UI Design Flaws and Improvements in SmartHome Application

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17
Appendix........................................................................................................................................18
Figure 1: AC screen.........................................................................................................................6
Figure 2: Wi-Fi screen.....................................................................................................................7
Figure 3: Login Screen..................................................................................................................18
Figure 4: Front door lock screen....................................................................................................19
Figure 5: Tube Light screen...........................................................................................................20
Figure 6: AC screen.......................................................................................................................21
Figure 7: WI-FI screen...................................................................................................................22
Figure 8: Home screen...................................................................................................................23

Introduction
The report includes the evaluation of the provided design based on the SMARTHome control
panel. The report has a detailed description of the designs flaws that are noticed during the
evaluation of the designs. To overcome the flaws there are various recommendations also that
are provided in the report so that the errors can be rectified in order to improve the design
according to the heuristic principles of the user interface designing.
.

Task 1
In this task, the evaluation is performed according to the different screens of the application and
they are listed here:
Login Page
a) The review is performed by STUDENT ID AND NAME.
b) Given requirements are: In the provided design the requirements are not provided for the
Login screen.
Status is that as there are no specific requirements so the screen is completely satisfying.
c) The design is easy to understand and is aesthetically pleasing as no irrelevant components
are added in the screen.
d) The designs are clear but some improvements are needed so that the design can follow
the principles of interface designing. In this design, error message are not available for
the users so that they can find the error and a method to rectify it and also linking is not
appropriate. So these improvisations are required.
e) List of the recommendation according to the priority is:
 Show error messages to the users.
 Proper Linking
 Back Arrow or Breadcrumbs addition.
Front Door Lock Page
a) The review is performed by STUDENT ID AND NAME.
b) Given requirements are: In the provided designs the requirement for the electronic gates
is given which says that the control of the electronic locks, in order to access the house,
should be there.
Status is that the requirement is not completely fulfilled as only one lock that is of the
front door is given there must be other locks on the rooms and another part of the house
which are not accessible.
c) The design is easy to understand and is aesthetically pleasing but some changes are
required.

d) The designs are clear but some improvements are needed so that the design can follow
the principles of interface designing. In this design, only one door has the accessibility by
the electronic lock not any other door of the house.
e) List of the recommendation according to the priority is:
 Add multiple door locks in the screen so that every door of the house including
rooms can be accessed through the application.
Tube Light Page
a) The review is performed by STUDENT ID AND NAME.
b) Given requirements are: In the provided designs the requirement for the lights are given
that says that the control of the lights in kitchen areas and family areas should be included
in the design.
Status is that the requirement is not completely fulfilled as the light that can be controlled
is just the tube light or one specific light device but there may be multiple devices of the
light in one room that need control so that is not available. Also, the room is not specified
in which the tube light is controlled.
c) The design is easy to understand and is aesthetically pleasing but some changes are
required.
d) The designs are clear but some improvements are needed so that the design can follow
the principles of interface designing. In this design, the addition of more light devices in a
particular room is needed also the name of the room in which the tube light is located
need to mention.
e) List of the recommendation according to the priority is:
 Add the name of the room in which the particular device is located.
 Multiple light devices need to control in a single room so an option of adding
multiple devices need to add.

AC Screen
a) The review is performed by STUDENT ID AND NAME.
b) Given requirements are: In the provided designs the requirement for control of the air
conditioner that is present in the house should be controlled and accessed easily.
Status is that the requirement is not completely fulfilled as the control of the air
conditioner is possible and the screen is added for controlling it but the option of
switching off and on the AC is not present. Also, the multiple air conditioners can present
in the home so the option of adding more device of the AC present in different areas of
the house should be added.
c) The design is easy to understand and is aesthetically pleasing but some changes are
required.
d) The designs are clear but some improvements are needed so that the design can follow
the principles of interface designing. In this design, AC cannot be turned on or off
through the application so this option needs to add. Also adding multiple AC controls
should also add.
e) List of the recommendation according to the priority is:
 Add the option of turning the AC ON and OFF.
 Add option of adding more AC’s that may present in the house in different areas.

Figure 1: AC screen
Wi-Fi Screen
a) The review is performed by STUDENT ID AND NAME.
b) Given requirements are: In the provided designs the requirement is that the Wi-Fi system
should have the option of adding new designs.
Status is that the requirement is not fulfilled as there are various devices that can be seen
but there is no option of adding a new device.
c) The design is easy to understand and is aesthetically pleasing but some changes are
required (Fogli et al., 2016).
d) The designs are clear but some improvements are needed so that the design can follow
the principles of interface designing. In this design, the Wi-Fi system is displaying a
number of available devices but there is no option of adding new device in the system.
e) List of the recommendation according to the priority is:
 Need an option to add more Wi-Fi devices.

