Return to TraveLite HE summary
		Violation of (Heuristic)	Violation Description	Severity  (0-4)	Solution	Evaluators
						Amity Z.	Kirsten S.	Moryma A.
Sitewide
		H3. Visibility of system status	While building a guide the system offered no clues as to what steps had been done and what else the user had to do.  This was noticable particularly in the “Purchase Content,” “Choose Guide Type and Size,” “Add and Remove Regions” and “Edit Regions” screens.	4. Usability catastrophe; imperative to fix	It would be good if system could let you know how many steps are involved in building a guide, then show steps completed as grayed out, current step highlighted and steps to come in some other format.  Alternatively, a tour or overview of the process would be helpful, with estimates of how long the entire process might take.		X	X
		H3. Visibility of system status	Some pages do not have any obvious names or headings (for example, the only indication that you're on the home page is that the name isn’t a link - a more obvious indicator could be helpful.  The Edit Regions screen is also unlabeled).	2.  Minor usability problem	Some sort of visble navigation, like breadcrumbs, or even just the page name at the top of the page.		X	X
		H5.  Follow real-world conventions  /  H7.  Consistency and standards.	It is unclear that the (i) icon is a link and what kind of information it brings up.  Throughout the rest of the site most links are labeled, why an unlabeled, non-standard icon here?  Once clicked the information it brings up seems inconsistant - it is not clear when it references countries and when regions, especially on the “purchase available destinations” page.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Whether or not you use the icon, explain what kind of information the link will return to the user.	X		X
		H13. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors	For the most part, error recovery is not supported in this implementation.  Sign-in problems are the only area addressed completely, with two ways for users to recover their passwords.	4. Usability catastrophe; imperative to fix	Add error recovery processes.		X
Home Page
		H1. Establish an identity	We know who is providing the travel content but not who TraveLite is.  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.	2. Minor usability problem.	Include a link to TraveLite staff, mission. On a similar note, it would be good to have a “Contact TraveLite webmaster” link available on the home page, so that users do not have to scan through the “Privacy” and “Terms of Use” sections to identify a contact person—an individual might have a problem with the website that does not fall under either of those headings.	X	X	X
		H2. Indicate the target audience of the site	There is no indication on the home page which geographical areas are available.  There is a list in the FAQ, but you may want to feature it more prominently so that one who is surfing will know, at a glance, that TraveLite has North American destinations.	1.  Cosmetic problem	Include a listing of available geographical areas on the home page.		X
Create a New Account
		H13.  Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors	Encountered problems trying to Create a New Account from the home page - went through the process, hit “continue” and then went to a completely blank screen. When tried to return to the home page and log in with the new account name, the system didn't recognize it (got "Welcome").	4. Usability catastrophe; imperative to fix	Add error recovery processes.	X
FAQ/Try a Free Trial
		H2. Indicate the target audience of the site	On the home page, the site has a good, clear statement of purpose:  “TraveLite is a tool for creating customized travel guides.”  Might say a little more about what this means to the user.	1.  Cosmetic problem	Might also consider adding “who can benefit from TraveLite?” to the FAQ.  Perhaps use your personas as examples.		X
		H9. Aesthetic and minimalist design	On this screen there were too many options visible at once, making it difficult to know what pieces of information were there just for information, and what pieces required immediate attention.  For instance, the page where one can Download a Free Trial also has on it the list of FAQs.   That was confusing—it took attention away from the task at hand and forced the user to read the other items on the screen.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Limit screens to 1 major function or use formatting to focus user's attention on pertinent information.		X
My Account and Bookshelf
		H4. Match between system and the real world	On the “My Account and Bookshelf” page, there is a distinction made between “content purchased” and “guide you’ve created.” - the difference between the two may be unclear to users.	2.  Minor usability problem	Provide some examples to illustrate the difference, perhaps using a graphic to illustrate.		X
		H4.  Match between system and the real world.  H7.  Consistency and standards.	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 item 2 rows below).   /  Is purchasing access to content the same as being able to create a guides from an area?  Do users really care what content they’ve purchased or instead what they have access to?	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Clarify the difference between purchasing destinations and creating guides, tell users what destinations they can create guides from not what they've bought.	X	X	X
