Your Task

Perform usability inspection by using heuristic evaluation.

Details

Each of you will serve as a usability expert and be randomly matched with one (or two) prototypes created by your classmates from a different group. You must have your prototype ready for that week. You will perform a heuristic evaluation of the system assigned. A heuristic evaluation is an informal expert evaluation technique that relies on a series of ‘heuristics’ (rules of thumb). The intent is to determine if the interface conforms to these principles. These heuristics are based on a modified version of Nielsen’s original set as well as on heuristics created for mobile interfaces (Bertini et al, 2006). The intent is to identify as many problems as possible in allotted time.

I suggest that you take 30-45 minutes to assess each prototype. You will then write an assessment and a recommendation for the potential client group. For each problem indicate: a) which usability guideline was violated, i.e., what is the problem? and where is it? b) why is it a problem? c) a severity rating for the violation, and c) a recommended solution. You may not find problems for all heuristics and you may find many problems for a single heuristic. If the same problem exists in many locations, do not duplicate, but communicate that information. In the case of many problems per heuristic, please number each and use the same number in the corresponding severity cell, so that the reader can easily match problem with solution.

Your short report from the heuristic evaluation should include:

• Clear identification of the system that you have evaluated.
• A very brief description of how you conducted the evaluations.
• Include your comments on whether it was easy or difficult to understand the system your were evaluating.
• Did you get any description (written or verbal) from the system's project team.
• If not, would it have been helpful?
• If yes, was it useful?
• Description of the results obtained from the evaluation
• Recommendations for further re-design of the interface you tested (very important)
• Lessons learned from conducting heuristic evaluations (if any)
• Include in your submission an appendix with the heuristic evaluation forms. This will be the heuristic evaluation templates (provided in Word format) which you have filled out while conducting the evaluation.

Remember:

• Heuristic evaluation is usually an essentially task-free approach - meaning: you do not tell your system evaluators the exact task steps, but just give them a sufficient description of your system (in terms of functions / tasks supported by the system). You may need to tell them about the current limitations (what parts have not been made interactive).
• During the evaluations step through the set of heuristics several times. For example, do one set of heuristics for each web page / UI screen / dialog box.

Review class notes, the tutorial and the readings about heuristic evaluation; in particular, I'd recommend a short section (#4.3) with a heuristic evaluation example in : http://hcibib.org/tcuid/chap-4.html

Finally:

• Submit your heuristic evaluation of one/two other students' prototypes;
• Be sure to email your heuristic evaluation to the authors of the prototype;
• Be sure to include your name and email address in all submissions

Assessment criteria : you will be getting comments and an overall indiation how well you did

• 30% Accuracy of Heuristic Evaluation
• 30% Thoroughness of Heuristic Evaluation
• 30% Re-design recommendations and lessons learned from the evaluation process
• 10% Overall organization and clarity, etc.

Due dates are posted on the Assignments page