Week 6 Assignment: Heuristic Evaluation of Due on: May 12 2013 Team Members: Arpan Bhattacharya Collin Breslin Thkeya Smith INFO 608-902 (Spring 2013): Human-Computer Interaction
Group 1 HE Process Overview Our methodology for assessing a HE stpoint was a three step process. First we had a team meeting to review our assigned area of focus. Next we evaluated the site focusing on the heuristic principles we were assigned. We used an issue log to capture heuristic issues. Finally we collated are findings into a scorecard that assessed each principle summarizing the number of occurrences the average severity rating. Below is an outline of the process in more detail. Step 1: Identify scope assign areas of focus Our team met to review Nielsen s 10 heuristic principles with the objective to 1) agree on scope 2) assign focus areas. Scope: We agreed that a general assessment of the whole site would allow us to cover all 10 principles Assignment: We used the categorizations our lesson to help group the principles into areas of focus as detailed below. We each were assigned a category to help hone our focus into areas of expertise (i.e. what we felt would come most naturally for each of us in terms of assessing the site) Category Aiding the User Error Hling Simplicity User's Expectation Principle Visibility of system status User control freedom Flexibility efficiency of use Error prevention Recognition rather than recall diagnose Aesthetic minimalist design Match between system the real world Consistency stards documentation Step 2: Evaluate (See Appendix for HE Issue List) We spent a few days evaluating the site - first getting acquainted with the overall site followed by a closer look at specific aspects of the site. We used an issue log to track heuristic principles that were violated. The fields captured for each issue were: Issue Description Describe the issue in detail Why is this an issue provide a reason why it is a usability problem Heuristics Pick one of the 10 heuristics violated List the pages/interfaces where the issue occurs Use this field to document the total (to be summarized) -- Classify the severity using the Nielsen s scale (to be summarized)
Step 3: Summarize Results Our finally step was discussing the results captured in the issue log reviewing for overlaps agreeing on severity ratings. Once we had an agreement we summarized the results by each principle to provide a scorecard on how performed against the 10 Heuristic principles. Heuristics Scorecard Category Principle Description Aiding the Visibility of system status The system should always keep User informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. User control freedom Users often choose system functions by mistake will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo redo. Error Hling Flexibility efficiency of use Error prevention Recognition rather than recall Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced experienced. Allow to tailor frequent actions. Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them present with a confirmation option before they commit to the action. Minimize the user's memory load by making objects actions options visible. The user should not have to remember information one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of Average # of Conflicts 4 1.5 1 2 1 1 1 2 6 2
Heuristics Scorecard Category Principle Description the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate. # of Conflicts Average Simplicity User's Expectation diagnose Aesthetic minimalist design Match between system the real world Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes) precisely indicate the problem constructively suggest a solution. Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information diminishes their relative visibility. The system should speak the ' language with words phrases concepts familiar to the user rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions making information appear in a natural logical order. Consistency stards Users should not have to wonder whether different words situations or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions. documentation Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation it may be necessary to provide help documentation. Any such information should be easy to search focused on the user's task list concrete steps to be carried out not be too large. 16 2.86 3 1 1 2 7 2 2 2
Appendix: HE Issue List of # Issue Description (What) Why is an issue? Heuristic 1 Displaying many different areas of content in separate individual boxes on the same page. The following elements are all displayed on one page: "Important Announcements" "My Courses" "Tools" "My Courses" "My Tasks" "My Messages" "My Announcements" "My Organizations" "On Dem Learning Catalog". 2 The top navigational menu uses a smaller font in the "Course" section than it does in the main "Home" area. 3 The "Tools" section in Home contain many useful features such as "My Grades" "Tasks" "User Directory" "Address Book". This set of tools is visible to the user in the Home's Institutional Dashboard. It is also accessible to the student via the context menu on the top right once the user is in a specific course section. Many of these elements have no useful information to the user either because the elements are not being used by the user or there isn't any relevant information to display. The boxes are empty but they still occupy space distract the user other elements. The user does have the option to "Close" the box or they can "Personalize the Page" remove the boxes the dashboard but this has to be done manually. If there is no relevant information to display for an element why not leave it closed by default? The smaller font makes it harder to find the menu on the "Course" section especially when there is more individual course content displayed on the page using larger fonts. Also it is inconsistent to have different font sizes for the same menu which should be stardized across all pages. These tools may be used frequently by an experienced online student. It is cumbersome having to access it through the Home's Institutional Dashboard. If the student is in a specific course page needs to quickly access the "Address Book" or "User Directory" the student would need to leave the page navigate to the institutional Dashboard then find the appropriate tool. Having quick Aesthetic minimalis t design Aesthetic minimalis t design Flexibility efficiency of use Home > Institutional Dashboard Home > Notifications Dashboard Courses > INFO 608-902 Home > Institutional Dashboard 2 1 - Cosmetic 1 1 - Cosmetic 1 1 - Cosmetic