		H5.  Follow real-world conventions	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.	2.  Minor usability problem	Maybe include something like “no destinations purchased yet.”	X	X
		H7.  Consistency and standards	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 not always there. (User logged in as Charley, and appeared to be at My Account and Bookshelf, without the gray separators. User then clicked FAQ in the navigation 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 the user is and what she is able to do.	3/4  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Have the same number of seperators always appear on this page, or otherwise explain somewhere on the page why some options available earlier are not available now.	X
		H7. Consistency and standards	The term “bookshelf” is never explained.	2.  Minor usability problem	Explain what a "bookshelf" is here.		X
Purchase Additional Destinations
		H4. Match between system and the real world	“Available Destinations” implies that there are other destinations that are not available.	2.  Minor usability problem	Say “other destinations” instead?			X
		H5. Follow real-world conventions	On Purchase Additional Destinations, might want to have destination default to North America or Europe— unless you know that Africa is the most likely choice for your target users.	1.  Cosmetic problem	Have the most likely choice be the default.		X
		H5. Follow real-world conventions and H3. Visibility of system status	There's no indicator of which guide the user is working on- does “add to guide” mean add to the guide the user is building now or another saved guide?  It’s not entirely clear.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Clarify (“add to current guide”, or “include this region in the guide I’m working on now”)			X
		H7. Consistency and standards	“Preview Selected” and (i) go to the same place	2.  Minor usability problem	Remove one?		X
		H7.  Consistency and standards	When in the process of buying a new destination,  the “continue” button was very far over to the left and far away from the “cancel” button.	2.  Minor usability problem	Place the buttons to submit and cancel to be directly below the information input field(s) and next to each other.	X
Purchase Content
		H5. Follow real-world conventions	“Content purchased” implies that the transaction has already taken place, even before the user has entered my credit card information.	2.  Minor usability problem	Change label to “content selected."		X
Choose Guide Type and Size
		H4.  Match between system and the real world	From Choose Guide Type and Size, it’s not apparent how much information the user gets for the 2000K size. How does that map to “pages” or “words” or something else the user might be concerned with when buying a directory?	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	I am not suggesting that the size information be removed -- it is important to know to see how much memory the guide wil take up.  However, map the guide size to pages or some other physical measure.	X
Add and Remove Regions
		H7. Consistency and standards	“Create a New Guide” leads to “Add/Remove Destinations from Guide.”  “Purchase Destinations” also leads there—this is confusing.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Show guide creation steps or otherwise clarify why this is the next page for both of these actions.		X	X
Edit Region
		H3.  Visibility of system status	It is unclear if the system autimatically saves choices. If the user backs out are changes still saved when the user goes forward again or when the user hits “finish”?	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Notify users if changes are saved after they've used the back button to acccess areas.	X
		H3. Visibility of system status	When refining a region’s attributes, make it more obvious which section you are editing—the color change when shifting from tab to tab is good, but since the long region portion remains constant, it is difficult to see the smaller amount of information that changes.	2.  Minor usability problem	Omit the region information from the display if that is to remain constant. (The region information appears at the top of the screen anyway so showing it below is redundant.) For example, instead of  US: California/Nevada, San Francisco: Sights & Attractions, then US: California/Nevada, San Francisco: Lodging, just have it switch from Sights and Attractions to Lodging.		X
		H4.  Match between system and the real world.  H5.  Follow real-world conventions.	On “Build my own guide,” it wasn’t immediately clear 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.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	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.	X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	I could not determine how to add 1 restaurant at a time, as per scenario 3, or find more details about a particular restaurant.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	If this functionality is desired, add (if it is not implemented) or emphasize it (if it is already implemented).	X	X	X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	It is not obvious how to save a guide from the Edit Region page.  Is Finished the equivalent of Saved?  Additionally, an existing user can’t EDIT an existin guide and 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.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Add or clarify options for saving and downloading files, perhaps add a “Save to Finish Later” option.	X	X	X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	On the Lodging and Food and Dining tabs, there is no key to what the stars represent. In the Restaurant section there is no key to the difference between “High” and “Luxury”?	2.  Minor usability problem	It would be helpful to have a key available from the build-a-guide page.		X	X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	Price ranges for lodging seem low.  $5? With a maximum of $45?	1.  Cosmetic problem	Have ranges reflect actual prices.		X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	What are “The Essentials”?	2.  Minor usability problem	Change to “general regional/ travel information”?			X
