Smart Home Application Design Evaluation: A Heuristic Report

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Tasks................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...........................................................................................................................................3
Task 2...........................................................................................................................................8
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14
Appendix........................................................................................................................................15
Figure 1: Home page.....................................................................................................................14
Figure 2: Wi-Fi System screen......................................................................................................14
Figure 3: Living Room screen.......................................................................................................15
Figure 4: Settings...........................................................................................................................15
Figure 5: Security..........................................................................................................................16
Figure 6: Rooms and devices screen.............................................................................................16
Figure 7: Music Control Screen.....................................................................................................17
Figure 8: Living Room..................................................................................................................17

Introduction
The given report evaluates the design that is provided. There are various principles of the
heuristic that the design should follow and by taking these standard principles as a reference, a
proper evaluation is included in this report so that the improvisation in the design can be made.

Tasks
Task 1
Review of Home Screen
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle as there is no footer present in the screen, the back button is also
absent and there are no breadcrumbs as well.
iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of footer and back
buttons so that it can become more efficient.
iv. The addition of the back button or breadcrumbs, one among these can be added so that
the user can easily get back on the previous page.
v. It is obvious that the addition of the back button is required and the footer can be added
so that the user can switch on other pages as well directly from the footer.
Review of Wi-Fi System screen
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle as there is no footer present in the screen also the violation of the
connectivity status of the network is also missing. There are no error prevention messages
also that can appear on entering the wrong password of the Wi-Fi.
iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of footer and back
buttons so that it can become more efficient. Moreover, error prevention problem should
also be resolved.
iv. The addition of the back button or breadcrumbs, one among these can be added so that
the user can easily get back on the previous page. Error messages can be added when the
user enters the wrong details of the Wi-Fi. Or when connect unavailable devices.
v. When the user enters the wrong password then the user should be displayed messages
like entering a correct password or no device available for connection.

Review of Living Room screen
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle as the visibility status principle is violated here. The actual status of
the activity cannot be seen here on this screen.
iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of visibility status bar
or similar to like this.
iv. The addition of the back button or breadcrumbs, one among these can be added so that
the user can easily get back on the previous page. The addition of the visibility status bar
will be effective. Proper alignment of the available text is also missing.
v. Addition of Footer is recommended strongly, alignment of the available text on the
screen is important, additions of the breadcrumbs are high recommended.
Review of Settings
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle as the alignments of the text available are not proper and instead of
setting there should be the name of the user to be more appropriate.
iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements proper alignment are needed.
iv. Addition of proper alignment will help the screen to look more attractive and user details
on the setting page will be more appropriate so these changes can improvise the design.
v. The design needs some improvement that can be made the design more accurate so
alignment and the details of the user are highly recommended for this particular screen.
Review of Security
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle as there is little functionality that is missing in this particular screen
that needs to be added.

iii. The design is pleasing but requires various changes like the addition of the footer, proper
alignment of the text available on the screen and addition of the back button. Also, proper
linking is absent on this particular screen (Nisar et al., 2016).
iv. The design can be improvised by the help of addition of the footer in this screen, addition
of back button or the breadcrumbs will help in improvisation of the screen. It can be seen
that there are many buttons present on this screen that are not linked properly so the
design needs to be linked properly in order to look more attractive and appealing.
v. Few recommendations include the addition of the footer, addition of breadcrumbs or back
arrow to navigate on previous screens, text alignment and proper linking of the buttons.
Review of Add Rooms/Devices
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle as there is no footer present in the screen, the back button is also
absent and there are no breadcrumbs as well. Text alignment is also not proper and space
problem can also be seen here.
iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of footer and back
buttons so that it can become more efficient. The size of the available texts can be
reduced so that it can be more spacious and more functions can be added in the screen.
iv. The design can be made more improvised by aligning proper text and making the text
font size small so that the screen can look clean and spacious as well (Fernandes et al.,
2017).
v. The recommendation related to this screen is a proper alignment of the text and font size
should be reduced so that the screen can look clearer and neat. Also linking is not added
so on linking the design can look more effective.
Review of Music Control
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements as the design has some
flaws that need to be rectified in order to look at the design more attractive and useful.

iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of footer and back
buttons so that it can become more efficient. Proper text alignment and size of the buttons
available on the screen can be minimized (Afifah et al., 2016).
iv. The addition of the back button or breadcrumbs, one among these can be added so that
the user can easily get back on the previous page. The use of small icons and buttons can
be more effective.
v. The recommendation that can improve the design include the proper text alignment,
addition of footer and breadcrumbs, minimize the size of buttons and icons available on
the screen can help in improvisation of the design.
Review of Door Locks
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements as the design has some
flaws that need to be rectified in order to look at the design more attractive and useful.
iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of footer and back
buttons so that it can become more efficient. Proper text alignment and size of the buttons
available on the screen can be minimized so that more functions can be added.
iv. The addition of the back button or breadcrumbs, one among these can be added so that
the user can easily get back on the previous page. The use of small icons and buttons can
be more effective (Atashi et al., 2016).
v. The recommendation that can improve the design include the proper text alignment,
addition of footer and breadcrumbs, minimize the size of buttons and icons available on
the screen can help in improvisation of the design. Spelling and other small errors need to
avoid that can be seen here that the spelling of the entrance door is not correct which
need to be corrected.
Review of Living Room
i. The design is reviewed by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
ii. The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements as the design has some
flaws that need to be rectified in order to look at the design more attractive and useful.

iii. The design is pleasing but requires improvements like the addition of footer and back
buttons so that it can become more efficient. Proper text alignment and button linking are
not there so that needs to rectify.
iv. The addition of the back button or breadcrumbs, one among these can be added so that
the user can easily get back on the previous page. The use of small icons and buttons can
be more effective (Atashi et al., 2016).
v. The recommendations that can improve the design include the proper text alignment,
addition of footer and breadcrumbs, proper linking of all the available buttons should be
done appropriately.

