Heuristic Evaluation
From CS 160 Fall 2010
The Heuristic Evaluation Assignment is worth 10 points, with no extra credit points.
Due Date: Oct 23, by 5pm
Contents |
Overview
This is an individual assignment that you should complete on your own. You will get an individual grade.
In this assignment, you will perform a heuristic evaluation of a user interface. You can select the app to review. There is a repository of free Android apk files here www.4shared.com. and e.g. to find calendar apps, search for *calendar*.apk You should be able to download the apk file and install it on the emulator. You can install apk's on a running emulator or an android device connected to the computer with
adb install {filename}.apk
You are free to choose the kind of app you study, but make sure you describe it in your report. Remember that you can use a later version of Android in the Emulator (e.g. 2.1 and 2.2) if you need to. Refer back to the Tips and Tricks section on how to make Emulator profiles.
Instructions
You read Nielsen's notes on Heuristic Evaluation for class. Now it is time to apply these principles to a concrete user interface.
Your submission document should contain separate sections for each major part of the application (e.g., home screen, create event, filter events, etc for calendar apps -- these will differ somewhat between applications). In each section, describe which heuristics the interface violated. For each problem, state:
- Which of the Ten Usability Heuristics is violated.
- Argue why the interface violates the heuristic (1-3 sentences).
- Rate the severity of the violation and explain your rating in one sentence (by referring to frequency, impact, and persistence of the problem as suggested by Nielsen).
Include screenshots in your description as evidence of the problem - you can grab these with the screen print function on PCs or Macs. Annotating screenshots with arrows or callouts can be especially effective.
Hints
For examples how these heuristics apply to iPhone applications, you may want to look at Suzanne Ginsburg's iPhone App Usability Heuristics.
Example
Here is an example of a single violation in an interface - the BART Planner Widget for OS X.
Main Screen
Heuristic: Consistency and Standards
Explanation
The interface offers inconsistent ways to change different trip options. While a dropdown box to choose departure time and a button to reverse stations are available on the main screen, the origin and destination stations cannot be changed on this screen. To change these options, the user must click on the "i" icon in the top bar (which only becomes visible on mouse rollover).
Severity
3 = Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority
I rank this problem as major because it occurs frequently - every time the user wants to change stations; and because it is persistent - there is no way for the user to change application behavior to put all controls on the same page.
Submission
Hand in Printout in Class
Print your assignment and hand it in by 5pm on Oct 25. You can either do this in person in class on Monday, or place the assignment under my door (637 Soda) by 5pm. Do NOT post a wiki page for this assignment.
Do Not Make a Wiki Link for this Assignment
Screen shots may contain copyright material which cannot be posted to the wiki.
