ISE 323: Quiz 2 (Heuristics)

Usability Heuristics

“Rules of thumb” describing features of usable systems

usability heuristics are used for _____ and _____

design principles, design evaluation

Heuristic-1: Visibility

Users should always be aware of what is going on so that they can make informed decision

example of. Heuristic-1: Visibility

loading time

Short delays: Hourglass

Long delays: progress bars

Heuristic-2: Match System & World

system should speak the user’s language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms

Heuristic-3: Control & Freedom

Easy to abort: cancel buttons, Easy to undo, Easy to make changes

Heuristic-4: Consistency

It refers to designing operations and interfaces to be the same across applications and devices

Heuristic-5: Recognition rather than recall

Make objects, actions, options, & directions visible so people do not have to rely on their memory

H-5: Recognition

easily recognize a person or an object that you’re familiar with. a very shallow form of retrieval from memory and it doesn’t require any work.

H-5: recall

have to find rarely used information in your memory (names, years, details, etc.). have to activate more memory chunks.

Heuristic-6: Errors and Memory

Design to prevent errors from occurring.

H-6: Mistakes

often caused by a user’s incorrect mental model of how the system works.

H-6: Slips

happen when the user tends to do an action, but due to low attention, performs another one

H-6: prevent slips

minimize the chance of it occurring by guiding them only through the safe areas

don’t allow a user to set a wrong value

H-6 Prevent mistakes

clear communication and a consistent design system

Heuristic-7: Flexibility

A good user interface should offer appropriate functionality to both inexperienced and experienced users.

Heuristic-8: Aesthetics

A minimal design uses only the necessary colours to support the visual hierarchy

Simple and natural dialog Present information in natural order

Heuristic-9: Help Users

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

ex. Apple vs. Google

Heuristic-10: Docs

• Easy to search • Focused on the user’s task • List concrete steps to carry out • Not too long

H-1:

Visibility of system status

H-2:

Match system and real world

H-3:

User control and freedom

H-4:

Consistency and standards

H-5:

Recognition rather than recall

H-6: Error prevention

Error prevention

H-7:

Flexibility and efficiency of use

H-8:

Aesthetic and minimalist design

H-9:

Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors

H-10:

Help and documentation

External validity

Results are generalizable to other experimental settings

Ecological validity

results generalizable to real-world settings

Internal validity

Requires that experiment is replicable

helps ensure a study's results are due to the tested factors, not other influences.