Homework 5: Heuristic Evaluation of Each Other's Implementations

For 05-863/08-763/46-863: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction for Technology Executives (Fall, 2008)

Homework 5: Start: Tues, Nov 25, 2008, Finish: Tues, Dec 2, 2008

Each person will evaluate the user interfaces of two other people in the class. After you turn in your system for Homework 4 to the TA, the TA will e-mail you the two systems you are to evaluate.

See the assignment of systems to people here.

You will be getting two (2) systems, as listed. You should write a heuristic evaluation of the site using Neilsen's Ten Usability Heuristics. (There are lots of different lists of heuristics, but for this assignment, you must use only the ones that Nielsen lists. Note that the ones on that web site are different from the ones in the book). Although two people are assigned to evaluate each project. you should do the evaluation individually.

Perform a heuristic evaluation of the systems you have been assigned, and write a report using the UAR Template (this is the same template that you have been using, except this time, use "HE" instead of "TA" as part of the numbering scheme. You can leave the subject ID field blank). Here is an example that I filled out, to show you how to do it: UAR-HE-Example-CDW.doc

• Your report should discuss both problems and things done well.
• You should include pictures of the system that illustrate each of your points (in the "Reference" slot). You can use screen captures to do this (on a PC, the print screen key puts the screen on the clipboard; on a mac, command-shift-4 let's you pick a selection on the screen to send to a file, command-control-shift-4 puts it on the clipboard).
• Each point should be annotated with the particular guidelines that are being violated or being followed (put this in the "Name" slot). If violated, you might suggest a fix.
• For each system you are assigned, you should try to come up at least 8 (eight) points that illustrate at least 4 (four) different guidelines. I am looking for insight, subtlety and depth. Thus, saying "the system doesn't have good color choices because it doesn't use color" is pretty trivial and won't count for much. Also, since this is a prototype, saying that functions aren't implemented also doesn't count.
• Be sure each UAR lists which heuristic is violated or upheld, and why, and what you recommend be done about it.

You will be graded for this homework on how well you evaluated the prototype, the quality of the feedback you are providing, how many problems and good things you found, and the extent to which you assign them to the correct heuristics.

In homework 6, you will be trying to fix the problems that other people identified with your system, and your grade will be based in part on your response to your classmate's Heuristic Analysis of your prototype (what you did based on what they found), so it is important to you to make sure your classmate gets a chance to evaluate your prototype.

• The deliverable for this assignment is the set of UARs for both systems you evaluated. This will be at least 2 (systems) x 8 (points) = 16 UARs. Turn this in as hardcopy printouts in or before class.
• Please also upload both sets of UARs to Blackboard as two files, so that we can email them to the people whose projects you evaluated. Please name your two files as follows: UARs-of-otherPersonsName-from-yourname. For example, if one of the systems I was evaluating was by Devin Blais, my file about that evaluation would be named: UARs-of-Blais-from-Myers.