Task 2
The designs that are being evaluated here are given here:
Visibility of System Status
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be capable of displaying the status of the
activity that is being processed and this is not in the given design. The location where the
problem can be observed is in the Living Room screen.
ii. The design is only capable of showing the loading of the activity but not the actual status
of the activity that is being performed. So the user does not get any idea regarding the
completion of the activity.
iii. The issue is major and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. The virtual cue can be added in order to make the design more effective.
Match between system and the real world
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) Match between the system and real-world is important for better understanding of user
and this requirement is not fulfilled in the design that is provided.
i. The design is easy and simpler to understand but by matching with the real world, the
system can be made more effective and understandable so this is missing in design
that hinders the understandability of design to the user. This is lacking in the entire
screen except for Welcome screen.
ii. This issue is a problem as it hampers and lacks the understanding of various
instructions and functions present in the design.
iii. The issue is minor and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. The design can be improved by adding various text and small instructions that can
match with the real world.
User Control and Freedom

a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be capable of providing the control and
freedom to the user and the design is not following this principle. This is absent in
overall design.
ii. The design needs some improvisation as the design can include various alert boxes so
that if the user clicks on any button by mistake then the user has the choice to undo the
action that is accidentally performed. This can cause a problem by mistake for the users.
iii. The issue is major and can be resolved by making some changes in designs
iv. An alert box is helpful from avoiding such mistakes and provides user control as well as
freedom.
Consistency and Standards
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should have the consistency and a common standard
of the buttons available on the designs which is lacking and this can be seen in screen
Security, Sign out where the sizes of the buttons are varying.
ii. It violates the rule as well as this can give a bad impact on the look of the design.
iii. The issue is minor and can be resolved by making some changes in designs
iv. Making all the buttons of similar size helps in maintaining consistency.
Error Prevention
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be able to prevent the users from errors and
this is absent in the design. It can be seen in the Login and Sign-in screen where on
adding wrong credentials there are no message or information regarding the error.

ii. This is a problem as the user will not be able to identify the error and can get confused
with the application.
iii. The issue is major and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. Add the functions to provide the message so that the user can read and understand the
message and can recover from the error.
Recognition rather than recall
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be able to recognize rather than recalling and
this problem can be seen on the home page and all other pages as well.
ii. This issue is a problem as the user needs to search for every detail and information by
visiting on every page (Hearst, 2016).
iii. The issue is major and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. The design needs some improvisation as the design is not able to recognize so Addition
of a search bar can help in resolving this problem.
Flexibility and Efficiency of use
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should provide the flexibility and efficiency that is
not available in these designs. This can be seen on Sign and Login screens.
ii. This issue is a problem as for the new as well as advanced user there is a similar design
that allows the advanced user to go through a similar process as the novice user is going
through.
iii. The issue is minor and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. This can be resolved by adding an advanced setting for advanced users.

Aesthetic and minimalist design
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be simpler and minimalist that is present in
design as it is minimalist.
ii. This issue can confuse a person and also affect the look of the design.
iii. The issue is minor and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. By minimizing all the functions on a single page can help in maintaining a minimalist
design of the screens.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be able to help the user by determining and
recovery from the error. This is absent here and can be seen on the login and sign in
screen as on entering wrong details the system does not provide a message.
ii. This issue is a problem as this can make the user confuse about the error and lack of
proper messages and information make the user confused.
iii. The issue is major and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. By providing an error message and its recovery message on adding wrong credentials.
Help and Documentation
a) The issue is being evaluated by STUDENT NAME AND ID.
b) The given designs are not capable of satisfying the requirements that are included in this
heuristic principle.
i. This principle states that the design should be able to help the user by providing proper
guidelines but this is added in the design and can be seen on Help and Contact Us
screen.

ii. This issue can be a problem as this can lead to improper guidelines and in case of any
query the user will not able to find any method to resolve any minor errors.
iii. The issue is minor and can be resolved by making some changes in designs.
iv. By providing help and documentation in the screen can resolve this problem.
Task 3
As it can be seen on evaluation that the design is not properly following the basic ten heuristic
principles that need to follow so there are various recommendations that are added in the file.
The design has the status bar of loading but it does not show the visibility status of the activity
that is performing. There are no alert boxes as well in the design that violates the principle of
user freedom and control so these alert boxes need to add in case the user accidentally click on
any button that he/she do not want to click. Moreover, no error prevention messages and
information is given to the user that also violates one of the heuristic principles. There are no
breadcrumbs or back buttons on some screens as well as no footer is added in the entire design.
These flaws do not follow the principle and that is the reason for the evaluation so that all the
flaws can be identified and rectified. Proper linking is also important that is missing in some of
the screens. All the designs do not just violate the principles some follow them also like the last
heuristic principle of help and documentation is considered in the entire design by adding the
help part on every screen. So this is the good part but mostly the design screens do not follow the
principle. Another error that is identified is the text alignment is also not appropriate. This is not
any type of principle but it is just an error that is severe and needs to rectify so that the design
can be made more attractive and good looking. Presentation and looking for an application also
reflect the application usability. On many screens there are large button that is not needed
actually so if the size of the buttons can reduced then there might be possibility of adding more
features on single screen that can automatically make the application more useful with more
functionalities. So these changes are up to the choice of designer but not necessary.
The overall evaluation was for the entire design and on evaluating there are many major flaws
that can be rectified so this is why the evaluation of the designs is important after the completion
so that small errors and mistakes can be identified and resolved.