HFID Heuristic Evaluation of Team Wisteria
Angela Sharer, Ben Salinas, Eric Hwang, and Leslie Gerhat
04/05/2009
Introduction
Team Wisteria's prototype has a number of interesting features as well as a few major issues. The consistency of
the four navigational buttons at the bottom of the screen is very comforting--the different functions felt more like
modes rather than actions in a series, in which data could be lost. In addition, it is good that that the interface
does not force users to view all data at once--focusing on one variable at a time is a worthwhile feature. However,
the interface notably lacks undo/redo functionality--for example, it is very easy to delete boxes off of the home
screen with no obvious way to get them back. The interface could also do with more and clearer labeling of
functions and displays, especially on the home screen and the data screen's graphs. Finally, the interface should
provide more feedback for when the various data are being captured--weight, BMI, heart rate, photos, etc. Once
these issues are addressed, the interface will provide a great way for people to keep track of their fitness and the
progress that they're making toward their goals.
Results
#
Heuristic #
Severity
Description
Observations
Home Screen
1
H3 - User
Control and
Freedom
4
2
H10 - Help and
Documentation
2
13 H7 - Flexibility
and Efficiency of
Use
2
4
2
H3 - User
control and
freedom
I can't get things (on the home screen) back after I
close them. Could there perhaps be an undo button?
Or maybe the things that appear in the home screen
could be turned on and off in the Preferences.
I was completely confused when I opened up this
interface. Where do I start, what do I touch, what does
the system need from me, and what can I do with this
interface? Maybe a quick guided tour of the interface,
showing the full capability of the system and then
letting people use the system.
Perhaps the user could customize the graphs that
appear on the home page. It looks like there might be
room for more than one, and perhaps certain users are
more interested in heart rate over time than weight
over time.
When you click an "x" on the main screen, and then
click another "x" the original window comes back. This
causes me to think that I am actually selecting the
panel (and having it disappear). Perhaps this is an
artifact of PPT, but it does interfere with the usability
considerably
4
1
1
3
5
H1 - Visibility of
System Status
H2 - Match
between system
and the real
world
H2 - Match
between system
and the real
world
H1 - Visibility of
System Status
2
H3 - User
Control and
Freedom
10 H2 - Match
between
System and Real
World
11 H2 - Match
Between
System and the
Real World
2
12 H4 Consistency and
Standards
13 H4 Consistency and
Standard
14 H1 - Visibility of
System Status
15 H2 - Match
between
System and Real
World
1
6
7
8
9
1
2
The system lacks information as to how recent home
screen data is.
When I click on a specific window on the main screen
(i.e. weight or bmi), I expect it to take me to that graph,
but it doesn't.
2
The "Info" button looks deceivingly like a "help" button.
1
2
I'm not entirely sure why the two pictures on the left
are identical, since they aren't labeled. Users may form
a mistaken impression as to what they indicate.
How do users exit from the settings and info screens?
It's not really obvious how.
1
2
The Home screen is somewhat lacking in labels. "14%"
could be labeled as "14% body fat," for example.
3
2
The home screen layout lacks structure--is there a
reason it was laid out as it was? Having the weight
graph occur under the weight number would make
more logical sense, along with whitespace to
distinguish them, for example.
The dashboard buttons on the start page are different
colors than the dashboard buttons on the other pages.
2
1
The graph on the main page looks very different than
the graphs on the data page
1
1
The "Info" and "Settings" buttons are a bit small for a
touch screen. Maybe enlarge?
"Never gonna give you up" does not denote "goals,"
nor is it a goal. It's misleading, in fact--it seems like you
can listen to music (especially given the goals icon:
headphones).
1
3
How do you compare pictures like one of the scenarios
asked? Is that a feature that's been removed?
1
2
What if a user wants to delete a bad photo? Retake a
photo? The user should have some control over the
data that gets stored, for privacy reasons if nothing
else--especially with photos.
