University of Michigan Department of Psychology Heuristic ...killiane/docs/assignment_6_heuristic... · University of Michigan ept. of Psychology 3 D Moving Forward In addition to

University of Michigan Department of Psychology

Heuristic Evaluation

Group #15

Natalie Bond, Killia ong Li, & John Pas n Escobedo, Lezh

March 15, 2012

Word count: 4,239

Team 15 | Heuristic Evaluation University of Michigan Dept. of Psychology

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Executive Summary Using Jakob Nielsen’s “10 Heuristics for Usability,” a variety of issues were detected on the University of Michigan Psychology Department’s website. Upon further scrutiny, common themes among the heuristic violations were observed and developed in general findings regarding different types of usability problems on the ite. From these findings a set of recommendations were generated to alleviate hese issuest s in the site’s redesign. Finding 1: There are bsite, akin to a ort of digital ‘urban s

many inconsistent levels to access on the weprawl’.

ecommesR ndation 1: Improve the site’s information architecture. Finding 2: It is difficult for users to identify what section of the site they’re in, especially when users navigat e top e to sections of the site that are not reflected in thnavigation menu. ecommendation 2: Design the top navigation menu to incorporate all major ections of Rs the site. Finding 3: Often pages on the site contain excessive amounts of information or too little, with no complementary image content. Recommendation 3: Strive for a more consistent level of content on site’s page by dding images to pages and expanding the site’s margins to make better use of page eal estate. ar Finding 4: Dynamic content is often broken and lacking error preventative featurecommendation 4: Perform a quality control check on forms and optimize for rror preve

es Re ntion. Finding 5: The use of PDFs as a method to disseminate information decreases browsability of the site. ecommendation 5: Optimize PDF documents as HTML pages and/or interactive orms to faRf cilitate all manners of user interaction on the site. Finding 6: The site’s s n many of the site’s ages.

earch bar is easy to miss, and is absent o

ecomme ility and size. pR

ndation 6: Optimize Search bar’s visib

Finding 7: Links are not consistently identifiable. Recommendation 7: Implement distinct link and header themes across the site.

Team 15 | Heuristic Evaluation University of Michigan ept. of Psychology

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Moving Forward In addition to previous reports, this heuristic analysis has provided a number of action items and areas of focus to further explore with surveys and usability tests. It is our goal to continue to provide fair and balanced usability study of the department’s site in order to ensure the best site redesign possible.


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estimated students unlikely

Introduction This report is one in a series examining the website of the University of Michigan’s Department of Psychology, our team’s assigned client. This particular report is a heuristic evaluation, one which utilizes a set of formal heuristics (criteria) to examine various aspects of usability. Greater detail will be provided in the “Methods” section. Prior reports examined website user habits through interviews nd scenario modeling, in addition to a comparison of similar websites to the aDepartment’s website. The Department of Psychology’s website, originally launched in 2005, is the major source of information for the University’s Psychology community. The website is undergoing a major redesign later this year. Because the website has been around for quite a few years, we performed our heuristic evaluation with an eye towards what aspects might be out of date or not current, and what aspects are still adequate. In particular, we focused on three major issues. First, we focused on its overall layout and information architecture. Second, we examined the site’s content and the ease which a user can access that content. Finally, we examined various styling and presentation issues that could impede the site’s overall usability.

Methods Our team based much of our heuristic evaluation on Jakob Nielsen’s work with usability testing, specifically on heuristics and best practices for evaluating web usability. First, each group member individually conducted their own informal heuristic review of the site, which was guided by both Nielson’s “Heuristic Evaluation” and project instructions.1 We proceeded to do so over a period of two weeks, made several different variant passes at the evaluation process, focusing on a istinct group of heuristics each time. This method aided in focusing our attention n specific issues. do Site Areas

While we did not focus on any one particular section or area of the site, we did keep our evaluation within the scope of use from the student perspective. We examined all aspects of the site that we anticipated students using (e.g. the Undergraduate and Graduate sections; Funding Resources; Course syllabi), dismissing sections that we

to use (e.g. Faculty Resources).

1 Nielsen, J. (1994). Heuristic evaluation. In Nielsen, J., and Mack, R.L. (Eds.), Usability Inspection Methods, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.


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Working off of a spreadsheet template created by one of our group members, we were able to clearly utilize the same standards and definitions in determining our findings. The spreadsheet contained six columns, designed to capture a high level of detail: Finding, Page (e.g. on the website), Heuristic, Severity, Severity Explanation (Optional), and Person. We used a numerical rating system from 0‐4 to designate severity, in which 0 represented positive findings, 1 represented a cosmetic problem, 2 represented a minor usability problem, 3 represented a major usability roblem that was important to fix, and 4 represented a usability ‘catastrophe’ that pwas imperative to fix. Our team based our investigation on the full set of usability heuristics as set out in ielsen’s aforementioned chapter, one that included a set of ten heuristics (See list N

of Heuristics and associated explanation in Appendix B). In order to distill individual team member’s heuristic findings into a cogent group of findings and recommendations, we met as a group in order to discuss each person’s discoveries. Through discussion and mutual agreement, we undertook a process through which similar findings were combined, irrelevant or weak findings eliminated, and some ‘bigger‐picture’ findings were computed. We were thus able to produce a set of 9 mutually‐agreeable findings relating to Nielsen’s set of heuristics, discoveries that illuminate problem areas embedded within the website.

