Heuristic Evaluation of Enable Ireland

Transcription

1 Heuristic Evaluation of Enable Ireland Aesthetic and minimalist design Pages should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Currently, there is too much content on the Enable Ireland website, throughout the site. Furthermore, having two navigation bars is extremely confusing to the user. The user should be guided to information that is most important, and will expect to find this information at the top of the website page, in the top navigation bar. If important information is placed elsewhere, the user will have a more difficult time finding it, which can lead to frustration. On top of this, the colours used throughout the website, particularly the homepage, are unattractive and distracting. The same colours can be used in the redesign process, but more subtlely and less bright. The user may feel overwhelmed by all the information and colour being presented to them, which we do not want. More white space would also provide a clearer guide for users to important information. 1

2 Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users language, and follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order. From the examination of the Enable Ireland website, overall the language used matches the real world and is easy for users to understand, e.g., information for parents, our supporters, donate today etc. However, poor navigation and informaton architecture of the site still means that users are getting confused. Remember that information should follow a logical order, and as already mentioned, the two navigation bars do not follow the natural order of how websites are presented. A central navigation bar should be created to guide users through the website, with quicklinks along the top with extra information. 2

3 Recognition rather than recall Minimise the user s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible; the user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. This is one of the most important usability heuristics to adhere to because users will not enjoy your website if they can t find what they re looking for or they have to wonder what will come next. There are a few examples of this on the Enable Ireland website. The first issue is that users are not being provided with enough information. To solve this, once the website has been cleaned up, more information should be given to users about links, i.e., a title with a brief introduction should be displayed on overview pages, not just one line with the link incorporated (same applies to linked graphics). The news and press page is poorly desiged because users can t navigate through the different articles, or filter them to find what they are looking for. This results in memory overload, leaving the user frustrated and stopping their search. An archive system and a filter system should be included in the redesign to make this experience enjoyable for the user. Also once users have selected an article they should be able to go to the next and previous article, a button that should also include the article title. One of the most confusing elements for the user is the way the left hand sidebar headings change position depending on where the user is on the site. Navigation features should always remain the same, because the user will expect to find the same information in the same place while they are on the site. If they return their gaze to the navigation bar and it has changed, their focus on the website content will be broken and they will now be confused. 3

4 Consistency and standards Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing: the same information should be presented in the same location on all screens and dialogue boxes, and it should be formatted in the same way to facilitate recognition. The system should be consistent with the users task expectations and other user interfaces. It is extremely important for the website to remain consistent so users feel immersed. There are a few times when users click on buttons on your website and are brought to a different website, e.g., mycharity.ie, which is inconsistent with what users might expect (users might expect to be brought to a page about mycharity.ie first etc.). Another design inconsistency is the tabbed content that appears along the top navigation menu when parents and adult service users are selected, but not when the other three menu items are selected. Finally, on the parents page, when users select our experience, they are brought to what appears to be the same website, but it has a completely different layout and design. This again may be very confusing for the user, and there is no obvious back button (discussed further). The location changes of sections in the left hand sidebar navigation menu is also inconsistent. 4

5 User control and freedom Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked emergency exit to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. This is why breadcrumbs are so important, as well as back buttons, and previous and next buttons. Users should always be provided with an escape route, so that they are not forced to leave your website. A poor example of this on the Enable Ireland website is when users get to the our experiences page and there is no clear way to go back to their previous location. More info for adult service users is the link that will bring them back to the main page on the main website which is not clear. Another example is the slider and the way users can t go through the images at their own pace, they can only pause it or resume it. 5

6 Flexibility and efficiency of use Accelerators allow users to tailor frequent actions. For the expert user, they may also speed up the interaction with the system, such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. You must ask yourself: is your website easy to use for experts, who have visited your site multiple times, and for novices, users who have never visited your website before? Navigation may be causing many problems for both novice and expert users. Information is difficult to find when on the site, and there are no designs that make each section stand out. Icons might be a great way to remind users where they are / were, and what to look for to get back to that section. This also ties in with the recognition rather than recall principle, the user s memory is not overloaded with information and detail. 6

7 Helps users recognise, diagnose and recover from errors Error messages should be expressed in plain language, precisely indicating the problem, and constructively suggest a solution. This is an example of helping users recover from errors: the user has not filled in the correct information, has pressed send, and the following error message appeared. These are important because if users accidentally fail to complete a form they should be guided to their error quickly so that they may continue. This information should appear at the top of the page with the incomplete information, or the text should appear over the empty boxes. If it is not possible for this information to be placed on the same page then a button should appear that users can click to bring them back to the page. 7

8 Error prevention Attempt to create a design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action. An example of this would be a confirmation button when users are making a donation. 8