Design Issues Of Microsoft Teams

In terms of Affordance
Nafisa Israt

1
System Image

2
Issues in System Image
• System Image is the visible part of a device through which designer talks to the
user.

• The major issue of the Teams tab interface is the embodiment of how people
actually communicate in real life.

• The forum like ‘post’ tab appearing in the general channel in teams does not
give the idea of a classroom/team meeting. A homepage with team description,
with different tabs like meeting schedule, announcement, members, upcoming
assessment would give idea of a real life classroom.

3
Visibility

4
Issues in Visibility
• Visibility is one quality with which user can tell the state of the device and the
alternatives for action.

• By entering a team, a user should have a good view of all important controls,
like starting a meeting within the channel.

• But the ‘start a meeting’ icon is in the most bottom, beside the post-editing
options, which is hardly noticeable at first glance. (slide-4)

5
Mapping

6
Issues in Mapping
• Mapping means controls of a function and their effect.

• Teams meeting function here, is labelled as ‘Join’ (slide-6)

• It can be problematic for new user who look into team for starting a meeting.

• The button ‘Join’ seems to be meant join an existing meeting but it actually
means to start a meeting. It could be labelled as ‘Start new Meeting’

7
Mapping

8
Issues in Mapping (continued)
• Another issue in teams assignment section is, there is add work option below
the assigned work. But without adding a file, the ‘Turn In’ button is enabled.
(slide 8)

• The function of this button is not understandable to me and the effect of

clicking of this button is not clear.

9
Gulf of Execution

10
Issues in Gulf of Execution
• Gulf of execution is the difference between the intentions of the user and what
the system allows them to do.

• In the files section of a team, the option pane shows ‘Download’ on the top
(slide- 10). As a user, I expected that it would ask which file I want to select for
downloading.

• Instead, it starts to download all the files within that channel by clicking the
button. So a difference between what system allows and what user expected is
there.

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Gulf of Evaluation

12
Issues in Gulf of Evaluation
• Gulf of evaluation is how much effort user must exert to interpret the state of the
system and determine how well the expectation and intentions have been meet.

• There is separate tab of assignment in Teams where a user expect to see all the
assignment submitted or assignment pending all in one window.

• When I go to the tab, system asks to choose a class which assignment I want to
access. Next I have to go select assigned work for uploading (slide-12). This makes
the gulf large to interpret the system while uploading assignment through
assignment tab.

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