Design Document
The Similarity Index app aims to assist primary school to high school learners with studying for mathematical problems. The app will do this by allowing the learners with a search bar, where they can type in a problem that they are struggling with or with a problem that they have solved but would like to check their working. This search bar will then return a list of problems, as well as their memorandums, that are similar to the one that the learner searched for. Beside each returned problem, a confidence score will be provided which will serve as an indication to the learner about how similar the returned problem is to the problem that they searched for.
- The app should also provide a page that shows the user their search history. This will allow the user to quickly access a problem that they struggled with in the past, without having to search for that problem again.
- The app should also allow users to bookmark problems to further help them search for a specific problem.
- The app should provide a page which shows a list of all the problems in the database. This will allow the user to go through all available problems without them having to search for a problem just to find out that the database does not have any problems similar to that one.
The overarching theme of this app will be the Flat Design style. This is because the design's simple nature will make it easier for the users to focus on the task at hand. The Flat Design style will not distract the users, but will still be visually appealing. Because Flat Design uses linear design elements and negative space, as well as neutral tones and secondary colors, the layout of the app and the display of information will appear neat and organized, which will further allow users to focus on the task at hand.
Another aspect of the overarching theme would be Space and Astronauts. This is because of the use of Space and Astronauts in the MathU Infinity app. By having this overarching theme, our design would be better because it would fit in with the MathU brand and image. Our design of the Similarity Index should make the app seem like it is just another page in the MathU Infinity App.
The search suggestions that popped up as I was typing was a nice touch and in some cases it made it quicker for me to search a term as it was the first suggestion that popped up. The "I'm feeling lucky" function is cool because it would take me to the first result and that removed the need for me to go through all the results.
It was easy to identify where I needed to click to type. They provided to ways for me to search, by pressing enter while in the search bar or by clicking on the search icon. They also provided a button to clear whatever was in the search bar.
Sometimes the search suggestions were a bit of a distraction because what I wanted to search was not related to the suggestions at all.
The layout of the page made the function of each element clear.
It was exactly how I'd expect a search bar to be.
Nothing about the page stood out for me, but what was nice was the ability to customize the background and the theme.
When compared to other search bars, like Ecosia and DuckDuckGo, it's almost exactly similar.
The page looked and functioned exactly how I would expect it to.
The app's input area will display what the user typed in as well as what that input would look like in mathematical format. The app allowed the user to switch between a normal text keyboard and a mathematical keyboard.
The hint text in the input area along with the big "Calculate It" button made it easy to understand how I was supposed to use it.
Moving between pages was efficient, because of the navigation menu. But getting back to the home page took too many clicks and was inefficient.
The layout of each page was neat and the title in the app bar made it easy to identify where in the app I was.
It was plain. There was a lack of color and animations.
It was plain. There was a lack of color and animations.
It just displayed what was typed as well as the answer with the step by step solution.
It was plain. There was a lack of color and animations.
There were a lot of icons and menus, but a description was at least provided. It felt a bit overwhelming.
I would search a problem and then I would be presented with a dashboard which had more information about the answer than I needed.
Everything was categorized and this caused me to click too many times just to get to the section I needed.
Each category had its own color and that made it easy to distinguish between problems.
The use of color made the page stand out a bit.
The use of color made the page stand out a bit.
It supplied two different keyboards (A normal text and a math keyboard), just like MathPapa. The only thing that was different about this aspect was the color of the keyboards were different, making it easy to identify which keyboard I was using.
It supplied two different keyboards (A normal text and a math keyboard), just like MathPapa. The only thing that was different about this aspect was the color of the keyboards were different, making it easy to identify which keyboard I was using.
