, remember at Screen 1 wasn't able to open recently created files?
2)More thoughts, why doesn't the application have some login name and passwd... account based rather than "file" based. login and pss offers better security which is important for finance aps
3)Finally could save it on changing both name and location, this time as I consciously decided the location I could find my file easily on logging in next time.




Screen 9
1)Scroll could have been avoided
2)Layout needs more work,
a.use color code,
b.work with a grid- follow a consistent grid visually across pages.
c.Typography needs work building proper visual hierarchy in Title, labels and data
These small things allow user to perceive information in an organized and intuitive way.
3)How about defining the technical terms in the first time viewing of them? could be done on hover or select and right click or a simple section at bottom of the page that is allotted to a dictionary.




Screen10
1) Why did clicking on PPP take me to Ledger instead of Account (since PPP is an "account")?
2)No direct way to go back to "Summary page". First time user will not know Summary page = home
3)Page layout need to parse meaning into it well. The current view doesn't have a clear task division. The 2 panel selector pattern can be used more clearly.

Cog Walk through: Getting Started - part 2

Screen 4
1. Date format is not easy to read, though it is the standard format. Using something like “01-May-2008” or “May-01-2008” would be easier to read and not confusing as well.
2. The graphics of the calendar could be improved, more sleek


Screen 5
1.Doesn’t expand as expanded,
a.felt it wouldn’t just work sometimes
b.visual affordance that it would expand on clicking is low
c.Always selecting the country by scrolling down the long list is taxing, specially if your country is at the end of the alphabetical list. Can the software remember country, currency previously entered to preselect and put that selection in focus? This can avoid the scrolling.
d.Clicking on the small > triangle was a chance which is when I realized the list will expand, consider making the triangle 3-d to increase affordance to click or consider making the whole country name as the hot-spot to click and expand the options


Screen 6
1.Sentences can be shorter
for eg: To skip and do it later: click next.
2."open configuration DIALOG" sounds geeky, could use "Configure preferences now"
3.Text can be
a.more conversational instead of computer-ish
b.point based
c.short, crisp and direct
4.Nice to see keyboard functionality


Screen 7
1.too many things to be set
2.Can few main issues be differentiated from the rest? is "general" for that?
3.Too many tabs and too many windows, novice users could get confused.
4. Would like to see instant feedback like in case of setting up the views, like in windows "Apply is different from OK"

List of Financial terms that need explanation

Ledger
Reconcile
Institution
Account
Deposit
Transfer
Withdrawal
Payment
Deposit
IBAN while creating new account
Routing number
Checking account
Parent account?
Asset is an account?
Auto-VAT assignment?
Preferred Account?
Absolute limit in account limits
BIC in institution
Difference between Tax and VAT




... will add to list as I go over more tasks, also in the screens I will underline the terms as I come across them.

Cog Walk through: Getting Started - part 1

In this post and next series of posts are notes of cognitive walk through (refer to previous post) and UI Design ideas and suggestions for that context.



Screen 0
1.On first look it looks simple and straight forward to go ahead and set up your account.
2.Set up account equals creating new KMyMoney file. That is a little confusing concept.
3.Couldn’t find previously created and saved file. Probably the s/w could not remember the location where the file was saved, didn’t show recently used files as well. The location where the file was set to save by default was also a very deep and cryptic location. Came back third time to this point where I could not find the previously saved file. Fourth time tried to save the file with same name as previous, and it wasn’t allowed. That is when I saved the file on desktop and then on I could retrieve the file.


Screen 1
1.Go to My Financial summary doesn’t say anything – Should be disabled if not applicable as in case of no existing financial record.


Screen 2
1.Can this be skipped? If you skipped – can we maintain a “finish later” list? Does it remember half filled information? How to quickly get to “finish later” list?
2.Can these forms be smarter?
a.Auto fill
b.Drop downs for country
c.Format clues
d.Format checks
e.Forgiving formats: not strict
3.Nice to see “load from address book”


Screen 3
1.Nice to see “load from address book”, but couldn’t really understand how to maintain an Address book, is it part of KMyMoney or an application outside of KMyMoney
a.Content of the dialog box, can this be put in simpler words?
b.Rather than say unable to load, can it explain why it didn’t unload and say what would make it work?