1
0
2
1
1
2
Pictures
16 H2 - Match
between
System and Real
World
17 H3 - User
Control and
Freedom
Graphs
18 H2 - Match
between system
and the real
world
19 H4 Consistency and
Standards
3
The graphs have no time scale.
3
2
2
20 H8 - Aesthetic
and minimalist
design
2
21 H4 Consistency and
Standards
22 H4 Consistency and
Standards
2
23 H10 - Help and
Documentation
1
24 H1 - Visibility of
system status
1
It's not immediately obvious what the buttons to the
left of the graph do. It seems like clicking a different
one would switch graphs, not show multiple graphs. I
understand why you might want to see multiple graphs
at once, but your buttons don't look like they afford
such behavior. Try using checkboxes?
What are the purpose of the trend lines? Maybe it's
because I'm not a fitness person, but I didn't see much
use for them. Humans can already see trends in graphs,
and the selectors for the trend lines take a lot of screen
real estate that could be taken away to make the
screen less cluttered.
All the data graphs look the same from a distance,
especially when multiple graphs are selected. Large
titles or another way of denoting them would help.
The "Trend Lines" label looks like a button, which is
pretty misleading. Perhaps it would look more like an
explanatory label if it didn't have a box drawn around
it.
Some people may not know what all the acronyms are it'd be nice to provide some explanation that can be
brought up.
What do the dotted lines on the graphs indicate?
Sparse data points? No data?
I can't get goals back after I delete them. Is there a
permanent record somewhere? Could there perhaps
be an undo button?
What happens when users have more than two goals?
Somebody, could, for instance, be simultaneously
aiming for a specific weight, muscle mass, and running
distance.
It's not evident what having a goal's border turn bright
red means. I'm guessing it means it's displayed on the
main screen... but then why would the giant centered
goal not be the one that's most important?
The small goal doesn't have a date. How do users know
when it was created?
4
1
2
2
2
1
1
Goals
25 H3 - User
Control and
Freedom
26 H2 - Match
between
System and Real
World
27 H2 - Match
between
System and Real
World
28 H4 Consistency and
Standards
3
3
2
1
2
1
1
29 H4 Consistency and
Standards
30 H4 Consistency and
Standards
1
1
The goals screen uses both mm.dd.yyyy and
mm/dd/yyyy date formats. Probably a prototype
mistake.
The purple outline on "Touch to Record" makes me
think it links to the "Photos" section… it seems like
the outlining in a color to match it to a section is a
standard
1
The system lacks feedback as to when data is being
collected (weight, for example).
The system lacks feedback as to when photos are being
taken. Is it automatic? How does the user know
precisely when it's going to happen?
I'm not always confident as to what screen I am on.
The icons definitely help, but being explicit about what
screen you are on might be nice
The goals icon doesn't make sense to me. Why
headphones?
2
I expect the gear to always take me to the settings
screen yet it doesn't. I'm assuming this is an artifact of
the powerpoint mockup.
1
1
Overall System
31 H1 - Visibility of
System Status
32 H1 - Visibility of
System Status
3
33 H1 - Visibility of
System Status
2
34 H2 - Match
between
System and Real
World
35 H4 Consistency and
Standards
1
3
1
Totals
Severity
4
3
2
1
0
Count
1
6
16
11
1
Heuristic
H1- Visibility of System Status
H2- Match between system and the real world
H3- User control and freedom
H4- Consistency and standards
H5- Error prevention
H6- Recognition rather than recall
H7- Flexibility adn efficiency of use
Count
7
10
5
9
0
0
1
2
1
1
H8- Aesthetic and minimalist design
H9- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
H10- Help and documentation
1
0
2
Conclusion
Overall, the interface has room for improvement. Team Wisteria should add some error prevention and recovery
options, such as undo/redo options for deleting/adding boxes to the home screen, the ability to retain more than
two goals, and the ability to retake a photo if necessary. Appropriate, clear labels for graphs and data readouts
would also be helpful to inform the user what data is being presented. Feedback mechanisms for telling the user
when data, such as the photos, weight, and body mass, are taken would keep the user more aware of the state of
the system. Once these improvements are made, along with other small changes outlined in the Results section,
this interface will be very valuable to people involved in fitness activities.