access to this tool would aid the experienced user. In the specific course page the context menu on the top right does allow access to these tools but they are hidden the user. 4 does not show the user how much time is left on their user session. No warnings are provided to the user when their session is about to expire requiring them to login again losing whatever work they had done on the page. 5 In the discussion area in the course specific section of if a user posts a hyperlink it will open in the same bottom frame inside of. Without any warnings or feedback about the amount of time left on the user session the user continues to reply to a discussion write a wiki or create content only to discover that they have been timed out need to login again. All the content the user was producing on the page is now lost the user is left frustrated. The DrexelOne site does an excellent job at warning the user by using a pop up message alerting the user they have five minutes left on their session gives them an option to "extend" the session. A user never wants to open a link discussion in the same window let alone same frame as. When the new page is loaded the menu at the top is present confusing the user about what part of the website he is in. Is the new site part of? What happened to the discussion post that the user was reading? There is no warning to the user that they will be leaving the main page navigating to a different website. By default a link posted in discussion should open either in a new tab or a new window so that the user may look at the content of the site continue their discussion on. Visibility of system status User control freedom 1 2 - Minor Courses > INFO 608-902 > Discussion Board > Week 6 > Usability Analysis 1 2 - Minor
6 When navigating to a specific thread in the discussion area the title of the thread is large bold whereas the section where thread is under is much smaller uses a font lighter color that blends into the background of the page. 7 Terminology on homepage is not intuitive Presented with two dashboard options 1) Institution dashboard 2) Notification dashboard If the user navigates to the "Week 6 Discussion" then clicks on the thread "Roll Your Own" the thread page has "Roll Your Own" in large boldface font on the top whereas the "week 6 discussion" is much smaller in a lighter color which makes it hard to see. This is a problem because the user may not see the "week 6 discussions" may get confused about which discussion this thread is under. The discussion section where the thread exists should be easier to find on the thread page so that can quickly navigate back to that specific discussion section instead of having to navigate through the main "Discussion Board" link. The dashboards are dividing information into similar categories without a clearly understood definition. Visibility of system status Consiste ncy stard s Courses > INFO 608-902 > Discussion Board > Institution Dashboard Notification Dashboard 3 1 - Cosmetic 7 2 - Minor There are 5 components on both dashboards with titles that could be perceived as places to find "actions". They are : 1) My Messages - Check here for any new messages in your courses 2) My Tasks - Display your personal tasks 3) Needs Attention - Display notifications regarding items that need your attention in the courses you instruct 4) To Do - Keep on top of your course work. Display all items due past due for your courses
5) Alerts - Don't fall behind. Display notifications of past due early warnings the courses you instruct. There are other areas that seem to be placed where important messages are posted 1) My Announcements - Display institution organization course announcements that are relevant to you 2) What's New - Keep up to date with your courses. Display notices of what is new in your enrolled courses 8 The Tech section has a sub-section called "Node Information. It goes on to explain what it is to include the information when contacting Tech Support. 9 The Content Collection section has many options seems like it may contain useful resources; however there is no highlevel description of what the section is used for. In addition there are no help icons to underst what each section is used for (My Content Institution Content Library Content); After a few click through the folders seem to have more questions than understing. For instance: - what are all of the preloaded folders with various acronyms? This information to the non-technical person is confusing also doesn t really provide any value considering that information could be sent to Tech Support without the user needing to know. People will not use this section without further training or understing of the purpose. Match between system the real world diagnose Tech Support Content Collection Section 1 2 - Minor 1 3 - Major Usability
- Why are there pictures in some of the folders? 10 On Dem Learning Center link brings you to a website that has a lot of content that is poorly organized. Search capability provides some relevant results but I am looking for basic information on using Content Collection section unfortunately I have to learn how to use this site as well. 11 After viewing the drop down menu in must remember to press the back button to return to the previous screen. Selecting the headings at the top will take the to each of those headings' main screens. 12 Users are unable to resize correct any issues with an image once it is imported into. A user must correct this issue before uploading an image to. does not provide an error to inform of this issue. Once the problem occurs it cannot be corrected the would have to reload the image again. Accessibility to helpful relevant content is not easy to get to. Users will take extra time to return back to where they were originally. Users will waste time trying to correct the issue of the image problem. diagnose Error preventi on diagnose On Dem Learning Center Right h corner of clicking the downward arrow next to the user's name Replying adding to a thread in 1 2 - Minor 1 2 - Minor 2 3 - Major Usability
13 When copy paste into the formatting can become wrong. Users would need to correct this in the post before submitting. There is not an error message or anything that pops up to alert of this. Often times will not know of an error until after it occurs. 14 Looking through the announcements grades post other icons the screen begins to freeze. Trying to refresh the screen works sometimes or the cursor will just continue to spin. The web browser will try to the page but this is not always an option. The only other way to correct is to force close the task manager. 15 Sometimes external links do not open up in a user would have to view it in a new window. If a user selects the back button it will take them to the courses screen. To return to the previous screen would select the link next to the words linked file. This can be located right above the external link. Causing an unnecessary error in message post. The screen constantly freezes locks up. Creating unnecessary clicking to return to previous page. diagnose diagnose Recogniti on rather than recall Replying adding to a thread in Right h corner of clicking the downward arrow next to the user's name - INFO 605-902-Week by Week- Week 6- Select link for one of the readings- Link will open up to an external screen due to security 1 2 - Minor 4 4 - Usability Catastrophe 6 2 - Minor
purposes 16 Users are unable to copy paste an image into the system. If a user tries to copy paste nothing will happen. There is not an error message that alerts the user that is cannot be done. The only way a user can include an image is by importing it or attaching the file. 17 When try to import images into a message post in it starts to freeze the internet browser s the web page. All previous data is lost the would have to recreate their post. For some reason this issues continues to occur with the page restarting data continuously being lost. does not provide any warning state how to correct this issue. Extra work for to add images to their posts. diagnose Users would have difficulty completing uploading a message post. diagnose Replying adding to a thread in Replying adding to a thread in - INFO 605-902-Our Wiki 2 2 - Minor 6 4 - Usability Catastrophe