Heuristics and Usability Evaluation Techniques

This assignment involves a comprehensive review of heuristics and usability evaluation techniques as applied in different fields such as user experience, human-computer interaction, and mobile commerce. The provided list includes studies and papers that utilize various methodologies like heuristic evaluation, usability testing, and user interface analysis to assess and improve the usability of digital products and services. The assignment aims to provide a detailed overview of the techniques used to evaluate and enhance user interfaces, including their applications in specific domains.

Evaluation of a website by Heuristic Method
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ABSTRACT
The paper would include the heuristic method evaluation of
the website http://irishwrecksonline.net/, the official
website for Irish Shipwreck, which holds the information
about shipwrecks along the Irish coast. A group of
evaluators has been rigorously surfing through the entire
website with a top-down and bottom–up approach to check
if the website provides seamless usability and attractive
User Interface. Although, it was seen that neither the
website has an attractive User Interface, neither it provides
seamless surfing experience to the users. The developers of
the website are thus recommended to implement an idea
about remodeling the entire website.
Author Keywords
Irish Shipwreck, Heuristic method, evaluation, User
Interface, conference publications.
INTRODUCTION
Heuristic evaluation method is a process that includes the
rigorous surfing of a website with the help of a large group
of expert evaluators that go throughout the entire website
top-down and bottom-up to definite the User Interface
seamlessness that would provide a user the joy of surfing
through a particular website (Lallemand 2015). The only
reason this is done, is to evaluate the issues in the usability
of a website that restricts a user to have a satisfactory
usability experience. It also provides the information by
which the issues can be resolved. The following report
would include the Heuristic evaluation of the website
http://irishwrecksonline.net/. The method would include the
results obtained after numerous surfing of the website and
listing the findings. The results would also include about
the steps that could be taken to eradicate the issues (Randal
Armstrong MIAP, 2018). The report would have evidences
of the information collected. Proper listings of
documentation would follow further. This would thus make
out the affectivity of the website to the users.
EVALUATION METHOD
Some policies have to be followed to perform Heuristic
evaluation method on any website. The primary
requirement of the task is to surf the website for Irish
Shipwreck throughout the entire User Interface to
determine the smooth user experience (Jensen et al. 2016).
Various users do this at the same time and each evaluator
surfs the entire website many a times to confirm the
usability performance (Huang and Benyoucef 2014). The
records need to be collected so that the entire user
experience could be noted down in details.
A website evaluated with the help of Heuristic method
depends on the User Interface entirely, therefore all the
aspects by which a UI needs to be checked has to be
documented properly (Islam and Bouwman 2016). This
includes the use of graphics and images in the websites
along with the consistency and relevance of the texts
included in the website. One of the most important aspects
of Heuristic evaluation is the redirection links from one
page to another, as the inability may declare the website to
be of poor quality (Hussain and Mkpojiogu 2016). In
addition, the borders and the margins needs to be checked
along with the use of padding to ensure visible
attractiveness. In short, the evaluation method would ensure
proper ease of use from a user’s end.
PRODUCTS EVALUATED
The product being evaluated in this report by Heuristic
approach is the official website for Irish Shipwreck
available at the URL of http://irishwrecksonline.net/
(Mohamed and Ozkul 2016). The Heuristic evaluation
would include the following:
 System status visibility
 The connection of the website and the
real world
 User control freedom
 Consistency and standard
 Error deterrence
 Recalls replaced by recognitions
 Ease of use
 Aesthetic and minimalist design
 Proper Documentation
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The website appears to empty at the first glance. The
homepage contains the website URL at the top-middle
order in the website which has no significance since a user
enters the same URL in the address bar to access the
website. The website has a bland overall look with
inconsistent fonts all over the website (Hermawati and
Lawson 2016). The graphics used are not at all catchy and
few links that redirect to the next pages have no textual
description that would guide a user towards their desirable
pages. The information provided in the homepage about the
website is also inconsistent and too short to attract. Over
cluster of texts all over the website has a bad effect on a
user, and similarly almost no contents on a website also
fails to attract users to a website. There is no company
background or much information about the navigation
systems in the homepage, which ideally should have been
present (Nascimento et al. 2016). There should have been a
proper menu to which the users could click and the links
would have redirected to the proper locations. This should
have been followed by the brief company history so far and
how it has garnered its position till date. Then the website
could further contain the information about the services to
be provided to the users followed by information for further
assistance and contact details of the organization (Oh and
Sundar 2015). The padding, font and the font colours are
not consistent and neither is the font alignment. On an
average the total redirection time from one page to another
takes about 0.6 seconds and there is a home button at the
top-right corner of the screen to every other redirected page.
However, the chosen font and the font color are not clear
enough in synchronization to the background image which
makes it unclear to understand at first.
RESULTS OBTAINED
The results that are obtained after risk assessment and
aggregated data gathering with the help of the Heuristic