Appendices
Ben Salinas
1. [H4- Consistency and Standards] (Severity 1)
The dashboard buttons on the start page are different colors than the dashboard buttons on the
other pages.
2. [H3- User control and freedom] (Severity 2)
When you click an “x” on the main screen, and then click another “x” the original window comes
back. This causes me to think that I am actually selecting the panel (and having it disappear)
rather than closing the panel. I am assuming this is an artifact of Powerpoint
3. [H3-User Control and Freedom] (Severity 3)
(Note: this is a bit of assumption, based on what I think the interface will do). If I could close all
the windows on the main page, I don’t know how to bring them up again. This could leave me
with a blank screen.
4. [H1- Visibility of System Status](Severity 2)
I’m not always confident as to what screen I am on. The icons definitely help, but being explicit
about what screen you are on might be nice
5. [H2- Match between system and the real world](Severity 2)
When I click on a specific window on the main screen (i.e. weight or bmi), I expect it to take me
to that graph, but it doesn’t.
6. [H4- Consistency and Standards](Severity 1)
The label “Trend Lines” on the data section looks kind of like it is a button. While it is different
than the buttons in the rest of the software, the outline makes it look like a standard button.
7. [H2- Match between system and the real world](Severity 3)
Without scales, I become very confused as to what the time scale is referencing.
8. [H4- Consistency and Standards](Severity 2)
All the data graphs look the same (which is especially a problem with the “All category” or
whenever multiple graphs are selected. Perhaps there is a way to better differentiate what the
graphs mean than just relying on the small scale on the left
9. [H4- Consistency and Standards](Severity 1)
I expect the gear to always take me to the settings screen yet it doesn’t. I’m assuming this is an
artifact of the powerpoint mockup.
10. [H5- Error Prevention](Severity 3)
It is very unclear as to whether an “x” deletes a box, or simply hides it. When looking at the
goals, I become afraid of clicking and when I do, I am unsure as to whether I can get that goal
back.
11. [H4- Consistency and Standards](Severity 0)
The purple outline on “Touch to Record” makes me think it links to the “Photos” section… it
seems like the outlining in a color to match it to a section is a standard
12. [H4- Consistency and Standards](Severity 1)
The graph on the main page looks very different than the graphs on the data page
Leslie Gerhat
Team Wisteria Individual Heuristic Evaluation
Main Page
1. [H10: Help and Documentation] (Severity 4)
a. I was completely confused when I opened up this interface. Where do I start, what do I
touch, what does the system need from me, and what can I do with this interface?
b. Once a user knows their way around the system, I think it’s a pretty slick interface.
c. However, you need to give the users some help bubbles or something to start with, with
the option to turn them off.
d. Or, maybe a quick guided tour of the interface, showing the full capability of the system
and then letting people use the system.
2. [H5: Error Prevention] (Severity 4)
a. Deleting boxes on the home screen is a great feature, but once they are deleted, there is
no way to re-add the box to the screen without restarting. This option would probably
fit in your “settings” option on the screen. This will allow the user to fix things if they
accidentally delete a box or delete a box and then later want to re-add it.
b. You can also only delete one box at a time…this was probably a prototyping limitation.
3. [H3: User Control and Freedom] (Severity 4)
a. I don’t actually see the interface element that allows you to take a picture of yourself to
store in the timeline. Does this happen automatically every day? How does the system
know when to take the picture?
4. [H4: Consistency and Standards] (Severity 3)
a. It’s totally counterintuitive that “Never gonna give you up,” goes to the goals section. I
know it’s probably an inside joke, but it just doesn’t work.
b. Maybe displaying the most important goal or the most recent goal in a box labeled
“Goal” would be clearer.
