UAR Identifier

HE1—Good Feature

This name indicates that this is our first UAR using Heuristic Evaluation.

Succinct description:

Presentation of the date speaks the users' language.

This phrase sums up our assessment of the aspect.

Evidence for the aspect:

Heuristic: Match between system and the real world.

First, we again identify the heuristic used to assess the aspect.

Then, we provide the interface aspect to which we applied the heuristic. As you see below, we use an actual screen-shot to make the report more concrete.

Interface aspect:

The label for the presentation of the date is

?

and U.S. residents typically present dates as name of the month, number of the day of the month, comma, and year.

Above we supply the actual real-world language the aspect uses. This is direct evidence for the match: you can see (as a reader of the report) the interface and the real-world language here and judge whether they match.

Explanation of the aspect:

The format of the date in the interface and the format that U.S. residents expect match exactly.

Sometimes the explanation is so obvious that it is redundant next to the evidence. This is OK and happens often with heuristic evaluation. We'll see in the material examples as we go along where the explanation is not as obvious, especially in the think-aloud usability studies.

Also, since the interface we are analyzing right now is so small, we don't have to provide any additional context—just the screen is all that is needed.

Benefit of the good feature:

The users will be able to recognize the date immediately, without having to translate it from another format.

Again, this benefit seems pretty obvious. This is OK. It should still be reported (although briefly) because those making future design decisions may need to be reminded of obvious things.

Solution:

Although this format is right for U.S. residents, it may not be correct for other cultures. For example, Europeans typically put the day of the month first, then the month, and then the year. If this product is going to be sold globally, we'll have to discover the other formats that are typically used among our user group and tailor the interface for those other users.

There is no actual "solution" because this is not a problem: it's a good feature to be preserved in future versions. However, this is also the slot where you record any possible trade-offs you can think of with respect to other design possibilities. Therefore, we should record here that presentation of the date is culturally dependent.

Relationship to other UARs:

No relationships apparent at this time.

Because this is the first UAR we are recording, there are no relationships to other UARs. So, this slot remains empty at this time. With each new UAR, we will examine all the previous UARs up to that point and make connections back to them as needed.

Typically, you make connections by looking at UARs that concern other aspects on the same screen, other aspects that violate (or follow) the same heuristic, or other aspects that would be used in the same task a user might have to perform.

UAR Identifier

HE2—Problem

This name indicates that this is our second UAR using heuristic evaluation.

Succinct description:

Map is sufficiently prominent to invite interaction, but it doesn't interact.

This phrase sums up our assessment of the aspect.

Evidence for the aspect:

Heuristic: Match between system and the real world.

First, we again identify the heuristic used to assess the aspect. You can copy-and-paste this from UAR HE1. Since you are likely to be looking at these UARs out of order and by themselves sometime in the future, it is important for each UAR to "stand on its own"—that is, have all the information it needs to be understood alone. Therefore, you will need to include the heuristic in each HE UAR. This may seem redundant, but it is important for the future use of the reports. So, do it—but use copy-and-paste to save yourself work.
Again, we use an actual screen-shot below to make the report concrete.

Interface aspect:

Given the screen,

?

?

the map image takes up more than half the control panel's screen real estate, making it the largest thing on the control panel.

The real-world convention is that the biggest things are the most important for conveying information or interacting.

Explanation of the aspect:

The image of the map is so large that it invites interaction, but it doesn't interact. The user gets no reaction if they click it or drag across it. It doesn't even show any information about the time zone, which makes us wonder why it is even present in this simple prototype.

Here the explanation is more than just repeating the evidence. Note that as we work through our programming assignments and build up a prototype of the complete control panel, the question of why the map is there MIGHT be answered. You may often find yourself wondering at times about aspects of an interface when you first sit down to analyze it, and then, later, when you understand more about it, you find a convincing rationale. If that is the case, you can always revisit the previous UARs and answer the questions you wondered about when you originally wrote them. It is a good idea to record questions such as these as they come up—because if they are never answered to your satisfaction, you should consider redesigning the interface to eliminate the irrelevant aspects.

Severity of the problem:

The user will probably quickly learn that this map doesn't give them any information or any opportunity for interaction, so this will probably be a problem only for the first-time user. However, this image takes up so much screen space that it might interfere with other information we may want to present in the interface.

This statement of severity considers how often the user may encounter the problem as well as what other problems this image might cause.

Solution:

Consider eliminating the map altogether.

Or consider increasing its importance, at least in providing information, by (for example) putting in the lines that denote the different time zones (a possible difficulty with this: some time zone lines are very complicated when they go around certain countries or areas—such as some Native American Indian reservations). Will have to look up where all the irregularities with time zones occur. (Do some places not have daylight savings time???)

Make sure to record any possible difficulties you can think of with the solutions you propose. Even if you don't know for sure, but think there might be a problem, make a note that you'll have to determine the details (as we did here with the instruction to find out more and the question about daylight savings time).

Relationship to other UARs:

No relationships apparent at this time.

Glancing back at UAR #HE1, it seems to have no relationship to this UAR. That's fine, but always check anyway, even though you don't expect to see too many relationships until you have a larger number of UARs.