I wouldn't necessarily call this extremely user-friendly. The zoom in/out function does not work in a natural way, the focus point for the zoom seems to be very arbitrary. Also, it is not possible to zoom out and view the whole map withour scrolling.

The print facility does not print what is on the screen, and the selected building is not highlighted on the print out in any way.

However, I don't want to discourage someone who has clearly made an effort to produce an interactive map, and I would like to see how they imrpove it in the future.

Posted by: Mac on August 27, 2002 04:45 AM

 

Other issues:

* It is not immediately obvious which areas of the map (if any) are interactive. Maybe I didn't read the instructions. I didn't see any.
* Scrolling is not necessary. The entire map could have been displayed in a readable size in a single image. Scrolling would have been useful if the map was much larger, in which case a name search feature would probably also have been necessary.
* The scrolling arrows are very small and close, thus difficult to use even for an experienced mouser
* The map scrolls when I'm moving the mouse across the screen towards the zoom buttons (over the scroll buttons.) This is not a problem because the map scrolls so slowly. However, somehow I get the feeling that this is the reason why the map scrolls so slowly.

Posted by: BJ on August 27, 2002 02:16 PM

 

The zoom-in is pretty bizarre. Instead of zooming into the building I've selected, it zooms into coordinates which are not even visible when fully zoomed out.

Arrows in the menus "drop-up" menus act on rollover instead of click, proably the most annoying use of flash since '90s intros.

Flash text can be selected. Should be easily fixed.

Bad icons: uses +/- to zoom instead of the classical magnifying glass. Uses a sheet for "print" instead of the standard printer icon.
The "drop-up" menus display no cue to indicate they are menus and can be clicked.

PS. Keep in mind that it might have been designed by a student under time pressure with some bureaucratic jerk over his shoulder.

Posted by: Manuel Razzari on August 29, 2002 01:10 PM