Amity Zeh
IS 213
March 28, 2001
Heuristic Evaluation for TraveLite
(back to Heuristics page for TraveLite)
[H13 - Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors] Severity 4
When I tried to Create a New Account from the home page, I went through the process, hit “continue” and then went to a completely blank screen. When I return to the home page and log in with the new account name, it doesn’t recognize it (I get ‘Welcome, .).
[H5 - Follow real-world conventions] Severity 2
On ‘My Account/Bookshelf’ page, the interface reads “You have purchased access to the following destinations” and when I haven’t purchased anything yet, there’s only a link to “Purchase more destinations.” This could be confusing to users -- maybe include something like “no destinations purchased yet.”
[H4 - Match between system and the real world] Severity 2
[H7 - Consistency and standards] Severity 2
It’s not entirely clear what the difference is between “purchase more destinations” and “create a new guide.” This is especially problematic when the gray separators are missing (see below). Each takes me to a page that is MOSTLY add/remove destinations, but which differs slightly from the other.
[H7 - Consistency and standards] Severity 3.5
In certain situations, My Account/Bookshelf has 4 sections clearly separated by gray bars, which makes it easy to view and navigate. HOWEVER, these separators are sometimes there and sometimes not. (I logged in as Charley, and appeared to be at My Account and Bookshelf, without the gray separators. I then clicked FAQ in the nav bar and clicked My Account to return there -- and then the separators were there again!) It’s not clear when or why this changes, and it makes it difficult to know where I am or what I’m able to do
[H7 - Consistency and standards] Severity 2
When I bought a new destination and wanted to pay for it, “continue” was so far over to the left and so far away from “cancel”, I almost missed it. Generally, I expect buttons to submit and cancel to be directly below the information input field(s) and next to each other.
[H4 - Match between system and the real world] Severity 3
Once I get to Choose Guide Type and Size, it’s not apparent how much information I get for the 2000K size. How does that map to “pages” or “words” or something else I might be concerned with when buying a directory? (However, I am not suggesting that it be removed -- it is important to know to see how much I can fit on my Palm.)
[H4 - Match between system and the real world] Severity 3
[H5 - Follow real-world conventions] Severity 3
Once at “Build my own guide,” it wasn’t immediately clear to me that the tabs WERE tabs, and then that the check boxes include or exclude the information on that tab. Additionally, the Check All | Uncheck All option seems to repeat that functionality. Suggestions: I might make the default “not included” and then have only an “include/exclude all” check mark (similar to the check all/uncheck all) on the tab sheet and thus visible only when the tab is selected, rather than on the tab itself.
[H6 - User control and freedom] Severity 2
Is it possible to see more details about a specific restaurant beyond neighborhood, name, etc.? Scenarios seem to indicate yes, design indicates no. It would be nice to be able to eliminate or include individual restaurants instead of having to use solely the macro things like “cuisine” or “neighborhood.” It’s not clear to me if this is a design flaw or merely something not-yet-implemented.
[H3 - Visibility of system status] Severity 4
[H5 - Follow real-world conventions] Severity 4
[H6 - User control and freedom] Severity 4
After previewing a guide that I’m building, if I return to “edit” it takes me back to the very beginning of the process (add or remove regions) and does not save my changes. It should return me to exactly where I was before.
[H3 - Visibility of system status] Severity 3
Does it automatically save my choices as I’m going? It’s not at all clear. I am operating under the assumption that it does, but if I back out, are my changes still saved when I go forward again or when I hit “finish”? Once I finish, and go back to My Account/Bookshelf, it doesn’t have my newly created guide.
[H3 - Visibility of system status] Severity 3
[H4 - Match between system and the real world] Severity 3
[H5 - Follow real-world conventions] Severity 3
When I log in as an existing user (e.g. Evan) and select EDIT an existing guide, I can’t save it as something else. For instance, if I have a full San Francisco guide, and I want to reduce it to simply “Restaurants” with one or two nightlife things, I have to start from scratch. (Other nitpicks: Clicking “edit” in same place brings me not to the Refine Regions, but to the “choose regions” which seems strange. From this window, Preview opens a new window, which is strangely shaped and too small to see what it contains; it should be larger in order to see what in fact it is.)
[H1 - Establish an identity] Severity 2
Doesn’t identify website managers fully. Doesn’t provide TraveLite address, contact info or customer service email beyond “copyright infringement” and “remove me from your mailing list” contacts. However, it does tell where the content is coming from, which is probably the largest concern of a user.
[H7 - Consistency and standards] Severity 3
[H5 - Follow real-world conventions] Severity 3
It’s not clear at all that the (i) can be clicked on or why I would want to -- I finally clicked on it out of curiosity and found out it was more info about countries or regions. It’s also not clear when it goes to countries and when to regions, especially on the “purchase available destinations” page.
and FYI (these appear to be CF coding or HTML errors only, not design issues)