Activity 4 - Human Computer

Interaction
COE17B022 Silambarasan
18 September 2020

1 Design dialogs to yield closure

Paytm app has excellent closure indication for the user. When the payment is completed a window with
the detailed information of the successful transaction is displayed.
The window consists of the transaction number, and it is majorly green in colour indicating that it
was a successful transaction which is clearly a mental model of the user. It is proven to be aesthetically
assuring the user that it is completed without any error.
Whereas the other competitor apps have failed to score in this front. In case of google pay you just
receive a white screen in case of both successful and unsuccessful transactions, which makes the user
unclear of the status.

Figure 1: Successfull completion page

2 Permit easy reversal of actions

The user can navigate form the final pin entry stage when he’s unsure of the details entered previously.
The navigation occurs in a sequential manner in the reverse direction without violating the principle
of commensurate effect ( The undo shouldn’t take more number of clicks than the number of clicks
used to enter that stage).
Since ctrl+z isn’t possible for the undo action , this app allows users to navigate using the back
button with the information entered remains the same without any change and allows the editing of the
details and proceeds to the next step.

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3 Reduce short term memory load
The paytm app fails in this perspective as it doesn’t have a minimalistic design, there is a wide variety
of options displayed in a single page exceeding the user’s eye spectrum capacity. The frequent use of the
short term memory pushes into the long term memory of the user.
It clearly violates the digit span rule, as it clearly specifies the number of icons available in a single
window should be in the range of 5 to 9 (7 ± 2).

4 Nielsen’s rules for interface design

4.1 Match between system and real world
All the options are provided in a way that even a naive user can understand and make use of the app
for achieving the intended functionality. There are no technical jargons used which will make it difficult
for the naive user to comprehend. Real world conventions are used for better usability and learnability.

4.2 User control and freedom

When there is a particular wrong click made, the user can just move back and the information is not
lost unlike other websites like SBI netbanking. Once the user tries to navigate back to the previous page
the entered details are erased and the account is logged out plenty of times. Whereas in paytm the user
has got freedom to move back and forth without the loss of information.

4.3 Consistency and standards

The paytm app doesn’t violate the mental model of the user by trying out anything new. It has a clear
relationship icon and action relationship. There isn’t any new function invoked because of the standard
clicks. For example, when an icon of payment is clicked it just redirects to the actual payment page
without invoking any third party ad sites.

4.4 Flexibility and efficiency of use

Accelerators : These are unseen by the novice user. This gives the frequent and expert users a a lead
over normal operations to be completed in much more efficient way in shorter span of time. The option
of widget to add to the home screen increases the efficiency of the whole process of making a payment.

Figure 2: The paytm ”Pay” widget being displayed on the home screen

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 It allows the user to tailor frequent actions. This results in speedup of the interaction for the expert
user.

5 Usability
It is a quality attribute assessing how easy the user interfaces are to use. It can also be stated how
simple yet effective and pleasant to the user. Paytm is excellent in this way for the first time users. The
previous knowledge of any banking or payment wallet isn’t required to use paytm. The human behaviour
towards the app is what is called usability. Paytm enables the user to do transactions in pleasurable ,
simple (ASAP) and effective manner.
Paytm has successfully emerged as the most USED payment wallet in india which is a clear indication
of the wide acceptability of the product by the end consumers.The usability along with the utility of
paytm has helped in propelling the application to be one of the most useful product for day to day
consumers.

5.1 Learnability
The very first time when a person is entering the environment of paying digitally, they face plenty of
issues like the understanding of the interface, setting up of things. It’ll generally be the very important
factor which makes or breaks the product. In case of paytm it has successfully helped the novice users
in making easy transactions without much assistance from others.
The users don’t feel difficult to accomplish the basic tasks when they are encountered with the design
for the first time.

5.2 Efficiency
The ever rising numbers of users on the paytm helps us to understand the effectiveness of the application.
It is a very effective way of making payments to our daily needs. Once the user is familiar with the
application he tends to use it for almost everything as the payment is made simple and faster as they
get to know the features available for faster transactions. The diagram below shows the trend in the
number of paytm wallet users which clearly advocates the increasing number of users who make use of
the application (There won’t be an increase if it wasn’t efficient enough to convince users).

5.3 Memorability
Paytm is known for changing the layout very often, infact on a weekly basis. This makes it extremely
difficult for the user to remember where he left after a few months of inactivity. Sometimes the complete
layout is changed right from the icons to fonts.
Paytm really needs improvement in this front as it might result in users feeling unfamiliar with the
environment and make him switch to a new environment which is much stabler in appearance. The
below images clearly indicate the changes that occur between two versions of the payment application.
It usually takes a bit of time to reestablish proficiency over the environment.

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6 Flexibility
6.1 Dialog Initiation
It is done excellently by sending text messages about the offers available , or by sending mails,notifications
to the user in a very interesting and tempting way to order in the paytm mall. The following image
explains the promotional mails that can possibly result in a new order.

6.2 Multi-Threading
Paytm app supports multi threading , you can order dresses and browse other products or order products
from some other supplier . If a product is ordered from different suppliers- the delivery tracking can be
easily distinguished between those two by the order number. This can be improved as the order number
is quite long and difficult to remember; instead they could show the product name or the supplier name
to distinguish it. Temporal Overlap is nicely handled in the UI.

6.3 Customizability
by the user in the aspect of adaptability,but the adaptivity is implemented in the UI. The recommenda-
tions of the food are changed according to the user’s browser/search history.

7 Robustness
7.1 Browsability
is an issue in paytm as mentioned above that you could check the final price of the product only one at
time. As the delivery charge is not standard and varies from supplier and with respect to time. There is
no option to save the previously added items to the cart and compare it with the other carriers. It is a
pain to remember which order and which item is cheaper compared to other suppliers. If the previously

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browsed item is cheaper compared to the current browsing options,then you need to track-back the moves
and find the item to order.

7.2 Operation Visibility

is achieved when you order product or add money or make any payment immediately paytm app sends
you notifications when your delivery carrier is assigned, delivery carrier reaches the supplier, picks up
the product etc.

7.3 Responsiveness
is an issue here again as there is just a white screen on the app while browsing products and you click
on a feature.The UI can be improved by adding a loading bar or another interesting feature and let the
user know the reason for that white screen.