Heuristic Evaluation of the Tele-Bears Redesign Project
| Heuristic Name | Severity Rating | Description | ||
1. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 3 |
Sandbox and Registration: The way that time is sequenced on the schedules is confusing. It is not clear exactly when classes begin or end. | |
2. |
H1 - Simple and Natural Dialogue | 3 |
Sandbox and Registration:After searching and finding a course the only way to access the course info is to first add it to the schedule. | |
3. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 3 |
Registration: Required functionality/information - As early as possible in the process the system should provide enrollment information, such as how many people are already enrolled in a class, or how long the waitlist is. This would make it easier for users to choose and register for classes that are available. | |
4. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: Lectures and sections are not well differentiated from each other in the schedule. When they appear next to each other it looks like a single 2 hour class. | |
5. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: When a course is selected in registration and the sandbox schedules, the user is offered a group of functional options along the right hand margin of the schedule. There is enough room along the right side to provide access to all of the course information in editable fields. This would allow the user to change multiple course information items in one fell swoop rather than having to go into each different edit mode separately. | |
6. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration:
It is not clear if the search for courses is an ‘OR’ or an ‘AND’
type of search. Does it do a search that returns only the items that match
the fields specified? or Does it do a search that returns elements that
match some of the fields specified? What results does it return when searching
on Mathematics department as well as a‘course number’ field
that does not match the department? One approach is to make one of the pulldowns
required. |
|
7. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 2 |
Registration: Required functionality/information - How are you going to treat situations where the user would not be allowed to enroll in a class due to something such as a departmental constraint or permission of teacher required? | |
8. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 2 |
Search Results:
The amount of the text in that box makes it hard to read, and differentiate
between the query information, the instructional text and the query results.
Perhaps you can offset the instructional text by displaying it in a different
color or on a different background, and shorten it to read: “Click
on chosen course and press the Add button.” It would also be helpful
if the entire course title is clickable, in addition to just the radio button
next to it. |
|
9. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 1 |
Sandbox and Registration:
This is more about logical grouping than the text itself. I would put status
information (e.g. number of units) in the same area of the page as the feedback
(e.g. you have successfully registered.) |
|
10. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 1 |
Sandbox and Registration (frames version): Again, same grouping issue w/r/t status and feedback info. Also the info about having “successfully enrolled” makes more sense near the schedule section of the page rather than the search section of the page. | |
11. |
H1- Simple and Natural Dialogue | 1 |
Sandbox and Registration: As was discussed in the presentation, it would be more useful to have the schedule on the right hand side of the page and the user interaction boxes on the left hand side. This would be more intuitive to how users are used to reading (i.e. from left to right.) | |
12. |
H2 - Speak the Users' Language | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: In the instructional text on the search results screen, making reference to the ‘technical’ term ‘radio button’ may not be meaningful to all users. Perhaps, as suggested above, you could solve this by making the entire course title and the radio button clickable and using the shortened copy. |
|
13. |
H3 - Minimize Memory Load | 2 |
Sandbox: The Sandbox is clearly defined only on the Home page. Maybe the functionality of the Sandbox should be described again in the Sandbox section. | |
14. |
H3 - Minimize Memory Load | 2 |
Sandbox:The schedule extends all the way to 12 AM even though nothing is scheduled in the evening. The schedule could stop at end of the last scheduled class. If a class that meets in the evening is added the schedule would expand. This would keep most scheduled itemsin the main viewing area. | |
15. |
H3 - Minimize Memory Load | 1 |
Registration: In the ‘Add from Sandbox’ box, there is no indication of which discussion sections a user has selected in his sandbox. It would be helpful to include the selected discussion section beneath the class so that the user would not have to return to the sandbox to look up which discussion he had planned on taking. | |
16. |
H4 - Consistency | 4 |
Sandbox: The initial screen has only three of the buttons (drop, switch section, view course info) on the right side of the schedule. These buttons are disabled. After selecting a course to add to the schedule two more buttons appear (Change grade option, change units) and they are also disabled. For consistency and in order to minimize the user’s memory load, the buttons should always appear in the same location and in the same order. | |
17. |
H4 - Consistency | 2 |
Sandbox: The add button for adding the Math course has the caption ‘Add’ while the add button for adding the History course has the caption ‘Add to sandbox’. The button should have a consistent caption either ‘add’ or ‘add sandbox’. This consistency should also be kept across the website. | |
