After logging in the system calls me by name so I clearly know I am logged in correctly

general

DO

System allows me to minimize and maximize portlets as needed to rearrange my limited real estate

general

DO

General

Can I customize my pages:  "main", "webmail", "info finder", e-learning", etc.?  If so, I can't figure out how to do anything except make portlets go away.

User control & freedom

High

Page customizer

User shoiuld be able to organize the portlets on a page to fit their needs.

User control & freedom

High

Utilize the "organizer" component.  It will need to be enhanced for this particular context

Layout manager (organizer)

Prior to Login

Main

Bold text in the "Student Service Centre"  draws the eye yet should be unessasary.  The link itself should look like a link and be descriptive enough not to have text above it explaining to click it to launch the app.

Minimalist Design - Every unit of information on the page competes with relevant units of information.

Low

Clicking on the open close carrot to close the portlet, in this case "Student Service Centre" leaves the screen in a strange place.  The screen auto-scrolls so the carrot is at the top of the page (see screen shot).  The screen movement is jarring and there is no need to bring the carrot into focus in this case.

Jarring & user looses sense of where they are since screen changes automatically

Low

Minimizer

After maximizing the portlet, it is difficult to tell how to get back to the view I was just on.  User has to see and click on the Blue "Return to Portal" link near the top left of the screen.  Because of the location and the background it is very easy to miss.

User control & freedom - users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state quickly.

Medium

Make the link pop by making it look more like a link and move it away from the logo, etc. 

Undo and/or Back
&
"Open new window" notifie

When a link will take the user to a new a window there should be some indication of that on the page for both sighted and non-sighted users.  Window management is complex for some users and they will have difficulty getting back to the original window...especially if they were expecting the object to open within the existing window.  This is especially true in the weather portlet where I expect clicking on "click for forecast" to show me more information in-line as it does when I'm on the weather website, weather.com.  Even if the user knows they are opening an application, we should not assume they know it will open in a new window.

Visibility of system status &

User control & freedom - users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state quickly
&
Consistency & Standards (with other apps)

Medium

Add text or an icon to indicate a new window will open.  If possible make it  easy to get back to the original from the new window

All portlets that spawn a new window

Undo and/or Back

After logging in, I have both the "student service centre" and the "management system portal" portlets available to me.  The system should be smart enough to know who I am and tailor the portlets to me.  I assume I would not have access to both of the systems.

Minimilist Design - screens should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed.

Low

Only show relevant portlets based on who the user is.

Who am I?

What if I want to change the cities showing in the weather portlet?  As a student, I very likely want to see the weather back home along with in Vancouver (in the case of UBC).  I can't figure out how to change it.

Flexibility and efficiency of use

High

Allow users to customize the cities.  If this is already the case, make it clear to users from this page how to do it.

Choosing the X in the upper right hand corner of a portlet displays a message that says "are you sure you want to remove this channel?"  No, I'm not, what does that mean to remove it.  Can I ever get it back.  Browsers use this icon to close (rather than remove) the window.  After I removed it, it seems to be gone forever.

Consistency and standards
&
User control & freedom - support undo and redo.

High (because you can't get the portlet back once it's gone)

Portlet manager (remove & re-add, etc.)
Window closer

Webmail

Webmail settings form's layout is very difficult to read: 
-inputs are not visually connected to their label because of so much space between them
-some text is bolded which makes it pop but it doesn't seem necessary ("ascending" & "descending" for instance)
-"When sending messages..." message's control should be layed out so they read across ("Place copy in" should be on same line and in front of the radio buttons.
-The input controls are all squished together making it difficult to tell what goes with what
-There is a "YesNo" in the top left hand side of content area.  I have no idea what it is.
-"Display full message headers" control should be radio buttons since it's only 2 choices.  It is always better to see all the choices and the radio buttions can be places in 1 row and not take up anymore real estate.
-Why does "Email signature?" have a question mark.  It is not a question.
-Filter options:  I see "X-UBC-Warning".  It is likely users won't know what this means.

Minimilist design
&

Gestalt theory - proximity
&
Match between system and real world - speak user's langauge

Low

-Shorten labels and move inputs over OR left align labels to the input fields.
-Use bold very sparingly - only for those things that really need to pop.
-Move "Place a copy in:" in front of the radio buttons and put both buttons on the same line.
-Get rid of the "YesNo" or make it clear what it does or means.
-Change "...full message headers" control to radio buttons on the same line.
-Be sure to use the users terminology not system jargon

The help ? should indicate it will open in another window.  As referenced above, window management can be complex.  Users's need to know when they will be managing more than 1 window

User control & freedom - users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state quickly.

Medium

Webmail

"Open new window" notifier

While in settings, which seems to be edit mode, of the portlet, the pencil icon is still available.  Clicking on it seems to only refocus the screen so that tool bar is at top screen.

Minimalist Design - screens should not contain irrelevant information

Medium

Hide the icon when it can't be used or at minimum grey it out to show there is nothing to do with it.

Webmail

While in edit mode, the save and cancel buttons are below the fold making it hard to see them.  Not seeing the cancel button, it's natural to use the X in the top right corner to try to get out of where you are.  This is BAD since it will remove the webmail.

Error prevention & User control and freedom

Medium

Display buttons at top and bottom.
Clearly have a way to  "go back" to previous view.

Webmail

"Undo or back to previous view"
&
Button actions on a page

Once I went to settings and then canceled out, the tab navigation disappeared along with the portlet toolbar.  I now have "settings" and "return to portal" links.  Several issues here with navigation:
-The tabs should be a consistent way to move between pages.
-"Return to portal" is confusing since I believe I am still in the portal.  Where the heck am I then?

Consistency & standards
&
Match between real system & real world - speak user's language.

Medium

Tabs should always be available.

Change language to something the user will understand better -- not sure what that is right now and maybe this goes away if the tabs are persistent.

Webmail

Top level navigation (like Sakai's tabs to sites)

There is much to say about the webmail app itself but I'm not sure how much we can control.  I assume this is an outside app.  If not, it should be looked at more carefully from a heuristic perspective.

Info Finder

myWeb Bookmark's content completely changes when the icon for adding a new bookmark is clicked.  It opens the form to add a new one which is great but there is no reason to lose the high level navigation.  All the sudden it looks like something completely different and with the screen jumping that happens, it's very disorienting.

Consistency & Standards. 
&
Recognition versus recall

Medium

Web Search:  After typing in a search term and choosing "google search", a new window or tab opens with the search results.  There doesn't seem to be much value in having this in the page when it is as easy as opening your own new window or tab to type in search results.  Especially since this has the same window management issues referred to in several other issues...when it is unexpected.

Minimalist Design

Medium

Show search results in-line in the portlet.

Window manager?

If I am a new student, it's not clear that the 3 different "ask me" portlets would make sense to users.  Is it really necessary to have 3 different ones or could there just be one "ask me" that works like google?

Minimilist Design
 &
Consistency & standards (with google and search websites)

Low

Only include one "ask me" with either one search box or if 3 boxes are necessary, describe how each are different -- perhaps even, "Vancouver campus", "Okanagan campus" & "Technology questions" or something like that.

E-Learning

There are 2 webCT portlets on this page and no indication how they are different or which one I should use.  I seems like they are different because they are different colors and  have slightly different titles, "Courses" & "CoursesTESTING".  As a student, I don't know what this means.

Minimilist Design (if I don't really need both of these)

&
Recognition rather than recall

Medium

News

Events 

Classifieds