Smart Home System: Design Review and Recommendations

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16
Appendix........................................................................................................................................17
Figure 1: Login..............................................................................................................................17
Figure 2: Device Status..................................................................................................................18
Figure 3: Music..............................................................................................................................19
Figure 4: Lock................................................................................................................................21
Figure 5: Light Status....................................................................................................................22
Figure 6: Camera...........................................................................................................................23
Figure 7: Air Conditioner..............................................................................................................24
Figure 8: Help................................................................................................................................25

Introduction
The entire report created below is properly based on the evaluation process of the designs that
were created earlier in the assignments. This report consists of various parts in which peer
review, as well as the evaluation, is being properly shown. All the designs are also added in the
Appendix section along with the proper annotations.

Task 1
Login Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=
StudentName=.
b). Requirement: None of the requirements are mentioned in the case study for the creation of
the Login Screen so; there is no such evaluation of the requirement for this Screen.
Status: As there are no such requirements required for this screen so, this is satisfied.
c). The design is a bit difficult to understand as the things are not so clear as they are required to
be and they are also not aesthetically pleasing.
d). There is definitely a lot of improvements required for this design as this design is really very
basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups are following the Heuristic Principles.
The improvements that could be made is firstly each of the heuristic principles is needed to be
followed and the most important principle required to be fulfilled here is the Error Prevention.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. A proper error must be provided in case the
wrong credentials are being entered.
Device Status Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID =
StudentName =.
b). Requirement: The main requirements that are being mentioned for this design are Design
the system to support at least three environmental zones and this design failed to do so.

Status: As it is mentioned above that there must be the three different environmental zones that
were to be created so, it is highly unsatisfied as it is not properly created.
c). The design is really difficult to understand as the things are not so clear as they are required to
be and they are also not aesthetically pleasing.
d). There is definitely a lot of improvements required for this design as this design is really very
basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups are following the Heuristic Principles.
The improvements that could be made is following the first and important heuristic principle i.e.,
Visibility of System Status.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. Properly the state of the screen must be
defined using Visual cues.
Music Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=
StudentName=.
b). Requirement: The main requirements that are being mentioned for this design are Home
security and video surveillance system, and Control of lighting in lounge, family and kitchen
areas.
Status: As, it is mentioned above both of the requirements are not at all being fulfilled within the
design, in order to keep the design accurate, all the requirements have to be cleared.
c). The design is not so difficult to understand as the things are clear as they are required to be
and they are also aesthetically pleasing.
d). There is definitely a lot of improvements required for this design as this design is really very
basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups are following the Heuristic Principles.
The improvements that could be made is adding the proper Consistency and Standards in the
design.

e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. Properly each and every text-field must be
allocated and consistency must be attained.
Lock Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=
StudentName=.
b). Requirement: The main requirements that are being mentioned for this design is Control of
electronic locks to access the house,
Status: As it is mentioned above this requirement is completely being followed and successfully
implemented within the design.
c). The design is not so difficult to understand as the things are clear as they are required to be
and they are also aesthetically pleasing.
d). The design follows the requirement but here is definitely a lot of improvements required for
this design as this design is really very basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups
are following the Heuristic Principles. The improvements that could be made is by creating
Flexibility within the design for new users.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. The improvements that could be made is by
creating Flexibility within the design for new users.
Light Status Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=
StudentName=.

b). Requirement: The main requirements that are being mentioned for this design Control of
lighting in lounge, family and kitchen areas.
Status: As it is mentioned above this requirement is not completely being followed and
successfully implemented within the design.
c). The design is not so difficult to understand as the things are clear as they are required to be
but this is not aesthetically pleasing.
d). The design follows the requirement but here is definitely a lot of improvements required for
this design as this design is really very basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups
are following the Heuristic Principles. The improvements that are needed to be shown is that the
name of the areas must be provided in place of Area1 or Area2.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. There could definitely be improvements
such as providing the proper status of work.
AC Status Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=
StudentName=.
b). Requirement: The main requirements that are being mentioned for this design Control of air
conditioning.
Status: As it is mentioned above this requirement is completely being followed and successfully
implemented within the design.
c). The design is not so difficult to understand as the things are clear as they are required to be
and they are also aesthetically pleasing.
d). The design follows the requirement but here is definitely a lot of improvements required for
this design as this design is really very basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups

are following the Heuristic Principles. The improvements that are needed to be shown is that the
design could be improved by adding attractive stuff.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. There could definitely be improvements
such as consistency and standard principle.
Help Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=
StudentName=.
b). Requirement: None of the requirements are mentioned in the case study for the creation of
the Help Screen so, there is no such evaluation of the requirement for this Screen.
Status: As there are no such requirements required for this screen so, this is satisfied.
c). The design is a bit difficult to understand as the things are not so clear as they are required to
be and they are also not aesthetically pleasing.
d). There is definitely a lot of improvements required for this design as this design is really very
basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups are following the Heuristic Principles.
The improvements that could be made is firstly each of the heuristic principles is needed to be
followed and the most important principle required to be fulfilled here is Help and
Documentation heuristic principle.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. Proper help, as well as documentation, must
be added to the screen.
Camera Screen
a). The review was done by
StudentID=

