Heuristic evaluation
IS 403: User Interface Design
Shaun Kane
Today
• Norman: Gulf of execution and evaluation
• Heuristic evaluation
Administrivia
• A8–10 now posted
• Brief A8 introduction today
Administrivia
• A8–10 now posted
• Brief A8 introduction today
• For Thursday: User testing of your A6
projects
– Here or in the lab? Let’s vote
Norman on activity
The Action Cycle
Execution
Evaluation
The seven-stage model
Gulfs of execution/evaluation
• Gulf of execution
– “How do I do it?”
– How to fix: rules,
affordances, constraints
(so I can’t do the wrong
thing), instructions
• Gulf of evaluation
– “It doesn’t work”
– “Was I successful?”
– Feedback
Applying to design
• Visibility
• Good conceptual
model
• Good mappings
• Feedback
Heuristic evaluation
• Recollection from IS 303? Or elsewhere?
Heuristic evaluation
• How can we figure out if something is
usable?
Heuristic evaluation
• How can we figure out if something is
usable?
– User testing
– Expert review
“Discount usability engineering”
• Jakob Nielsen
– http://www.nngroup.com/articles/guerrilla-hci/
• Scenarios
• Think aloud
• Heuristic evaluation
Heuristic evaluation
• Heuristics: Identify general rules for good
usability
Good usability heuristics?
• Thou shalt not use overly bright colors
– Use colors from this set […] and not this set
[…]
• Thou shalt not make the user think
• Thou shalt place related items together
Nielsen’s 10 heuristics
• http://www.nngroup.com/articles/tenusability-heuristics/
• Let’s come up with examples
Nielsen’s 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
Visibility of system status
• The system should always keep users
informed about what is going on, through
appropriate feedback within reasonable
time.
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.
X
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.
• Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
• Users should not have to wonder whether
different words, situations, or actions
mean the same thing.
• Follow platform conventions.
X
Error prevention
• Even better than good error messages is a
careful design which prevents a problem
from occurring in the first place.
• Either eliminate error-prone conditions or
check for them and present users with a
confirmation option before they commit to
the action.
Recognition rather than recall
• Minimize 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.
• Instructions for use of the system should
be visible or easily retrievable whenever
appropriate.
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.
• Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
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.
Help users recognize, diagnose,
and recover from errors
• Error messages should be expressed in
plain language (no codes), precisely
indicate the problem, and constructively
suggest a solution.
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, and not
be too large.
Nielsen’s heuristics
• Anything obvious missing?
Other heuristics
• Heuristics for mobile computing
– Enrico Bertini, Silvia Gabrielli, and Stephen Kimani. 2006.
Appropriating and assessing heuristics for mobile computing. In
Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual
interfaces (AVI '06). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 119-126.
DOI=10.1145/1133265.1133291
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1133265.1133291
• Accessibility heuristics
– WebAIM accessibility checklist:
http://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist
How to do it
• Go 1 heuristic at a time
• Keep track of violations (take screenshots,
notes)
• Be clear how the heuristic is violated
• Later (time permitting): suggest how it can
be fixed
Activity
• Groups of two
• Pick a mobile web site
•
•
•
•
5 minutes: Pick an app and 3 tasks
5 minutes: Go through app and take notes
10 minutes: Heuristic evaluation
10 minutes: Report back
Nielsen’s 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