Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Heuristic Evaluation Modified
The original procedure to conduct a heuristic evaluation has also been
modified. The following subsections refer to a number of aspects that are
important to consider to adapt it to information visualization.
Applying the Heuristics
Heuristic evaluation is a subjective procedure that involves personal
judgment. Evaluators are given a set of heuristics which they may interpret
and apply differently when deciding whether they can be used to explain a
problem. To support agreement, each heuristic should be described in
detail, and be presented with clear and rich statements or questions that aid
the evaluators in discovering usability problems. Hence, it is imperative
that the evaluator makes sure each heuristic is clear and detailed enough to
be a good cue, and to generate ideas during evaluation [24][36]. This
allows for greater consistency in interpretation of each heuristic, and in
how it is used to explain the usability problems that may be found. This is
more important to consider when the heuristics employed are not
described in sufficient detail in the original literature, when they are
chosen from a number of different sets, and when researchers develop
their own heuristics. Overlap and redundancy in such sets of heuristics can
be an issue. Suitable descriptions and explanations must be made to
circumvent these issues.
To promote evaluators' skills in applying a given set of heuristics,
instruction and practice in lecturing, tutorials, and self-studies becomes
essential. Knowledge gained from training should prevent misunderstanding
in how a heuristic should be interpreted and used, or when problems are
missed or poorly understood [45].
Participants
In traditional heuristics, usability specialists are the evaluators, often
recruited from the areas of human factors or human-computer interaction.
For information visualization this means that such evaluators either are not
knowledgeable in the kinds of data to be visualized, or the type of
problems and tasks that are solved using a particular visualization
technique. To overcome this, one can include experts in a data domain or a
visualization technique, or one can include users. Nielsen [2] also
suggested engaging “double-experts” (experts in usability and the
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