Notes: Cognitive Walkthrough

from:http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs3302/documents/cog.walk.html

In the cognitive walkthrough, the sequence of actions refers to the steps that an interface will require a user to perform in order to accomplish some task. The evaluators then step through that action sequence to check it for potential usability problems. Usually, the main focus of the cognitive walkthrough is to establish how easy a system is to learn. More specifically, the focus is on learning through exploration. Experience shows that many users prefer to learn how to use a system by exploring its functionality hands on, and not after sufficient training or examination of a user's manual. So the kinds of checks that are made during the walkthrough ask questions that address this exploratory kind of learning. To do this, the evaluators go through each step in the task and provide a story about why that step is or is not good for a new user.

To do a walkthrough (the term walkthrough from now on refers to the cognitive walkthrough, and not any other kinds of walkthroughs), you need four things.

1. A description of the prototype of the system. It doesn't have to be complete, but it should be fairly detailed. Details such as the location and wording for a menu can make a big difference.

2. A description of the task the user is to perform on the system. This should be a representative task that most users will want to do.

3. A complete, written list of the actions needed to complete the task with the given prototype.

4. An indication of who the users are and what kind of experience and knowledge the evaluators can assume about them.

Given this information, the evaluators step through the action sequence (item 3 above) to critique the system and tell a believable story about its usability. To do this, for each action, the evaluators try to answer the following four questions.

A. Will the users be trying to produce whatever effect the action has?

Are the assumptions about what task the action is supporting correct given the user's experience and knowledge up to this point in the interaction?

B. Will users be able to notice that the correct action is available?

Will users see the button or menu item, for example, that is how the next action is actually achieved by the system? This is not asking whether they will know that the button is the one they want. This is merely asking whether it is visible to them at the time when they will need to invoke it. An example of when this question gets a negative supporting story might be if a VCR remote control has a hidden panel of buttons that are not obvious to a new user.

C. Once users find the correct action at the interface, will they know that it is the right one for the effect they are trying to produce?

This complements the previous question. It is one thing for a button or menu item to be visible, but will the user's know that it is the one they are looking for to complete their task?

D. After the action is taken, will users understand the feedback they get?

Assuming the users did the correct action, will they know that. This is the completion of the execution/evaluation interaction cycle. In order to determine if they have accomplished their goal, the user needs appropriate feedback.

Layout and organization of the elements in UI

from "Patterns for effective interaction design" Designing Interfaces by Jennifer Tidwell

Most applications are organized according to one or more of the following approaches. Some use nouns and some use verbs.
(1) list of objects. eg: inbox full of emails
(2) list of actions or tasks. eg: browse, buy, sell, sell or register
(3) list of subject categories. eg: health, science, tech
(4) list of tools. eg: calender, address book, notepad

User patterns - A checklist for design review

This list is developed mainly from "What users do?" chapter of the book Patterns for effective Interaction Design- Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell

What is the role of an Interaction Designer?
Ans. Its enabling user to meet his goals rather than designing a particular form well, if need be... there should be no form at all.

Key points to learn about users:
- goals in using the software
- special tasks they do in this context
- language and words they use to describe these tasks
- skill at using softwares similar to what you are designing
- attitude to the task at at hand and type of SWs

Ways to get these answers,
- Direct Observation : puts you directly in to user's world, lot of context information and opportunity to see rather than relay on user's perception of himself in the task
- Case studies : gives views to few user types and particular scenarios... use them to build across spectrum of scenarios
- Surveys : good to get a quantitative feel
- Personas : helps to understand what to do once you gather the data.