evaluations state that the Irish Shipwreck website offers a
poor User Interface experience to the user end. The only
reason for this being the too many inconsistencies noticed
in the entire website UI (Paz et al. 2014). There is
inconsistency in fonts, colours and backgrounds. The
approach of the website is too minimalist and it lacks in the
production of aesthetic website designs. Being extreme
minimalistic can also be a discredit since the users would
then find absolutely no clue about surfing through the entire
website (Hasan 2014). The ease of use is thus being
hampered over here. Another drawback of this website is
the disconnection from the real world. As a website
providing information about shipwrecks all over the Irish
coast, the website required to be more realistic in approach,
but it has an appearance of a novice developer and gives a
comic impression towards the users (Reynaga, Chiasson
and van Oorschot 2015). Although, the webpage do not
take much time in loading, there is still low appeal to the
user eye for minimum or no use of graphical icons. In
addition, it could be said that the website is quite confusing
to the users as the tab names and the contents do not
synchronize together (Sauro and Lewis 2016). There is no
proper documentation of the entire webpage but there is the
provision for easy navigation through it. In the end, it can
be stated that the website is poorly executed and the
Heuristic evaluation brings out the fact that the website
cannot provide flawless user navigation.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGES ACCORDING TO
RESULTS
The findings suggests that results state a poor UI of the
website for Irish Shipwreck information system. The first
and foremost recommendation that arises in the mind of a
common user that it should have a more aesthetically
prepared with better UI, image quality, font size and color
consistency and redirected links. Backgrounds should be
synchronized with the pictures used and the website should
be more agile (Yáñez et al. 2014). The website should have
emergency exit options to exit the system while in use for
adverse purposes. It is also noticed that the entire webpage
possesses no usage flexibility as the information involving
the ships demand that the user stop surfing (Hearst,
Laskowski and Silva 2016). There is no way that the user
can go back to previous pages by any means other than the
back button on the browser. It could be seen that the menu
bar has no font coordination either in placement or in
proper English (Swaid et al. 2017). It is also recommended
that the webpage has a proper menu with a FAQ option
enabling the users to go and check for the information that
other users have presented during their surfing experience
as well. This would present a much better approach to the
users as they would find is relatable to the real world.
RISK ASSESSMENT
The heuristic evaluation of the website for Irish Shipwreck
information could also have risks associated with it. This
could be the biased approaches of the evaluators, the
incompatibility of the website to function in all devices and
problems in the internet connections (Bonastre and
Granollers 2014). During the evaluation process, if these
risks can be checked and opted out, then the evaluators
would gain a proper flawless result in the Heuristic
evaluations
DATA GATHERING FORMS
Evaluation Methods: The evaluation method would follow
the cycle for gathering data in due course of the throughout
the surfing.
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Fig: EVALUATION METHOD
Aggregate proportion of problems found: The chart
described below provides a detailed information about the
aggregated problems found during the surfing of the
website by the expert evaluators (Silva, Holden and Jordan
2015). The full points are given on a scale of 10.0.
Fig: AGGREGATE PROBLEMS FOUND IN THE
WEBSITE
User ability in finding difficulties: Chances of finding
difficulties in the process by a user can be described as the
chart below:
Fig 3: USER ABILITY IN FINDING DIFFICULTIES
CONSENT FORMS
Fig: CONSENT FORM
INSTRUCTIONS TO PARTICIPANTS
Instructions are given to the evaluators to be completely
honest with their opinions and that they should document
every detail obtained while evaluating the website (Ali et al.
2015).
3Syste
m
status
Visibilit
y
Syste
m
status
Visibilit
yWebsit
e and
the
real
world
Websit
e and
the
real
worldUser
control
freedo
m
User
control
freedo
mConsist
ency
and
standa
rd
Consist
ency
and
standa
rdError
deterre
nce
Error
deterre
nceRecalls
replace
d by
recogn
itions
Recalls
replace
d by
recogn
itionsEase of
use
Ease of
useMinima
list
design
Minima
list
designAesthe
tic
design
Aesthe
tic
designProper
Docum
entatio
n
Proper
Docum
entatio
n
Ev.1 Ev.2 Ev.
3
Ev.
4
Ev.
5
System
Status
2.5 4.4 2 4.9 3.4
Connection
between
real
world
and
website
3.5 1.8 3 2 1
User control
freedom
4.5 2.8 5 4 1
Consistency
and
standard
8 7 8 9 6
Usability 9 8 7 6 8
Aesthetic
and
minimali
st design
2.5 4.4 2 4.9 3.4
Documentat
ion
3.5 1.8 3 2 1
Ease of use 4.5 2.8 5 4 1

FULL RESULTS
Aggregated evaluations: The following chart represents
the evaluations aggregation presented by the evaluators one
by one and being considered a whole.
Table 1: Aggregated Evaluations
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it could be said that the entire website for the
Irish Shipwreck information system puts forward the fact
that the website needs a remodeling to be performed for
sure. The developers should rethink their ideas of designing
the website taking notes from the findings of the heuristic
evaluation method since it has been an unbiased and
unanimous result obtained through rigorous surfing of the
website by expert evaluators. The entire website lacks in all
aspects of a website being attractive to a user. This is
another reason for an organization to lose user base for its
website, which in turn would further make the customers
disinterested in the organization’s products or services. The
website remodeling should be done so that further losing of
customer base do not occur for Irish Shipwreck information
system. The system lacks consistency and appeal and ease
of use, therefore making the entire website unattractive and
amateurish. The recommendations should thus be followed
in order to make it more appealing to attract user base.
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