Findings and Recommendations inding 1: There are many inconsistent levels to access on the website, akin to a ort of digital ‘urban sFs prawl’. Heuristic Violations: flexibility and efficiency of use, consistency and standards As the main website for a large university’s Department of Psychology, this site is, by its very nature, necessarily deep and content‐rich. We have concluded, however, that its content is not always as accessible as it should be, and our team detected a general current of inconsistency woven throughout the site’s architecture. Internet architecture refers to the structure of a website, very much akin to a physical building’s architecture. A site’s performance, reliability, and strength heavily rely on a stable architectural framework that is consistent throughout the site. The Department of Psychology website’s depth is sufficient, but the ways in which it is tructured are less than adequate for the amount and type of information which it is eant to import.

sm

Team 15 | Heuristic Evaluation University of Michigan

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Dept. of Psychology

One example of the weak architecture found throughout the site lies in the Quicklinks menu, a menu which can be seen throughout nearly the entire site during navigation. Quicklinks seem to be meant as a method of ‘acceleration’ for experienced users (i.e. those familiar with the site or highly proficient in web browsing), allowing these users to access content more quickly. We discovered, however, that Quicklinks is not consistent throughout the site—its sub‐menu options often change depending on the user’s location within the site, and it does not prove to be a reliable, constant mechanism:

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Figure 1.1


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Another example can be found in the scattering of various ’Events’ menu options and tabs throughout the website. Rather than directing the user to one specific events page—one in which users could then be directed to more specific events‐focused pages, like faculty, graduate, undergraduate, or department—users find themselves, at various points of navigation, faced with a variety of ‘Events’ options. Which one to choose? The answer is not readily apparent, as can be seen in Fig. 1.2 Graduate Program Events Calendar) and 1.3 (Home: Events: Department Events alendar): (C

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Figure 1.2


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Figure 1.3

Recommendation 1: Improve site’s information architecture. This means being consistent with how the site is laid out—menus, headers, graphics, etc.—and keeping to that framework. As new content is added to the site, it should be added to fit within a particular, consistent context. Drop‐down menus could prove to be


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Dept. of Psychology

xtremely useful in ordering and organizing content in nested hierarchies, therefore acilitating smoother site navigation. ef Finding 2: It is difficult for users to identify what section of the site they’re in, specially when users navigate to sections of the site that are not reflected in the top avigation menu. en euristic Violations: Visibility of the system’s status, consistency and standards, H

recognition rather than recall. The UM Psychology department site employs several conventions that aid users in navigating the site and identifying the sections they are currently browsing. However, these conventions are complicated, as a lack of consistency requires users to rely on multiple schemas to identify their location on the site and frequently do not inform a user of a section change with the appropriate feedback. These conventions are further complicated as users consistently are encouraged to jump etween sections of the site, greatly inhibiting a user’s freedom to remain in a bparticular section of the site or quickly return to a previous section. The implementation of breadcrumbs enables a user to identify the hierarchy of a given section they are browsing, and to click on the breadcrumb to navigate back hierarchical levels as user browses deeper into a section. Additionally, color is utilized in the top navigation menu of the site to facilitate a user’s quick identification of the section they are currently browsing. Both of these conventions were identified as mechanisms that enhance a user’s ability to detect the system’s visibility and status in a heuristic analysis of the site (Appendix C). However, a lack of consistency in their implementation facilitates the violation of the same euristics, as well as the violation of other heuristics, including consistency and tandards and recognition rather than recall. hs


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Figure 2.1: Example of well‐executed conventions to facilitate navigation: Breadcrumbs and use of color to designate a selected page

For instance, it was observed that when accessing the “academic integrity quiz” in the undergraduate program section of the site, the hierarchy represented in the breadcrumb does not correspond to the true hierarchy of this section, a highly severe violation of the heuristic for consistency and standards (Appendix C). In fact, entire sections are omitted from the Undergraduate Program’s main page and are only accessible via the breadcrumbs, including “About the Program,” “Prospective Student Information,” “Undergraduate Student Organizations” and “Resources & Links.” Due to inconsistency In this section, the breadcrumb convention fails to serve users as an accurate navigation tool.

Figure 2.2: Violation of consistency and standards make breadcrumbs an inaccurate navigation too in the "Undergraduate Program" section. Entire sections are omitted from this section's main page.


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Dept. of Psychology

The site relies on a secondary navigation menu that does not employ the same color conventions that the top navigation menu does. In fact, the “research” section along with “news,” “events,” “visit us,” and “alumni & friends” are all part of a secondary navigation menu. The use of this secondary navigation menu requires users to remember that two different navigation menus are implemented and that each has unique content that a user must remember is accessible only from a particular menu. Furthermore, visibility of the system status is violated as the color convention to convey selected content is dropped from the secondary navigation menu and users are forced to refer to the breadcrumb, which does not provide location feedback in a quick fashion. A similar practice can be observed with a third navigation menu with “contact us,” “map” and “welcome” sections of the site. These violations were rated as severe in our analysis of the site and should certainly be addressed in the site’s redesign (Appendix C).

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Recommendation 2: Design the top navigation menu to incorporate all major sections of the site, especially sections that are only accessible from alternative navigation menus. This may have to include to addition of several categories in the op navigation menu and perhaps the consolidation of several categories. All of the ollowing should be accessible from the top navigation menu:

igure 2.3: Research Funding page under the "Research" section with highlighted heuristic violations.

tf


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Main Top Navigation Menu

Secondary Navigation Menu

Third Navigation Menu

● Graduate Program ● Undergraduate

Program ● Program Areas ● People

● Research ● News ● Events ● Visit Us ● Alumni & Friends

● Contact Us ● Map ● Welcome

Granted, not all categorical sections of the site can be included in the top navigation menu and some areas will have to be consolidated into others. The use of dropdown menus on the top navigation menu can assist users in identifying sub sections of the site. Providing users with a central navigation menu will enhance user’s freedom to quickly jump between sections of the site and identify where they are any given oment while navigating between sections. Additionally, it will enable them to rely n visual cues, as opposed to a user’s memory when he or she is navigating the site. mo Finding 3: Pages on the site often contain either excessive or minimal amounts of information, with no complementary image content. Page layout exacerbates these content issues. Heuristics Violations: Aesthetic and minimalist design. Throughout the website, there are individual pages and sections with very large amounts of information, and pages that are little more than a list of links. For xample, the “Undergraduate Honors Program Description” is a large, text‐heavy age containing far more information than just about any other page on the site. ep


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Figure 3.1 The Undergraduate Honors Program Description. Note small scrolling ruler, indicating a very

lengthy page.

