Website Usability Evaluation: Applying Nielsen's Heuristics

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Contents
Tasks................................................................................................................................................2
Task A..........................................................................................................................................2
Task B..........................................................................................................................................7
Task C..........................................................................................................................................9
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................25
Figure 1: No visibility of status.......................................................................................................9
Figure 2: System and a real-world match is here............................................................................9
Figure 3: Error messages can be seen............................................................................................10
Figure 4: Uneven dimensions of the buttons.................................................................................11
Figure 5: Proper message on error.................................................................................................11
Figure 6: No search option present for recognition.......................................................................12
Figure 7: No advance help of new users.......................................................................................12
Figure 8: No minimalist design.....................................................................................................13
Figure 9: Help user by messages...................................................................................................13
Figure 10: Query screen for helping users.....................................................................................14
Figure 11: Principle 1....................................................................................................................15
Figure 12: Principle 2....................................................................................................................16
Figure 13: Principle 3....................................................................................................................17
Figure 14: Principle 4....................................................................................................................18
Figure 15: Principle 5....................................................................................................................19
Figure 16: Principle 6....................................................................................................................20
Figure 17: Principle 7....................................................................................................................21
Figure 18: Principle 8....................................................................................................................22
Figure 19: Principle 9....................................................................................................................23
Figure 20: Principle 10..................................................................................................................24

Tasks
Task A.
Heuristic Principles
Principle 1: Visibility of System Status
This is the heuristic principle that needs to follow and there are various essential points that
explain this principle with respect to the screen that is designed. Some of the issues that the
existing site has been discussed here:
a. The issue that can be observed in the site is that there is no visibility of the status of any
activity which is processing, only the buffering can be seen that does not follow this
principle.
b. This issue is a problem as first of all it does not follows the heuristic principle and
second is that the user cannot see the progress of the activity that is being performed.
c. The issue is not a major one as only by adding a progress bar that displays the status
accurately can resolve the problem (vom Brocke et al., (2017)).
d. For remediation, the possible solution is that add a progress bar that shows the
percentage of the completed activity.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 1.
Principle 2: Match between system and the real world
This is another heuristic principle that needs to cover in the design which is made here:
a. The issue that can be faced is that the user cannot get a proper understanding of the system as
there is lack of match between the real world and system and this can be seen when the user
clicks on forget password, an OTP is sent to the registered email or phone number but the user
might feel difficult to find what the system wants to ask.
b. This issue is a problem as it made the user a little confused about the next step that needs to
do.

c. The issue is quite significant as a novice user can get stuck between the screens if the
understanding is not clear.
d. For proper remediation, it is recommended to add some content that matches among the real
world and the system so that the user can get comfortable.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 2.
Principle 3: User Control and Freedom
a. The issue here is that there are no alert messages or box are there so that the user can
prevent accidental actions to take place like payment confirmation.
b. The issue is a problem because it can harm the user accessibility or accidental actions to
take place like paying for three tickets instead of two.
c. This is the major issue that needs to resolve.
d. Remediation is that add some alert boxes or messages especially at the confirmation of
the payments of the tickets or passes.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 3.
Principle 4: Consistency and Standards
a. The issue located here on the website is in buttons that are present has no common
standards. According to this principle of heuristic, it is important that all the buttons that
are present should be dimensioned equally which is violating here.
b. The issue as such does not affect the overall functioning of the website but surely affect
the impression of the view for such a renowned website need to have proper alignments
and should have equal dimensions (Dong et al., (2016)).
c. The issue is not significant; it is a minor issue that can be resolved by having all equal
buttons and components.

d. The remediation for this problem is to set all the alignments properly including the text
and buttons that are present on the website.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 4.
Principle 5: Error Prevention
a. The issue here is related to the error prevention messages that are not visible here in this
website on entering wrong passwords or credentials.
b. The issue is a problem as it may be difficult for the user to understand the problem that
they face while entering the credentials on the website. With the help of error messages,
the user can easily get the knowledge about the problem that he/she is facing which is
missing here.
c. This issue is not significant as it is easily resolvable.
d. The only remediation to this issue is to provide a proper message to the user so that error
can be understood by the user clearly (Hromkovič et al., (2017).
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 5.
Principle 6: Recognition rather than recall
a. Recognition can be done when a user searches something and the rest of the information is
shown by the system itself but here there is no search option where user can find things easily
without recalling much.
b. This issue is a problem as it does not allow the user to search something instead it need that
user should recall everything which is not appropriate.
c. This issue is significant as it may cause a problem to the users to access the website if he/she
does not recall everything (Georgescu et al., (2016)).
d. The remedy of this problem is to provide a search option so that user types some letters and
the system can recognize what a user may need.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 6.