 The error message should be displayed by the system if the user enters wrong
password of the Wi-Fi.
Figure 2: Wi-Fi screen
Home Screen
a) The review is performed by STUDENT ID AND NAME.
b) Given requirements are: In the provided designs the requirement related to the home page
is not given.
Status is that as there are no specific requirements are provided so the design is
satisfactory but still they are not following basic heuristic principles that need to update.
c) The design is easy to understand and is aesthetically pleasing but some changes are
required.
d) The designs are clear but some improvements are needed so that the design can follow
the principles of interface designing (Ceccacci et al., 2016). In this design, the home page

created is clear and contain almost all the requirements but there are no breadcrumbs or
back button is present also the linking is inappropriate.
e) List of the recommendation according to the priority is:
 Need to link the components present in the screen appropriately.
 Addition of the back button is also important.

Task 2
Design Evaluation according to the 10 heuristic principles of the user interface and designing is
provided here:
Visibility of System Status
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that the system should show the exact completion and status of the
activity which is not present here.
Location: Welcome Screen
ii. The issue is a problem as the user is unaware of the total time that the activity will take
for its completion.
iii. The issue is not major and can be rectified easily.
iv. The problem can be resolved by adding the status showing a bar or visibilities cue in the
system.
Match between system and the real world
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that there must be match among the real world and the system but
here in this design, no such thing can be seen.
Location: All Screens
ii. The issue is the problem as the user does not get the idea of some functions present
on any screen of the overall design.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. The problem can be resolved by adding various lines that may help the user to
understand clearly (Casare et al., 2016).

User Control and Freedom
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that design should have the user control and freedom which is
fulfilling in the design appropriately. But if it was absent then it might be an issue.
Location: Can be noticed in Logout and Add new room screen.
ii. This issue is a problem as users may face a problem if he clicks on any button by
mistake.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as major and need to rectify.
iv. The problem can be resolved by adding the warning boxes but they are present in the
design already (Thitichaimongkhol, & Senivongse, 2016).
Consistency and Standards
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. This principle says that the available buttons, as well as the texts and other components,
should follow the consistency and standard and they must be similar in overall design.
Location: Nil
ii. It is a problem but here there is no such issue so the problem is not here but if such
consistency is not maintained then it can be a problem and design can look improper and
unattractive (Smirek et al., 2016).
iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. The problem can be resolved by maintaining the consistency of the buttons and other
components in the screen.
Error Prevention
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.

b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that the design should able to help the user in prevention from the
errors but here it is not such thing can be noticed (Mennicken et al., 2015).
Location: Login, Sign Up, Adding Room, WI-FI system and renaming room screens.
ii. This is a problem as the user finds difficulty in understanding the error as well as its
prevention is not easily founded by the user.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as major and need to rectify.
iv. The problem can be resolved by allowing the system to show the error message if the
user enters wrong passwords or emails or any other details.
Recognition rather than recall
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that the design must be capable of recognition of the function that the
user is typing but here no such typing bar is available where user can get easy recognition
of all the functions that he might be searching.
Location: All screens
ii. This issue is a problem as the design does not provide the efficiency to the user and he
needs to search all the function by visiting on every screen that may consume the time of
the user.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as major and need to rectify.
iv. The problem can be resolved by adding a search option where the user can type few
letters of the function and system shows the possible recommendations by recognizing.
Flexibility and Efficiency of use
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:

i. The principle says that the designs are not flexible according to the different users which
can cause the problem to new as well as advanced users.
Location: All designs
ii. This is a problem because all the users, irrespective of the new or old users, everyone
needs to visit all the screens without skipping them.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as minor and can be resolved easily.
iv. The problem can be resolved by adding different or skip option or any advanced setting
on the design that an experienced user can use.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that the design should be aesthetic and pleasing means only essential
functions should be present or no chaos on one screen should be seen. But here no such
problem can be seen.
Location: All screens
ii. This can be a problem as it will affect the look of the design and make it look messy and
complicated to understand especially for new users.
iii. This particular issue can be considered as major and need to rectify.
iv. The problem can be resolved by adding a few functions on the single screen and make the
screen look clean and clear.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
a) Designs issues are identified and evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The provided design does not follow this principle appropriately and it is discussed here
in detail:
i. The principle says that the design should able to help the user in prevention from the
errors but here it is not such thing can be noticed.
Location: Login, Sign Up, Adding Room, WI-FI system and renaming room screens.