While the page is divided into hyperlinked sections, this is a very large amount of information. Other pages, like the main page for Program Areas, are nothing more than a list of links with no real accompanying text. One page, an FAQ under the Undergraduate Resources and Links section contains no content at all.

Figure 3.2 The Program Areas main page: A list of links with no accompanying explanation.


gy

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Dept. of Psycholo

The amount of space utilized in the browser window also serves to exacerbate these content issues, specifically on pages where there is a large amount of textual content. Due to the narrow content box, the site’s front page, with its extensive extual news and event sections, has a very busy appearance and makes it difficult tfor the user to find information quickly. The varying content level of pages violates several heuristics. First, in having widely varying content, the pages have an inconsistent look and feel to them, violating the heuristic regarding consistency and standards. Second, pages with an extreme amount of content make it harder for a user to find only the needed information while pages with an extreme lack of content may confuse the user as to the page’s intent. This comes into conflict with the heuristic emphasizing flexibility and efficiency of use. Lastly, pages with too much content contain much unnecessary nformation, again violating the heuristic regarding aesthetics and minimalist esign. id Recommendation 3: Strive for a more consistent level of content on site’s page by

to pages and expanding the site’s margins to make better use of page adding imagesreal estate. We recommend a more consistent level of content throughout the site’s individual pages. Ideally most content should fit on a single page, eliminating the need for much scrolling. Although specific topics will require a varying level of content, a concise presentation of only necessary information saves the user time and energy in finding what he needs. For pages with text heavy content, adding images will help to balance this content while expanding the site’s margins will help alleviate scrolling issues. Requiring a minimum of content and explanation beyond a list of links will provide guidance to the user and ease search and discovery. Adding ynamic content on the site’s front page, such as rotating images for events, can liminate the need for long lists. de Finding 4: Dynamic content is often broken and lacking error preventative features euristics Violations: Flexibility and efficiency of use; error prevention; help users H

recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. Though some dynamic content design fits the principle of flexibility and efficiency of use like the multiple view option of events calendar, other content is either malfunctioning or prone to errors. The RSS link on the homepage directs to plain


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Dept. of Psychology

text. When a user attempts to opt‐out of the newsletter, it shows “500 – Internal sever error” (Figure 4.1) and user did not know how to deal with it, which violates the principle of help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. Similar error occurred when user tried to fill in the form for paid subject pool, which violates the principle of Match between system and the real world (Figure 4.2). It is also found both forms of paid subject pool and Undergraduate Graduation RSVP have poor error prevention settings which allow user input obvious illegal input, uch as put numbers in name field, and submit the forms. This violates the principle f error prevention. so

Figure 4.1 Error occurs when submitting newsletter opt‐out form.

Figure 4.2 Error occurs in paid subject pool page.

Recommendation 4: Perform a quality control check on forms and optimize for error prevention. Broken links should be examined and fixed, like the RSS button on the homepage. econd, forms and dynamic content should have clearer instructions and better rror control to avoid illegal input. Se

Team 15 | Heuristic Evaluation University of Michigan Dept. of Psyc

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hology

Finding 5: The use of PDFs as a method to disseminate information decreases the level of browsability on the site. Heuristic Violations: User control and freedom. Throughout the website, users may occasionally find PDF documents as the means f information dissemination for a particular topic. For example, the first link in the raduate funding opportunities section is a link to a PDF of external funding sources. og

Figure 5.1: Graduate Funding Opportunities. Note the highlighted link.


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Figure 5.2 Following the link results in this PDF document.

ther examples include the course requirement forms found on the main Oundergraduate page and course requirements page. The use of PDFs in this fashion violates the heuristics relating to user control and freedom. First, in navigating to a PDF document, the user navigates away from the website, thereby possibly confusing the user as to what he just clicked and where he currently is on the website. Secondly, PDF documents do not allow the user to interact with them. If it is a form requiring the user to fill it out and turn it in somewhere, there is no way for the user to fill it out online or get immediate eedback regarding any improperly entered fields. In addition, many of the PDFs lso provide links backfa to the website it was linked from. Recommendation 5: Optimize PDF documents as HTML pages and/or interactive forms to facilitate all manners of user interaction on the site. To promote user control and freedom on the site, PDF documents should be complemented with HTML pages and interactive forms. In converting them to HTML, the user no longer has to “leave” the site to get the intended information or


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Dept. of Psychology

read a document in a browser window. For documents that require action on the part of the student, having html forms in place of printed forms allows for immediate submittal and places less of a burden on the user administrative staff. aving more information in the flow of the website removes one extra unnecessary ayer for the user. Hl inding 6: The site’s search bar is easy to miss, and is absent on many of the site’s ages. Fp Heuristic Violations: Consistency and standards; visibility of system status. Current search function is hard to be found and has two different search pages. First, both the location and the color scheme of search bar make it hard to be found on the homepage (Figure 6.1). Second, while the search function on homepage links to site search, search function on other pages links to UM\ Google site search (Figure 6.2) and the second search page always returns “Error 404”. In addition, search function is not located on every webpage of the site. All of these violate the principle of consistency and standards. At last, the search box is too short to display he whole word when user types in a long word (Figure 6.3), which violates the rinciple of visibility of system status. tp


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Figure 6.1 Search ar is hard to find. b

Figure 6.2 Different search pages.


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Figure 6.3 Long search key words are not displayed completely.

