Lecture 7:

Evaluation Using
Heuristic Analysis

Brad Myers

Human-Computer Interaction in eCommerce

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 Note:
 Turn in Homework 3 today
 Start on Homework 4
 Individual
 Assignments of people to groups

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 Usability Evaluation Methods
 How to tell if your interface is any good
 Following the design methods important but not
sufficient
 Still need to evaluate and test
 Also called “Usability Inspection Methods”
 Ref: Jacob Nielsen and Robert Mack, eds. Usability Inspection
Methods. 1994: John Wiley & Sons.

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 Various techniques available
 Heuristic Evaluation Method
 Usability Testing
 Cognitive Walkthrough
 Analytic methods
 Keystroke model, GOMS model
 Questionnaires, Interviews, Focus Groups, Logging,
Feedback

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Heuristic Evaluation Method

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 10 Basic Principles
From Nielsen’s web page
1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and Documentation
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 70 More Guidelines
1) Things that look different should act different.
2) If it is not needed, it's not needed.
3) The information for the decision needs to be there when the decision is needed.
4) The user should control the system. The system shouldn't control the user. The user is
the boss, and the system should show it.
5) The idea is to empower the user, not speed up the system.
6) Don't overload the user's buffers.
7) Keep it simple.
8) Things that look the same should act the same.
9) The user should be able to do what the user wants to do.
10) Every action should have a reaction.
11) Everything in its place, and a place for everything.
12) Let people shape the system to themselves, and paint it with their own personality
13) Error messages should actually mean something to the user, and tell the user how to
fix the problem.
14) The best journey is the one with the fewest steps. Shorten the distance between the
user and their goal.
15) Everyone makes mistakes, so every mistake should be fixable.
16) The more you do something, the easier it should be to do.

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 70 More Guidelines, cont.
17) Cute is not a good adjective for systems.
18) Keep it neat. Keep it organized.
19) Consistency, consistency, consistency.
20) The user should always know what is happening.
21) Minimize the need for a mighty memory.
22) Know they user, and YOU are not thy user.
23) If I made an error, at least let me finish my thought before I have to fix it.
24) Design for regular people and the real world.
25) Eliminate unnecessary decisions, and illuminate the rest.
26) You should always know how to find out what to do next.
27) If I made an error, let me know about it before I get into REAL trouble.
28) Even experts are novices at some point. Provide help.
29) Provide a way to bail out and start over.
30) Don't let people accidentally shoot themselves.
31) Color is information.
32) The user should be in a good mood when done.
33) The fault is not in thyself, but in thy system.
34) To know the system is to love it.
35) Deliver a model and stick to it.
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 70 More Guidelines, cont.
36) Follow platform conventions.
37) Make it hard for people to make errors.
38) The system status (i.e., what's going on should always be visible.
39) Accommodate individual differences among users through automatic adaptation or user
tailoring of the interface.
40) Make it easy for a beginner to become an expert.
41) No you can't just explain it in the manual.
42) Provide user documentation that is easy to search, focused on the user's task, lists
concrete steps to be carried out, and is not too large.
43) The system should speak the users' language, following real-world conventions.
44) Instructions for use of a system should be visible or easily retrievable.
45) What does marketing want? Ok, now how do we show them they're wrong?
46) What does management think it wants? Ok, now how do we show them they're
wrong?
47) Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
48) Users don't know what they want, and users can't always say what they know.
49) Roll the videotape.
50) Common sense is an uncommon commodity
51) Make objects, actions, and options visible.
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52)
70 More Guidelines, cont.
Data drives good design.
53) Help users develop a conceptual representation of the structure of the system.
54) Minimize the amount of information a user must maintain in short-term memory.
55) It's a jungle. Be careful out there.
56) People should not have to remember information across a dialogue.
57) Make it impossible to make errors that will get the user into REAL trouble.
58) Dialogues should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed.
59) Testing, testing, testing.
60) Keep the user mental workload within acceptable limits.
61) Minimize the amount of information recoding that is necessary.
62) Minimize the difference in dialogue both within and across interfaces.
63) An ounce of good design is worth a pound of technical support.
64) Provide the user with feedback and error-correction capabilities.
65) So how is this better than what the competition is doing?
66) Provide good error messages that are expressed in plain language, precisely indicate the
problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
67) Whadya mean, they're not all computer scientists?
68) Support undo and redo.
69) Different words, situations, or actions should result in different things happening.
70) The best user interface is one the user doesn't notice.