18. |
H4 - Consistency | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: When selecting classes the add button first appears on the right hand margin and then on the bottom. | |
19. |
H4 - Consistency | 1 |
Sandbox and Registration: The feedback text is not all in the same color. Right now the number of units information is in black and the status information about having successfully enrolled is in red. If this information was grouped together (as mentioned above) and all the same color it might make it more noticeable. | |
20. |
H4 - Consistency | 1 |
Registration (frames version): Again, standardizing the text color of the different types of information, and grouping it together could help it become more noticeable. In the frames version of the first interactive prototype, the instructional text is navy blue, the status information is in red and the units information is in black. | |
21. |
H4 - Consistency | 1 |
Search Results: The items searched for had the categories all in bold type. After selecting a course and clicking on add, the resulting page does not follow that same format. The field names like Instructor, Location, etc are not in bold type. | |
22. |
H4 - Consistency | 1 |
Home Page: When a user enters the welcome page before their registration period starts, the introductory sentence includes a link to the sandbox. In order to maintain consistency, the introductory sentence should include a link to the registration page and possibly also the sandbox page during a user’s registration period. | |
23. |
H4 - Consistency | 1 |
Sitewide: Typographical inconsistencies exist between buttons, section labels/tabs, and instructional text. Sandbox is sometimes capitalized, sometimes not. Search is sometimes capitalized, sometimes not. The Add button is referred to as ADD in the instructional text on the add a discussion section screen. | |
24. |
H5 - Feedback | 3 |
Registration: After adding a course from the sandbox section, there is no feedback regarding that the course from the sandbox was added. The course is added to the schedule but the list of courses in the sandbox section of the registration page does not change to reflect this action. This could cause confusion if users think they can add the same course and section again. The course listing for the sandbox section should reflect that the course was added to the registration schedule, and not allow it to be added multiple times. | |
25. |
H5 - Feedback | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: When a course is selected in the schedule the blue box indicating that it has been selected is not strong enough. Perhaps this could be fixed by graying out other courses when a particular one has been selected for viewing or modifying. | |
26. |
H5 - Feedback | 2 |
Registration: If the pass no pass option is selected the class does not appear differently in the schedule. The grading option should be reflected on the schedule too. | |
27. |
H5 - Feedback | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration : The feedback telling the user that a class has been added is not very visible. It is too small causing it to blend into the page. Consequently, it doesn’t catch the user’s eye and may go unnoticed. | |
28. |
H6 - Clearly Marked Exits | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration:
On the screen that displays
choices for available discussion sections, the ‘Cancel’ button
is confusing. |
|
29. |
H7 - Shortcuts | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: The search results for certain classes show that there is both a lecture and discussion section. But at this point in the process, it is not entirely clear how the user is supposed to add the class and choose a section. The current design leads a user to want to add the class and the discussion at the same time. Perhaps you could include one sentence in the box indicating that after adding the class, the user will be able to add the discussion section. | |
30. |
H7 - Shortcuts | 2 |
Registration: The system only allows users to register for one course at time from their Sandbox schedule. After having gone through the process of setting up their Sandbox, most users would probably be ready to register for all of them at once. Check boxes would let them add multiple classes at the same time. | |
31. |
H8 - Good Error Messages | 4 |
Sitewide: Obviously error handling must be in the plan for future versions. But just as a reminder, currently there are no error messages associated with any disallowed actions. You can search on no criteria, add a course when none are selected, add the same course multiple times, etc. | |
32. |
H9 - Prevent Errors | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: In the search form it is not clear whether the user must select something or whether he can state no criteria and get every possible course as a result. There is no marked required field and the text directions on top are not highlighted. So confusion and errors could occur if people don't read the instructions. | |
33. |
H9 - Prevent Errors | 2 |
Sandbox and Registration: On the search results screen, there is no default radio button selected in the form. So either the Add button should be disabled until a selection is made, or one of the search results should be preselected. Other forms with radio buttons on the site, have a default selection. But in this case, selecting a course for a user by default may be a bad idea! | |
34. |
H9 - Prevent Errors | 1 |
Sandbox: The font used to tell the user how to view and modify a class needs to be a little bigger. Right now, it is the same size as the other words on the sandbox page and it makes it difficult to notice that important instruction. |