StudentName=.
b). Requirement: None of the requirements are mentioned in the case study for the creation of
the Help Screen so, there is no such evaluation of the requirement for this Screen.
Status: As there are no such requirements required for this screen so, this is satisfied.
c). The design is a bit difficult to understand as the things are not so clear as they are required to
be and they are also not aesthetically pleasing.
d). There is definitely a lot of improvements required for this design as this design is really very
basic, none of the designs in the entire list of mock-ups are following the Heuristic Principles.
The improvements should definitely be done in the design as the design is not aesthetic and
minimalist.
e). The list of Recommendations that are definitely required for this page or the screen is that
each and every heuristic principle must be followed. The design must follow an aesthetic and
minimalist principle.

Task 2
Evaluations of design are provided here:
Visibility of System Status
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. According to the Visibility System status principle, the design should consist of the
visibility bar that can show the activity process completion that is not seen here in the
whole design (Tondello et al., 2016). The location at which this issue can observe is in
the whole design.
ii. This issue is a problem as the user may find difficulty in getting an idea regarding the
completion time of any activity which is processing.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as significant.
iv. Possible remediation is to add a status bar that can show the status of the activity
completion.
Match between system and the real world
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. Match between the system as well as real-world principle does not include in the
designs as the user cannot find any type of understanding line that may match
between the system and real world. The location of this problem can found in all the
designs.
ii. This issue is a problem because the user may find difficulty in understanding various
functions that are present in the designs.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. Possible remediation of this issue is to add various lines in the text so that user can
read them and understand the functionality of various functions that are present in the
design.

User Control and Freedom
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. The user control and freedom principle provide the user freedom to use any of the
functions freely but here it is not possible in these designs as, if the user clicks on wrong
button by mistake then there are no warning or alert boxes that may provide choice to
user to revert back. The location of this problem again can be seen on all the screens.
ii. This issue is a problem as users do not get the freedom and choice to revert the function
that he may click by mistake. So users need to use the application very cautiously.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as significant and immediate actions are needed to
resolve this problem.
iv. Possible remediation can be the addition of the alert or warning boxes that may allow the
user to revert the action that user might have mistakenly selected.
Consistency and Standards
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. According to the Consistency principle, all the buttons and other external elements that
are added in the design should be of similar size and shape. This issue location is the
device status mockup where the sizes of the buttons are varying.
ii. It is a problem as it gives an impact on the look of the mockup and reduces its
attractiveness.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. Possible remediation is to make all the buttons and other components like texts and areas
similar.
Error Prevention
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:

i. Error prevention helps the user to find the error in design while using it that is absent here
as the design cannot show any type of error on entering wrong details. The location of the
problem is in the Login mockup and Help mockup in which if the user enters wrong
details then no message or information is provided to them.
ii. It is a problem as this does not provide any help in understanding the error for the user
that is new with the application.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as significant and immediate actions are needed to
resolve this problem.
iv. Possible remediation of this problem can be an addition of the messages that can help the
user to understand the error.
Recognition rather than recall
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. According to this principle, the application should be able to recognize the activity on
typing few letters but here no such function is added and the location of this problem can
be seen in complete design there is no search option.
ii. It is a problem as the user may find difficult to find all the functions and user need to
recall all the function name in order to use them.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as significant.
iv. Possible remediation can be the addition of the search bar on every page of the
application so that the user can visit on any option from anywhere without recalling.
Flexibility and Efficiency of use
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. No matter if the user is new or old the design is similar for same so this is an issue for the
old user as they are already familiar with the application but they have to go with the
same procedure as the new ones. This issue can be found at login the mockup.
ii. It is a problem as the advance user is already familiar but same he needs to follow similar
steps as the new user. So this may annoy the users.

iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. Possible remediation is to add the advanced setting option of the login page of the
application.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. The design should not be messy but simple with limited functions on one screen so this
issue cannot be observed here.
ii. This may affect the look and appearance of the application so this must be avoided.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. Possible remediation can be the addition of limited functions on the single screen. For
adding more functions in application, number of screens can be added but to make one
screen messy will not be a good idea.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
a) Evaluation of the issue is performed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Designs are not satisfying the requirements which are needed:
i. By this principle, it helps the user to find the error in design while using it that is absent
here as the design cannot show any type of error on entering wrong details. The location
of the problem is in the Login mockup and Help mockup in which if the user enters
wrong details then no message or information is provided to them. This issue is similar to
the error prevention issue (Artinger et al., 2015).
ii. It is a problem as this does not provide any help in understanding the error for the user
that is new with the application.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as significant and immediate actions are needed to
resolve this problem.
iv. Possible remediation of this problem can be the addition of the messages that can help the
user to understand the error.