Principle 7: Flexibility and Efficiency of use
a. The issue here is that the system provides similar functions for the novice as well as for
advanced users. For the advanced users, some extra details can be removed so that accessing
for the advanced user can get fast (You et al., (2016))s.
b. This issue is a problem as novice users need proper information and the advance user does not
need extra information and guidelines so it gets slow accessing for the advanced users.
c. This is not a major issue.
d. Remedy for this is to provide advanced settings for the advanced user and basic guidelines for
the users that are a novice (Dibia, (2015)).
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 7.
Principle 8: Aesthetic and minimalist design
a. It can be observed that the first page of the website that is home page contains a lot of
information that is not required and also making the design messy and unclear.
b. It can be a problem as it creates a lot of confusion to the user who is using the website for the
first time.
c. This issue is major as it is displaying all the functionalities on one page that is making the
overall design unclear so it may be difficult for the user to understand the functions of the
website at one time (Schnall et al., (2016)).
d. Remedy for this is trying to minimize the functionalities on one single page and distribute the
functions so that everything remains systematic, clear and concise.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 8.
Principle 9: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
a. The error here is that the page does not provide proper information about errors so that
the user can understand easily.
b. This can be a problem as it can be a trouble for customers for getting that the steps that
are proceeding are right or not.

c. This is a minor problem and can be rectified by the additions of messages and help box.
d. For resolving this, it is recommended that the screen can show a message regarding the
understanding of the error and how it can be resolved.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 9.
Principle 10: Help and Documentation
a. There is no help icon through which proper guidelines can be read and understand for the
users to solve and rectify some common and basic issues.
b. This is a problem as it can get the user into trouble as they are completely clueless from where
they can resolve the problems that they are facing.
c. This is a major issue and needed rectification.
d. This can be resolved by providing a help button that directs the user directly on the help page
of the system.
The design that is created includes the remediation and can be seen in appendix figure 10.

Task B.
Recommendations
 As the visibility of system status principle is not followed in the given website and the
status of an activity that is being performed is not clearly shown instead a buffering is
there so the recommendation for this is to create a status bar or progress circle that shows
the progress and is shown in Appendix Figure 11 displaying the percent of progress
completed.
 Principle 2 is followed somehow in the website like but for more clearly understand it is
essential to make a match among the real world and system so here for entering the OTP, a
line that says “Din you get an OTP?” is added so that user can understand properly. This is
shown in Appendix Figure 12.
 Principle 3 is about the control of the users as well as their freedom so for this an alert
box is missing in the existing website so here the recommendation will be to add an alert
box at the time of payments or logging out. This can be seen in Appendix Figure 13.
 Principle 4 is related to the consistent and standards of the system, in the existing system the
buttons and font sizes are varying at different places so this is not appropriate. Therefore, the
use of a similar size of fonts and buttons make the design look clean and decent. This can be
seen in Appendix Figure 14.
 Principle 5 is related to error preventions as on adding wrong credentials there should be
an error message that can guide a user and help him to understand the problem. So it is
recommended that provide error messages to the user and this can be seen in Appendix
Figure 15.
 Principle 6 says about the recognition for the user by the system that is lacking in the
existing system as the user need to find the things he wants so it is recommended that
provide a search bar so that by typing few letters user can get some recommendations and
through which user can find the required one. This is added and can be seen in Appendix
Figure 16.
 This principle 7 based on the flexibility of the system by providing guidelines for the
novice users and direct accessibility for advance users. So the guidelines are provided to
the novice user and it can be seen in Appendix Figure 17.

 Principle 8 is about the minimalist and aesthetic design that the existing system does not
follow. It can be clearly seen that even the first page is so messy and unclear so it is
recommended that add only important thing and remove unnecessary things so that
design can look clean and easily understandable. The new design is aesthetic and can be
seen in Appendix Figure 18.
 Principle 9 is about the error messages that a user need to get on entering wrong
credentials so this needs to improve and it is recommended as it provides help to new
users. This can be seen in Appendix Figure 19.
 The last principle is that addition of help icon is important which is not properly mentioned in
the existing system so it is recommended that add a button of help that can direct jump on the
help screen of the system. This can be seen in Appendix Figure 20.

Task C.
Designs are provided in the appendix.
Appendix
Figure 1
Figure 1: No visibility of status
Figure 2
Figure 2: System and the real-world match is here

Figure 3
Figure 3: Error messages can be seen

Figure 4
Figure 4: Uneven dimensions of the buttons
Figure 5
Figure 5: Proper message on error

Figure 6
Figure 6: No search option present for recognition
Figure 7
Figure 7: No advance help of new users