Recommendation 6: Optimize Search bar’s visibility and size. Most websites put site search function on the top right corner, which becomes a standard and convention of web design. UM Psychology website should also follow the standard, so users will find the search function at the familiar position. The size and color scheme of search box should also be adjusted to make it more visible and ser friendly. Besides, it is significant to unify the two different search pages and tilize the search function on every webpage of the site. uu Finding 7: Links are not consistently identifiable. Heuristics Violations: Consistency and standards. Links on different pages are not consistent and identifiable, which violates the heuristic principle of consistency and standards. On the homepage, there is highlighting when the user moves the cursor on the top bar menu, left side bar menu, and news section. But featured links, quick links, and events section do not support the display strategy. Another example can be seen on the undergraduate program page: “Undergraduate Events” uses the same color as other links above, but is simply text, rather than an active link (Figure 7.1).


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Figure 7.1 Despite using t.

the same color scheme as other links, “Undergraduate Event” is only tex

Recommendation 7: Implement distinct link and header themes across the site. To solve this problem, a better color scheme with enough contrast to discern links from plain text should be utilized consistently. Highlighting the links when cursor is hovering over it is also an effective way to identify links dynamically, especially on the homepage where there are many links with different colors and backgrounds.


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Discussion This report is based on the set of ten usability heuristics developed by Jakob Nielsen. According to Nielsen’s research, 3‐5 evaluators are usually sufficient in order to provide a qualified evaluation. With 4 members on our team, however, and a website that is significant in depth and breadth of content, conditions made it impossible for us to cover everything complete detail with the limited time that we ad. During the evaluation, we made sure to analyze the tops levels of the website, hwhile choosing several important deeper levels to analyze. Due to the nature of the website, some principles of heuristic evaluation are stressed more than others. The Psychology Department website is more static than dynamic with rich textual information for faculty, students, staff, and alumni. These features make some principles less applicable, such as the match between system nd the real world, help and documentation, help users recognize, diagnose, and arecover from errors. Some of our recommendations, such as an image‐based rotating events section on the front page, and an increase in html form usage, are dynamic‐content heavy. Implementing these requirements would require a content management system with a robust back end that could facilitate database queries. A user sign in portal might also be required. It should be noted that economic considerations in implementing a content management system were not addressed in our ecommendations. An examination of these issues should be made before rimplementation of any content management system. It also should be noted that our team’s previous research and experience on UM Psychology website inevitably influenced our heuristic evaluation. Since the team is already familiar with the website, usability issues have already been discovered in revious research. Other usability aspects might be more apparent to evaluators nfamiliar with the website. pu


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Conclusion As a result of our heuristic evaluation, we were able to draw several findings and conclusions. Certain links are not easily identifiable as such (active), and some links are broken. We recommend that links be styled consistently and clearly so that they are identifiable as links, and suggest that the site designers implement a system of quality control to maintain active links. Individual webpages can have either too much or too little content. A balance ought to be struck with a moderate amount of content on every page. Too, PDF‐based content impedes overall website functionality. We recommend that any content currently available in PDFs be converted to html or html forms in order to enhance user interactions. The site’s search function is not easily or consistently visible, has few options and types of earching. We recommend combining the two different searches into one, and smaking the search field always available in the upper right hand corner of the site. Two of our most important findings concern the site’s overall architecture. First, the site has an expansive, sprawling feel with no real overarching design in place. We recommend the development of an architecture that will both serve current needs and allow for intelligent website expansion in the future. Second, it can be difficult for users to identify precisely where they are in the website, as easily‐understandable navigation links are not incorporated into top menu navigation. We ecommend that all main sections of the webpage be accessible via top menu rnavigation, in addition to making the top menu always visible. As we continue our study of the University of Michigan Psychology Department website, the findings from this heuristic evaluation will be especially useful in informing our usability testing, as well as what we hope to learn from our survey.


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Appendix A: Additional Findings Finding 8: Help and support documentation is lacking in the “Undergraduate rogram” section of the site and the existence of key support information is not entralized and instePc ad, scattered throughout many pages. iolated Heuristics: Help and support documentation; match between the system V

and the real world. The undergraduate student section provides an immense amount of information via a variety of PDF forms and html pages. Over 30 pages provide instructions on how to declare a major, set a course of study and identify research opportunities. Additionally, pages detailing peer and faculty resources provide instructions on how and when to seek advising help. Significant pieces of information are sprinkled throughout these pages, requiring a user to explore multiple pages of this section to retrieve particular pieces of information. For instance, a link to the “Peer Advisor’s” page resides in the “Departmental Opportunities” section, but the “Peer Advising Appointments” section on the undergraduate main page does contain a link to the “Peer Advisor’s” page. Likewise, the “Peer Advisor’s” page does not contain a link to the “Peer Advisor’s schedule,” which is only found on the “Peer Advising Appointments” page. It was a lack of centralized help and support that identified the absence of an FAQ or forum as a heuristic violation, although only of moderate severity. Additionally, it was observed that this section uses academic terms that may not correspond to user vocabulary. One example identified was the section titled “Departmental Opportunities,” which conveys a set of links related to job opportunities rather than the student resource links contained in this section. This as identified as a violation of the heuristic “match between the system and the real w

world,” which was rated as a moderate violation. Recommendation 8: An FAQ and/or forum or general help section would aid users in understanding how to track academic progress, understand concentration requirements and access student resources. Additionally, this section of the site could benefit from an overhaul of its information architecture, meaning main sections like “Departmental Opportunities” should be renamed to correspond with the information contents this section contains, as well as combined with/bifurcated from other sections that might align more with common tasks user may want to accomplish. Usability tests and surveys are excellent methods that may elucidate how this section could be restructured.


