Final Prototype - Menus and Navigation

Navigation Structure



The image above shows the navigation structure from the main menu. Vertices without arrows indicate bi-directional paths, where the user can choose to go back to the previous menu. Shaded menu boxes indicate where navigation jumps to another section. The structure now incorporates error handling and undo functionality, two areas we found lacking during testing.

Menu Design

Here are some general points about the menus, and changes that have been made:

• Colours have been changed slightly, in terms of consistency for buttons and achieving better contrast.
• The menus no longer rely on just colour changes for making text stand out, important text is resized or in bold.
• Technical jargon has been reduced further, with terms such as "info", "delete", "settings"and "edit" being replaced by "information", "remove", "options", and "change".
• Different images are now used for buttons going back a step and those which return to the main menu.
• The user can now undo many operations, and redo them if they wish. The undo screens have verbose descriptions of what is happening, with information carried over from previous stages in the task.
• The scroll bars have been redesigned, so that the user can just move their finger along them to move text. A fingerprint is used to try and get across how to use the bars.
• Buttons have been spaced apart more where possible.
• Error messages are now produced for invalid text input, to provide feedback which was non-existent in the initial prototype. The user is provided with a range of choices for recovery, explained verbosely.
• Notification screens have been added to areas where they were missing before (e.g. changing options), along with appropriate undo functionality.
• Due to the extra functionality of being able to send to different people, the messages menus now display who sent a message.
• Logs are now sorted with newest entries at the top, and the user is able to delete the oldest entries to ensure the logs don't become too long.
  

Menu Examples

The image below contains a number of examples for the different menu types in the final prototype. The full menu system will be available in the mock-up, due soon.