Chapter 10B Flashcards
Heuristic Evaluation?
Developed by Jakob Nielsen
Helps find usability problems in a UI design
How many evaluators are used to examine UI? Why?
3-5 evaluators
Different evaluators will find different problems
Why 10 general principles for interaction are called heuristics?
Because they are broad rules of thumb and not specific usability guidelines
10 Original Heuristics?
- Simple and Natural Dialog
- Speak the users’ language
- Minimize users’ memory load
- Consistency
- Feedback
- Clearly marked exits
- Shortcuts
- Precise and constructive error messages
- Prevent errors
- Help and documentation
10 Latest Version Heuristics?
- Visibility of system status
- Match between system and the real world
- User control and freedom
- Consistency and standards
- Error prevention
- Recognition rather than recall
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors.
- Help and documentation
Heuristics Evaluation Process?
Briefing session to tell experts what to do
Evaluation period of 1-2 hours
Debriefing session in which experts work together to prioritize problems
What is the Evaluation Period in the Evaluation Process?
Each experts works separately
Take one pass to get a feel for the product
- Inspect various elements
- Compare with list of usability principles
- Consider other principles/results that come to mind
Take a second pass to focus on specific features
Nielsen suggests that on average?
5 evaluators identify 75-80%
Why use many evaluators?
Every evaluator doesn’t find every problem
Good evaluators find both easy and hard ones
Biggest problems of Expert Evaluation?
Important problems may get missed
Many trivial problems are often identified
Experts have biases
H2-1 Visibility of System Status?
The system should always keep the users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time
H2-2 Match Between System and The Real World?
The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order
H2-3 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
H2-4 Consistency and Standards?
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing
H2-5 Error Prevention?
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place.
H2-6 Recognition Rather than Recall?
Minimize 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.
H2-7 Flexibility and Efficiency of Use?
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 and experienced users.
H2-8 Aesthetic and Minimalist Design?
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 and diminishes their relative visibility.
H2-9 Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover from Errors?
Error messages should be expressed in plain language, precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution
Good Error Messages?
Clearly indicate what has gone wrong. Human readable Polite Describe the problem Explain how to fix it Highly noticeable
H2-10 Help and Documentation?
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out.
Heuristics for websites focus on key criteria which is?
Clarity
Minimize unnecessary complexity and cognitive load
Provide users with context
Promote positive and pleasurable user experience
8 Mobile Heuristics?
- Visibility of system status and losability/findability of the mobile device.
- Match between system and the real world
- Consistency and mapping
- Good ergonomics and minimalist design
- Ease of input, screen readability and glancability
- Flexibility, efficiency of use and personalization
- Aesthetic, privacy and social conventions
- Realistic error management
5 Phases of Heuristic Evaluation?
- Pre-evaluation training
- Evaluation
- Severity rating
- Aggregation
- Debriefing
Pre-evaluation training?
Give evaluators needed domain knowledge and information on the scenario
Evaluation?
Individuals evaluates UI and makes list of problems
Aggregation?
Group meets and aggregates problems
Why separate listings for each violation?
Risk of repeating problematic aspect
May not be possible to fix all problems
Where the problems may be found (evaluation details)?
Single location in UI
Two or more locations that need to be compared
Problem with overall structure of UI
Severity Rating?
Used to allocate resources to fix problems
Estimates of need for more usability efforts
Combination of:
- frequency
- impact
- persistence
Should be calculated after all evaluations are in
Should be done independently by all judges
Severity Rating 0-4?
0 - don’t agree that it is a usability problem
1 - cosmetic problem
2 - minor usability problem
3 - major usability problem, important to fix
4 - usability catastrophe, imperative to fix
Debriefing?
Conduct with evaluators, observers, and development team members
Discuss general characteristics of UI
Suggest potential improvements to address major usability problems
