Usability Evaluation Models - High Level Models and Methodologies for Information Systems - page 82

The evaluators walk through the action sequences for each task, placing it within
the context of a typical scenario, and as they do this, they try to answer the
following questions:

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Will the correct action be suf ciently evident to the user?

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Will the user notice that the correct action is available?

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Will the user associate and interpret the response from the action correctly?

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Finally, as the walk-through is presently complete, a record of critical infor-
mation is compiled to identify what cause problems and why are recorded.
This involves explaining why users faced these dif culties, notes about side

issues and design changes are made, and a summary of the results is compiled. The
design is then revised to fix the problems presented. Last but not least, this eval-

uation records what works and what does not in details, and this will assist the
designers to resolve the problems and ensure the system/interface will meet the
users

' needs at the end.

5.4 Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is called the rules of thumb, as it guide designer and experts to
use high-level design principles or heuristics to ensure if the interface elements
con rm to the principles and project aims. This evaluation was developed by

Nielsen and colleagues (Nielson and Mack 1994 ), and it was con rmed (Vere-

denburg et al. 2002 ) that this evaluation is very cheap, easy to use, and generate
effective evaluation without the need for professional evaluators. The evaluation
process under this type will evaluate dialog boxes, menus, navigation structure,
online help, and so on.
Using this, evaluation requires an acceptance of an incomplete set of heuristics
that are simple, easy to understand, and relevant to the product which evaluators can
be trained if necessary.
This evaluation consist the following steps, namely: 1) Brie

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needs and requirements; 2) Evaluation: evaluators to assess and evaluate the
interface; 3) Debrie

ng: de ning users

ng: to identify the problems and gaps in the interface.
Finally, the debrie ng session, under this step, the experts will bring the prob-

lems and gaps from the interface, and speci

c solutions will be generated to meet
the new interface needs, and user will evaluate the new interface to ensure if it met
their needs or not.
In the evaluation process, heuristic evaluation is essential as users and designers
will understand the system/interface functionality well, and this evaluation will
de line the gaps, and precise solutions will be de ned to these gaps in line to match

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users needs (Fig. 5.2 ).