The Ohio State Canvas Webpage belongs in Dante’s ninth circle of hell as it is the bane of most Ohio State students’, as well as faculty members’, academic existences. It is difficult to navigate and is poorly maintained on a single server for roughly 71, 182 people (OSU, 2015) (Goggins, 2016). The only reason a sane individual would use this webpage is if it was forced upon them.
The Homepage
The Canvas Homepage is called the “Dashboard” and lists the user’s courses, upcoming assignments, a to-do list, as well as recent feedback and grade releases. These lists use proximity to show users that the items in each list are related to one another by their category names (i.e. “Coming up” for upcoming assignments) (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2015). The lists are then separated by white space and a new label is written out for the next list. There are also two ways of viewing the information on the homepage; through lists and through boxes. The boxes are the best way to go because they show the user’s courses with the course names and how many announcements there are for each. The list option jumbles everything together into general lists for all of them. Moreover the list function does not say the course names, but rather the ending four digits to the course numbers (i.e. 3545 instead of COMM 3545). This is a problem especially for first year students taking multiple introductory courses that end in either 1100 or 1101. Additionally, the emotional state of users influences how they view a product (Fox, 2016). College is a very stressful time and when students are frustrated and anxious, they do not need the extra confusion and inconvenience of a difficult course site. This site is used every day, multiple times a day and the frustrations continuing building causing a lasting negative user experience.
Canvas Course Pages
The courses for Canvas can be accessed from either the homepage or the side navigation bar. These pages are organized into the announcements, messages, and assignment notifications on the center of the page and then has a second navigation section on the side. The site is mostly white which is symbolic of class, calmness, and high value (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2015). An excellent strategy to try and calm down the stressful student body when checking for assignments and grades. Because the design is aesthetically pleasing, users believe that it is easier to use regardless of its actual performance, referred to as the aesthetic-usability effect, which is another great strategy since the site is difficult to use (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2015). The Beauty Bias offsets the aforementioned effect because first impressions of the site influence long-term attitudes towards it (Fox, 2016). When users first encounter the site there is no tutorial on how to use it so users must figure out all of the functions and notification options on their own. Such an unpleasant first experience with the site leads to a highly unfavorable view of it in the long run.
Grades
The grades section for each course has a function that appeals to Bartle’s “killer” type gamers as they can be shown if they are better than other students in the course (Fox, 2016). There is a “see scoring details” option next to the published grades that show the low, high, and average score in a box and whisker plot with a square that shows where the user’s score falls in comparison to the class’. This establishes status over classmates or can also lower the user’s status if they fall short of the class average (Fox, 2016).
Conclusion
The last item that needs attention is how Canvas does not have a factor of safety to it that would offset extraneous variable that would cause failures (Lidwell, Holden, & Butler, 2015). Canvas is run off of a single server that services approximately 71, 182 people which means if for some reason the server fails, like it has in the past, the site is unreachable for that many people. I do not recommend this site to anyone and am utterly bewildered that it is being utilized by anyone. Ohio State needs a different system.
The CW App
Aesthetically Consistency
Aesthetically Consistency is when you have a similar style and appearence across all devices (Fox,2016)
The CW app is not consistent when it comes to the look of the app between two different platforms. In the images, above, you can see the CW app has a dark logo with white lettering. However, the Xbox one version is different it has a green background with white lettering. understand that the CW network just launched this app a few months ago, but that’s not to say it shouldn’t look the same on all the platforms it is available on.
Simplicity
Simplicity is not making something to complex, less is better with simplicity (Fox,2016)
The CW app should receive high praise for its simple design. The app makes it easy to find the show that you are looking for either from the CW TV network or from its website CW seed. In fact, I think that many other streaming apps should look at how simple this is and should apply it to their own interfaces.
User Interfaces
User Interfaces are best when you have short ,but clear options and the options are also separated(Fox,2016)
The user interface for The CW app is very simple and follows what many people would consider good menu design. This means that the app has organized headers, short options that are then separated into smaller options. In the app, each show is organized with a window that then goes into a menu for that individual show. For example, if I want to watch the show Arrow all I must do is click on that shows window and it will take me to Arrow’s induvial window. From here I can watch the last five episodes of Arrow as well as a few behind the scene features for the show. With the said, I honestly can say The CW network has hit on all the right notes with the design of its User interface for its app.
I would highly recommend this product to anyone who either watches any show on The CW network.To provide help in your decision making,here is a link to an article explaining The CW and Hulu streaming deal if you wish to read more on it http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/09/20/the-cw-launching-app-to-watch-their-shows-for-free
Webpages and Apps
Canvas
As a result, of The CW network and Hulu streaming service agreement ending. The CW decided to launch a free app so that any one can watch any of the shows at any time and any place. The CW network should be applauded for launching a fantastic app in such a short amount of time. This app is what every streaming service app should look toward for guidance in terms of both design and function.