		H4. Match between system and the real world  H14. Don't let organizational issues and problems show through the interface	Statements like “This section is currently 25K in size” may mean more to the system than to the user.  There's indication of what the user should do with this information.	2.  Minor usability problem	Perhaps it would be better to phrase it as percentage of the current guide or a percentage of the target guide size.			X
		H5. Follow real-world conventions	The order of price category list is not logical.	2.  Minor usability problem	Reorder list so that Moderate comes right after Budget.		X
		H5. Follow real-world conventions	The order of items for the “Sights and Attractions” and "Activities" were not consistent - in "Sights and Attractions" it was not alphabetical and it  would help to have the long list of items grouped somehow, while in "Activities" items were in alphabetical order, but perhaps there is an arrangement that would be more helpful for the user.	2.  Minor usability problem	Either make the ordering consistent across the tabs or the differences explicit in case someone has something specific in mind.		X
		H5. Follow real-world conventions	Area names are great but it seems unrealistic to assume that visitors will know where they are in relation to eachother or what each area contains without the system providing any other cues.	2.  Minor usability problem	Area/Neighborhood information should be supplemented with a map and additional information– a tourist where an area is or what’s there.		X	X
		H6. (User control and freedom)  H14. Don't let organizational issues and problems show through the interface	From the Create one's Own Guide option there is no way to proceed without having to edit the region.	2.  Minor usability problem	Allow users to include everything and not edit the region or provide a link to having TraveLite create their guide.			X
		H7. Consistency and standards	System uses both “accommodations” and “lodging.”	2.  Minor usability problem	Choose and use one term.		X
		H7. Consistency and standards	In some places price is expressed in dollar amounts, elsewhere as categories such as budget, moderate, and high.	2.  Minor usability problem	Choose and use one system.		X
		H7. Consistency and standards	The system uses both “edit” and “refine” (mostly "edit" is used, but on the left column of the editable region pages, it says “refine”).	2.  Minor usability problem	Choose and use one term.		X
		H8. Flexibility and efficiency of use	Overview opens country, etc description in the same window instead of the pop-ups seen elsewhere (making the user have to hit the back button to get back to the guide)	2.  Minor usability problem	Have links open in one or the other consistantly.		X	X
		H8. Flexibility and efficiency of use	Evan’s not a foreign visitor to any US destination – he should be able to remove “Information for Foreign Visitors” options from US travel guides he makes.	2.  Minor usability problem	Allow users to customize settings so they don’t see international traveler information on US destinations.			X
		H8. Flexibility and efficiency of use	Have to preview the guide to download it – no way to download it without previewing.	4. Usability catastrophe; imperative to fix	Allow users to download the guide without previewing it.			X
Preview
		H3.  Visibility of system status.  H5.  Follow real-world conventions  H6.  User control and freedom	After previewing a guide that a user is building, if she returns to “edit” it takes her back to the very beginning of the process (add or remove regions) and does not save her changes.	4. Usability catastrophe; imperative to fix	Returning to "Edit" should return me to exactly where I was before.	X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	It is unclear whether “preview” will display the actual guide as it will appear on the users's palm or web browser.	2.  Minor usability problem	Perhaps this has not been fully implemented yet--difficult to assess in this iteration.		X
		H4. Match between system and the real world	Not clear how to restrict a guide's region - explanation of "edit" is geared towards editing items like lodging rather than place.	3.  Major usability problem, important to fix.	Clarify that edit means both the location and lodging/food/etc options.			X
		H6. User control and freedom	Cannot preview the guide from the preview page.	1.  Cosmetic problem	Allow users to preview guide before customization			X
		H7. Consistency and standards	Preview sometimes pops up a window, other places, it occupies the full screen.	2.  Minor usability problem	Have links open in one or the other consistantly.		X	X
		H6. User control and freedom	From the Edit Regions 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.	1.  Cosmetic problem	Make window larger.	X