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inding 9: Several links around the site are broken, and some information is Foutdated. Having navigated around the Department of Psychology website throughout the semester thus far, our team has encountered several broken links and some information that is no longer accurate, up to date, or relevant. Examples include the Undergraduate Resources FAQ (see Fig. 9.1), in which there is no visible content beyond the header; the “Intern in Michigan” link in the Undergraduate Program: Life Outside UM section (see Fig. 9.2); and the “Petition for Modification or Waiver of egulation” link in the Graduate Program: Resources & Links: Current Student orms section (see Fig. 9.3). RF

Figure 9.1


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Figure 9.2


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Figure 9.3

Recommendation 9: Better quality control should be implemented. The site should be regularly monitored so as to identify and replace and/or delete broken links, particularly those directly related to student and academic affairs (e.g. forms). Every effort should be made to keep the site up to date and relevant to the current state of affairs within the Department of Psychology, the University of Michigan, and the larger world of sychological academia. p

Appendix B Jakob Nielsen's Usability Heuristics

http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html Page 1

Heuristic Explanation

Visibility of system status The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

Recognition rather than recall Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Error prevention Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

Flexibility and efficiency of use Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Appendix C: Consolidated Heuristic Violations Chart

University of Michigan - Psychology Department Website

Group 15: Natalie Bond, Killian EscobedoLezhong Li (William), John Pas

0 = well implemented feature1 = cosmetic problem 2 = minor usability problem

3 = major usability problem; important to fix4 = usability catastrophe; imperative to fix

Page 1

Finding Page Heuristic General Theme SeveritySeverity

Explanation (Optional)

Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Consistent color scheme and design Aesthetic and minimalist design

Aesthetics 0 May not be what they ultimately want, but it is consistent

J

Does not use Psychology department logo or feature UM or LSA logos prominently

Front page Aesthetic and minimalist design

Aesthetics 1 Depending on how much we want to stress aesthetics

J

Some pages inside the Psychology website use different template

undergraduate program Consistency and standards

Aesthetics 2 for example, Psych Dept. Alumni Profiles,

L

A "contact us" link is provided in the upper right hand corner, but not prominently

Front page Help and Documentation

Aesthetics 2 J

Faculty resources: links are not clearly identified as such

Faculty resources Consistency and standards

Aesthetics - links 2 use an example for consistency of quicklinks

J

Header lines in content sections of profiles look like links

People> Faculty Profiles;Undergrad > course information

Consistency and Standards

Aesthetics - links 2 K

Difficult to see hyper links in paragraph, information might be better conveyed in list format as opposed to paragrpah

People > faculty media contacts

Aesthetic and minimalist design


Undgraduate Events header looks like a link, but it's a header containing associated links below.

undergraduate_program_main_page



There is no consistency in highlighing text (when the user hovers their mouse/pointer over a menu item). (Featured Links and Quick Links do not highlight.)


Aesthetics - links 2 N

Research Lab under People & Research Laboratories under Research

home_people/research Consistency and standards

Architecture 3 L






Page 2



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Featured Links'--there is no signifier of how these are different from Quick Links. What's the difference between the content of these two menus? (I.e., what would people be specifically looking for under Featured Links? What does Featured even mean? Doesn't seem to have a particular theme on here.)

Front page Match between system and the real world

Architecture 2 N

Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feed icons are all very small. The first two are found in the lower left corner of the home page--they should be somewhere more conspicuous, esp. as all accounts are active and constantly updating. They should also be accessible from all pages.

Front page Consistency and Standards; User Control and freedom

Architecture 1 N

Why is there not just one page for the Honors program information, Why are there some many sub pages??

Undergrad >course information > honors program

Aesthetic and minimalist design; User control and freedom

Architecture 3 K

Site goes very deep, often 5+ clicks to get to the deepest level

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Architecture 3 J

Contact us serves many purposes beyond help, confusing its primary purpose

Contact us Match between system and the real world

Architecture 3 J

Room schedules is under events section and under people

home_events/people Match between system and the real world

Architecture 2 L

Psych affiliates are unable to update their website directory listing on their own

Contact Us User control and freedom

Broken/Bad Dynamic Content

2

The RSS function is a mess and not helpful homepage Help and documentation

Broken/Bad Dynamic Content

4 Not usable L






Page 3



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Failed to submit and subscribe the newsletter. Don't know why it failed

home_news_um psych news

Error prevention Broken/Bad Dynamic Content

4 500 - Internal server error.There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.

L

Allow illegal input to paid subject pool home_research_participate in research_paid subject pool


4 some input should be limited to numbers

L

Poor error prevention on Undergraduate Graduation RSVP

home_undergraduate program_ugo rsvp


4 doesn't need umich email, and name can be numbers

L

Different filters provided to view calendar home_event_department events


Good Dynamic feature

0 all, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, this month, next month

L

No instructions that users can select and filter by multiple research interest areas

People > Faculty Research Interests > Find Faculty by Research Interest

Help and documentation

Help 2 K

No faq section regarding questions about faculty positions or a contact for human resources. Postdoctorate positions does have a link to an external UofM resource

People > Faculty positions


Help 2 K

No faq section regarding questions about staff positions or a contact for human resources, especially when there are no positions displayed.

People > job openings > Staff positions


Help 2 K

Links to room schedule lead to an external Microsoft exchange CMS without any explanation

People > Room Schedules


Help 3 K






Page 4



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Some rooms have reservation packets in PDF form with detailed instructions on how to reserve rooms others do not.


Help and documentation; Consistency and Standards

Help 2 K

There is no FAQ or introduction regarding curriculum and issues or questions related to completing a degree

Undergrad > Concentration and curriculum guides

Match between system and the real world; Help and documentation

Help 2 K

It is not entirely clear when user goes from one major section of webpage to other because navigation and bread crumb trails are not featured prominently at the top of the page.

Grad to Program areas Visibility Navigation 1 J

User has to wade through a large amount of text in order to find the link to the "webmaster"

Contact us User control and freedom

Navigation 3 J

Some pages have "go back to the top" quick link while some not

home_undergraduate program_research_research opportunities

Consistency and standards

Navigation 2 Lack of "go back to the top" quick link on research opportunities page

L

Too many first level menu items without dropdown menu increase users' memory load

homepage Recognition rather than recall

Navigation 4 Whether graduate research under the Graduate Program or Research?

