Manis 1st Interactive Prototype heuristic evaluation

Evaluator: Dan Perkel
Heuristics applied: Nielsen's original set

Summary

Overall, I did not feel that any of the violations found were usability catastrophes. There were a few ones that I would consider "major", however.

Results

Note on results format:
I realize that this is not in the requested format. However, this format did not seem particularly helpful to the Manis team. It seems to put more focus on the heuristics themselves and less on the user task. It also makes it difficult to quickly scan for problems (if the title of 5 heuristics in a row was "H3 Consistency", I could see the being difficult to read). Also, certain problems violate multiple heuristics. I see these as kin to bug reports: state a short desription of the problem, state the applicable attributes of the problem (in this case heurisitc violated, severity), and give a longer description.

Additionally, I was going to organize them by Task Scenario. As it turns out, I found most of these during Scenario A and realized that they applied to the other scenarios equally well.

Here are the violations I found organized from most severe to least severe. Even ones that have the same severity on the 0 - 4 scale are in some order (I made a priority decision here).

1. The relationship between the top search conditions and the left nav bar was really unclear at first. I think that I thought it was a navigation bar at first. Which it isn't.
   H1 - Simple and Natural Dialog (Graphic Design and COlor) (Severity: 3)
   There should have been more of a graphical relationship between the links at the top and the stuff on the left. This includes layout (proximity issues) and color (the links were grouped with the logo which indicated nav bar to me).
   H4 - Consistency (with regard to standards) (Severity: 2)
   While it is not really a universal standard to have navigation links across the top (usually top or left), I think that the converse is true: if I see links at the top, I'm assume they are navigation. Especially if the shading/coloring separates it from the content and other elements of the screen. I didn't even see the title "Search Conditions" until much later in the evaluation.
   
2. "Lasiurus" and "Lasiurus " result in different searches (as do "California" and "California ")
   H9 - Prevent errors (Severity: 3)
   I accidentally had a space after my search criteria which resulted in erroneous results. Some error prevention such as trimming of whitespace would help. Especially if you're copying and pasting terms into the search box.
   
3. The use of the map for locations will either be very difficult or it will result in inconsistency with other filters
   H4 - Consistency (Severity: 3)
   It doesn't seem possible for the users to select countries in a map at the left. If the plan is to go to a new page or for the map to appear where the search results are, this will be confusing and inconsistent with the rest of the interface.
   
4. No way to start a search over
   H6 - Clearly marked exits (Severity: 3)
   I wanted to start a search over from scratch and I felt that I had no options other than trying to click on the logo. The back button seemed my only recourse. Looking back, I realize that I could have probably elimintated search criteria from the top, but it didn't occur to me.
   
5. Advanced link is inconsistent and confusing
   H4 - Consistency (Severity: 3)
   This panel is the only one to house multiple filters. That being said, the button "Find Collector" seemed to only refer to the Collector Name part. How would I apply the Sex and Preparation filters?
   H2 - Speak the user's language (Severity: 2)
   I was confused as to what the "Advanced" filters were.
   
6. Institution filters use or links is inconsistent and confusing
   H4 - Consistency (within systems and withing standards) (Severity: 2)
   This is the only filter set that uses links. All of the others use controls of some sort (checkboxes, text fields, buttons, and so forth). In general, links indicate navigation - going to another page, so it works against common standards. I could see this working if all of the filters were links (like Flamenco).
   
7. The first page (and the page you get when you have eliminated all of the criteria) is just blank and somewhat confusing
   H5 - Feedback (in the updated heuristics there is something more specific about "revealing system status) (Severity: 2)
   Looking at the blank screen in the middle, I didn't know what to do.
   H2 - Speak the user's language (Mental model issue) (Severity: 2)
   The mental model of the app is you apply a series of filters to reduce a result set. So what is the start state? Furthermore, as I eliminated criteria, there were more and more results...until there were no criteria and I had a blank screen. This seemed inconsistent. It was certainly jarring in terms of experience. It forced me to shift attention into thinking why there were "no results" until I remembered that there was a "0 results" page that was different.
   
8. Not clear what kind of "sort" is being performed.
   H3 - Minimize user's congnitive load (Recognition vs. recall) (Severity: 2)
   Just having "sort" doesn't help the user figure out what kind of sort will be performed or help provide feedback with regards to the sorted order of items in the table.
   
9. Filtering by more than one criteria can get tedious.
   H7 - Shortcuts (Severity: 2)
   There should be a way to filter by more than one criteria at the same time. Having to click a criteria, hit apply, then find another criteria and hit apply again is time consuming. This would be frustrating to frequent users.
   
10. No help provided
    H10 - Provide help (Severity: 2)
    I think that this is self explanatory. This tool could use a general help link and some context-sensitive help.
    
11. "Find Dates" is confusing
    H2 - Speak the user's language (serverity: 2)
    I understood what was going to happen because of the scenario, but even still, I was confused by the button that seemed to be telling me to "find dates". I wasn't trying to find the dates. I should note that I was not as confused or affected with "Find locations" or "Find institutions," though neither really map to what's going on, either.
    
12. Columns going off the page is confusing in relationship to "Show/Hide Columns" functionality
    H1 - Simple and natural dialog (Graphic design) (Severity: 1)
    Columns that I could choose to hide weren't there on the screen because they were off the page to the right. It was confusing trying to map a far right column with information on the far left.
    
13. "X" button next to "Institutions" column header is confusing
    H4 - Consistency (Severity: 2)
    If this is to close the column it is inconsistent with the other column headers and the "show/hide columns" link.
    H5 - Feedback (Severity: 2)
    If it's doing something else besides being used to hide/close a column, it's not clear to me what it's doing.
    
14. Export and Show/Hide links functionality is confusing because of location
    H1 - Simple and natural dialog (graphics) (Severity: 2)
    There is no graphical relationship between those links and the left panel. Originally, I didn't see the mockup that showed the export functionality. I had no idea what clicking this link would do. I actually thought it would launch a pane or dialog which would have been another issue altogether.
    
15. Export link and Show/Hide links are inconsistent with rest of site
    H4 - Consistency (Severity: 1)
    The left panel usually houses filters controlled by the search conditions at the top. But, the show/hide columns and export functionality also affect that panel.