Information System Design Info-440 Autumn 2002 Session #17

Thanks to Anthony Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Agenda Heuristic evaluation Return Quiz What is it & how it works? Examples Return Quiz Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Admin Announcements Topics that you would like to know more about? To do: Will schedule some kind of Visio lab Topics that you would like to know more about? Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Upcoming Assignment #4 Final quiz December 4 December 9 Will be on Nielsen, Chapter 5 only Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Heuristic Evaluation Goal: Uncover usability risks (problems) How: Careful inspection of an interface What is the challenge? Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

The process Focus on a part of the UI Decide upon a use scenario Develop a list of goals Select some guidelines/heuristics Depends on need/purpose Inspect the UI against the guidelines Identify risks Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Essential ideas Aim for good coverage Aim to be systematic Drive your analysis from a scenario Aim to be systematic Select appropriate guidelines Aim for nuanced judgment Issues have varying degrees of risk Aim to develop special-purpose guidelines Draw on the work of others & your experience Practice, practice, practice Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Some issues Standards vs. guidelines General vs. specific guidelines ‘Standards’, once set, are not negotiable General vs. specific guidelines Understanding and applying guidelines is not easy Multiple evaluations More eyes are better than one Guidelines need to be revised over time Sometime you get a guideline wrong Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Let’s examine some guidelines “Keep things visible” (Norman) “When all else fails, be consistent” (Norman) “Simple and natural dialog” (Nielsen) “Minimize user memory load” (Nielsen) “Good error messages” (Nielsen) “Prevent errors” (Nielsen) Comments? Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Jeff Johnson (GUI Bloopers) Focus on the users and their tasks, not the technology Consider function first, presentation later Conform to the users’ view of the task Don’t complicate the users’ task Promote learning Deliver information, not just data Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Jeff Johnson (GUI Bloopers) Principle 3: Conform to the users’ view of the task Strive for naturalness Use users’ vocabulary, not your own Keep program internals inside the program Find the correct point on the power/complexity trade-off Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Bloopers is a wonderful book Area: GUI Component Bloopers Section: Complicating access to functionality Example: Blooper 1: Dynamic menus (Hundreds and hundreds of examples) Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Macintosh UI Guidelines Save changes to the X document “Special Memo” before closing Don’t save Cancel Save Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Macintosh UI Guidelines Save changes to the X document “Special Memo” before closing Don’t save Cancel Save Data loss Safe for data Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Section 508 guidelines

Section 508 guidelines A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content). Every image, Java applet, Flash file, video file, audio file, plug-in, etc. has an alt description. Complex graphics (graphs, charts, etc.) are accompanied by detailed text descriptions. The alt descriptions succinctly describe the purpose of the objects, without being too verbose (for simple objects) or too vague (for complex objects). Alt descriptions for images used as links are descriptive of the link destination. Decorative graphics with no other function have empty alt descriptions (alt= ""), but they never have missing alt descriptions. Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Section 508 guidelines A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes. Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Special purpose guidelines Website design guidelines for People who are blind People who are under 14 Personalization sites Site maps E-commerce Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Multiple evaluators The data suggests that different analysts uncover different problems Therefore, to get a complete list, you should have 2-4 people evaluate a UI for issues Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

What about this guideline? Only 10% of users scroll beyond the information that is visible on the screen when a page comes up. All critical content and navigation options should be on the top part of the page. [from 1999] Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Let’s practice: Examples from Interface Hall of Shame & Web Bloopers Archive (http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm http://www.uiwizards.com/wBloopArchive.html)

Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

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Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

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Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

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Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

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Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

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Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)

Copyright David Hendry (INFO-440 session 17 - 11/27/2002)