L

No "Home" top menu on contact us, map, welcome pages

contact us, map, welcome


Navigation 4 "Home" is only visible on top menu sections' pages

L

Bread crumb and link in "quick links" section are the only visible cues as to which program areas a graduate and undergrad. Quicklinks only link to perspective grad students

Program Area > All programs

Visibility of system status

Navigation 2 K






Page 5



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

The resources and links pages are only accessible from the breadcrumb and do not accurately reflect the true hierarchy of the site

Undergraduate program > Resources and links


Navigation 4 K

The top menu and left menu on the homepage are at the same level of the website. Top menu is displayed on every page while the left menu is not displayed on pages under top menu sections


Navigation 3 The left menu is replaced with some redundant links under top menu sections such as "Program Area"

L

Breadcrumb trail can be found on every page, directly beneath top navigation bar

Visibility Navigation good 0 J

User can generally use the breadcrumb trail to navigate up and down the levels of depth in a single area of the website

Graduate User control and freedom

Navigation good 0 J

Use of color under link on top navigation links to signify what section of the site you are in

many_pages Recognition rather than recall

Navigation good 0 K

LSA, UM, Psychology Logos are clickable and link to each site

whole website Visibility of system status

Navigation good 0 when users move mouse on LSA and UM Logo, they will be highlighted in white to suggest users they are clickable

L

Some links to external pages open in new tabs, others don't


New browser window

3 J

When a user clicks on a link to an outside HTML resource (another LSA site, for example), they leave the Psych website. Would be more efficient to have outside resources open in a new tab/browser.

Error prevention New browser window

2 N

PDFs are not always clearly marked as separate documents from other webpages

Graduate Awards User control and freedom

PDF 2 J






Page 6



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

All links and information regarding concentration guides are pdfs, let users access this information via an html page too.


User Control and Freedom

PDF 3 K

Pdf links to detailed history of the program open a pdf in the same window and require using a back button to navigate back to the site. If a user assumes (inccorectly) that they can

Program Area > Biopsychology


PDF; New browser window

3 K

PDFs do not always open in new tabs, possibly confusing the user as to what they clicked

Graduate Awards User control and freedom

PDF; New browser window

2 J

There are some broken links scattered throughout the site.

Error prevention Quality Control 1 N

Dead link "Direction to Central Campus". Should that be a map or text description?

home_visit us_map Error prevention Quality Control 1 L

Page information is not updated in Site map home_site map Help and documentation

Quality Control 2 there is a detailed hierarchy but with some pages not updated

L

Quick links and secondary links panels vary in content depending on the activated page, some times the secondary link panels does not show up at all

many_pages Consistency and Standards

Quick links 2 K

secondary links and quick links section can facilitate quicker navigation for more expereinced users

many_pages Flexibility and efficiency of use

Quick links 0 K

good use of quicklinks for quick navigation to specific content

Undergrad > quicklinks Flexibility and efficiency of use

Quick links 0 K

Main page content is narrow main_page Visibility of system status

Text content is too long

2 K

This page seems to have random bulleted points with large pieces of information that don't seem appropriate for a bullet point.

undergrad > course information

Aesthetic and minimalist design; Consistency and standards


1 K

This page uses large paragraphs and reads like an essay. It requires too much reading

Undergrad > course information > honors program > description



3 K






Page 7



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Adding images on the page with the list of links would enhance the page and provide a user with a better idea of what information content is in those pages.

Program Areas Aesthetic and minimalist design

Text content is too minimal

2 K

This page is too minimal with just links as information content




2 K

Too minimal, more descriptions surrounding links for users to identify course and associated syllabi

Undergrad > course information > course syllabi



2 K

On text heavy pages, the flow of information is logical, but very long

Undergraduate research Match between system and the real world

Text content too long

3 J

Front page: "In the news"/"What's happening" too many stories/text


Text content too long

2 J

There is no filter of in site/ out site search for search bar homepage Flexibility and efficiency of use

bad search feature

3 L

Only one filter option on site search page home_site search Aesthetic and minimalist design

Search 3 If there is only one option, there is no need to display it

L

No error message conveying when no results were found for a query

People > Directory > Search

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Search 2 K

The best search result is highlighted as "key match" home_site search Visibility of system status

Search 0 L

There are some suggestion if site search fails home_site search Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Search 0 L

Search on homepage links to site search while search on other pages link to UM search

whole website Consistency and standards

Search 4 It confuses users easily.

L






Page 8



Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Search bar is too short to display the whole keywords homepage Visibility of system status

Search 2 even a single long word cannot be fully displayed

L

Website uses an appropriate level of psychology-based terminology, intelligible to a lay person or a prospective student. However, academic/administrative terminologies are confusing.

undergraduate program Match between system and the real world

3 J

Appendix D: Individual Heuristic Notes





Page 1

Finding Page Heuristic Severity Severity Explanation (Optional)

Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Breadcrumb trail can be found on every page, directly beneath top navigation bar

Visibility 0 J

There is no indication--aside from the browser indicating it--when you are leaving the Psych webpage

Grad Resources

Visibility 1 J

It is not entirely clear when user goes from one major section of webpage to other

Grad to Program areas

Visibility 1 Can we fix this? Redundancy issue?

J

Website uses an appropriate level of psychology-based terminology, intelligible to a lay person or a prospective student. However, academic/administrative terminologies are confusing.