5. [H4: Consistency and standards] (Severity 3)
a. In the “graphs” section, the date axis should be labeled with units (week, month, year?)
6. [H3: User control and freedom] (Severity 3)
a. My intuition was to turn one graph “off” before turning another one “on,” but the
interface wouldn’t let me.
b. You may want to reevaluate how you do the graph comparison feature. Maybe a
separate selector that lets the user pick 1, 2, or 4 graphs displayed at a time, and then
they can select that many graphs from the list?
7. [H1: Visibility of system status] (Severity 3)
a. It seems like the goal screen only supports two different goals, and would get very
crowded and disorganized-looking once more than two goals were added.
b. Would a list work better than the large goal, small goal look that it has now?
8. [H2: Match between system and the real world] (Severity 2)
a. The “Info” button looks deceivingly like a “help” button.
9.
10.
11.
12.
b. Maybe a text label?
[H2: Visibility of system status] (Severity 2)
a. The boxes on the home screen aren’t labeled. You know that you can click on them,
because the cursor changes to a hand, but you don’t have any idea where that link goes.
Maybe label them with where the links go?
b. Even after clicking on the box, many of them go to the graphs, but they always default
to the weight graph. When you touch the heart rate indicator, it should go to the heart
rate graph, etc.
[H8: Aesthetic and minimalist design] (Severity 2)
a. What are the purpose of the trend lines?
b. Maybe it’s because I’m not a fitness person, but I didn’t see much use for them. I feel
that you get more information out of the graphs themselves, and the selectors for the
trend lines take a lot of screen real estate that could be taken away to make the screen
less cluttered.
[H5: Error prevention] (Severity 2)
a. There is no indication to the user of exactly what will happen when you record a new
goal. My thought was that I was going to overwrite the existing goal when I tapped
“Touch to record.”
b. I think the interface here needs to be a little clearer, showing the users in advance what
will happen when they record a goal and giving them options to undo actions that they
may not have intended.
[H1: Visibility of System Status] (Severity 1)
a. The “info” and “Settings” buttons are a bit small for a touch screen. Maybe enlarge?
Heuristic Evaluation of Team Wisteria
Initial notes- Eric Hwang
Home screen
 What does the 14% indicate? Body fat, I’m guessing, though that’s not entirely evident.
 What’s the quote for? Motivational?
 Why are the first two pictures the same?
 When I “X” something out, how do I make it come back?
Info page, settings page
 How do I make them go away? :( Besides hitting the left arrow in PowerPoint many times.
Graphs page
 Time scale on graphs? How do I tell what’s one month?
 Individual graphs in the “All” display aren’t very clearly labeled.
Pictures page
 I can’t find a photo two years ago like the task asks.
 How do I compare photos?
 Good timeline usage to allow macro-scale jumps and micro-scale selections.
Goals page


Undoing goal deletion?
What happens if you have many goals?
Heuristic Evaluation
Home screen
1. [H1 – Visibility of System Status] (severity 2)
It may not be obvious to everyone what all information inside the boxes mean. For example, “63
bpm” may not mean anything to someone who doesn’t know the “bpm” acronym, and “14%” could
be confusing since it’s not labeled “Body fat percentage”.
2. [H2 – Match between system and real world] (severity 1)
Having the weight graph occur under the current weight indicator would make more logical sense.
Whitespace around the two would help connect the two as a logical grouping. Right now, users will
visually group the graph with the bpm/percent numbers.
3. [H1 – Visibility of System Status] (severity 2)
I’m not entirely sure why the first two pictures on the left are identical – they aren’t labeled at all.
Users may have no idea or have a mistaken impression what the pictures are for.
4. [H3 – User control and freedom] (severity 4)
If someone deletes one of the boxes, how do they find out how to get them back? There doesn’t
seem to be a way to do so, even from the data screen.