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 1. Visibility of system status
 Keep users informed about what is going on
 What page they are on and what part of a process
 Provide appropriate feedback
 About what system is doing, and how input is being
interpreted
 "articulatory" and "semantic"
 Response time:
 0.1 sec for articulatory
 up to about 4 sec for an operation
 Percent-done progress bars
 E.g. in XXX product,
 "really ungroup?" -- loses associated behavior
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 2. Match between system and the
real world
 Terminology in user’s language
 Not computer terminology
 Language from user’s perspective
 “You have bought…” not “We have sold you…”
 Use common words, not "techno-jargon"
 Error messages and feedback refer to user
objects
 Allow full-length names
 E.g. "Hit any key to continue" 12
 3. User control and freedom
 Easy to abort: Cancel buttons
 Cancel order, cancel changing a profile
 Easy to Undo
 Web issue: what does “Back” button do?
 Example: travel.yahoo.com gets confused if use back
 Users (even experts) will make errors
 E.g. in XXX product,
 no way to get out of editing a text field

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 4. Consistency and standards
 Same command always have the same effect
 Locations for information, names of commands
 Size, location, color (also Amazon), wording, function,
sequencing, etc.
 Example of violations
 Give the user a mental model of the system
 Following standards helps
 Web: use templates or CSS, style guides, CMU
 Seems easy, but often not followed; e.g. in XXX
 naming "F#1.C#1" vs. "F#1", "C#1"
 consistent with industry standards: e.g., Copy
 prefix vs. postfix: "delete" vs. "moving object“
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 5. Error prevention
 Selection rather than entry
 Travel.yahoo: popups, when ambig. city (e.g.
Columbus)
 Remove or gray-out illegal choices
 Not common for web pages
 Confirmation
 Avoid modes
 Definition: same user action has different results
 Make unavoidable modes visible
 E.g. in XXX product, fillet uses invisible mode
 E.g. Typing "daytime" to a mail program
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 6. Recognition rather than recall
 Make objects, actions, options visible
 See and pick it, not generate it
 Short-term memory= 7 ± 2 items; 30 sec to 2 min
 unless interrupted
 Menus rather than type-in (but short enough)
 Prompts provide format and limits: travel.yahoo example
 Don't require retyping of remembered information
 Pervasive, generic rules (cut/paste)
 E.g. in Aegis, remembering altitude

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 Example:
prompts
 What is a DTIC
user code and
how to get one?

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 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use

 Provide Shortcuts
 For experienced users
 Command keys, macros, styles
 Jump directly to desired location
 Reuse previously entered information
 Usually stored in “cookies”
 But make easy to remove if wrong or changes
 Good default values
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 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
 Good Graphic Design and Color Choice
 Appropriately direct attention
 Group related objects (alignment, decorations)
 Balance and white space
 Maintain display inertia
 Few fonts and colors (5 to 7 colors)
 Appropriate contrast

 Some people are color blind (8% of males)

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 Graphic Design Example
 www.hotbot.com
 Many fonts and poor colors
 Too many drop-down buttons
 Not apparent that drop-downs modify search
due to poor layout

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 Minimalist design
 “Less is More”
 Identify what is really needed
 If complex to explain/document, then redesign
 Concise language
 Avoid extraneous pictures and information
 Fewer options and menu choices
 Reduces planning time
 Minimize distractions
 Extra options can confuse users
 Reduces manual size, etc.
 E.g. in XXX product: "Show Cartouche", "swap"
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 9. Help users recognize, diagnose,
and recover from errors
 Help users when they are in trouble
 Opportunities for users to learn about the system
 Clear language; no codes
 Be precise; Not "syntax error"
 Constructively help the user solve the problem
 Tell why the error happened and how to fix it
 Be polite and not accusing; positive wording:
 Not: "FATAL ERROR", etc.

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 Error Messages, cont.
 Blame the system, not the user
 “Unrecognized” vs. “illegal” command
 No humor or snide comments
 Easy error recovery
 Can have multiple levels of messages
 E.g. in XXX product, “can't save file” — why
not?
 E.g. in Stargate: “data incorrect or in an
incorrect format. Try again”
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Stargate bad error message

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 Pretty Good Example
 Pretty Good: travel.yahoo.com: Says what to do to fix it
 But language is inconsistent

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Bad Example
http://stinet.dtic.mil/

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 Another Bad Example
 www.acm.org

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 10. Help and Documentation
 True walk up and use?
 Most people will not read documentation
 If do, then
 First time product is used, or else
 In a panic, so need information right away
 Iterative design of documentation needed
also
 SuperBook application answer found in 4.3
minutes, compared to 7.6 minutes before fixing
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 Help, cont.
 Help system is an extra feature to learn
 “Help doesn’t”
 If need to add help, maybe fix the feature?
 Use documentation writers to help refine the
system
 Good quality writing
 Examples:
 “what’s the difference” in travel.yahoo

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 Good Help Example

 NSF
report
system
 What
& Why

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 How to do Heuristic Evaluation
 Systematic inspection of system
 Multiple evaluators are better
 Trained evaluators are better
 22% vs. 41% vs. 60% of errors found
 Result: list of problems, guidelines violated,
and proposed fixes

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