1. Heuristic evaluation
IS 403: User Interface Design Shaun Kane

2. Today
Norman: Gulf of execution and evaluation
Heuristic evaluation

3. Administrivia
A8–10 now posted
Brief A8 introduction today

4. 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

5. Norman on activity

6. The Action Cycle

7. Execution

8. Evaluation

9. The seven-stage model

10. 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

11. Applying to design Visibility Good conceptual model Good mappings
Feedback

12. Heuristic evaluation
Recollection from IS 303? Or elsewhere?

13. Heuristic evaluation
How can we figure out if something is usable?

14. Heuristic evaluation How can we figure out if something is usable?
User testing
Expert review

15. “Discount usability engineering”
Jakob Nielsen
Scenarios
Think aloud
Heuristic evaluation

16. Heuristic evaluation
Heuristics: Identify general rules for good usability

17. 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
From class previously?

18. Nielsen’s 10 heuristics
Let’s come up with examples

19. 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

20. Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

22. 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.

23. X

24. 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.

26. Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing.
Follow platform conventions.

27. http://www. imedicalapps X

29. 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.

31. 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.

33. 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.

35. 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.

37. 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.

38. http://msdn. microsoft. com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa511267

39. 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.

41. Nielsen’s heuristics
Anything obvious missing?

42. Other heuristics Heuristics for mobile computing
Enrico Bertini, Silvia Gabrielli, and Stephen Kimani Appropriating and assessing heuristics for mobile computing. In Proceedings of the working conference on Advanced visual interfaces (AVI '06). ACM, New York, NY, USA, DOI= /
Accessibility heuristics
WebAIM accessibility checklist:

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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