Equitable use: This principle encourages products designed to be useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.
In some ways, this principle is less applicable to our product, though it adheres to this principle very well, just by nature. Since it is a web app that is inherently accessible by everyone, and equally accessible by anyone that has access to a computing device such as a computer or smartphone. Our design also takes security into account, which is accessible for all users as soon as they make an account. This is accounted for in our JWT (JSON Web Token) login design, as well as our use of password hashing. Furthermore, we have implemented authentication directly into our use case layer, as methods such as changing passwords have to go through a layer of authentication.
Flexibility in use: This principle refers to accommodation of a wide range of preferences and abilities.
We adhere to this principle via some basic features of our design. Firstly, it is a web app, which is accessible across most devices that can connect to the internet, as per the preference of the user. By extension, since it is a web app it is accessible almost regardless of physical ability, as long as one can utilize a computer or phone. As for the design of the user interface, the buttons and text are purposely designed to be large in order to make the usage of the entire product very easy and intuitive. If we were to improve on this principle, we could implement a number of visual options - to name a few, we could implement a colorblind mode, more text size options, or even implement support for voice recognition or easy text to speech features.
Simple and intuitive use: This principle is quite self - explanatory, referring to the ease of understanding the design regardless of knowledge, language skills, or current concentration levels.
We adhere to this principle since, as we have mentioned before, our app is purposely made to be simple with large buttons and text to make it visually easy to understand. Furthermore, we have modeled our web app after the standard login design of most modern web apps, so that people who have used similar web apps will immediately know what to expect from our app. Something we have not accounted for and could implement is multiple language support, since our app currently only exists in English.
Perceptible information: This principle refers to the ability of the design to communicate information to the user regardless of the user’s sensory abilities.
Since our product is a web app, it heavily relies on the user having the ability to see the user interface and having the tactile ability to use a phone or computer. Our program does, however, maximize legibility via the aforementioned design choices regarding large text and buttons, as well as simple language. We could improve our adherence to this principle via offering more accessibility features such as auditory instructions.
Tolerance for error: This principle refers to the design minimizing consequences of unintended actions.
Our program is still not fully developed, and thus there are not too many relations to this principle. So far, we offer confirmations for orders, which minimize risk, and we also allow Customers to cancel orders before Vendors accept the orders. Vendors are also able to choose which orders they accept/reject. In the future, to adhere to this principle even further, we could add more layers of confirmation, as well as redirecting important things like payment to external services such as Paypal.
Low physical effort: This principle refers to the ability of the design to be used with minimal physical effort required.
Our design complies perfectly with this principle, since it is a web app, which can be used easily with a phone or computer and does not require any or much physical effort. The fact that the user interface is designed to be visually simple also helps with this.
Size and space for approach and use: This principle states that a design should be easy to use regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility.
Once again, our project fits in perfectly with this principle, as do most, if not all, web apps. Since phones and computers are relatively standardized, and people generally own devices that are fitted for their use, our design is almost guaranteed to fit in with this principle. One concern may be the ease of use of the user interface i.e. button sizes - however, as aforementioned, we have purposely made these very large and easy to use.
We would be marketing our product to two parties: students at the University of Toronto, as well as food truck vendors that sell to students at UofT. First, regarding students, our entire project was conceived with the idea of making life easier for students at UofT who order from food trucks and have little time to wait for food. Our product offers these busy students a quick and easy way to save their time via online ordering and payments. Next, regarding food truck vendors, our program also offers these people a time saving functionality. They are able to take more orders at once, and focus more time on getting orders out to students. They also have high probability to gain more customers, since students will likely order more due to higher convenience. Furthermore, our product does not take major cuts like most food ordering apps like Uber Eats and Doordash, and is an easy way for these vendors to gain access to an online marketplace.
Currently, our demographic is quite limited, as the product is created to be used by specifically University of Toronto students. This scope may be even further limited, as we can narrow it down to students who buy food from food trucks on campus. However, we do not feel that within the demographic of UofT students that order from food trucks on campus that there are any demographic barriers to usage of our product. Perhaps it is limited to only those who own a mobile device or computer, but the vast majority of students own one. As our program was geared towards students on campus, students living farther away from campus or simply the other demographics of people who are not students that frequent campus will be less likely to use our program or if they do use it, will likely use it less frequently.