storytelling: rhetoric of heuristic evaluation
DESCRIPTION
Keynote at symposium on Usability and Communicating Complex Information E. Carolina UniversityTRANSCRIPT
The Rhetoric
of Heuristic Evaluation Carol BarnumDirector of Graduate Studies and The Usability Center @ Southern Polytechnic
How to tell the story
Heuristic Eval is popular pick
Slide 2UX Workshop, ECU
UPA survey results for HE/expert review% of respondents
Survey year
77% 2007
74% 2009
75% 2011
Why so popular? Fact or myth?
Slide 3UX Workshop, ECU
Fast Cheap
Easy Effective
Convenient
Workshop, ECU
“It can often be more expensive and difficult to find 3-5 usability professionals as it is to test 3-5 users.”
Jeff Sauro, “What’s the difference between a Heuristic Evaluation and a Cognitive Walkthrough?” Measuring Usability, Aug. 2, 2011
Care to comment?
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HE output
Slide 5UX Workshop, ECU
• A list of usability problems• Tied to a heuristic or rule of practice• A ranking of findings by severity• Recommendations for fixing problems• Oh, and the positive findings, too
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1. Visibility of system status2. Match between system and real world3. User control and freedom4. Consistency and standards5. Error prevention6. Recognition rather than recall7. Flexibility and efficiency of use8. Aesthetic and minimalist design9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors10. Help and documentation
J. Nielsen and R. Mack, eds. Usability Inspection Methods, 1994
Nielsen’s 10 heuristics
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• Audience• Purpose• Context of use
What would Aristotle do?
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What do you do?
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• Do you do it (or teach it)?• How do you do it?• Why do you do it?• Do you do it alone or with others?• How do you report it?• How do you charge for it?
Slide 9usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
• Phase 1: Nielsen is my bible
What do I do? A brief history
Workshop, ECU
• Comparative evaluation of reservation process• 17 teams—
– 8 did expert review/HE– Only one team used heuristic evaluation
• Rolf’s conclusions– Findings “overly sensitive“—too many to manage– Need to improve classification schemes. – Need more precise and usable recommendations
CHI 2003Results available at Rolf Molich’s DialogDesign website, http://www.dialogdesign.dk/CUE-4.htm
CUE 4 Hotel Pennsylvania
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usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
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HE samplefindings page
Slide 12usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
• Phase 1: Nielsen is my bible• Phase 2: loosely based findings from Nielsen;
tables, screen captures, recommendations
What do I do? A brief history
usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
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Objectives/goals for the modules
Reason content is being presentedConciseness of presentationDefinitions required to work with the module/contentEvaluation criteria and methodsDirect tie between content and assessment measureSequence of presentation follows logically from introductionQuizzes challenge users
Develop a consistent structure that defines what’s noted in the bulleted points, above.Avoid generic statements that don’t focus users on what they will be accomplishing.Advise that there is an assessment used for evaluation and indicate if it’s at the end or interspersed in the moduleConnect ideas in the goals and objectives with outcomes in the assessmentFollow the order of presentation defined at the beginningDevelop interesting and challenging questionsRe-frame goals/objectives at the end of the module
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Finding Description Recommendation H C S Severity Rating
Objectives/goals for the modules
Reason content is being presentedConciseness of presentationDefinitions required to work with the module/contentEvaluation criteria and methodsDirect tie between content and assessment measureSequence of presentation follows logically from introductionQuizzes challenge users
Develop a consistent structure that defines what’s noted in the bulleted points, above.Avoid generic statements that don’t focus users on what they will be accomplishing.Advise that there is an assessment used for evaluation and indicate if it’s at the end or interspersed in the moduleConnect ideas in the goals and objectives with outcomes in the assessmentFollow the order of presentation defined at the beginningDevelop interesting and challenging questionsRe-frame goals/objectives at the end of the module
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Hyperspace, Shock, and Cardiac Arrest all require more clearly defined goals and objectives.H = Hyperspace; C = Cardiac Arrest; S = Shock
usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
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usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
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35 page report
Slide 16usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
• Phase 1: Nielsen is my bible• Phase 2: loosely based findings from Nielsen;
tables, screen captures, recommendations• Phase 3: screen captures, UX terminology
What do I do? A brief history
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usability.spsu.edu UPA 2011
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A unique password between 6 and 16 characters was required. What “unique” means is not defined. This is a problem with terminology.
