To put it in layman term, Usability means how easy it is for the user to understand or complete a task with the application. Usability involves effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction enabling users to complete certain tasks as easily as possible.
On the other hand, User experience focus on user feelings and attitudes when using or interacting with a particular product. Generically, applications would want to generate positive feelings during / after usage.
Lets go through 2 applications, one that brought me joy and amazement whilst another that challenged my cognitive abilities and may had triggered a few anxiety attacks
Parking your car
Many years ago, car-park payment (in Singapore) was done via paper-coupons. They required nimble hands and pre-planning on parking duration. Car owners who lack time-management skills or integrity (more likely) have lamented on how inefficient coupon purchasing and differing parking rates cause heartaches and displeasure (when they get slapped with parking fines). Enforcement was a thankless and laborious task which incur no gratuities on errand parking but only countless appeals and complaints from affluent car owners who lament on busy schedules and forgetfulness when they incur parking fines.
Parking.sg
Govtech developed a parking application to pay short-term parking charges through your mobile device at all existing coupon-based public car parks. Just key in your vehicle number, select the car park, indicate the parking duration, pay using your credit or debit card and start parking. You will also be able to extend the parking session remotely via the app.
Upon activation of the application, the nearest car-parks would be displayed to the user. A graphical map is displayed to provide a geographical location. Carpark selection is also linked via GPS to get the nearest carpark, a favorite list is made available and if the user can still access all the car parks within Singapore. Details like duration, car and cost are all displayed prior to confirmation.
The app has a step-by-step approach with very clear / concise intend for each decision then coupled with simple instructions and confirmation. I would think it is an effective and easy-to-learn application. The payment and refund mechanism scores well on the safety feature since there won’t be wastage unlike previous paper coupons that can easily trigger over or under payment. As a user, it has been a plus for me and scored positively.
I had a stint in Certis CISCO, one of the main enforcer agencies for errant parking, this application has made the lives of the wardens much easier without the need to squint for hidden coupons, just punch in the license plate, print the parking ticket, JOB DONE~
p/s: there ain’t incentives for enforcement agencies for each parking fine… all monies are channel back to Government coffers~
Course Registration - GS LINK
Upon clearing the login page and landing at the main page, the user would have to navigate onto the <Course Registration> option. As a Masters Program student, I am pretty aware what does MBA mean but there is this EMBA (executive MBA) which I am not 100% clear until I “google-ed” but being the sensitive strawberry generation, I did not like being known as “Other Students”.
Admitting myself as a non MBA student, and after clicking onto the link, I was brought to a page which seems totally not within GS-Link. The design, fonts and essay of instructions confused me, until I saw the link (circled in red below) to the Graduate Course Registration System.
As a part-time student, class & exam schedule is very important as it's my job that would pay the school fees. Clicking onto VIew Class & Exam Schedule (All course), I was brought to a page where I had to filter through a combo box of courses. I would have thought it would offer a much better experience if the platform bothers to link my program to the schedules for my MSC(INFORMATION SYSTEMS). But after learning about cross-program selections, i can appreciate why this page with all the courses are made available.
After registration I realized that I was only limited to 3 subjects and did not fully understand how the Waiting-List operated. Hence, there were countless email enquiries and after many exchanges with the course admin staff, then I was assured that I have successfully registered for my dream courses.
GS link has actually served its purpose since it fully supported the required functions for Schedules Enquire & Registrations. But the User interface could have been enhanced with simplified instructions or structure work-flows to make it a more desirable platform for students to enjoy~