Broad User categories based on general S/W usage expertise:
- Intermediate to expert: would use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Code development environments, Sys admins for web servers
- Occasional User: Kiosks in tourist centers, museums, purchase pages for online stores, ATMs
- In the middle of the continuum: Microsoft office, Email clients, Cell phone apps

Finally the Patterns:
- Safe Exploration
help exploration without getting stuck or lost
(1)multilevel undo
(2)allow navigation backwards

- Instant Gratification
want to accomplish NOW
(3)instant feedback
(4)start with the "typical starting point", aniticipate what the user wants
(5)introduction is important
(6)avoid time taking processes: long registration forms, long set of instructions, slow to load screens, ads

- Satisficing
this is good enough, don't want to spend more time learning to do it better
(7) text: allow scanning and skimming through, no hidden imp instructions in huge text instructions, design text effectively: labels, short, point-wise, use vocabulary of the user
(8)layout: to communicate meaning; modularize, parse details: color and form, categorize
(9)navigation: provide escape hatches, avoid visual complexity, backward and forward navigation both are important
(10) handle old habit well: while redesigning take care of old habits, breaking old habits and learning something new isn't easy.

- Changes in Midstream
user changes mind about what to do
(11)provide opportunities deviate: dont loack the user into choice poor environment with no global navigation
(12)allow process to stop: allow "re-entrance", save and get back later

- Deferred Choices
"I don't want to answer that now, just let me finish", follows Instant gratification. reasons could be no information, or not interested in doing it now.
(13)Don't ask several seemingly unnecessary questions, allow "re-entrance"... make them accessible in relevant places
(15)pose questions in context, relate the questions to tasks
(16)use "good defaults"

- Incremental Construction
(17)processes go as much backward as forward: allow for incremental changes
(18)give feedback of the whole
(19)induce a state of flow

- Habituation
"that gesture works everywhere else why not here?"
(20)consistency across applications: frequently used actions become reflexive... be consistent with universal actions like cntrl+s for save
(21)increase efficiency: provide shortcuts for repetitive tasks and also undo for these traps

- Spatial Memory
"It was on the left corner, where did it go?"
(23)take care while redesigning of the spatial memory of the existing users
(24)one reason why dynamic menus dont work
(25)top of the list, bottom of the list are most remembered spatially, so make sure they stay put while considering redesigning

- Prospective Memory
"I'm putting this here to remind myself to deal with it later"
eg: sticky notes, windows left open, annotations to put directly into documents, flags
(26)allow for such reminders
(27)don't assume while auto-organizing/sorting
(28)recall last few objects, save - unfinished forms
(29)how can you gather reminders from different sources at one place?

- Streamlined Repetition
"I have to repeat this how many times?"
(30)allow for automation, eg: macros, find and replace in word application, cut, copy paste

- Keyboard Only
"Please don't make me use the mouse"
(31)tab traversal
(32)key board shortcuts
(33)for screen-reader s/ws
(34)key mode only is perticularly important from data entry applications

- Other People's Advice
"what did everyone say about this?"
(35)social aspect of the s/w
(36)learn by example, trends

Design Review KMyMoney 0.8 - part 2

Design Review KMyMoney 0.8 - part 1

This is my first dry run through KMyMoney0.8 after browsing through the online help documentation. I appended questions, observations and suggestions like a Speak-aloud exercise as I walked through the s/w for the first time, so some of them may seem superficial.

Quicken - Intuit

-Video overview of product is not very helpful, it covers all the points but doesn't allow users to help remember the flow, MS money's video demo is far better
- lot of options of different versions of the product, pretty confusing
- 2 companies in picture, Quicken and Intuit which made the online version
- free trail for 1 month, but 3$ per month there on? why is it priced so high while I get some services fully free?
- elaborate sign up form to just try with payment information :( all this to have a peek at the features and get a feel of the product -> not inviting
-the feature spec on the web is minimal, hardly informative

Buxfer

+nice live demo of the product, with random data sample to interact
+online
+clean and simple ui flow
+but for 2 or 3 words most of the wording in the ui is simple to understand
- time out for demo: in case u open the browser and wander around doing something else the demo expires
- not too many trends
- bit of confusion on how the split transactions with friends work
+ follows the trend of automatic upload of previous transactions
+ user created rules applied with tags is nicely done
+ found it very easy to learn, could explore almost all functions available: setting up account, rules, reminders, slipt transactions with friends... dont know if this is allows friends to be notified

List of products

Here I will append as comments all the various personal finance softwares I come across.