Front page Match between system and the real world

2 J

Quicklinks language is terse and vague Match between system and the real world

2 Similar to what the heck featured and quicklinks are, might delete

J

On text heavy pages, the flow of information is logical, but very long

Undergraduate research

Match between system and the real world

3 J

User can generally use the breadcrumb trail to navigate up and down the levels of depth in a single area of the website

Graduate User control and freedom

0 J

Breadcrumb trail does not reflect jumps in sections User control and freedom

2 J

PDFs do not always open in new tabs, possibly confusing the user as to what they clicked

Graduate Awards

User control and freedom

2 J

PDFs are not always clearly marked as separate documents from other webpages

Graduate Awards


2 J

Some links to external pages open in new tabs, others don't


3 J

Faculty resources: links are not clearly identified as such

Faculty resources


2 use an exxampl for consistency of quicklinks

J

Front page: no clear differentiation between "featured links" and "quck links"

Front page Consistency and standards

3 J

Links within the website appear all to still work Error prevention 0 Delete JSome dead/out of date external links, esp. funding links Error prevention 3 J

Lack of breadcrumbs from one section of site to other forces user to remember from where they came

Recognition rather than recall

2 (I've said this several different ways before, may not be necessary so many times) Delete

J

Front page: "In the news"/"What's happening" too many stories/text


2 J

Site's heavy reliance on text makes quick location of information difficult


3 J

Site goes very deep, often 5+ clicks to get to the deepest level


3 J

Events calendar not apparent, not easy to find and not easy to use

Events Flexibility and efficiency of use

3 J

Signing up for room space not dynamic/automatic Room Schedules


3 J

John Pas' Heuristic Analysis & Notes






Page 2


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Consistent color scheme and design Aesthetic and minimalist design

0 May not be what they ultimately want, but it is consistent

J

Does not use Psychology department logo or feature UM or LSA logos prominently

Front page Aesthetic and minimalist design

1 or 2 Depending on how much we want to stress aesthetics

J

A "contact us" link is provided in the upper right hand corner, but not prominently

Front page Help and Documentation

2 J

User has to wade through a large amount of text in order to find the link to the "webmaster"


3 J

"Contact us" serves many purposes beyond help, confusing its primary purpose


3 J

Psych affiliates are unable to update their website directory listing on their own

Contact Us User control and freedom

2 J

Dead link "Direction to Central Campus". Should that be a map or text description?

home_visit us_map


1 L

Email address links have been directed to gmail? all the email links


3 L

LQuicklink is not consistent in different sub-section whole website Consistency and

standards4 very complicated and

confusingL

LSA, UM, Psychology Logos are clickable and link to each site

whole website Visibility of system status

0 when users move mouse on LSA and UM Logo, they will be highlighted in white to suggest users they are clickable

L

Website Breadcrumb whole website Visibility of system status

0 it helps users locate where they are with the entire path and highlighted present page

L

Site map home_site map


3 there is a detailed hierarchy but with some pages not updated

L

Events calendar is clickable in blue if there is an event on that day

home_event_department events


0 L

Different filters provided to view calendar home_event_department events


0 all, today, tomorrow, this week, next week, this month, next month

L

Search bar is too short to display the whole keywords homepage Visibility of system status

4 even a single long word cannot be fully displayed

L

Lezhong Li's Heuristic Analysis & Notes






Page 3


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

Search bar is hard to find and notice homepage Consistency and standards

4 The location of search bar does not fit the standard and users' mental models. Most search bars locate in the right top corner

L

There is no filter of in site/ out site search for search bar homepage Flexibility and efficiency of use

3 L

The best search result is highlighted as "key match" home_site search


0 L

Crowed text in news section and events section on homepage

homepage Aesthetic and minimalist design

3 L

Some pages inside the Psychology website use different template


2 for example, Psych Dept. Alumni Profiles,

L

Room schedules is under events section and under people

home_events/people


2 L

Failed to submit and subscribe the newsletter home_news_um psych news


4 500 - Internal server error.There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.

L

Contents in the middle and on the left bar are the same home_people/graduate program/program areas


3 L

Some pages have "go back to the top" quick link while some not

home_undergraduate program_research_research opportunities


2 Lack of "go back to the top" quick link on research opportunities page

L

Allow illegal input to paid subject pool home_research_participate in research_paid subject pool

Error prevention 4 some input should be limited to numbers

L

Layout of undergraduate program is different from other pages

home_undergraduate program


3 L

No "Home" top menu on contact us, map, welcome pages

contact us, map, welcome


4 L

Search on homepage links to site search while search on other pages link to UM search


4 L

LResearch Lab under People & Research Laboratories under Research

home_people/research


3 L

There are some suggestion if site search fails home_site search


0 L






Page 4


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

The RSS function is a mess and not helpful homepage Help and documentation

4 Not usable, broken? L

LOnly one filter option on site search page home_site

search Aesthetic and minimalist design

3 L

Too many first level menu items without dropdown menu increase users' memory load

homepage Recognition rather than recall

4 Whether graduate research under the Graduate Program or Research?

L

Poor error prevention on Undergraduate Graduation RSVP

home_undergraduate program_ugo rsvp

Error prevention 4 doesn't need umich email, and name can be numbers

L

Main page content is narrow main_page Visibility of system status

2 K

A visitor to the main page that is not a student or faculty (especially prospective student) does not have a dedicated "prospective link o an about section to visit

main_page User Control and Freedom

2 K

Font is bigger on this main page when compared to graduate, program areas, people main pages



2 K

Quick links and secondary links panels vary in content depending on the activated page, some times the secondary link panels does not show up at all

many_pages Consistency and Standards

2 K

secondary links and quick links section can facilitate quicker navigation for more expereinced users

many_pages Flexibility and efficiency of use

0 K

Use of color and underl ink on top navigation links to signify what section of the site you are in

many_pages Recognition rather than recall

0 K

Finding a simple about section requires navigating multiple links

Graduate program > About


2 K

No error message conveying when no results were found for a query



2 K

Cannot return to people main page using back button without cycling through each uery result. People link at top can be clicked though



2 K

Header lines in content sections of profiles look like links

People> Faculty Profiles


2 K

No instructions that users can select and filter by multiple research interest areas

