The Usability of West Chesters' Scheduling Process

With the end of the semester quickly approaching I once again had to deal with the grueling process of scheduling classes. Besides the fact that advisor holds need to be removed before classes can even be scheduled, which in itself causes many problems, the entire online scheduling process can be tedious and confusing. Although, this is about my 6th or 7th time of scheduling classes the process and layout of the site changes almost every time I attempt to schedule. Everything is in different places than it previously had been and there is almost no direction of how to go about the process. While scheduling classes last week I experienced two main problems. First of all after typing in the course abbreviation and number I was given a list of open classes. When I clicked on the last that I wanted to enroll in I was asked to select whether or not I intended on being a full time student, but there was no where to select this option for that class. I had to select another class and then the option was displayed, so I ended up with a class time that I wasn't happy with. The second problem I experienced was the fact that when searching for open classes I was given a list but when trying to add the class that I wanted a message was displayed that said the open spots in the class had already been reserved. The shouldn't have listed the class as open if there was no possibility of being accepted into the class.

These are just two of the main problems that I have experienced with the West Chester scheduling process, there are many others that I have also came across while scheduling, such as the five or more steps you have to go through to make sure a class has been added to your actual schedule instead of to only your tentative class list.

I feel that because West Chester uses an online system for scheduling classes they should make sure that this system is as easily as possible to use for students. This is because of the fact that so many problems arise from their scheduling process.

No Remote, No Problem!

In today’s day and age technology is at an all time high. With all the new plasmas and HD TV’s usability has become a major issue. Many of these new TV’s are sometimes impossible to use without a remote, and if you’re anything like me the word’s “where is the remote?” are probably a part of your daily vocabulary. This problem of always needing a remote will ultimately cause frustration, because honestly is searching your couches for the remote your favorite thing to do?

I recently bought a new Emerson HD plasma television, and contrary to the belief that a remote is always necessary, with this TV it isn’t. All of the buttons and controls found on the remote are also found on the TV, you are able to switch between digital, analog, and various video input channels by simply hitting a button on the side of the TV. By holding down the channel up or down buttons you are able to quickly find the channel you are looking for and the same goes for the volume buttons. Brightness levels, views, and contrast settings as well as the sleep timer are all located right on the side of the television. With my old TV putting on the sleep timer without the remote was impossible.

This TV also has features to that make your life easier instead of more difficult. Say you’re watching a DVD and the DVD ends but you happen to be sleeping, the worst thing to wake up to is the beginning of the DVD playing that annoying music over and over again until you finally get woken up so many times that you’re forced to get out of bed and turn the TV off. One of my favorite features of this TV is that when this happens and the DVD ends the TV turns off after 10 minutes. Even though this feature is only to prevent pure laziness, or lack of a remote I still think it’s great!

Even though there are so many TV’s that are hard to use, and require manuals to explain options and settings that should be easy to use, believe it or not there are some out there that actually make life easier.

The Verizon Blackberry

After hearing from my friends all the benefits of having a Blackberry I decided to purchase one for myself, despite the high cost. The main reason for my purchase was for the Internet and email capabilities of the Blackberry, which are said to outrank other phone models. This is where my first problem started. Naturally, as soon as I had turned on my phone the first thing I wanted to do was access the Internet. This task was far more complicated than need be. I saw a globe which I assumed to be the Internet application and after clicking on it I was directed to a page with Verizon applications such as weather and sports, and others which you could purchase, but not one simple address bar or even a search engine. After becoming so frustrated about not being able access the web I decided to make up my own way of doing this, by sending myself a text message that said www.google.com I was able to click on the link and be directed to googles page which I was able to save in my bookmarks. Still after having the Blackberry for almost a year this is the way I go about accessing the web. This relates to the article " The Psychopathology of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman, because it seems as though a phone who's main feature is Internet capabilities, should be a lot easier and more instructional about how to use the internet on your phone.

My second problem with the Blackberry, came about when I put a password lock on my phone (actually months after I had put on the password lock), everyday, every time I accessed my phone I was asked to enter the same password to unlock it. One day out of the blue I was notified after entering my password, that this password was incorrect. I thought that maybe I somehow hit a wrong key, so I entered my password for the second time. After being notified 10 times that I had entered an incorrect password (which I am positive was not true and I had entered the correct password) my Blackberry screen turned white and a message reading "wiping" and the progress of the "wipe" were displayed. During this time no key worked on the phone, and after the process of "wiping" I turned my phone on only to discover a completely restored Blackberry, with absolutely none of my information, contacts, email settings etc. After calling Verizon and dealing with a Blackberry technician I was informed that all of my prior applications and settings were lost and irretrievable.

So as you can see, not all of the new technology is all its cracked up to be. I had a lot easier time using all of my past phones, which had no email or Internet capabilities. Although the Blackberry is like having both a computer and phone in one, I sometimes think I would just rather keep the two separate.

"Wait for Green" or "NO Turn on Red?"

Have you ever stopped at a red light ready to make a right turn but first noticing the sign in front of you stating "Wait for Green?" I can't begin to count the number of times that I have noticed this sign and had to think to myself what does this actually mean? Why if I wasn't allowed to turn on red they wouldn't have simply used the sign NO Turn on Red? After many times of pondering to myself and asking others if the Wait for Green sign was just a suggestion that you should wait for the green light to make a turn, or if it actually was just another version on the sign NO Turn on Red. I decided to do some research on the use of these signs. After going to the PENNDOT website and reading their driver's manual, there was still no answer on what the Wait for Green sign actually meant, it wasn't even listed in the section that showed all the different street signs in Pennsylvania and gave a definition of what they meant. In the manual they had listed multiple versions of the NO Turn on Red sign, and even a sign that said Opposing Traffic has Extended Green Light, but not even a mention of the Wait for Green sign.

I feel that the confusion of this sign is a major usability issue for drivers. By not following this sign you could be pulled over and ticketed, but if the meaning of the sign is not posted anywhere would it actually even be lawful for a ticket to be issued for not following what the sign said? While researching this topic many people have stated that they do believe that this sign means the same as NO Turn on Red, but many others said they have no idea and were confused like myself about why, if it did mean the same thing, PENNDOT would not have just used a NO Turn on Red, making confusion obsolete.

In my case I will continue to treat the Wait for Green sign as a suggestion, until the meaning is completely clarified, if it ever is.