prototype 4

Practical 4: Heuristic Evaluation

Purpose: Getting systematic feedback on your paper prototypes

Due: - Team Heuristics: 24 hours after second class/meeting with supervisor – off campus (to enable all team members access)

-Individual Heuristic Evaluations - Monday, Week5 @ midnight

brief

Carolyn Snyder writes, "Paper prototyping is a variation of usability testing where the representative users perform realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the interface that is manipulated by a person 'playing computer' who doesn't explain how the interface is intended to work." In this assignment, each of your team’s paper prototypes will be evaluated using heuristic evaluations. You will work with another team to do this and you will evaluate one another‘s paper prototypes. This will complete the lo-fi prototyping phase of the project, providing you with the feedback you need to begin deciding on the final design you will functionally prototype.

mission: Use Jacob Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics to assess a paper prototype  

On campus students will partner with someone from another team for this assessment.

Off campus students will review their team member prototypes

All students will individually conduct an heuristic evaluation of a paper prototype.

· Individually students will be assessed on your individual skills displayed in this assessment as both a facilitator and an evaluator. Consent forms must be part of the practical submission

· The team will be assessed on the heuristics developed to assess their prototypes

Assignment

Heuristic evaluations are one method to highlight usability issues in paper prototypes.

Heuristic evaluations should follow readings by Jacob Nielsen:

· "How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation"

· "Ten Usability Heuristics" and

· “ UX Expert Reviews”

Using Nielsen's ten heuristics, teams will:

· create a set of customised heuristics that you want used to evaluate your prototypes

· create a means of recording the data that each team member will use

Each evaluator (expert reviewer) will list as many usability issues as possible as they work through a paper prototype.

· The heuristics are there to help evaluators find a variety of different types of usability issues.

· For each usability issue found, the evaluator should capture a description of the issue written as concisely and as specifically as possible (See examples provided)

Step 1: preparation

Preparation requires 2 parts:

PART A: TEAM

a. As a team, create a set of customised heuristics that you want your evaluators to use when assessing your prototype.

· This means CUSTOMISING the Nielsen list to the needs of your prototypes

· For creating a customised list of heuristics, you can:

· create your own heuristic list based on Nielsen’s work; OR

· use the online heuristic creator from Preece, Rogers and Smart (2007).

· All members of the same team should use the same set of heuristics for evaluating their prototype.

· Sharing your heuristics with your evaluator: send an electronic copy of your heuristic data collection document (You may also want to provide a cheat sheet of information on Nielsen’s heuristics )

PART B: INDIVIDUAL

b. Create a video walkthrough of your paper prototype -

Master the skill of operating your paper prototype.

· Don't waste time while being videoed by taking five minutes to find the next bit of the prototype to swap in.

· The smoother your paper prototype runs, the better.

· Work with their team members to create their video prototypes (an easier way to create the video) or create their own video alone.

To make your video, each team member should:

· Go through a couple of practice runs for each of your prototypes.

· Practice runs like these are called walkthroughs. Walkthroughs will get you comfortable operating the paper prototype and help you identify problems with it (for example missing pieces or dead ends).

· When you think you have the process smooth – create a video of it so that you can show this to your evaluator to help save time when reviewing someone else’s work.

Your evaluator will need your video prototype and your prototype pieces for the evaluation as well as the team heuristics (off campus students work with videos only and photos of prototype pieces of possible).

· Each team should have a video prototype for each of their paper prototypes (eg 3 team members, 3 videos)

Good video prototype example: <http://youtu.be/6qL9hJ5HmuQ>

Step 2: Conducting an heuristic evaluation: facilitation

Conduct an Heuristic Evaluation with your partner’s video, prototype pieces & heuristics

(Where possible, your whole team should be present for all sessions. However, it understood that this is not always possible. To facilitate this, try as hard as you can to schedule a block of time for all of your expert evaluators to come in and perform back-to-back evaluations [one at a time])

· Facilitation - Each person in each team will need to facilitate an heuristic evaluation.

· The facilitator should greet the evaluator, explain how the session will work, and give a brief introduction to your prototype.

· The facilitator then uses the video prototypes to show how the system works.

· Each person should record themselves conducting this facilitation process (Record a short video )

· Ensure you seek formal consent where video is used

· NOTE – please don’t have a video of you saying hello and then handing over everything to another person – that is NOT facilitation.

· Off campus students, include your facilitation in the video you make about your paper prototype (you only need to make one video) – this can be then shared with team members

· Prepared Heuristics: Provide your evaluator with the heuristics that your team developed and how you want the data collected

· Remember that the evaluator is the expert. Let the evaluator explore and evaluate the interface as they choose. Be prepared to answer any questions they ask.

Step 3: Being an expert evaluator

· As an evaluator, you are the expert and you should go through the interface the way that you would prefer to. (Don’t be swayed by the demonstration of how things work by the development team.) If you need to time to think about things – that’s fine

· Be thorough and write down all problems you can find. Don't try to be "nice" by not reporting problems; everything you find will help the team improve their interface.

· Use the team’s chosen Nielsen's heuristics as a guide and refer to the heuristics when describing problems found.

· Write each problem written down and give a severity rating. Use Nielsen' Severity Ratings for Usability Problems .

· Write up your findings in the way you think that best communicates the issues. A template is provided. Use this or adapt for your needs.

· Create a summary of your findings. For extra points, try to show your findings visually in a radar chart: (see https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Present-your-data-in-a-radar-chart-16e20279-eed4-43c2-9bf5-29ff9b10601d and an example in the template.)

Step 4: Reflections on being an expert evaluator

· Finally, reflect on the Heuristic evaluation process?

· Was it useful?

· Did you find it difficult being an evaluator?

· What were some of the challenges you faced?

· How valuable was the information you received about your prototype?

· In what way would you like this information provided?

· Did you receive results that were usable or where they confusing

· Where and how do you think this review process may be useful in the future?

· Write 2 -3 paragraphs (max) about the heuristic evaluation process you have just used/experienced

· Use the questions above to structure your reflections

submit

1. PART A – TEAM – 24 hours after second class (or meeting with external students)

· The project co-ordinator for each team needs to post - a document list of heuristics to the prac discussion board submission point.

2. PART B INDIVIDUAL Review & reflection due Monday Week 5 @ midnight

· All videos need to be submitted onto the PRIVATE unit YouTube channel

· Each person needs to post in the discussion board in their team space , their heuristic report. (Use the template provided for the write up). The report includes:

· urls of videos showing working paper prototype and facilitation skills

· the name of your partner and photos of their prototype –please include all parts

· the results (summary) of your expert review. This should include a bulleted list of usability issues you found, along with their severity. Raw data used to collect information should be included in the appendix (actual docs or digital images are required)

· consent forms as appropriate

· 2- 3 paragraphs reflecting on the value of Heuristic Evaluation: answer the questions listed above.

Submit this assignment via the discussion board. Ensure you clearly label your file with your name.

in the workshop

You will rate the quality of your partner’s work.

Be prepared to discuss your experience doing the Heuristic evaluations, both as an expert evaluator and having your prototype be evaluated.

Off campus students:

· In the learning materials for week 5, there is a rating sheet to be completed on how useful etc your partner’s HE review was

· Submit to assignment team space on Learnline.

YOUTUBE account details

Channel:

� HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/user/hciHIT381" �http://www.youtube.com/user/hciHIT381�

Use the following details:

User account: � HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]" �[email protected]�

Password: 381123hci

YouTube user name: Barbara Black

You need to go to the channel, login using the details provided here

And then upload your videos