People > Faculty Research Interests > Find Faculty by Research Interest


2 K

Killian Escobedo's Heuristic Analysis & Notes






Page 5


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

No faq section regarding questions about faculty positions or a contact for human resources. Postdoctorate positions does have a link to an external UofM resource

People > Faculty positions


2 K

No faq section regarding questions about staff positions or a contact for human resources. Postdoctorate positions does have a link to an external UofM resource

People > job openings > Staff positions


2 K

Difficult to see hyper links in paragraph, information might be better conveyed in list format as opposed to paragrpah

People > faculty media contacts


2 K

Links to room schedule lead to an external Microsoft exchange CMS without any explanation as to this


Visibility of system status;

3 K

Some rooms have reservations packets in PDF form with detail instructions on how to reserve rooms others do not, with no explanations


Help and documentation; Consistency and Standards

2 K

Pdf links to detailed history of the program open a pdf in the same window and require using a back button to navigate back to the site. If a user assumes (inccorectly) that they

Program Area > Biopsychology


3 K

Each program area links to "Application Procedures," which routes users to a singular applications procedure page for all program areas. Users may think that there is a specific procedure for each program area.

Program Area > specific graduate programs > application procedures


2 K

Bread crumb and link in "quick links" section are the only visible cues as to which program areas a graduate and undergrad. Quicklinks only link to perspective grad students

Program Area > All programs


2 K

Adding images on the page with the list of links would enhance the page andp rovide a user with a better idea of what information content is in theose pages.

Program Areas Aesthetic and minimalist design

2 K

Undgraduate Events header looksl ike a link, but it's a header containing associated links below.



1 K

Facebook links are hidden. Let a user access facebook at any point when on the site, no matter what the page is.

Facebook links User Control and Freedom

2 K

All links and information regarding conetration guides are pdfs, let users access this information via an html page too.



3 K

It's not apparent what the difference between a curriculum guide and concentration is. A brief description introduceing the purpose of these documents



2 K

This page is too minimal with just links as information content



2 K






Page 6


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

This page seems to have random bulleted points with large pieces of information that don't seem appropriate for a bullet point. Also uses headers that look like links



1 K

good use of quicklinks for quick navigation to specific content

Undergrad > quicklinks


0 K

This page uses large paragraphs and reads like an essay. It requires too much reading. It's too narrow making it appear longer than it actually is.

Undergrad > course information > honors program > description


3 K

Requirement information appears on description page. Why are these on different pages, users would want this information inf the description section.

Undergrad >Course information > honors program > description & Requirements


2 K

Why is there not just one page for the Honors program information, Why are there some many sub pages??

Undergrad >course information > honors program


3 K

Why is information regarding honors program and, psych 331 and indpendent study ocurse in here? Is it duplicative. And course syllabi?

Undergrad > course information > registration and waitlist


2 K

Too minimal maybe in a table format, more descriptive information surrounding links for users to identify course and associated syllabi

Undergrad > course information > course syllabi


2 K

Home button top navigation is not available on main page and maps, and contact page

main page Consistency and Standards

2 K

There is no sign-in mechanism--e.g. something that could say "Welcome, nfbond" or "Welcome, student" at the top of each page after a user has logged in. (Difference between using a site as a registered user vs. guest)


1 N

Search box is on the mid-left of the screen--should be at top right corner, as per usual site conventions.


3 N

Featured Links'--there is no signifier of how these are different from Quick Links. What's the difference between the content of these two menus? (I.e., what would people be specifically looking for under Featured Links? What does Featured even mean? Doesn't seem to have a particular theme on here.)


2 N

Natalie Bond's Heuristic Analysis & Notes






Page 7


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

There are so many different sections/subsections, such a dearth of breadcrumbs, and such a high level of redundancy that navigation is really impeded--especially when a user wants to navigate back to a part of the site that they were at earlier, but can't remember exactly how to get there. Easy to get lost in the text.


4 N

User can only utilize the Back button in order to return to sections of the site.


4 N

The menu items/options are not consistent (top menu, sidebar, etc.)--they sometimes do not match each other as the user navigates around the site. The breadcrumbs are not consistent, and thus do not easily facilitate users re-tracing their steps.


4 N

There is often an overload of text on the page, whether it's web content, titles, menus, or links. This does not easily facilitate intuitive browsing--the user is often forced to re-adjust and re-orient themselves each time they navigate to a new part of the site, just because the amount of text is so overwhelming.

Recognition rather than recall

4 N

There are some broken links scattered throughout the site.

Error prevention 1 N

When a user clicks on a link to an outside resource (another LSA site, for example), they leave the Psych website. Would be more efficient to have outside resources open in a new tab/browser.

Error prevention 2 N

Navigation paths are long, and there are no shortcuts ('back' tabs, 'recently viewed' category, etc.).


3 N

Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feed icons are all very small. The first two are found in the lower left corner of the home page--they should be somewhere more conspicuous, esp. as all accounts are active and constantly updating.


2 N

Is it standard for email links to automatically open Microsoft Outlook? I feel like the majority of students aren't using this, and it's always personally annoying to me to have to wait for the window to load, and then close it.


1 N

Aesthetically, not pleasing…too overloaded with text. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

3 N

There is no consistency in highlighting text (when the user hovers their mouse/pointer over a menu item). (E.g. Featured Links and Quick Links do not highlight, while Top Menu uptions do.)


2 N

Purple is a bit depressing. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

1 N

Image of girl on front page is rather outdated--screams 90s and makes the site feel out of touch.

Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

1 N

Site map is long and overwhelming. Needs to have a more aesthetically-pleasing layout, more intuitively structured.

2 N






Page 8


Evaluator (J,K,L,N)

There is no sign-in mechanism--e.g. something that could say "Welcome, nfbond" or "Welcome, student" at the top of each page after a user has logged in. (Difference between using a site as a registered user vs. guest)


1 N

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