UXD740 – Week 3: Principles and heuristics of HCI

10th October 2021

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“Heuristic evaluation involves having a small set of evaluators examine the interface and judge its compliance with recognised usability principles.” Heuristic Evaluation: How to – article by Jakob Nielsen (nngroup.com)

Heuristic evaluation is a method used to identify usability problems in a user interface design (Nielsen 1995). A group of evaluators examine the interface against the usability principles to find issues to be solved in the iterative development process. The group of evaluators are people from diverse backgrounds who have different skills. The more unique each person is, the more likely they will find a wide range of issues that someone else has not identified.

Heuristic evaluation allows you to obtain feedback early in the design process that is inexpensive for designers. You can also combine more than one usability method to examine potential issues. It can be expensive to find experts or trained UI Designers to participate as this process requires knowledge and experience.

There are many different types of heuristic principles that you can use depending on what you are evaluating, for example, a website or wearable technology. Jacob Nielsen’s original heuristic principles are mostly applied to website interfaces.

Jacob Nielsens original heuristics

1. Visibility of system status: The system keeps the users informed and will give feedback.

2. Match between the system and the real world: The system should speak the user’s language. Use terminology and phrases the user will understand and that is natural to them.

3. User control and freedom: The users may make mistakes and will need a clear emergency escape button/sign to assist them. The undo and redo options are supportive features.

4. Consistency and standards: The users will see a consistent design and language used throughout. They should not expect two different things to mean the same thing.

5. Error prevention: Sending the user error messages will help and guide them in the right direction.

6. Recognition rather than recall: Make objects and actions visible to the user to avoid them trying to memorise information.

7. Flexibility and efficiency: Accelerators may often speed up the interaction for the user so it is important to allow users to tailor frequent actions.

8. Aesthetics and minimalist design: Only include helpful information and avoid using additional relevant dialogue.

9. Help users recognise, diagnose and recover from errors: Ensure error messages are explained in plain English and explain the issue and how to solve it.

10. Help and documentation: If possible, include a system with a step-by-step guide or documentation to offer additional support for the user.

Usability testing

There are three types of usability testing:

1. Usability testing – This testing is completed with a group of representative users attempting to carry out a set of tasks. Testing is carried out throughout the design and development process and feedback and improvements are implemented in the interface design. Ensuring the testing is done as early as possible so you can test assumptions and get answers early.

2. Expert testing – The testing is done by specialists or interface experts. The experts do not necessarily need to have in-depth knowledge about the interface to take part. They should not be involved with the project to avoid bias results.

3. Automated testing – This type of testing involves a software application inspecting the interface to assess the level of usability. This process is highly efficient and can be carried out very quickly however, it may only detect a limited amount of issues.

One of the most important processes in UX Research is using the right tools. I have learnt to use PaperPile, a system that allows you to store your research journals and materials organised in one place. I have also started to use the Bear application to write all my notes and add tags to keywords.

This week I have been using both applications to find research papers, organise them and annotate them. I will start planning my project proposal and research methods to test on real users. I am looking forward to this part because I am interested to see the insights and trends from the results.

References

Nielsen Norman Group. 2021. 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. [online] Available at: <https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/> [Accessed 8 October 2021].

NIELSEN, Jakob. 1995. ‘How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation’. Nielsen Norman Group 1, 1–8.

Parker, A., 2021. Heuristic Evaluation. [video] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/910/discussion_topics/22519?module_item_id=54659> [Accessed 8 October 2021].

Images

2020. Competitive analysis. [image] Available at: <https://unsplash.com/photos/8mikJ83LmSQ> [Accessed 8 October 2021].