Usually, passwords must be a combination of letters and numbers for higher security. An all-letter password—Heuristics—was accepted. A dictionary term is not a secure password and contradicts accepted conventions. The ability to input a dictionary word may be a component of trust for users.
The username and security question answer were rejected on submit.
This result is confusing as the name was confirmed on the previous screen. This relates to establishing conventions for the form of names/passwords on the input screen. Input formats need to be defined on the relevant page.Differences in spelling “username” vs. “user name” are subtle but are consistency issues.
The red banner is confusing as the user chose the gold (Free Edition). This is a consistency issue.
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• Phase 1: Nielsen is my bible• Phase 2: loosely based findings from Nielsen;
tables, screen captures, recommendations• Phase 3: screen captures, UX terminology• Phase 3.1: user experience emerges
What do I do? A brief history
UX Workshop, ECU
UX Workshop, ECU Slide 20
State Tax
Reviewer comments: I wanna click on the map, not the pulldown. WAH!Also, I’ve got no idea what the text on this page means.
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• Phase 1: Nielsen is my bible• Phase 2: loosely based findings from Nielsen;
tables, screen captures, recommendations• Phase 3: screen captures, UX terminology• Phase 3.1: user experience emerges• Phase 4: tell the story of the user experience
What do I do? A brief history
UX Workshop, ECU
Workshop, ECU
• Ginny Redish and Dana Chisnell• AARP report—58 pages, 50 websites
– Two personas—Edith and Matthew– Evaluators “channel“ the user via persona and
tasks/goals– Their story emerges
Available from Redish &Associates http://www.redish.net/images/stories/PDF/AARP-50Sites.pdf
Persona-based scenario review
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While the clickable area is very large in the navigation blocks, Edith expected to click on the labels, so she was surprised when the menu appeared
When trying to click an item in the menu above, Edith had trouble selecting because her mouse hovered close enough to the choices below to open that menu, obscuring the item she wanted to click
Chisnell and Redish, Designing Web Sites for Older Adults: Expert Review of Usability for Older Adults at 50 Web Sites, (for AARP)
Workshop, ECU
• All sites have usability problems• All organizations have limited resources• You’ll always find more problems than you have
resources to fix• It’s easy to get distracted by less serious problems
that are easier to solve . . .• Which means that the worst ones often persist• Therefore, you have to be intensely focused on
fixing the most serious problems firstRocket Surgery Made Easy, New Riders, 2010
Steve Krug’s approach
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• Focus ruthlessly on a small number of the most important problems.
• When fixing problems, always do the least you can do.
Krug’s maxims
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• Ginny Redish– Letting Go of the Words, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007
– Engage in conversation with your reader• Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks
– Storytelling for User Experience Design, Rosenfeld, 2010
– Stories can be a part of all stages of work from user research to evaluation
Conversation, Story Telling
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No deliverableQuick findingsPresentationDetailed report
Report deliverable options
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Jim Ross, “Communicating User Research Findings,“ UX Matters, Feb. 6, 2012
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Why report?
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Big honkin’ report—courtesy Steve Krug
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What’s a writer to do? Rhetoric to the rescue!
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Rhetorical Question Rhetorical principle
Who are my readers? Audience
What is my purpose in writing? What is their purpose in reading?
Purpose
How will they use the report? Context of use
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What have we learned today?
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• Things to keep
• Things to change
• Things to think about