5. [H3 – User control and freedom] (severity 2)
How do users exit from the info and settings screens? There isn’t an obvious way to do that right
now.
Pictures screen
6. [H2 – Match between system and the real world] (severity 3)
I can’t figure out how to compare pictures like one of the scenarios asked. Is that a feature that’s
been taken out?
Data screen
7. [H1 – Visibility of system status] (severity 3)
There are no units for the date axis on the graphs. Users will not know whether they’ve been
improving really quickly or excruciatingly slowly.
8. [H1 – Visibility of system status] (severity 1)
What do the dotted lines indicate? Sparse data points? No data?
9. [H6 –Recognition rather than recall] (severity 1)
It would help to have large titles on the graphs so that users don’t have to turn their heads sideways
or look back at what they selected in order to find out what the graphs are of.
10. [H8 – Aesthetic and minimalist design] (severity 2)
Are the trend lines really necessary? Graphs are already very visual, and humans can already easily
spot trends in graphs that only have one line, like yours do. Having a trend line there is just one
more thing that users have to process.
11. [H10 – Help and documentation] (severity 1)
Some people may not know what all the acronyms are – it’d be nice to provide some explanation
that can be brought up.
Goals screen
12. [H3 – User control and freedom] (severity 2)
There doesn’t seem to be a way to restore goals after deleting them, besides recreating them. What
if users don’t remember what they deleted?
13. [H4 – Consistency and standards] (severity 0)
The goals screen uses both mm.dd.yyyy and mm/dd/yyyy date formats. Probably just a typing
mistake.
14. [H1 – Visibility of system status] (severity 2)
It’s not evident what having a goal’s border turn bright red means. I’m guessing that it means that
goal is displayed on the home screen… but then why would the giant centered goal not be the one
that’s most important?
15. [H4 – Consistency and standards] (severity 1)
The small goal doesn’t have a date. How do users know when it was created?
16. [H2 – Match between system and real world] (severity 2)
What happens when users have more than two goals? Somebody, could, for instance, be
simultaneously aiming for a specific weight, muscle mass, and running distance.
Angela Sharer
#
Heuristic #
H4 Consistency
1 and Standards
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
H3 User Control
and Freedom
H7 Flexibility and
Efficiency of Use
H3 User Control
and Freedom
H2 Match
between System
and Real World
H2 Match
between System
and Real World
H1 Visibility of
System Status
H1 Visibility of
System Status
H1 Visibility of
System Status
H4 Consistency
10 and Standards
H2 Match
between System
11 and Real World
Severity
1
3
2
3
Description
The "Trend Lines" label looks like a button, which is pretty
misleading. Perhaps it would look more like an explanatory label if
it didn't have a box drawn around it.
I can’t get things (on the home screen) back after I close them.
Could there perhaps be an undo button? Or maybe the things that
appear in the home screen could be turned on and off in the
Preferences.
Perhaps the user could customize the graphs that appear on the
home page. It looks like there might be room for more than one.
I can’t get goals back after I delete them. Is there a permanent
record somewhere? Could there perhaps be an undo button?
"Never gonna give you up" does not denote "goals," nor is it a goal.
0 It's misleading, in fact.
The Home screen is somewhat lacking in labels. "14%" could be
1 labeled as "14% body fat," for example.
The system lacks feedback as to when data is being collected
3 (weight, for example).
The system lacks feedback as to when photos are being taken. Is it
3 automatic? How does the user know when it's going to happen?
2 The system lacks information as to how recent home screen data is.
It’s not immediately obvious what the buttons to the left of the
graph do. It seems like clicking a different one would switch
graphs, not show multiple graphs. I understand why you might
want to see multiple graphs at once, but your buttons don’t look
1 like they afford such behavior.
1 The goals icon doesn't make sense to me. Why headphones?
Is there any reason for the layout of the home page?
The goal recording feature has very nice feedback. Navigation through the system is consistent
throughout, and I see no “recognition rather than recall” issues.