Mint

About Mint and features
+ui looks clean
+online
+mobile updates
+has an aspect of helping complete newbies
- navigation issues...links to overview, features, spending trends etc. come below the fold after your are signed in, before sign in the features come right in the top. Once you are signed-in wont allow a peak at how it work without taking ur account info, lot of people would like to look before give important info. I personally reached the features page after a lot of looking around, realized its on the home page to start with but goest to below the fold after sign in.
+ helps u trust, veriSign etc.
- the writing is not very web-user friendly: long sentences
- in the Features page the layout of info is confusing, and it gives a broken view of the ui rather than a neat flow like in ms-mymoney
+comparisons of spending trends to aggregate data
+automatic categorization, fetches data from all your bank accounts
+overall attitude to help in easing out finance management rather than just maintain logs

Links - Usability Resources

Are appended as comments.

Observation and Comments

On this entry I will post any interesting observations or comments, both mine and others.

On MS Money: few good points at first glance

+ easy flow for beginners, teaches one in a step by step process
+ video tutorials
+ reports,spending tracker:good data viz to see trends in spending
+ over emphasis on helping one plan their finances rather than just helping in log and track their expenditures which is a not motivating.
+ wording is non-cryptic
+ inclusion of tutorials that teach finance management to novice users
+ broad categories are good
+ guessing the category(5 budget groups) for transaction, tracks budget well:painlessly
+ homepage has good snapshots to start with( Account info, upcoming bills, budget info)
+ linked to your online accounting information :)

.... will add more as I come across as comments to this same post

Installing KMyMoney

(my personal experience of installing kmymoney)

This is so confusing... there is no one setup file I could just click and it goes... next > next > next...
so me couldnt install it.

More over with Ubuntu to get the KDE environment, I have to install KDE...
Now how does a Windows user's understand these scenarios?
I only vaguely understand KDE and GNU.
Thanks to Chetan for enlightening me on this.

And there are issue like you cant install without some admin rights?
So I need to get to the command line, login as "SUDO", by the way I am no Linux geek.
So Chetan did the holy ritual of running some commands...
I was totally lost midway...
Job still not done... By this I am lost at to what he is trying to do, compile the code directly? I dont know...
Or maybe its all just Chetan's geeky way of doing things.

Went to Adept Manager, searched for Finance softwares...
Found KMyMoney and couple of other finance SWs.
This is cool to not go to internet and get all kinds of mixed results.
This even manages installing it...

But again... some admin rights?
I am logged in as admin right?
He did some more command line talking...
bestowed SUDO powers to Adept Manager, and installed couple of Finance SWs that work for Linux as I need to do a comparative study.
I already installed MS Money and went upto as far as syncing it with my online banking passwd in first go... only issue I installed Free Trail version, so I guess its limited and the call drops.

Wubi - Ubuntu installer for Windows

http://wubi.sourceforge.net/



Trying to install this to create a KDE envi for KMyMoney

Crash and MS money

Messed up my windows while trying to install Ubuntu.
Link to free trail installation of MS Money-> http://www.microsoft.com/money/freetrial_HomeandBusiness.mspx

Getting Started on KMyMoney

Working on the Usability of KMyMoney. Will be tracking my thoughts and actions in this space.
To start with...

Understand KMyMoney
- Go to go through the online manual
- Install and play with it, tried to install WUBI as I am a windows user :|, didn't work.. is it because its Vista?

Landscape Analysis
- Check out MS Money, Buxfer, http://quicken.intuit.com/

Then go through any usability guidelines for finance management UIs
- collect also the good points seen across in landscape analysis